Dissecting What Went Wrong With the Norm Chow Era
On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Kaua’i, I made the journey down with my parents from Waimea Canyon to a local café for some much needed lunch. I walk in to see how Norm Chow and Hawaii is doing in his first game and I see Hawaii down 26-0 on the road against USC. Marquise Lee took the first play from scrimmage, 75 yards to the house. It was a precursor for what was to come. The Norm Chow era was in short, disastrous. However it wasn’t disastrously bad. A few turns in the road and things could’ve gone another way. Chow, the quarterback mastermind responsible for Phillip Rivers record breaking season at NC State, Steve Young’s tremendous era in Provo, followed by his mentorship of Heisman winners Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart came in with a great reputation. He guided Robbie Bosco and Steve Sarkisian to record seasons as the awards flooded in. His play calling and coaching assisted BYU and USC to a National Title each. Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Jim McMahon became stars under him so that begs the question, what went wrong?
The Pro Style Offense: It is no secret that the two greatest eras of UH football came off 2 innovative “gimmick” offenses. The highly criticized flexbone option and the “college style” Run n Shoot. Neither found championship success in the NFL but in Hawaii, led to conference titles and national success. In an expected move, Chow went with a Pro Style Offense that he used to great success at USC. With powerbacks Joey Iosefa and Sterling Jackson, Chow had the running game to support his offense. He brought in Sean Schroeder from Duke where his HC and QB whisperer David Cutcliffe had good things to say about him. Cutcliffe is responsible for the developments of Heath Shuler, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Daniel Jones so expectations were high, especially since he was replacing incumbent starter David Graves.
However the Pro Style Offense requires a consistent running game, led by a dominant offensive line. Hawaii just couldn’t recruit the monsters of years past for a multitude of reasons. Increased attention by Power 5 schools on Polynesian players, lack of depth on the team already and an O-line built for a passing game and horizontal run game. With Hawaii having multiple Power 5 opponents per year, it was a numbers game.
Also Hawaii couldn’t spread the field like in the Run N Shoot due to the nature of the offense. Quite frankly, Chow never had the personnel for the Pro Style Offense and he never changed his philosophy.
The Quarterback Carousel: Sean Schroeder was one of many promising QBs who came to Hawaii and never panned out. Ohio State’s Taylor Graham came to Hawaii with high expectation in 2013. Graham’s father Kent played at Ohio State and in the NFL. He was a tall, pocket passer with the frame similar to the successful QBs that Chow coached at USC. Long story short, it didn’t work out and Schroeder was reinstalled as starter after Graham went down with an injury.
Ikaika Woolsey was a JUCO transfer who became the starter in 2014. He would be benched for Graham against Wyoming but would come in once Graham went down with another injury and Woolsey came in to lead Hawaii to victory. The second ever conference win in the Mountain West and Hawaii’s first win against Wyoming since 1992. However the good times did not last and Woolsey would finish the year as the starter. Hawaii went 4-9. However Woolsey would be Hawaii’s winningest QB in Mountain West history at three conference wins.
Max Wittek was supposed to be Hawaii’s saving grace. Despite 8 wins in 3 years, there was a lot of momentum heading into 2015. The immergence of Marcus Kemp as WR1 with an excellent WR room, a solid O-line consisting of Ben Clarke, Leo Kolomantangi, Elijah Tupai, Asotui Eli and a right side anchored by stars Dejon Allen and R.J. Hollis along with Paul Harris as RB1. Also the 2015 Hawaii defense was the best Chow has had. All he needed was a gunslinger and he had it. The former heir apparent to Matt Barkley found his way to Hawaii after losing a QB battle to Cody Kessler. Expectations shot through the roof for the Mountain West Preseason First-Team Selection after a three touchdown performance in a season opening win against Colorado. The first and only time Chow had a winning record in his four years. However like Woolsey, the good times did not last and Wittek’s time in Hawaii ended with a season ending injury.
In Chow’s four years, he had four different starting quarterbacks.
The Hiring and Firing Saga of Assistants
Like his quarterbacks, stability with assistant coaches was not happening. Not only did Norm Chow get rid of offensive and defensive coordinators Nick Rolovich and Dave Aranda, Rolovich going on to replace Chow in Hawaii, win two bowl games, MW division title and eventually become the HC of Washington State and Aranda winning a National Championship as the DC of LSU, a Big 12 championship and a Sugar Bowl as the HC of Baylor, Chow’s replacements lasted a total of three years.
Tommy Lee was named offensive coordinator in 2012, his first coaching job in 5 years. Lee, a Hawaii native would supplement Chow’s offensive expertise. Lee would retire after the season.
Thom Kaumeyer was the DC from 2012-2013. He came from the Jacksonville Jaguars and though statistically Hawaii had their best defense since 2007, the defense gave up 35 or more points in 8 different games. In 2013, the defense gave up 35 or more points in 8 different games again. He left after the 2013 season.
Aaron Price was Chow’s next OC in 2013 but left before the season started for reasons unknown. Chow would act as OC in 2013 and 2014.
Kevin Clune was brought in in 2014. The Utah State linebackers coach made an immediate impact in Manoa, coordinating a defense that gave up 12 fewer points per game. In fact, Hawaii’s defense only gave up 35 points or more in 4 games in 2014. However his success would be noticed by his former employer and he returned to Utah State in 2015 for a $40,000 raise. He would get another promotion to Oregon State. He currently works for BYU.
In 2015, Chow brought in FCS OC Don Bailey from Idaho State and former June Jones DC Tom Mason from SMU. Mason hit the ground running with the defense, holding Colorado to 20 points, holding Ohio State to 17 points through three quarters in Columbus before the defense tired out due to lack of offensive production, holding Wisconsin to 28 points in Madison as the offense stalled again and stifling MW star Donnel Pumphrey and SDSU. Only once Chow was fired did the defense start to truly unravel.
However Don Bailey’s offense was another story. In the first five games of the season, the offense failed to score a single point in three games. The offense only scored more than 30 points once all season. Both men were fired after 2015.
In four years, Chow had 6 different coordinators.
The Mountain West: When Norm Chow was hired, he preached unity and teamwork. He removed the name plates from the jerseys because the player play for the name of the front. He had the players sand and scrub the locker rooms, helping a cash strapped program with improvements and he hit the transfer market and recruiting trail hard. However Chow had a big task ahead of him. Not only did he inherit a money stricken program, it was also Hawaii’s first year in the Mountain West. Moving from the dying WAC, Hawaii would rejoin former conference opponents Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State, San Jose State and Utah State along with reigniting old rivalries with UNLV (whom Hawaii already played annually), Wyoming and Air Force. A team that was 5-3 in 2011 before Bryant Moniz went down failed to win a conference game till week 12. In fact, there wasn’t a single conference loss in 2011 that was within eight points.
In his four years in Manoa, Chow had only 4 conference wins. In contrast, Nick Rolovich had 4 conference wins in 2016 alone. At least Chow was 2-1 verses UNLV.
The Hawaii Board of Regents, AD Jim Donovan, AD Ben Jay and the Stevie Wonder Blunder
I could spend all day talking about how UH got duped out of $200,000 dollars in an attempt to hire Stevie Wonder for an on-campus concert or how that led to the firing of then AD Jim Donovan. Or how UH had to get the FBI involved to find the money or how AD Donovan’s replacement Ben Jay resigned, leaving UH in an annual deficit of $3,000,000 dollars. Or AD Ben Jay’s comments about not being able to afford to keep a UH program alive, offeniding UH fans so much that my Judo Coach, the late Robin Mori took the the streets in a fundraising effort titled “We get um.” How about the fact that players interested in the program saw an AD say it might not be around in a couple of years or the lack of funds to pay Chow’s buyout after year three.
Perhaps taking every payday from Power 5 opponents to supplement the deficient didn’t help either.
Long story short, Chow’s time and legacy was harmed by the lack of financial support and leadership by Manoa’s upper management.
Just Wasn’t Good Enough: Football is a game of inches and there are so many moments that could’ve changed the Chow era. If the offense showed up in Columbus and Madison, Hawaii would have had two Big 10 road wins. If the kick return TD against SDSU in 2014 wasn’t called back, Hawaii would’ve had a 2-0 conference record and momentum. Maybe if Hawaii completed their comeback against Fresno State in 2013 or beat #25 Washington in 2014 or successfully recovered the onside kick against Oregon State a week later, things would’ve been different. What if Ben Clarke wasn’t always playing hurt or what if Diocemy St. Juste wasn’t injured?
There’s a lot of what ifs but at the end of the day, having only one road win in four years is just not good enough. Hawaii had a lot of talent but the scheme wasn’t there. There’s a reason Nick Rolovich won a Hawaii Bowl just a year later. Not having the ability to utilize the loads of slot receivers he had, no defensive stability, no consistency, it was just all bad. Norm Chow is a brilliant offensive mind who had incredible tenures at BYU, NC State, USC and for the Tennessee Titans but he just wasn’t the right fit for his native home.
Thanks for that funny flower commercial though.
