Sports Watch
Hawaii's 1995 player of the year, quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, picked . . . Utah.
The local player who was the best college running back prospect in 1994, Chris Fuamatu-Maafala, picked . . . Utah.
And to hear McBride tell it, he had an unbelievable recruiting coup from the islands in 1994. Besides Fuamatu-Maafala, a 274-pound tailback with 4.61 speed in the 40, that year McBride also plucked Donny Utu, Kautai Olevao and Taulia Lave.
Olevao, a linebacker from Kahuku, started as a true freshman but went on a two-year Mormon mission. Redshirted last year, Utu and Lave are expected to contribute significantly this season, according to McBride.
There are nine players from Hawaii on the Utah roster, including starting defensive ends Nate Kia and Chad Kauhaahaa.
"And we have around 27 or 28 Polynesian players on our roster. Most of them originated from Samoa, Tonga or Hawaii," McBride said at last week's Western Athletic Conference football meetings in Las Vegas.
Clearly, this guy is Polynesia's coach.
Why?
The first thing McBride will tell you is that he makes it a point of recruiting Polynesian players because of their work ethic and toughness.
McBride's no stranger to Polynesian athletes. He liked them long before he began coaching at Utah, when he recruited them while at UC-Riverside and Gavilan (Calif.) Junior College.
"Every place I've been except for Wisconsin, I've had quite a few Polynesians on my team," said McBride, a former assistant coach under Dick Tomey at Arizona.
"The things I believe in as a football team are similar to the things the Polynesian culture believes in as far as family and togetherness."
AND McBride can communicate with them. How many coaches do you know of who can speak pidgin?
McBride told about the time Fuamatu-Maafala ran into him on the sidelines after catching a pass, breaking his leg. "He came over and said, 'Hey coach, sorry, sorry. Hope you don't cut me,'" McBride repeated in a perfect pidgin accent.
That McBride leaves nothing to chance helps, too. Last year, he hired Tommy Lee as his quarterbacks coach. McBride's no dummy. Tommy is the older brother of Cal Lee, the hugely successful coach of the St. Louis Crusaders.
"Cal Lee's like the governor of the state of Hawaii," McBride said. "When you walk around with him, it's like you're walking around with the guy who runs the state."
So it shouldn't have been too surprising that Arceneaux wound up at Utah.
But give McBride more credit than trying to cash in on insider influence. He does his homework. He subscribes to both Honolulu dailies to keep up with local football. He watches game films of potential recruits.
THAT'S how he first learned about Arceneaux.
"I was watching Chris and Peter (Salevea) and this quarterback kept catching my eye. I knew when he was a sophomore I wanted Darnell."
Ultimately, though, what helps most isn't simply local contacts.
McBride is a "players' coach," said Fuamatu-Maafala, the WAC freshman of the year last season. "The guy's funny. He's too much. But you can talk to him any time you have a problem. You can call him up, even two in the morning."
Ultimately, though, it helps that the players he recruited from Hawaii are having a great deal of success, McBride said.
"Your players sell your program more than anything else. What they say about what you're doing and how you're doing."