WELL, the torture for Hawaii football fans is finally pau - or POW, in memory of that Rainbows' tag team of Glenn Freitas and Quincy Jacobs. VonAppen OK
on the field, awful off itAs you might recall, one of the few decent predictions that I made in the past year was that UH would finish 3-9, or possibly 1-11.
If the Rainbows held on to beat the Boston College Bettors, I mean Eagles, they would have been 3-9. Or if Boise State had completed that late drive, it would have been 1-11.
My reaction to this season's Field of Screams movie? Ho-hum.
I don't think that head coach Fred vonAppen and his grab-bag assistants did that bad of a job. It was a transition year and he was stuck with a spirited, but small and slow, group of players who were recruited for a different offense and defense.
This doesn't mean all is well, however. Off the field, vonAppen's conduct was discouraging at best - and disgraceful at times.
Complaining about UH facilities was OK at first - during the season is the effective time to get the administration's ear. But then he turned it into a childish tantrum over and over again.
Even when UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida asked him how high to jump and started right away on these projects, vonAppen ignored his concern and bullied and embarrassed the very person who hired him.
For example, when some of vonAppen's demands were quickly being met, he complained that they should have already been done. That's a waste of time and a loss of direction. It also showed a serious lack of communication skills that a head coach needs to be part of a successful working team at a major university.
Plus, vonAppen seems to have a chip on his shoulder about the entire state of Hawaii.
Instead of emphasizing the beautiful climate, gorgeous setting and nicest people in the United States, he kept harping on the negatives, such as a lack of charter flights, which is a ridiculous demand for this geographic situation. Why not tell recruits that we don't have crackheads sticking a pistol in their face, which can happen 10 feet away from the USC or UCLA campus, for example. Or miserable winter weather.
Instead of saying that this is a positive program on the way up, he has screamed about the negatives so loudly that recruits here and on the mainland only have to listen to him to decide not to come here.
THIS, incredibly, has turned vonAppen into the program's worst enemy as far as recruiting goes. Now the strong recruiters on his staff - Ken Margerum for example, who has a Super Bowl ring to flash - will have to negate the words of their own head coach.
Then there was the ugly fight in the stands during the BYU rout.
One would have to be a fool to believe that Jacobs was there to break up the fight. The TV tapes showed him throwing several punches, which is not the action of a peacemaker. And does Hawaii really need a running back who can't break away from a drunk at the bottom of a pile?
Then the following UH inquiry was filled with enough lies to rival a day at the O.J. Simpson trial, which wasn't necessarily all vonAppen's fault, but it made his "zero-tolerance" promise laughable - especially after Jacobs got off lightly in the fight involving UH volleyball player Moses Goods.
Overall, the team on the field can be fixed with effective recruiting. This remains a solid football state. Look at how 25,000 diehards showed up in heavy rain to watch UH play UNLV.
The question vonAppen hasn't asked now begs for an answer: Is he qualified to be an effective head coach or is this why he has been an assistant for so long?
After his first season, Fred vonAppen has as much room for improvement as his 2-10 team.