Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Monday, November 30, 1998

Keep vonAppen
and move Lindsey
back to defense

IT took only 16 seconds to realize that 1998 was going to be a long football season for the Hawaii Rainbows.

The first time they put the ball in play, Arizona's Chris McAlister returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. From that point it was all downhill for the Rainbows -- all the way to an NCAA rock-bottom 0-12 record.

It was over long before it was over. But there was a full season to play and it got worse:

UH has 18 losses in a row over two seasons -- the longest current skid in NCAA Division I-A football.

It is last among 112 Division I-A teams in scoring.

It is among the nation's most inept in team defense, pass defense and net punting, ranking the 'Bows No. 1 among college football's bottom feeders.

And in the most important bottom that counts -- the bottom line -- a $1 million shortfall is projected for the athletic department, with football accountable for $700,000 of it.

Season-ticket sales dwindled. There were more no-shows than ever. Fans simply stayed away in droves, and you couldn't blame them. It's not fun watching the home team getting battered and embarrassed.

You knew you were drowning in red ink when the game with BYU drew 25,527 fans -- the fewest to turn out for what has traditionally been UH's most important game.

ALSO, only 18,028 showed up for the game with Northwestern. And a quality team such as Michigan drew only 26,786 -- approximately 5,000 of them singing "Hail to Michigan" every time the Wolverines scored, which was often in Saturday's 48-17 romp that mercifully closed the Rainbows' first winless season.

The football malaise began in the final years under coach Bob Wagner, who was fired after a 4-8 season and replaced by Fred vonAppen in 1996.

In three years under vonAppen, the Rainbows have gone 2-10, 3-9 and now 0-12 -- the worst three seasons in UH football history.

So what began as an illness has become life threatening.

The question now is what will UH president Kenneth Mortimer and athletic director Hugh Yoshida do about it?

Wagner was fired for less by comparison.

During a round of golf, former UH coach Larry Price was overheard saying, "I went 3-8 (in 1976) and I got crucified."

It's unlikely, though, that vonAppen will go the way of Wagner and Price.

MORTIMER and Yoshida will have to decide whether it's better to retain vonAppen and save $250,000 in buying out the remaining two years of his contract or risk losing more than twice that if football attendance continues to plummet.

There's also the disruptive nature of yet another coaching change to contend with, should it be made. And a new coach would need "four more years" to implement his program and philosophy.

Considering everything -- as someone who saw his first UH football game 50 years ago and has followed the Rainbows ever since -- the best option is to retain vonAppen for at least one more season.

But now that his honeymoon is over, vonAppen needs to be told that some strings will be attached.

Recruiting is a hit-or-miss area, but the Rainbows definitely need a proven junior college quarterback, a kicker to enable Chad Shrout to concentrate on what he does best, and more team speed.

Perhaps the most obvious thing -- even vonAppen must realize it -- is that Don Lindsey wasn't the answer as offensive coordinator.

The operation might have been successful, but the patient died. The Rainbows went from 20th to 81st nationally in team defense, clearly showing that Lindsey should go back where he belongs -- to defensive coordinator.