Saturday, December 5, 1998
Time not on
McBride’s side in
UH coach search
He says he needs to know
By Paul Arnett
by early next week but Hawaii
has set a later deadline
Star-BulletinUtah head football coach Ron McBride will be home for Christmas if Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida waits until then to make the announcement.
Arriving last night from Salt Lake City, McBride said he was interested in the head coaching position at Hawaii, but said he needs to know as soon as possible.
"I told our players before I left that I would probably know something by Monday or Tuesday at the very latest," McBride said last night after touching down at Honolulu International Airport.
"I couldn't wait that long to be told anything because it would kill our recruiting. We're already dealing with that now. I told (UH athletic director) Hugh (Yoshida) when he contacted me last Monday that I didn't want anybody to know that I was coming here, but it got out."
It's unlikely Yoshida can pull the trigger and hire McBride that quickly, even if he believed the nine-year head coach for Utah was the perfect fit.
For one thing, the list of finalists grew by one yesterday as Southern California defensive coordinator Bill Young was added, bringing the number of candidates to seven.
Young is expected to meet with Yoshida and his three-member selection committee Tuesday.
The committee is expected to interview McBride today and Arizona associate coach Duane Akina on Monday.
Part of the committee will then fly to San Diego, perhaps as early as Wednesday, to interview current San Diego Chargers interim head coach June Jones.
Jones is the wild card in this equation. UH is waiting until as late as Christmas to see if Jones is offered the Chargers' job as head coach. If he is not, then it's likely he will be Hawaii's first choice.
Some of the players said yesterday that they felt McBride would be the perfect fit and thought Yoshida shouldn't let him get away.
"I believe I could put a winner on the field here if given the opportunity to do so," McBride said. "I won four games my first year at Utah and had a winning season the next one."
McBride would also allow the Lee brothers a chance to expand their Division I experience. It's likely McBride would hire Tommy Lee as his offensive coordinator and give St. Louis School head coach Cal Lee the necessary experience at the Division I level.
Cal Lee is also among the finalists who will be interviewed by the committee next week.
It was also decided yesterday that the committee would allow some players to take part in the interview process after the players held a team meeting with Yoshida and president Ken Mortimer.
Reports earlier this week that a team meeting was held in order for players to sign a petition to keep fired head coach Fred vonAppen were exaggerated.
"That came out totally wrong," linebacker Chris Garnier said of the television report by KITV (Channel 4). "That was one of many things discussed in our first team meeting, but it never came about.
"What we really wanted was to be involved in the hiring process. We may not have a vote, but at least we'll have some say in the matter. It proves to us as a team that Mr. Yoshida and Dr. Mortimer are sensitive to our concerns."
McBride raised his eyebrows in surprise when learning of the players' possible involvement.
"What committee?" McBride said. "I thought I was just going to meet with Hugh. I guess I will meet with them also. It's not a big deal to me."
McBride said his presentation will include a five-year plan as to what direction this team needs to take in order to be competitive again.
Chief among them is the stringent academic standards that have hurt the Rainbows in recruiting the past several seasons. Granted, Hawaii may take an occasional partial qualifier, but that might not be enough.
"We need to give the local kids here a chance to prove themselves academically," McBride said.
"We have done that in Utah over the years and it has worked out very well for us, especially here in Hawaii."
Rounding out the top candidates are Navy offensive coordinator Kenny Niumatalolo and Larry Kennan, who is the executive director of the National Football League Coaches Association.
Kennan will meet with the committee next week face-to-face. Niumatalolo also will be interviewed next week via a conference call.
The package being offered by Hawaii is believed to be in the $250,000 range. That's about what McBride is making in Utah.
"I don't really care about money, just as long as I can feed my wife and put a roof over our heads," McBride said. "I just want to take a look at what they're offering and hear what they have to say. Until that happens, there's not much else I can do."
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
