Thursday, December 31, 1998

Jones goes
right to work

The new UH football coach
adds Mike Cavanaugh to his staff

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

The hiring of Mike Cavanaugh as the offensive line coach ended any speculation that former Dallas Cowboys standout Mark Tuinei will join the staff.

Jones landed in Hawaii last night and went straight from the airport to the Stan Sheriff Center to see Hawaii lose to Texas in the third-place game of the 35th annual Rainbow Classic.

The new head football coach for the Rainbows visited with the television and radio audiences during the halftime of the basketball game, then held a press conference to announce Cavanaugh as his offensive line coach.

Cavanaugh worked in quality control last year for the Chargers. He was an assistant offensive line coach, who handled part of the computer phase on offense.

"I'm not sure how the Tuinei thing got started," Jones said, who went from the press conference to the Rainbow hospitality room to visit with local boosters. "But I didn't talk to Mark about a job."

Although former local NFL standouts such as Tuinei and Jesse Sapolu would be welcome additions in the future, Jones' remaining hires need some familiarity with the Division I highway.

Outside of George Lumpkin, none of the other assistants has any experience at this level. Even Jones is finding the transition a difficult one.

He and special teams coach Dennis McKnight, a former San Diego area high school coach, still have to pass the NCAA recruiting test. Jones jokingly said, "I'm going to tell you what, there are a lot of rules in that book. Somebody is going to have to hold my hand through there for a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to pass it here the first time, but there's no guarantee."

Secondary coach Rich Miano has passed the test. So has associate coach Lumpkin and offensive coordinator Wes Suan. McKnight and Jones have to pass it by January 2 or they can't go on the road recruiting.

Beginning next week, McKnight and Lumpkin will recruit the Southern California area. McKnight may not have any Division I coaching experience, but his connections in San Diego should help the Rainbows in an area that produced such college standouts this season as Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams and Oregon quarterback Akili Smith.

Miano, Lumpkin and Suan have had to play catch-up locally. It's unlikely the Rainbows will land any of the top tier players this time around, but building a foundation for the future is the long-range goal.

"Kids have agreed to hold and talk, and spend some time with me and the rest of the coaches," Jones said. "From that standpoint it has been real positive.

"We need to take advantage of the interest that has been stirred up and jump right on that. We need to build this program with local players being our foundation."

Jones has four more hires to round out his staff. He reportedly has offered the defensive coordinator position to Greg McMackin.

McMackin was Seattle's defensive coordinator for the past two seasons. He also was the defensive coordinator at Utah, the Naval Academy and Miami (Fla.).

Jones also is thinking of making one hire a recruiting coordinator.

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