Sidelines
JUST when you think you're out, they suck you back in. Frazier already facing
tough situationJust as the dream is about to get good, the alarm clock blares you back into reality with a jolt.
Herman Frazier did call Hawaii a "dream job" for an athletics director on that happy June day. Which in his case meant, among other more positive things, that the people in power liked him and the minefields and no-win situations of Alabama-Birmingham would be things of the distant past.
Enter Steinberg and Moorad and marketing.
Ho, boy.
Here we go again.
MAYBE THIS WON'T be as delicate a situation as it seems from the outside looking in. Maybe the superagent will do it again, will make millions appear out of nowhere and everyone will be happy. Maybe Hawaii is where Leigh Steinberg will recapture his magic and there will be no difficult decisions for Frazier to make. Maybe when all is said and done, there won't be any unpleasant middle for him to be stuck in.
Right now, however, UH is less than impressed with the results of the marketing agreement between Hawaii and Superagent Inc. Despite pronouncements by the previous administration of record revenues brought in by Steinberg's firm, the picture painted by new management is less than spectacular.
"It hasn't been the greatest return on our investment," UH spokesman and Vice President Paul Costello said. "And we need to say that it can be.
"The pedal's gotta hit the metal."
This isn't criticism as much as it's a message, loud and clear. It's put-up-or-shut-up time, and the marketing relationship between Steinberg and Moorad and UH is at stake if better results aren't forthcoming.
It's even clearer that Frazier is on the spot with this one. UH emphasizes that this will be his call, his kuleana.
He is the one stuck between deciding to continue a partnership that has received its share of criticism (for hiring the football coach's agent to do additional work for the university), or tell that powerful and popular football coach that his longtime friend just isn't getting it done.
Just like in Alabama, Frazier didn't create this quagmire. But now it's his to keep.
THINGS HAVE CHANGED in the last couple of years. Hawaii's administration certainly has. The last regime was blown away by Steinberg, couldn't believe that someone so celebrated would have anything to do with UH.
"It was a euphoric time, it was a euphoric day," Costello said. "And I think those days may have changed a bit in expectations and I think that our expectations may even be stronger now."
Back then, Steinberg was hired in no small part due to the power of his famous name and the doors it could open. Since then, more than one report in the national press has told us that power, and that name, have diminished significantly.
Besides, Hawaii doesn't need it these days. ESPN is in love with UH football, and if the superagent has had anything to do with that (this was exactly the kind of thing that was heralded upon his arrival) no one has said a word.
Instead it is June Jones' offense and Hawaii's 72-45 drop kick of BYU that seem to have opened the most doors nationally. The new sponsor of the Hawaii Bowl said as much last week.
"I watched last December, oh man. That was a great game," ConAgra vice president Tim McMahon said, lighting up like a kid. "I can't believe somebody that blew the 'over' like that. I mean, that was just ... How does that happen?"
The purely cash aspect of the UH-Steinberg partnership looked great on paper, we were told at first. Revenue by the marketing department broke records. But UH's current stance suggests what some have quietly rumbled since the beginning. That beyond the initial excitement, a new name in the pool doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be any more money to go around -- it just means the money that is there will be divided in different ways.
That's for the economists (or rather, Frazier) to decide, but what we do know for sure is that last week's new television contract between UH and KFVE is for significantly less money than the one before. And that hurts.
"The dynamics and the dollars are changing dramatically," Costello said.
And so now Frazier is charged with taking a hard look at the company that Jones personally brought in, at part of the strategy that Jones has in his grand plan to help Hawaii succeed.
This is the new UH, businesslike and bottom line. Every dime in and out has to make sense, Costello said, and partnerships are made, maintained and kept based on how the university benefits. If Steinberg's firm gets the desired results, if it finds new sources of revenue, obviously it would stay and UH would be perfectly happy.
Again, we are told, that's for Frazier to determine, to make the decision and explain the reasons why.
UH believes there will be no hard feelings from Jones on these questions, despite his personal involvement in bringing Steinberg into the fold.
"June's a guy who understands if it doesn't work, it doesn't work," Costello said.
Of course, it would be Herman Frazier who would have to tell him if it doesn't.
LET'S REMEMBER THAT Frazier told our Dave Reardon that the toughest decision he had to make at UAB, the one that got him in the most hot water, was replacing a basketball coach who was the son of a very popular former coach and AD. Frazier stressed that the decision was not his alone, however, that he obviously needed to have support from above to do it.
Just as he obviously has that support here.
But it was Frazier who took the heat for it, his name alone that was attached to the act. Just as it will be here.
"The question for Herman is to decide, is this really the best way to do it?" Costello said.
This, of course, has the possibility of putting Frazier in a difficult position, Costello acknowledged. But then, that's what athletics directors do. They make these kinds of calls.
"That's why Herman gets paid the big bucks."
He'll earn them. He already is.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com