Thursday, December 13, 2001

Niumatalolo joins
Johnson at Navy

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By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.com

Former Hawaii quarterback and assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo has accepted the offensive coordinator position at Navy, where he will be reunited with former UH offensive coordinator and Georgia Southern head coach Paul Johnson.

Johnson accepted the Midshipmen's head coaching job Sunday.

The two last worked together at Navy in 1995 and 1996. Niumatalolo was a player under Johnson and coached with him at UH.

"I love it here," Niumatalolo told the Star-Bulletin last night from his hotel room in Annapolis, Md. "And obviously, I'll enjoy the guy I'm working with."

Niumatalolo, 36, leaves the tight ends coaching job at UNLV.

After the 1996 season, Johnson left to be the head coach at Georgia Southern, where he has won back-to-back Division I-AA national championships. Niumatalolo remained with the Midshipmen until he was fired after the 1998 season. He then joined John Robinson's staff at UNLV.

Johnson and Niumatalolo plan to reinstall the spread option offense with which they broke records at Hawaii, Navy and Georgia Southern.

"I enjoyed my three years working with a conventional offense," Niumatalolo said. "It was a good learning experience for me."

Robinson said he was disappointed Niumatalolo is leaving.

"We hate to lose Kenny, but the opportunity at Navy was just too good," Robinson said. "He did a lot of nice things here and we wish him well."

Niumatalolo, a Radford High School graduate who played for UH from 1987 to 1989, could be joined by another former Ram and Rainbow. Former UH defensive back and Navy assistant Brian Norwood is now an assistant at Penn State.

"Brian's kind of in the position I was a couple of days ago," Niumatalolo said. "I loved working with coach Robinson so I was changing my mind every three minutes."

Also, former UH quarterback Ivin Jasper, Johnson's quarterbacks coach at Georgia Southern, is interviewing for a spot on the staff, Norwood said.