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In person, AD
imparts confidence

IT'S good to see Herman Frazier. No, I mean it, it's good to actually see the man.

It's nice to hear his voice, rather than read a prepared statement sent via fax.

So when word comes that he's emerging from his undisclosed location (I'm kidding; Hawaii's athletic director does a lot of business travel), I'm there.

"(Former UH athletic director) Paul Durham came after me, screaming and hitting me with his cane," Frazier joked, and so Frazier agreed to squeeze in a personal appearance at the Honolulu Quarterback Club yesterday, before sprinting off to more meetings. This time they were about UH's negotiation for a new TV deal.

It was a good move to meet the people. It usually is.

Yeah, he's beyond busy.

But when he does pitch in person, it's a lot easier to believe that Frazier is the real deal.

It's worked with his bosses, the UH regents and chancellor Peter Englert.

The regents are on board with Frazier's five-year plan. And Englert did his best Regis Philbin impersonation, slipping the UH athletic department a million in cool cash.

"If the media would stop bringing up the million-dollar loan the chancellor would let it go away," Frazier said. "He doesn't care. And that's the reason why we haven't paid it back yet! The chancellor is very favorable to what we're doing and he understands exactly because he's the guy that's in the room with us when we're crunching the numbers."

Frazier would add, "Everybody should have a boss like that."

The plan does sound good. Of course, all plans do. They're plans.

This concept was explained to me the other day by my brother: "Everybody has a plan. It doesn't mean it's going to happen. I have a plan. I'm not going to become a dictator of a South American country."

(This is the same brother who was eating "home fries" "because that's what Rodney Dangerfield eats in 'Easy Money.' " So yes, the people of Bolivia can probably sleep easy tonight.)

So Frazier spent the first two and a half years looking at the budget, human resources stuff, the organizational chart, hiring some associate ADs, finding out where the coffee machine is, etc.

Things are going to hit starting ... now!

"What you're going to hear and what you're going to see going forward is I will be spending most of my time on capital improvement," Frazier said. "That is the next step thing for us to do. And when I say capital improvement, we will completely revamp everything down on the lower campus. And so I will spend more time going around, rounding up people, talking to the legislature, talking to the president's office. We've already started it.

"As far as what we need to do with budgets, anything to do with anything else, I'm beyond that now," Frazier said. "I'm thinking '06, '07, '08 and out. That's what we're focusing on."

It's good to see him.

It's good to hear this.

It inspires confidence, much more so than the impressive news of another Olympics trip.

There was something else, too. I asked it in Saturday's column: How can Frazier expect to get Aloha Stadium to let up on the rent? The stadium can't just give it away. The money has to come from somewhere. It just doesn't make sense.

Well, it appears Frazier can play hardball. And he's prepared to play pretty hard. Ball.

This is smart. This is tough. This is inspired. This is everything a big-time athletic director should be.

You see, the more UH football games, the more the stadium makes on concessions, parking, etc.

"If they don't want to (negotiate) why should I bring ... if I'm going to have nine home games why would I want to have nine home games if I'm not participating in that revenue sharing," Frazier said. "The more games that I bring here, I need to participate in some of that money which would make a difference between me going on the road or staying home."

Not bad. It's good to see him in action. He's on the road a lot. But he's most impressive when he's staying home.