Buckle up, Hawaii football followers.
Newly hired play-caller Don Bailey is seeking to accelerate the Rainbow Warriors’ offense this coming season.
"We’re pushing the tempo," said Bailey, who joins the Warriors after a successful stint at Idaho State, an FCS program.
As expected, Bailey and Tom Mason, a former interim head coach and defensive coordinator at Southern Methodist, were named to run UH’s offense and defense, respectively. Coach Norm Chow said titles are still being worked out. While crafting the offensive game plan will be a collective effort, Bailey will be the play-caller during games. Bailey also will coach quarterbacks.
Bailey said he will match the scheme to the personnel. The baseline for quarterbacks, Bailey said, is "to get the ball out of their hands (quickly). That’s the biggest thing. We want them to be accurate. We want them to make good decisions. And we want them to be able to check down when it allows to. That’s what we want to do. We want to have (a good) completion percentage."
Under Bailey, the Warriors are expected to pick up the pace. Last year, Idaho State averaged a play every 20.6 seconds. UH’s average was 22.6 seconds. The Bengals averaged 82.7 plays per game in comparison to UH’s 76.3 plays.
"We want to be offensive to the defense," Bailey said. "We don’t want to grind clock. It’s not necessarily about possession (time), although it can be at times. We want the number of possessions — that’s the deal — not necessarily the time of possessions."
The more plays, Bailey figures, the more opportunities to score. The Bengals scored 64 touchdowns in 12 games last season. Justin Arias led FCS quarterbacks with 4,075 passing yards. Running back Xavier Finney was No. 11 in rushing with 1,495 yards. The Bengals led the FCS in passing (358.1 yards per game) and were 23rd in rushing (213.9 yards).
The Bengals mostly were in an 11 set — one back, one tight end — with three receivers.
"But we’ll have packages for some other things," Bailey said. "The biggest thing is we want to adapt to the guy pulling the trigger and the personnel there."
Bailey said his early coaching education was in Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, a scheme that relies on short and timing passes. At Idaho State, where home games are played under a dome and innovation brings an edge, Bailey implemented a spread scheme. That thinned defenses, opening routes and running lanes.
"We’re looking to do some of the similar things there in Hawaii, and we’re looking forward to it," Bailey said.
Bailey and Mason agreed to one-year contracts.
Mason will not have Lewis Powell to help him transition.
The defensive line coach is leaving UH to become the tight ends coach at Utah.
Powell was the last remaining member of Chow’s initial UH staff in 2012.
Powell is expected to earn about $190,000 — double his UH salary — to coach at his alma mater. He was a defensive lineman and then an intern for the Utes. Powell and Chow worked together in 2011 when Chow was the Utes’ offensive coordinator.
The move was expected, and UH had set in motion a plan to fill Powell’s spot on the coaching staff. With UH’s hiring procedures, a replacement will be named before the start of spring training in April.
