If you’re wagering on who Nick Rolovich’s successor will be as the University of Hawaii football coach, the safe, odds-on, bet is that it will be a current or recent Rainbow Warriors assistant.

Between the way the posted job specifications are crafted and athletic director David Matlin’s hiring track record at UH, history suggests that it will be an assistant coach with strong Hawaii ties who won’t shatter an already fragile athletic department piggy bank.

The review of applications is scheduled to begin Tuesday, meaning the puff of white smoke should be visible over Manoa before the end of next week.

The job specs leave plenty of latitude for candidates without head coaching experience. The stated “minimum qualifications” include a requirement of five years “experience coaching football at the college or university levels” and the “desirable qualifications” just ask for “successful Division I football coaching experience.”

UH has gone heavily with assistants in the past, with seven of its eight hires in the Rainbow Warriors’ Division I era having no previous college or pro head coaching experience. The only exception was June Jones, who was twice a head coach in the NFL before taking the UH job in 1999.

Jones, who was also an ex-UH assistant and player, might be a longshot to return right away since he is the general manager and head coach of the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL, who open their inaugural season Feb. 8.

Since Matlin became athletic director in 2015, his three most visible hires — Rolovich, men’s basketball coach Eran Ganot and women’s volleyball coach Robyn Ah Mow — have all come from the ranks of assistant coaches. While none were coaching at UH at the time of their appointment, they had all previously been in Manoa as assistants and were familiar to Matlin. Ah Mow and Rolovich also had the benefit of having been ex-UH athletes.

Some current assistant coaches — Brian Smith, the associate head coach and offensive coordinator, Craig Stutzmann, passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and Mark Banker, assistant head coach and linebackers coach — are expected to be candidates. Smith and Stutzmann played at UH. Banker, who was a candidate when Norm Chow was hired, is in his second tour in Manoa, having also been an assistant in 1995.

Then, there are the inevitable financial challenges in attempting to attract somebody with significant head coaching experience for an athletic department that ran $2.9 million in the red this past fiscal year. As it was, UH was straining to pay Rolovich $600,004 plus bonuses.

Unless the current TV rights negotiations with Spectrum, when combined with the new Mountain West Conference agreement, produce a windfall, it may be hard for UH’s offer to rise above Rolovich’s deal, which ranked no better than 10th in the 12-member MWC.

While the salary for Rolovich’s successor is listed as “negotiable” in the hiring specs, Board of Regents policy has set a range of $392,142-$935,544. UH President David Lassner may sign off on an annual salary of $500,000 or less without board approval, provided the contract duration is five years or less. He could ask regents to exceed the ceiling, something that hasn’t happened since Greg McMackin’s boondoggle $1.1 million deal (2008-11).

But that would be sure to invite another round of legislative hearings with state Sen. Donna Kim breathing down the administration’s neck.

And if there is anything we have learned about these hirings over the last several years, venturing outside convention is a rarity.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.