In introducing a new communication plan, an apologetic head coach Todd Graham has vowed to improve player-coach relationships, better address concerns, and ensure each University of Hawaii football player has a “voice” in the program.

Two weeks ago, some players aired criticism of the program and Graham’s leadership during a Twitter Space forum. Three starters, including quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, completed transfers to other teams on Wednesday.

“It’s a small portion of our group, but whatever portion is too much,” said Graham, who is in his second season as UH head coach.”We want every person to feel valued and to have a voice.”

He added: “When you lose a player … if a player transfers or a player flunks out or a player drops out or we have miscommunication like that, we have to take ownership of that, and say, ‘what can we do better?’ And more importantly for me is: what can I do to get better? I want them to be coachable, and I have to be coachable. We want to have a learner’s mentality. That’s how we approached it.”

After meetings with the players individually and in small and large groups, Graham acknowledged that co-captains and a leadership group already represented the players. “But, really, there was not a lot of representation for guys that are, maybe, freshmen, sophomores, walk-ons,” Graham said.

Graham said Kody Cooke, who handles the strength/conditioning program, and Shawn Withy-Allen, a pastor and former UH quarterback, will oversee the championship council. “We’ll have three people from each class,” Graham said. “Whatever class you came in with, you vote for three representatives. And then we also will have walk-ons represented.”

If a player has a complaint but does not feel comfortable speaking directly to Graham or the coaches, he can share the matter with his council representative, who then will relay the concerns.

“We want to have a family atmosphere,” Graham said. “We want to have great communication and deal with various issues within our family. That’s the way we want it to be. But you’ve got to make sure people feel safe and feel like there’s an avenue for them to be able to do that. That’s what we learned from this. It’s all about improving communication and having representation throughout the whole program.”

Wideout Jonah Panoke, who was selected by teammates as a council representative, said he is not a natural vocal leader.

“I’m not really one to speak up, but if I have to for my teammates, I will,” said Panoke, a Saint Louis School alumnus and Cordeiro’s teammate since second grade. “I think this is a good start that we started this council. It’s a way for us to communicate with the coaches, how we can do better, how different things could be approached. … This is definitely a place where our teammates are able to speak out and we can be the voice for them to the coaches. There’s definitely a change. It’s good we have Coach Cooke and pastor on board.”

Darius Muasau, a linebacker and co-captain, added: “We have a chance to communicate our problems or anything we have to get off our minds and just bring it up to the coaches. … I think it’s good for the team to be able to communicate better. It’s definitely a positive for our team.”

Non-football-related team gatherings also will be planned. Some of the communication problems stemmed from the pandemic protocols. Two months after Graham was hired in January 2020, the COVID-19 crisis heightened. Spring training was canceled, the locker room was off limits, meetings were on Zoom, and workouts were in small groups. “We never could have face-to-face conversations,” linebacker Isaiah Tufaga said. “That first year, it was hard for everybody, especially with the new guys coming in. We never really got to know them until the first day of practice.”

Graham said his coaching style is train hard to create self-discipline, a key to minimizing penalties and on-field mistakes. He said that method works best after the coaches and players developed a trustful relationship.

“I always tell the players, when you have a baby, you don’t bring him home from the hospital and start disciplining him,” Graham said. “Well, when we came here, COVID hit, and you’re not meeting. You’re locked down, so you don’t have time to build that relationship. Then when you start up, you’ve got four weeks to play a game. I think that portion really affected the ability to build that relationship and love ’em up. If you love ’em, then they understand a lot better. Love is the single-most important ingredient to producing self-discipline. … We took a learner’s mentality, and we listened, and said, ‘you know, that’s something.’ The core of what we do is about relationships. I think it did affect the ability to build those.”

Tufaga said it has been helpful for the team to address issues.

“For sure, especially with all the meetings we’ve had with all our coaches, we’ve been clearing up everything that’s been going on, and we’ve been having face-to-face conversations with what’s been happening,” Tufaga said. “I think it’s a really good thing that happened instead of just dusting it underneath the rug and not paying attention to it. I’m glad the situation got addressed. And now we’ve got to move on to (Friday’s Hawaii Bowl), and then move on to next year.”