They made him an offer he had to refuse.
After the initial did-that-really-happen and both sides throwing their spin, it’s become evident that the University of Hawaii was either extremely stupid or extremely passive-aggressive in the way it handled June Jones’ offer to return as head football coach during one of the program’s worst times of despair.
Actually, all things considered, I contend that after Friday’s shenanigans the program is now in worse shape than when Jones took over after Fred vonAppen’s 0-12 in ’98.
This time, though, unlike when he coached basically that same group of players to 9-4 in ’99, Jones won’t have a chance to fix the program. Because, speaking of fix, it looks like it was in from the beginning against hiring him.
He didn’t make any unreasonable demands. They didn’t even get to the money part, but two years ago Jones said he’d do the job for free, so it’s easy to believe him when he says it’s not about money.
Jones just wanted what any coach wants, and rarely doesn’t get at the college level: the freedom to choose his own staff.
But, no. A stipulation of Jones being hired would be that his assistants be approved by the athletic director. And we’re told that Rich Miano, the former star safety and longtime assistant for Jones and Greg McMackin, was not on the good-to-go list.
>> RELATED: June Jones turns down UH job
Where was this micromanagement when it was needed, when Todd Graham had his unqualified son, Bo, calling plays as offensive coordinator?
Why now?
It’s no secret Jones wanted Miano as his right-hand man if he were to take the job. And it makes sense that when Miano pulled his hat out of the ring for head coach and supported Jones, it would be with the idea of Miano being his defensive coordinator and the unofficial head coach-in-waiting.
We say unofficial, because that’s what these succession plans are always supposed to be. They can’t be etched in stone, they have to be vague, and not on a predetermined timetable, for practical reasons. Like recruiting.
That’s why Jones’ plan of a five-year contract, with no buyout clause, made sense. It meant UH could let him go at any time without having to pay him anything.
UH offered him two years. What was he supposed to do with that? Recruiting is already a major problem, and that makes it worse.
The kids he’s coaching at the Polynesian Bowl tonight are all high school players, not JC transfers with two years left to play. It’s pretty simple — guys don’t want to go to a school where they don’t know who the coach will be.
We’re told athletic director David Matlin and Jones compromised at three years. Still less than ideal. Heck, if there’s no buyout you could give him a lifetime contract, it doesn’t matter.
Except for the optics of course.
Something like that would just add to the fear that some seem to have of Jones’ popularity. Was he out of control after that turnaround in ’99? Well, he did have enough juice to singlehandedly change the team’s nickname, and make other changes that did not sit well with traditionalists.
He’s still popular and has many powerful friends, but he’s still polarizing. There seem to be two groups of people who dislike him: those who always have because they view him as arrogant, and those who feel like they were abandoned by him when he left for SMU in 2008.
Apparently, there are enough of those folks in the right places of power to block him from being the Warriors coach again.
Now UH can get the guy it wanted from the beginning.
The big tip-off is that Timmy Chang was asked to apply and Jones wasn’t.
We know that Brian Smith has been interviewed for the job, and Chang appears to be the front-runner. Both are former players on Jones’ UH teams, both have family ties to Hawaii.
Neither has been a head coach.
I know and like them both, and wish them well in whatever they do. If it’s head coach at UH it’s going to be rough, and now is not the time for on-the-job training for a head coach. And this fubar Friday makes whoever gets the post now look like second choice, even if he wasn’t.
But unless there’s some wild card that has yet to be played, that’s what it’s going to be. Jones, and his agent, Leigh Steinberg, thought there might still be a chance after yesterday’s meeting, but a statement from Matlin indicated whatever window — if there actually ever really was one — is closed.
Many Hawaii folks are not surprised because we’re numb to stuff like this. Of course there is disappointment and disbelief from as far away as Aurora, Colo. That’s where my friend Ann Gustafson Mathews, a proud Rainbow Warrior, lives.
“UH had an easy make-nice and get off the hook for all the mess that’s happened and they didn’t f’n take it,” she texted me. “I of course am not close to it all but it seemed like a no-brainer to make it happen and move forward with happier people.”
I told her she nailed it, and to be grateful she doesn’t have a closer view of it.
