Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve had many conversations with David Matlin. Not very many in the past few weeks … well … let’s just say we’ve both been busy.
Anyway, in many of those talks, we’d eventually end up on the topic of life’s uncertainties. And the University of Hawaii athletic director would quote writer Michael Chabon, who said, “Man makes plans and God laughs.”
That’s why it surprises me that Matlin — assuming he really wanted June Jones as the UH head football coach to replace Todd Graham — didn’t love Jones’ idea of a five-year contract with no buyout clause.
That would mean the school could release Jones from his duties at any time, with cause or no cause, without having to pay any remaining amount on his contract.
It’s actually a better deal for UH than the two-year contract it initially offered Jones, then extended to three years before the talks quickly fell apart last Friday and Timmy Chang was hired Saturday.
During a press conference Tuesday in which Matlin apologized for this mess of a coaching change and said that he “pondered” resigning over it, he talked about a lot of things.
One of them was why he wanted Jones for two or three years max, to be replaced by Chang, who would serve as offensive coordinator while Jones trained him to eventually take his place.
“I identified Timmy Chang as the early candidate to be the head coach,” Matlin said. “I thought to define the succession plan was important.”
Structure is good.
But, in many cases, like this one, flexibility is better.
That’s because man makes plans … and you know the rest.
There’s no guarantee Chang would be ready to replace Jones in two years. There’s no guarantee he’d ever be ready. (Hopefully he is now.)
So it would’ve made perfect sense for Matlin to hire Jones, who would then build his staff starting with both Chang and Rich Miano.
Speaking of Miano, we were told Tuesday by Matlin there is no list of no-hire coaches, and when asked if that means Chang could add Miano and/or Jones to his staff, Matlin said “it’s possible.” Whether either veteran is willing to work for a first-time head coach — no matter how much they love him and the program — would be the question.
Miano has never been shy about making known his desire to be the Warriors head coach. This time around, he stepped aside for Jones, with the idea of becoming his defensive coordinator and head-coach-in-waiting.
Tuesday, Matlin said he didn’t want to do this, because it would have been “problematic.”
Why?
The next head coach should never be a promise, or even an assumption. It can be viewed as a probability, but no one should consider it guaranteed.
What’s wrong with having two potential future head coaches? What’s wrong with having five or six?
I’ve always heard that iron sharpens iron.
There are other Rainbow Warriors coaching all over the country as worthy as Chang of an opportunity for the job — some now, some with a bit more seasoning.
Brian Norwood (who has been a finalist for the post so many times I’ve lost count), Brian Smith and Craig Stutzmann are just a few that come to mind immediately.
The two assistant coach holdovers who were announced Sunday, Abraham Elimimian and Jacob Yoro, have strong resumes, too. (Yoro was the Warriors interim head coach after Graham’s departure.)
You want all your assistants to be ambitious, but not so much that they put their personal goals ahead of those of the team, of course.
And that’s where you’d have to trust Jones and that the men he would have picked for his staff — many of whom coached under him before and/or played for him — would all row in the same direction.
You’d also have to trust him to smell out any hint of sabotage and deal with it.
Then, when it was time for him to ride off into the sunset, it would have been may the best head-coach-in-waiting win (and it could be someone who isn’t even here at the time).
Sure, it might have gotten messy. But it would be nothing compared to the past couple of months. And there’s rarely such thing as a completely peaceful transfer of power in college football, anyway.
Competition is what these guys are all about — all of their lives, from the time they were little kids starting out as Pee Wee players. Sure, talent and skill are important, but so is ambition — for players and coaches.
Everyone involved in sports knows there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Athletes’ and coaches’ lives are built around every game, every practice, every drill being a contest to win.
Promising one person a job two or three years from now is more likely to be “problematic” than promising anyone worthy an honest shot at it.
If there’s someone out there who truly knows what the future holds, meet me in Las Vegas.
