There were the long days of studying trends, doing class checks and coaching, as well as the occasional 2 a.m. errand to the airport to retrieve VHS copies of opponents’ games.

But Tyson Helton fondly remembered his one season as a graduate assistant for the University of Hawaii team and three years as special teams coach. During that time in the early 2000s, his wife, April, was an assistant marketing director for the Steinberg Group, which was the promotional and marketing arm for UH athletics.

Helton is in his fourth season as head coach of Western Kentucky, which faces UH in Saturday’s interconference game at the Ching Complex.

“Just a special time,” Helton said of the four UH seasons through 2003. “We had just gotten married. It was like a four-year honeymoon.”

Helton directed the special teams that featured dynamic returner Chad Owens. He was on the staff when future UH coaches Timmy Chang, Chris Brown, Abraham Elimimian and Keiki Misipeka were Warriors players.

Chang, who was named UH head coach in January, said Helton was “good, calm, nice, a really good person.”

In turn, Helton praised Chang as “just a great guy, a pure-hearted guy. Just so excited for him that he gets to go back home and be the head coach of Hawaii and lead that team. He’s the perfect guy to do that.”

Helton grew up in a football family — his father, Kim, was Houston’s head coach and was an assistant for four NFL teams — and got his start in Manoa. As a graduate assistant in 2000, Helton had to balance coaching with his own school work. He was promoted to full-time assistant in 2001, succeeding Dennis McKnight as special teams coordinator. In his last two UH seasons, Helton also was assisting with the receivers.

“He paid attention to all the details, which you need to do as a coach,” said June Jones, who was the Warriors’ head coach at the time. “He’s a really good guy,”

Helton easily immersed in Hawaii’s culture. “I love Spam musubi,” he said. “Plate lunches are great. All the food was great. I love poke now because of my time there and all the different bowls. Just the culture and the food and the people, it’s a one-of-a-kind place. It really is. It’s a place where everybody is always pulling for each other.”

After leaving UH, Helton coached at Memphis, UAB, Cincinnati and Western Kentucky. He was USC’s passing-game coordinator in 2016 and 2017, and Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in 2018, before returning to WKU.

But Helton and his wife always have ties to Hawaii. Their eldest daughter was born in Honolulu and has a Hawaiian middle name.

“What I love about the University of Hawaii, it’s more than just you, the individual,” Helton said. “It’s more than the university. It’s about the state, and how you represent the state. That’s the one thing that stood out to me.”