Before the UH football team’s pulsating win over Colorado State on Saturday, some fans were calling for the head of … well, head coach Todd Graham and his son/offensive coordinator, Bo.

Will the revival of the offense take the Graham clan off the hot seat? Let’s reverse-engineer this question in a couple of different directions:

>> Should it take Todd and Bo Graham off the hot seat?

>> Should they be on the hot seat in the first place?

Let’s start with that last question, and let’s start from the beginning.

When Todd Graham was named head coach of the Rainbow Warrior football team in January 2020, he said, “We’re going to air it out. Every place I’ve been (as head coach) we’ve averaged almost 40 points a game. … We’ll play an explosive, exciting brand of football.”

Has he delivered on that promise?

Well, he inherited a young quarterback — Saint Louis School product Chevan Cordeiro — who’d already gotten his feet wet, seeing action in 16 games and throwing 14 TD passes. Cordeiro was 4-0 as a starter, plus a signature, fourth-quarter comeback win off the bench against UNLV in 2018.

Despite having the continuity of a seasoned QB, the offense has regressed. UH averaged nearly 34 points a game in Nick Rolovich’s last season as head coach. Since Graham took over, it has averaged 27, not nearly the 40 he hinted at 22 months ago. Heck, he’s struggled to get the Warriors to 40 points in a game. Saturday’s game against the Rams was UH’s fourth 40-plus-point game under Graham. The previous three were one against FCS team Portland State and two against doormat New Mexico State.

If fans are disappointed, Graham has no one to blame but himself.

That said, there are a few reasons I believe Graham should get at least another season:

>> He’s coached under pandemic conditions for almost his entire time at UH. Yes, every program has faced the same obstacles (well, other than playing in front of no home crowd until the past few weeks), but fact is this is an unprecedented situation that affects a team in countless ways none of us ever see — from reduced camaraderie for his players to adapting to recruiting with less or no in-person contact. Nearly every government official at every level made mistakes in dealing with this pandemic, so why should Graham be any different?

>> UH coaches have a history of regressing in season two only to bounce back in season three. Before Graham, Rolovich went 7-7 in year one, followed by a 3-9 campaign before improving to 8-6. Norm Chow, Greg McMackin and June Jones before him followed the same pattern. If Graham defies that trend, it’ll be time to worry.

>> Graham has more than $2 million left on the three years remaining on his contract. For an athletic department that was losing millions even before COVID-19 took away a prime source of income, eating that contract is a non-starter. Sometimes a booster is willing to help make that type of thing go away, but you can only go to that well so often.

So, no, I don’t think Graham’s job is in jeopardy, nor should it be. That said, I think he’s fair game for criticism from fans. You don’t take a job paying more than three-quarters of a million dollars per year and expect to never to come under fire. With no major pro sports team in Hawaii — well, until those pro soccer and rugby teams that are totally interested in bringing franchises here arrive at the New Aloha Stadium any day now! — UH football is our flagship sports team.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s sort of pathetic that after all the caterwauling to allow fans at the “temporary” on-campus facility the team drew only about halfway to “capacity.” But even with attendance trending down, it vastly outdraws all other UH sports. With that high profile — and high-paying — a job comes criticism, some more valid than others.

Which brings us to Bo Graham, the embattled first-year offensive coordinator of the Warriors and (approximately) 40th-year son of Todd Graham.

Much of the criticism has been focused on his play-calling. It first raised my eyebrows in the Warriors’ biggest win of the season, homecoming against Fresno State. Cordeiro was injured and true freshman Brayden Schager was thrown into the fire. I shook my head during one stretch when the younger Graham had the rookie throw deep repeatedly — low-percentage throws even for a veteran, and even tougher for a kid four months removed from high school.

When the offensive play calls left Fresno more than 3½ minutes after Hawaii kicked the go-ahead field goal, I was stunned — and ready for Fresno to stave off the upset. The Bulldogs were on the verge of scoring the winning touchdown when the Hawaii defense came up with its third turnover of the quarter in the final seconds, saving the game and delaying the calls for the head coach’s son to be fired.

The younger Graham could avoid the boobirds no longer after his offense averaged less than 16 points a game during a three-game skid that likely eliminated Hawaii from bowl contention, capped by a loss at UNLV in which UH reached the end zone on the first play from scrimmage and then never again, despite the Rebels having allowed 34 points per game to that point.

Coaches at the NFL and college levels hiring their sons is common. But it’s one thing for Bill Belichick to give his sons jobs on his staff with the New England Patriots. That’s a private business and Belichick waited until he had an unassailable record of success before doing so. It’s quite another for Todd Graham to hand his son a six-figure, taxpayer-funded job.

A request to UH for the exact amount of Bo Graham’s salary yielded only a pay range: $150,000 to $304,500. If those numbers stun you, take a gander at his resume. At almost every collegiate job the younger Graham has held he was hired by his father. The one exception was when he joined Louisiana’s staff in 2018, a few years after leaving Arizona State amid reports that he had broken school code by dating a student-athlete. Who hired him at Louisiana after a few seasons away from coaching? Billy Napier, who coached under the elder Graham at Arizona State.

I started this column with a list of questions, including whether Bo Graham should be on the hot seat. Maybe a better question is whether he should have this job in the first place.