Soon after being announced as the Hawaii football team’s new defensive coordinator, Victor Santa Cruz declared: “I’m going home.”

It is a full-circle move for Santa Cruz, 47, who spent part of his youth living in Kaneohe and five years in the 1990s as a Rainbow Warriors linebacker.

“I’m so happy to be back home and ready to serve that community,” Santa Cruz said. “My wife and I did the math, and it’ll be 30 years ago I stepped foot on the (Manoa) campus as a freshman. I’m honored Coach (Todd) Graham would think of me. I’m fired up.”

Santa Cruz, who was Azusa Pacific’s head coach the past 14 seasons, is now the third member of Graham’s coaching staff. Graham was hired a week ago as the successor to Nick Rolovich, who resigned to become Washington State’s head coach. Earlier, Graham retained Jacob Yoro and Abraham Elimimian as assistant coaches for the defense.

“Coach Victor Santa Cruz is one of the most respected men I know in college coaching,” Graham said in a news release. “The wealth of knowledge and integrity he brings to our program as a leader will have a huge impact. Fired up to welcome him to our football family.”

Santa Cruz was a key contributor as an inside linebacker in 1992, when the Warriors won 11 games, culminating with a victory over the Illinois in the Holiday Bowl. It was during his UH career, which went through 1994, that Santa Cruz learned the intricacies of the double-eagle flex. Doug Kay, Bob Wagner and Rich Ellerson developed that scheme at UH. Ellerson then ran it at Arizona, under Dick Tomey, when it was known as “Desert Swarm,” and helped the Wildcats dominate defensive categories.

Santa Cruz is experienced in several defenses, including the 4-2 UH ran as a complement to the double-eagle in the 1990s under Wagner. The Warriors ran a variation — the 4-2-5 — the past two seasons under Corey Batoon.

“We’re going to do what’s best for those players,” Santa Cruz said. “They won a bunch of games (in 2019). It would be foolish for us to stick a playbook in front of their face and say, ‘Do this.’ We’re going to learn what they do well, and put them in the (right) place, and attack, and do all we can to make these players successful.”

When Graham was Arizona State’s head coach, Santa Cruz attended coaching clinics on the Tempe campus. “We became real professional admirers, and then closer friends,” Santa Cruz said. “I have the utmost respect for that man. He’s the perfect guy for the (UH) job.”

Santa Cruz and his wife, Jamie, have three children. Santa Cruz holds degrees from UH and Azusa Pacific. “I’m going from one alumni base to another alumni base,” he said.