Time to grade Rolovich's midterm/finals

[shrek2]

Does anybody feel like grading the coaching? My thoughts are
Recruiting - C- (Three years of recruiting and has not been able to secure the speed and length required to be in the top half of the MWC.)
Offense - B- (R&S seems to have brought the offense back to life but without a running game or bigger offensive linemen, the R&S is ineffective)
Defense - D+ (Not able to stop running game of any of the MWC teams and secondary coming around but still getting beat by the best of the MWC)
Special Teams - B- (good coverage on kickoffs, no returns for tds, field goal percentage good, punts not gettng good yardage)
Play calling - C (Lost game early to Nevada due to early onside kicks, going for 4th down and failing. Also, SJSU long pass not scouted so db's did not play
off the receiver but tight. No onside kick in final 90 seconds of play against Fresno. Going on 4th worked in right situations.)
Player development - B- (McDonald, Furuta, Farris and others showed some improvement
Improve community interest - C+ (Still trying to get the community involved in the games but winning is what brings people to games.)


Overall grade - C+

[cabanalane]

Recruiting - C- I don't fault Rolo, because Hawaii is still 2nd or 3rd Option for top players. Rich Miano once said, if Taala was 6'5", he would be at Alabama, instead of Hawaii.
Offense - B- You can't win them all. Sometimes, the other team is just flat out better. Truth is hard sometimes. And again, Rolo gets the 2nd pickings.
Defense - C- Those are not Batoon guys. Some are still Chow guys (not sure exactly what that means). I like to see what Batoon can do in time, and players under his system for a few years.
Special Teams - C- Scott Harding is gone. His game play is part of legacy. The current Aussie kickers can't kick as well as Harding. So let's go back to "traditional" type of kicking.
Play calling - B -Outside of the 4th down calls, I think it's ok. I do like the run plays. RUN and shoot. I like to see less RPO. More power Runs. (Yes, I'm a Chow guy).
Player development - B- As you mentioned, McDonald and Furuta. It could be them, or development.
Improve community interest - A - I get that football is a business. Fans are not in the stands. I believe people are not that interested in football in general. Kids are playing the sport less and less. None of my sons have any interest, or with their friends. So I don't think Rolo can change that to bring fans back like the Y2K era. I do believe Rolo feels Hawaii in his core. With that said, I would not trade Rolo for a top "mainland" coach, that see Hawaii as a foreign place and a temp stop in their career path.

Overall grade - C. I feel a B, but at the end of the day, this is football. And UH need to win.

[Palolo_2LA]

I would say C+/B- is fair since there has been improvements over the Chow years and we have seen glimpses of success. Fans need to be patient and let things unfold. Also, Rolo still doesn't have only his guys in the program.

[RedZone]

Hard to grade mid term but I’ll try. I think this is a 2 season year. The first half and the second half. It is obvious that the talent and readiness of our opponents in the second half greatly out weighs what I saw in the first. I give them a B+ in the first. They started off strong and exceeded my expectations. They would have gotten an A but they lost to a good Army team which I thought they had a really good chance of beating. For the 2nd I give them a C. The 2nd half would be closer to the 1st half of how I thought they would be performing. So I think they are really where they I thought they would be this season. But I feel that we have a really young team which has a huge upside once they get the much needed experience at the D1 level. I also like some of the talent that have gotten little to no playing time. They can take the break in seasons to work on their game. I also feel that there are some holes that we really need to recruit to fill. On coaching I am disappointed with the coaches. Yes we are young there but there have been times where they have played really well. Just not enough of them. This I put on the coaches. On defense it is much harder to grade. We have a new DC so some confusion is to be expected. They have played well in spots. Just not enough. Our run defense has been better compared to last year but our achilles heel have been our pass defense. Yes our dbs are not as talented as I would like them to be but our pass rush overall has been bad. We need more players making big plays on defense not a few with too little. I give the coaches on defense a pass this season because it is a new scheme and there are some spots that I think we really need to recruit to get better.

[shrek2]

Is there any running game that UH has been able to stop? Maybe Wyoming? Can't count Duquesne.

[cabanalane]

Navy?

[RedZone]

Is there any running game that UH has been able to stop? Maybe Wyoming? Can't count Duquesne.

SJSU.

[RedZone]

Actually the biggest test for our team will come on the bye week. That week should be totally focussed on UNLV. They should be able to tweak things and come out sharp. It is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

[shrek2]

One area where Chow scored higher than Rolo is his ability to recruit as he brought in RJ Hollis, Trayvon Henderson, Daniel Lewis, Jahlani Tavai, Dejon Allen, John Ursua, Rigoberto Sanchez, David Manoa, Ro Farris, Nick Nelson, JR Hensley and Zeno Choi as a walkon. I think his intelligence on the mainland helped him find the talent.

[cabanalane]

One area where Chow scored higher than Rolo is his ability to recruit as he brought in RJ Hollis, Trayvon Henderson, Daniel Lewis, Jahlani Tavai, Dejon Allen, John Ursua, Rigoberto Sanchez, David Manoa, Ro Farris, Nick Nelson, JR Hensley and Zeno Choi as a walkon. I think his intelligence on the mainland helped him find the talent.

True. Let's not forget the traitor Dylan Collie right? He was one of top receivers during his time at UH. There are others that maybe didn't pan out well like Melvin Davis (injury), but you see where Chow as going with the bigger RB.

Thinking back, Chow said his first task in recruiting is to "drive to Laie. I don't know if he did that. But it seemed like he did "better" on the mainland. I think he had better connections in CA highschool coaches than Hawaii. UH try to make Chow "the local boy" returning home. I think home for Rolo is Hawaii. I think Chow lost that "local connection" when he did not retain Cal Lee. Lee brothers are not going to feed Chow their best kids when Chow did not keep them. Lee's would tell them maybe to go play on the mainland. On the flip side, I don't think Rolo has that SoCal mainland connectiont that Chow did. Rolo's time coaching was spent more in Hawaii.

Lastly, IIRC, Rolo actually notice Zeno Choi when he was in Neveda. Rolo mentioned that a long time ago. A big Korean guy that can play football is going to stand out, especially for someone local (Rolo) that knows to look past the color of their skin (and ethnicity).

[shrek2]

I liked Dylan Collie and his reasons for transferring were the best among the bunch of transfers last season. I hope he gets to be the sports announcer at Provo that he wanted to become or continue in football in coaching at BYU. I only wish for the best for he and his wife. Now as far as color is concerned, nobody notices the color of their skin, just their uniform, number and how well they play. Eugene Chung was the first Korean to be drafted first round in the NFL and played six year and is now a NFL coach. Dat Nguyen played for Dallas as a 5'11 defensive linebacker. Rolo probably said what he did because Asians tend to be stereotyped as academic types. Just like East Indians are expected to win the spelling bees.

One dimension that hasn't been mentioned is motivational skills. I haven't seen enough locker room shots to judge Rolo's motivational skills. I like JJ's skills in motivating his players in the locker room speeches and saying things about certain players like they're the best player in college or NFL that he's seen in kickoff returns (Owens) or he's got the fastest release of anybody in college or pros. I don't really know if saying McDonald is better than he showed is really motivational. I don't know what they are really trying to say with that statement that Rolo, Stutz and Smith all said.

[cabanalane]

Now as far as color is concerned, nobody notices the color of their skin, just their uniform, number and how well they play. Eugene Chung was the first Korean to be drafted first round in the NFL and played six year and is now a NFL coach. Dat Nguyen played for Dallas as a 5'11 defensive linebacker. Rolo probably said what he did because Asians tend to be stereotyped as academic types. Just like East Indians are expected to win the spelling bees.

Correct, this is how things should be, and what we want to teach kids. But (unfortunately), this still goes on today. Not in the sense of discrimination, but sterotype. I know a college professior who is Samoan and Ph.D. He look like he could play football, but no interest at all. My boss actually told me she like to hire "Asians" because they work hard. Some Asians like to slack too. Right or wrong, the execptions will always have to prove themselves, where as the accepted are often given the chance, unless proven wrong.

[stranger808]

Recruiting - B, Rolo filled the needs on O & D line. Found Byrd, Ward. and has 2 QB's that could be players (Moussa and Chevan).

Play Calling - D-, IMO, wrong philosophy on offense. Rolo wants to run to establish the pass, I believe that's backwards for the RnS. In the RnS, you throw short quick passes horizontally and quick slants. spread the D, make them chase the ball all over the field. When the safeties move up, you hit them deep. control the tempo/game with the short passing game of the RnS. You don't run Furuta again and again. Fu is a nice player, but not a game breaker with break away speed. Furuta doesn't scare the defense into altering their scheme. Too easy for the D to stop our O. Too many times than not, Rolo has placed the O in the hole by running Furuta for 2 or 3 yards and putting us in 2nd and 7, 3rd and 6. Now, the D knows we are going to pass. Too easy.

Defense - D- I was never a fan of the Batoon hire.

Special Teams - C, they've done nothing that stands out or anything that's terribly poor.

Offense - D-, the RPO's a contradiction of the RnS. We're running a Shotgun RPO, it looks like a RnS formation, but the Shotgun RPO's a run first mentality. It's actually a power running formation/power running game, totally wrong scheme for our young line (our freshman not strong enough yet for power run game). We should be in June Jone's Four Wide (RnS) offense, its more conducive to our skill level on our Line. Rolo should be game planning to move our pocket, let Cole use his legs. In the FSU game, the TD to Ward was because of Cole moving to his right, and the safety moved up thinking it was a run or dump off to the RB in the flat. Rolling Cole out will give him the option of running for the first down, or passing. A 10.8 100 QB will give nightmares to the D and loosen up the coverage. Rolo's not using his weapons properly. If you show and USE speed at QB, RB to go with Ward, Ursua and Byrd, that's hard to contend with for any team.
Holly or Reed should be the starter at RB, Fu can come in for spot duty. Short quick passes (4-5) to the sidelines, quick slants, dump offs to the RB in the flat should be our bread n butter. Throw in roll-outs to move our pocket, run misdirection RB draws off of the roll outs and we maybe on to something. I could go on and on, but no one will read this anyways. I'm just burning time at work on my break. lol

Overall grade - C, our record's still 6 wins against 4 losses, hard to give the team anything lower than that with a winning record. My critiques are more on the offensive philosophy more than anything else. So,a solid C.

[poidog]

C+ for being better than Chow and for making visible effort in trying to fix things (changing offense, changing half of the staff after a bad season, getting out into the community and trying to drum up interest in the program) and for having to play in the toughest single season for the conference in a long time. This is year 3 but I haven't forgotten how much I hated Norm Chow. I think the real grade comes next year. Hopefully we don't lose a bunch of guys to transfer opportunities but with the new rules we are entering unknown territory (and Ursua is probably gonna turn pro).

6-7 wins in two of the first 3 seasons is way better than what we've had. I think this year's team is at least as good as the 2011 team (Mack's last season), but plays in a much tougher conference.

[RedZone]

C+ for being better than Chow and for making visible effort in trying to fix things (changing offense, changing half of the staff after a bad season, getting out into the community and trying to drum up interest in the program) and for having to play in the toughest single season for the conference in a long time. This is year 3 but I haven't forgotten how much I hated Norm Chow. I think the real grade comes next year. Hopefully we don't lose a bunch of guys to transfer opportunities but with the new rules we are entering unknown territory (and Ursua is probably gonna turn pro).

6-7 wins in two of the first 3 seasons is way better than what we've had. I think this year's team is at least as good as the 2011 team (Mack's last season), but plays in a much tougher conference.

Agree on next year. But adding no excuses. It also gets tougher.