PonyFans.com interview with receivers coach Jeff Reinebold

[Garret]

I still remember how Coach Reinebold wanted to work for JJ so badly that he was a Graduate Assistant at Hawaii under JJ. An assistant coach left a year later so Reinebold was able to get a (low-paid, I remember he earned $60k) assistant coaches spot then...but for a year or more he was a Graduate Assistant basically working for free. And during that time Reinebold recruited the entire secondary for the 12-0 regular season, plus the nickel back and a WR, all from Texas JCs.

Another tidbit is that McMackin and Reinebold were the final 2 candidates for the DC job at Hawaii after Glanville left before the 2007 season. If Reinebold had gotten the DC job at Hawaii, he might have been in line for the head coaching job there instead of McMackin.

[smuuth]

I like the way he mentioned some of the greats from the past. Most know of Doak but there are so many great ones. Those legendary figures need to be mentioned and noted throughout the Ford Field area, not just in a small museum. Meredith, Gregg, Rote, Levias, Lagrone, Hixon, Sanders, Kelcher, Carter, Ball, Mcel, James, Dupard, Fry, Bell...

[SMUguy]

I like the way PonyPride's practice report from Monday mentioned that Russell Carter was out there watching!

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

Another tidbit is that McMackin and Reinebold were the final 2 candidates for the DC job at Hawaii after Glanville left before the 2007 season. If Reinebold had gotten the DC job at Hawaii, he might have been in line for the head coaching job there instead of McMackin.

Garret how do you rate McMackin thus far? He must be on a real "hot seat"
this year? Would you expect him to get fired before the 2010 season is over
if the Warriors start slow?

[PonyKai]

Another tidbit is that McMackin and Reinebold were the final 2 candidates for the DC job at Hawaii after Glanville left before the 2007 season. If Reinebold had gotten the DC job at Hawaii, he might have been in line for the head coaching job there instead of McMackin.

Garret how do you rate McMackin thus far? He must be on a real "hot seat"
this year? Would you expect him to get fired before the 2010 season is over
if the Warriors start slow?

I think McMackin and his staff are dealing with some institutional and community obstacles on the path to being consistently successful. That is, of course, off the gridiron and not on it, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Garret]

I think McMackin and his staff are dealing with some institutional and community obstacles on the path to being consistently successful. That is, of course, off the gridiron and not on it, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

What institutional and community obstacles are you talking about? There were serious problems that JJ fought against while he was at Hawaii that seem to be taken care of:

$50k recruiting budget was increased to $120k (with Hawaiian Airlines kicking in $50k in free flights to be used solely for recruiting purposes), a *huge* upgrade. Remember, JJ offered to give up some of his salary to increase the recruiting budget and he was turned down...now, the recruiting budget is reasonable.

The football coaches got new offices with money that was approved after JJ left. The carpet and furniture in JJ's office and the other offices had been left to deteriorate for 20 years or so, so this was a needed change.

All assistant coaches got nice salary bumps and the ranges for assistant coaching salaries were increased significantly by UH's new AD. UH even got a full-time recruiting coordinator funded by the Athletic Department--that was a position that JJ had offered to pay for out of his own salary.

UH got a $3 million donation for a new practice field after the publicity over JJ leaving revealed how poor the previous field was. The practice field was actually *condemned* a year or two before JJ left but UH had to still practice on it because they had nothing else. Weeds should never be growing through turf and other parts of the field were just in pitiful shape. The Ching Foundation said that they never would have donated the money if it wasn't for the publicity after JJ left.

UH got state-of-the-art video equipment and meeting rooms as part of the renovations that the State Legislature released funding for after the public was upset about the poor state of UH's facilities, revealed after JJ left. Remember, JJ's video coordinator (who actually works for SMU now) actually had just 1 video camera to use for several years at UH...a video camera that JJ won in a golf tournament.

[PonyKai]

One thing in particular that caught my attention was how difficult it was, or perhaps, what an uproar it seemed to cause when UH decided to charge 50$ per semester, per student, to help make the athletic department financially competitive with other schools. There seemed to be serious complaint from the student body and from various talking heads/newspaper writers, even though the charge seemed to be very reasonable and beneficial to the school as a whole. If there is such a push-back from the general or student community, then there is only so far the administration can go to help the coaching staffs succeed.

Maybe I'm just extrapolating that incident to a hesitation on the part of the student body and community to do what is necessary to help UH succeed on a higher level. It wasn't referencing specific upgrades that the school has made facility wise. That's good those changes have taken place.

Again, I could be misinterpreting this or over blowing it...in which case, please let me know.

[cutter]

Another tidbit is that McMackin and Reinebold were the final 2 candidates for the DC job at Hawaii after Glanville left before the 2007 season. If Reinebold had gotten the DC job at Hawaii, he might have been in line for the head coaching job there instead of McMackin.

Garret how do you rate McMackin thus far? He must be on a real "hot seat"
this year? Would you expect him to get fired before the 2010 season is over
if the Warriors start slow?

Garrett can best speak to all of this. but having followed many of the published reports of the Hawaii program and their blogs, I believe it is more than the institutional and community support issues that JJ faced. The OC that started last year (who had been there through JJ's years), and supposed long-time McMackin associate, is gone from the program ('retired'). Mouse Davis, JJ's mentor in the run and shoot, is back with the program to mentor their young OC (former Hawaii QB), and to try to get the offense back on track. Defensive coaching changes were made, as well.
There was a recent article in the local paper stating that McMackin has gone through the staff shake-up as a last-ditch effort to get the program moving in the right direction, and to save his job (I couldn't find this article, but it was within the last month or two). So, indeed the natives are restless -- to what degree, I'm not sure, but it seems pretty serious. Garrett probably has a better feel for this, but I know that they have suffered through some awful seasons in the past (including the '98 0-fer) without changes mid-stream.
And, they open this season with a tough stretch (USC - at Army - at Colorado) before the softer part of the schedule.

[Garret]

Garret how do you rate McMackin thus far? He must be on a real "hot seat"
this year? Would you expect him to get fired before the 2010 season is over
if the Warriors start slow?

IPP,

McMackin was given a 5-year, $1.1 million/year contract with *no buyout* clause, so no matter how unhappy the fans might have been last season there was no way that UH could have afforded to let him go. Colorado admitted that they would have fired Hawkins if they could have come up with the $3 million buyout needed...McMackin would have cost UH more than that to fire since his money was guaranteed.

After this season there will be only 2 years left on McMackin's contract, so there may be some pressure applied if things do not go well. However, the Athletic Department already has a $2 million annual deficit (plus a $10+ million accumulated deficit) to deal with so coming up with the money might be difficult. Some of the long-time supporters that were around when JJ was there seem to be gone (Maloofs, etc.) or sitting things out now. Half of JJ's $800k salary was paid for by donors, but all $1.1 million of McMackin's salary is paid for by the University. The restaurant that hosted the one-day event each August that raised $100k for the football program isn't doing it this year, so UH is having a telethon tonight to try to raise some of that money.

I won't say anything beyond this in a public forum. I'm a member of Na Koa (UH's version of the Mustang Club) and have been regularly having teleconferences with the Hawaii State Legislature and other organizations in Hawaii to try to help UH's Athletic Department's situation. I've been devoting 5-10 hours each week (all unpaid of course) for months with 3 different groups (each focused on a different way to improve the situation) on this and I can honestly say that there are things going on that will help the Athletic Department eventually...but in the short-term going at least 7-6 to make the Hawaii Bowl would be very helpful. And I've learned far more than I ever wanted to know about why it can take so long to get something done in Hawaii when certain entities are involved.

[Garret]

One thing in particular that caught my attention was how difficult it was, or perhaps, what an uproar it seemed to cause when UH decided to charge 50$ per semester, per student, to help make the athletic department financially competitive with other schools. There seemed to be serious complaint from the student body and from various talking heads/newspaper writers, even though the charge seemed to be very reasonable and beneficial to the school as a whole. If there is such a push-back from the general or student community, then there is only so far the administration can go to help the coaching staffs succeed.

Maybe I'm just extrapolating that incident to a hesitation on the part of the student body and community to do what is necessary to help UH succeed on a higher level. It wasn't referencing specific upgrades that the school has made facility wise. That's good those changes have taken place.

Again, I could be misinterpreting this or over blowing it...in which case, please let me know.

Your take on the student push-back is a reasonable one, I won't argue with you about your perception. However, the students get upset with ALL fees...they are going to go ballistic when the tuition increase is announced in a year. The other interesting tidbit is that *none* of the student fee money will actually increase the spending that the Athletic Department can do--100% of it is reserved for deficit reduction.

The University of Hawaii wants to support its Athletic Department with $8 million per year, but instead has had to provide $10 million per year...so, they say this is a $2 million annual deficit. The University wants the students to provide $2 million in Athletic Fees so that it can go back to the $8 million number. Basically, this is just a way to increase tuition in a way to raise $2 million by using the popularity of Athletics to reduce the criticism.

Bottom line for the student athletic fee is that it does not give the Athletic Department a single penny more to spend. So, its impact on the Athletic Department really won't be that great. Hopefully more students will attend games, since that will improve the home field/court advantage.

[cutter]

Garret,
thanks.
very educational for me.
looks like at least a few more tough years ahead for Hawaii, I'm guessing.

[PonyKai]

I wonder if June should wish to return to the islands when he retires and assume an administrative position with UH. Clearly he loves the islands, will return, and I'm sure would love to give whatever he could to help the program and department succeed. I wonder how successful a fundraiser and hand-shaker he would be in that role. He is nearly revered in Hawai'i, rightfully so, and I have to imagine that if he were in the right position he could do an awful lot of good off the football field. Just food for thought.

[Garret]

Garrett probably has a better feel for this, but I know that they have suffered through some awful seasons in the past (including the '98 0-fer) without changes mid-stream.
And, they open this season with a tough stretch (USC - at Army - at Colorado) before the softer part of the schedule.

Actually, there was major staff shuffling in previous years when UH struggled. Von Appen (the coach before JJ that had the 0-fer season) even took his defensive coordinator and made him offensive coordinator despite him having a lack of background on that side of the ball. JJ went through a lot of DCs--McMackin (lured away by Texas Tech after 1 year), Lempa (hired away by another AQ school), Miano/Lumpkin, Glanville (left for Portland State to be a head coach again), and then McMackin.

JJ had significant staff shuffling for a variety of reasons--you do well, some big-budget school takes away your top assistants (Texas Tech-McMackin, Oregon State-Cav, Syracuse-Lempa, etc.) and when you do poorly some assistants decide to "resign". I'm surprised that none of SMU's assistants were poached after last season, but I'm guessing SMU has a bigger assistant coach salary pool than UH has.

Mouse Davis was probably needed to mentor UH's OC because if I remember correctly he had only coached 1 year at a JC before being hired at UH in 2008 and he actually called the plays last season after the first game. There were some internal problems that led to the changes last season and this season that I won't get into.

[Garret]

I wonder if June should wish to return to the islands when he retires and assume an administrative position with UH. Clearly he loves the islands, will return, and I'm sure would love to give whatever he could to help the program and department succeed. I wonder how successful a fundraiser and hand-shaker he would be in that role. He is nearly revered in Hawai'i, rightfully so, and I have to imagine that if he were in the right position he could do an awful lot of good off the football field. Just food for thought.

JJ has a place on the Big Island that I think he will retire to when he is done coaching. By the time that happens, the next round of conference realignment will have occurred so things will be either much better for UH or far worse.

JJ's is *very* successful in raising money for his foundation. The foundation still does a lot of good things for the state of Hawaii, and I still remember how JJ had to raise money via his foundation one year because the AD said that UH had no money for bowl bonuses for the assistant coaches. So, JJ raised the money and the assistants got the bonuses they were supposed to get after Hawaii beat Arizona State in the 2006 Hawaii Bowl.

There are a significant number of Hawaii fans (like warbow) that are upset with JJ leaving UH and they wouldn't welcome him back. However, it appears that the big donors in Hawaii like JJ so if he wants to help the University when he's retired that would be great.

UH doesn't have a real mascot (we pay an entertainer to be at football games and he sent his boys to Texas Tech to play football), so I'd take the geldings if that would give UH some financial support from a certain Oklahoma State booster...

[cutter]

UH doesn't have a real mascot (we pay an entertainer to be at football games and he sent his boys to Texas Tech to play football), so I'd take the geldings if that would give UH some financial support from a certain Oklahoma State booster...

lol