JJ did a TON for Hawaii/UH and the guys still loves us. Mac so far has been just as good overall. Mac was great in committing to coach Hawaii/UH during our time of need, good in recruiting the last class and improved our recruiting effort (compared too past several years) the upcoming class. All 3 phases of the game as well as coaching and management has improved from the beginning of this season and there is reason to hope for further improvement the rest of this season and the future. We have played a tough sked so far…many say one of top 10 toughest sked in the nation. The bottomline…..his people love him including the coaches and players, and majority of the fans love him….and they won. Keep on trucking Macky !

Most coaches are usually anything but nice guys on the field but some know they need to put on a certain face for the public. The losses and stream of criticisms showed the coaches real face and while I like that feistyness, I think he needs to temper it with tact/diplomacy because he isn’t in a position to alienate this fanbase. JJ could afford to be his arrogant self because he proved his system worked well when it had the right personnel. But still, JJ’s personality is why some people refused to attend the games under his tenure and you saw that through most of last seasons run until those last few games. True, most coaches will usually not be direct but to tell someone to get their own football team and coach it the way they see it is a pretty lame retort. Mack is the highest paid employee of this state which taxpayers are footing the bill for. Plus wasn’t one of his rules not to embarass the program and thus this state? The performance of his team in some games were exactly that, an embarassment.

The question in this case was valid. Heck, even to people unfamiliar with football, they could see there was clock management issues and this was not the first time (end of first half in the Weber State game). If the coach wants to be in denial, that is fine but that is only going to backfire in the future when a game is on the line again and you need every single second and timeout. The coach needs to realize that some of those who are bringing this up ask because they care. Those who say nothing are exactly why the Herman Fraziers of the world can get away with running everything into the ground and plenty of these so-called “true fans” who take the approach that we fans should not question or criticize the coach were the exact same people who were praising people like Frazier long after other fans who could figure things out wanted him gone (we’re talking at least early 2006 that some of us wanted Failure gone).

The other thing with McMackin is he often ends up rambling in repetitive circles with most questions that are asked of him where something which can be answered in 10 seconds takes him 3 times as long to reply and sometimes, the question is never directly answered. Try listening to him on the WAC football coaches teleconference calls for example. It either gives me a headache or has me rolling as he stumbles for the right words and often ends up repeating himself several times since he forgot what he just rambled on about. Articulation does not seem to be his strong point which is spooky as a head coach.

Almost all the conference calls sounds like it comes from the same template like if it after a loss, “well you know, I have to give credit to and . I thought they did a great job…” or when a reporter asks what he thinks of the next opponent and Mack replies with something like a “well you know, they’re a excellent football team, really well coached and uh,uh a physical football team with great athletes, and are uh, uh…. are really tough and physical, and uh, I just think they are a good football team.”

And finally, I don’t know if he was just cracking a joke when he mentioned in a postgame interview that “he’s a slow learner” but if that is true, then it explains a lot. Again, I’m one of those who supported this hire but some of the decision making has raised more red flags as the season has progressed.

BTW I think we were extremely fortunate to get Coach Mack under a very “time-was-of-the-essence” circumstance. Considering he had to put together a coaching staff quickly as many left with Coach Jones, shored up our local recruiting, is getting many in advance quality commits, is tasked with rebuilding not just reloading the offense, improved special team play by 1000%, dealt with one of the most brutal schedule in memory not to mention all those tough games on the road (FL, OSU, FSU and BSU), etc….we need to be thankful and count our blessings:-). It’s been work-in-progress ever since the Sugar Bowl but I gotta say it’s been gratifying to witness.

4 down and 3 to Go Warriors!

Just come out and admit when you screw up with Clock Management (or anything else) instead of covering up possible rookie HC mistakes with sarcastic “Get your own team” remarks after the game despite all your “this is Hawaii’s team, we play for the entire State, come out and support us” bantering before the game.

Mack gotta Masters in Education, right? What was he taught to say whenever problems came up? “Go get your own school” or something similar? Mack gotta a soft and humble voice, but he will be judge by his words by most people. He betta realize that.

Just say “Ya know, we gotta work on that, that was my fault, this is my first time in my career as a Division 1 head coach dealing with how to win a tie ballgame in the closing seconds. The players have a lot to learn and so do we as coaches. I apologize about that and hope to learn from that lesson.” Simple as that. People forgive those who are honest about their mistakes.

Otherwise, if you keep rubbing fans the wrong way after the game, stop begging them before the game to show up. No one likes paranoid coaches.

Mack should read my previous post and use my response instead.