Summer Sneak Peek: BYU vs. UH and Chow
Norm Chow at Spring Practice (UH photo)
At one point in his career, Norm Chow expected to be the head coach in the house that LaVell Edwards built.
It took 12 years after Edwards’ retirement, but Chow will finally coach his first game as a head coach in Provo on September 28th.
That’s when the University of Hawaii Warriors invade LaVell Edwards Stadium to take on BYU, a place where Chow coached as a grad assistant, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for 27 years and made a name for himself as one of the greatest offensive minds in the game.
After nearly 40 years in the business the 66-year-old Hawaii native was hired as the Warrior’s 22nd head coach in December and charged with getting the program back to the level when June Jones ran the show and Hawaii appeared in the Sugar Bowl.
However, the man who has coached six first-round NFL draft picks and three Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback begins his head coaching career with a group of no-name, unproven signal callers.
David Graves (6-0, 195 Jr.) and Utah State transfer Jeremy Higgins (6-1, 200 So.) emerged from spring camp neck and neck for the starting job.
Graves filled in for the injured Bryant Moniz as the starter at the end of last season, including a 41-20 loss to BYU in Honolulu. In that game he completed 13-23 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown in Hawaii’s run and shoot offense. Graves has been challenged by the adjustment from the run-and-shoot to the pro-style attack of Chow.
He was pushed in the spring by Higgins. The former Aggie showed some real flashes, but was also wildly inconsistent. Jeremy comes from more of a traditional offense but played very little in Logan, appearing in two games as a freshman.
Since Graves has played in 16 games and has two starts under his belt, it would figure that he would get the nod if he is successful in making what amounts to a pretty steep transition in philosophy and practice.
Chow will have the services of seven players with starting experience back on offense. But only three of those earned starting spots in his new offense when the post-spring depth chart was released, including guard David Lefotu (6-3, 305 So.), X receiver Billy Ray Stutzman (6-0, 175 Jr.) and running back Joey Iosefa (6-0, 240 So.).
There is some good experience coming back at receiver, but the Warriors will have to find a tight end, a position that Chow has leaned on heavily throughout his career. Hawaii hasn’t employed a tight end since June Jones became the head coach in 1999.
Then there is the issue of trying to put together an offensive line with just one returning starter coming back in Lefotu.
In fact, there are so many question marks on offense that it would seem be next to impossible for the offense to be clicking on all cylinders early in the season. The Warriors also have the challenge of playing five of their first eight games on the road, including their first two roadies, at USC to start the season and at BYU three weeks later.
On defense the Warriors return just four starters from a team that surrendered 387 yards and 29 points per game. They gave up 530 yards to BYU in 2011 with a banged up Riley Nelson at the controls of the Cougars offense.
Linebacker Art Laurel (6-3, 235 Jr.) is expected to be the leader of Hawaii’s 4-3 defense this season after starting 10 games at linebacker and defensive end last year. As a sophomore he led the team with 14.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks.
Defensive end PaiPai Falemalu (6-3, 245 Sr.) is the lone returning starter on the defensive line. He was second on the team with 4.5 sacks and six tackles for loss. He also tallied seven quarterback hurries.
Laurel and Falemalu combined for 111 tackles in 2011, but the Warriors lose their two top tacklers from last season in Corey Peredes (107) and Aaron Brown (103), and could have some problems stopping the run this year due to a number of holes to fill in the front seven.
In the secondary, Hawaii has two returning starters at the corners, including John Hardy-Tuliau (5-11, 180 Jr.), who was third on the team in tackles last season while playing free safety. He also had a team-high three interceptions and was tied for second with 11 pass break ups.
Hardy-Tuliau is expected to move to cornerback in 2012 and team up with Mike Edwards (5-10, 180 Jr.), who missed spring ball due to surgery. He is expected to be back and ready to go for fall camp after also recording 11 pass break ups last season. Edwards also received recognition as one of the top kick return specialists in the WAC after averaging nearly 25 yards per return.
On special teams both place kicker Tyler Hadden and punter Alex Dunnachie return for 2012 along with their deep snapper Luke Ingram. Dunnachie had just four punts returned in 2011, while Hadden had his struggles, connecting on just 5 or 10 field goal attempts and missing three extra points.
It appears to be an uphill battle for Chow in his first year at the helm in Hawaii, but the offensive guru turned head coach has a good shot at eventually getting the program to the next level. After decades of getting some of Hawaii’s top high school players to leave the islands, he has made the convincing of recruits from the talent-rich state to stay home as his top priority, and his name recognition and reputation should help him do just that.
In fact, after just five weeks on the job, Chow landed Hawaii’s Gatorade Player of the Year in running back Steven Lakalaka, who originally committed to UCLA, as well as the state’s defensive player of the year Benetton Fonua, who was a USA Today All-USA player at linebacker.
So although BYU looks like a solid favorite in the game this September, Chow’s presence on the islands should make this once-heated rivalry all that more interesting on a number of fronts.
I think that this should be an easy win for the Cougars, we have much better defense and offense, so I say we beat them worse than last year.
How did Hawaii get so bad so quick? Is June Jones really a college football mastermind? Is SMU some great program yet?
Chow should get plenty of mileage out of his long and distinguished resume when trying to attract recruits. BYU got a lot unfair negative press for not promoting Chow to Head Coach particularly when he was riding high at USC. But that was a turbulent time for the program and it took a while for the program to get back on track again.
UH has never won in Provo before and Chow will no doubt use that to motivate his team but I have hard time seeing BYU blow this one.
Chow not granting a waiver to a missionary who wanted to transfer tells me he’s still bitter toward BYU. Having said that, I think we will be ready for the Warriors, and I am really glad to see this long-standing rivalry re-kindled. It helps BYU in recruiting and carried a lot of history and emotion (Detmer’s Heisman season…).
I’m excited to see this rivalry start back up again as well. Hopefully Chow will be able to turn the program around quickly and get back to the level they were at with June Jones. I think future years will be much more competitive, especially with Chow’s annimosity towards BYU.
I’d like to see the game later in the year though. Hawaii is very willing to play us whenever they can. Why wouldn’t we put this game in November instead of some of the other WAC or lesser oopponents and save the earlier dates for stronger teams that head into conference play and won’t play in November?
Tom Holmoe said in BYU Media Day interview that they like to play at Hawaii in November, and Hawaii likes to play in Provo in early Autumn, so both teams get their desired schedule this way.
I think that it would be great for a couple minutes during half time, if it was pre arranged for BYU AD and BYU OC, and BYU HC along with Norm Chow, in front of a crowd of 63000+ spectators to say nice things about Chow and the great things he did for BYU. It would be nice for NORM CHOW to say some great things about BYU and his positive experience that he had here.
Too many people think that there is more bitterness than love between BYU and Norm Chow. This would do a lot to releive the pain from many people that loved the glory years of the Y which included, in a big way, Norm Chow.
I am one that was dissappointed that Norm did not get the job at the Y.
I like playing Hawaii but sort of in a “I like watching reruns of Seinfield” kind of way. It is interesting when I happen to flip through to that channel but not really going to set my schedule around it.
For independence to work BYU needs to change it’s schedule and play new teams. If not then the whole independence idea was little more than just a way to get out of being forced to play New Mexico–a marginal increase if any. I suppose that going back to our old 1980′s WAC days is sufficient for maintaining the status quo but not the next step we should be taking.
I suggest we take a page from Larry Scott in how he arranged for the Pac and B1G to play several more times per year. There is a chance it will cost the conference a national championship shot but realistically, looking at the numbers, the overall improved conference strength of schedule will clearly offset the additional losses in their mid teir teams. Particularly with the new 4-team model. For example: A good Oregon team will almost always beat a good OSU and who cares if Utah loses to Michigan because it still makes both conferences look better for having played the game.
Not all BCS conference teams are as good as Hawaii (ASU, Texas Tech, Iowa, the entire Big Least, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, Tenn, Maryland, NC St, Virginia, Kansas St, Purdue, Mich St, etc and so on) but just in the fact that they are in those conferences they get superior recognition. That list could go on but you get my point. We could fairly easily thump any one of those teams, with almost the same preparation as it would take to beat the Rainbow Warriors. But a much bigger reward would be gained.
Even our Independence brother and model Notre Dame does this. Navy is a gimme game and has been for all but two of the last 40 years. As are Pitt, BC, Wake Forest, and Mich St. That sounds like a tough run but really those programs have been no stronger in the last 20 years than Air Force, Utah, UNM, SDSU, Hawaii, Tulsa, etc. They just have better national name recognition.
We should not over schedule but our mid level games must improve, if not just in perception. We must become who we should be and stop believing that because a team is in the B1G/ACC/B12/SEC they are better than us on a week to week basis. Punch them in the face, take your lump and then get back up and hit them again until they won’t get up.
If we want to be considered/perceived to be a BCS quality program then we must play them on a weekly basis. The secret is that not all BCS teams deserve to be there. Just build the schedule around these type of opponent as the rest of the BCS ‘elite’ have done.
In my opinion, we should be playing them right now.
I’ve said it before but I believe it was overlooked as there were no replys.
In the six major conferences, SEC, Big 12, Pac 12, Big 10, ACC, and the Big East, there are consisantly two seller dwellers from each of these conferences.
On an annual basis, BYU should be playing these 12 teams. They can all be wins from the BCS conferences against teams with name recognition and from respected conferences. Yes some of these conferences are more respected than others, but all of these conferences are respected above the mid major conferneces.
Another thought is to play every year, possibly in November or December, all the other teams that are Independent,
In my opinion, if we really want to be considered as one of the quality teams of College football, we can not afford to play mid major teams. We are not yet respected enough to get away with it. Yes, SEC teams can get away with it but we can’t if we want to be considered as one of the big boy wantabees.
I don’t know if im unique in this, but i can’t stand Chow at all! At USC, his move to the Yew, denying transfers for kids that want to come to BYU….I hope we smack him right in the face…and don’t stop. Im excited for this game just to see him get blown out of the stadium.
I have to agree with Ryan but primarily for another reason. Please check the stats. Well, I finally this is what I found. Norm Chow has been given credit for every quarterback he has ever seen. Ty Detmer? You bet. Chow was quarterback and receivers coach at the time Detmer won the Heisman. Roger French was OC. Steve Young? Let’s see now, Mr. Chow is listed as recievers and recruiting. Who was Q coach? Would you believe Mike Holmgren? But who is this Roger French guy listed as OC. Jim McMahan, this should be easy. Mr. Chow? Again listed as receivers coach, this was a year before he was given the added responsibility of recruiting. OC? Doug Scoville, Arguably the real genius behind the early BYU passing game, Scoville also had the QBs. Mr. Chow? He started the McMahon years as running backs coach. I thought he taught McMahan everything he knew. Also check out the W/L stats during the Chow years as OC – A little better than average, but inheriting Sarkesian made him look good his first year.
Norm Chow was OC for exactly four years. His best year was his first year, as mentioned. Steve Sarkesian was a senior with the offense having spent his previous year under the supervision of former OC Roger French who served for the previous ten plus years. Chow’s QBs in his four years were Sarkesian and Kevin Feterik. It is also interesting to note that the final six years of Chow’s tenure at BYU Robbie Bosco was also listed as a QB coach.
Check the Holmgren and Scoville years for the real geniuses In the program. Hawaii? Good luck. I like the Chow posting because it will finally prove he genius — Or not.
Chow I’m sure will get honored or recognized for his contributions to the BYU program sometime after he retires but not while he’s coaching the opposing team. This year’s Hawaii game will Norm’s 4th visit to LES since leaving BYU. I don’t recall anyone booing him or saying something negative in his previous visits. If there were any hurt feelings or deep grudges that surrounded his departure, I think most if not all of that is water under the bridge now.
Thank You AF Coug:
BCS conference teams, i.e ASU,Texas Tec, Iowa,the entire Big East, Kentucky,Mississippi,
Ga., Tenn.,Maryland, NC St.,Va., Kansas St., Purdue, Mich.ST., along with all the other Independents, ND, Navy, and Army, are the teams we should be playing year after year until they become too easy for us.
While they may be on the bottom of the barrel for the once was major BCS Conferences, they are still in the most elite conference of the 12. While they may not be respected much among the other schools in their conference, it is at least perceived that they are much more respected than most of the mid major schools. It is my opinion, and I think your opinion AF Coug, that we are waisting our time and resources playing mid major teams as an Independent. I think that we are saying the say thing, but perhaps, you are saying it better. I respect your opinion. Let’s each year, play teams like those you mentioned and stay away from the midmajors until we have the respect of teams like N.D. and those in the SEC, Big 12, Pac 12 and Big 10.
Lowell,
If your stats are correct, and I have no reason to believe they are not correct, I am very surprised and wonder why Chow for the 27 years that he was at BYU received so much of the credit for the likes of Jim Mac Mann, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detment Steve Sarkasian, et. al. I wonder why, that from the time of his departure from the Y in 2000 to present, (12 more years), he remains to receive the credit and praise for his contributions at the Y and at USC. Assuming that your stats are correct and varifiable, I think you did a remarkable job doing your research. This infomation can not do Chow any good and may tend to hurt him in the future if varified to be true.
I believe that Seasider, tends to believe more like I did before reading your stats, that Chow made a big name for himself while at the Y. While Seasider has brouht to our attention that Hawaii has never won a game at BYU, I must remind him, that Hawaii has destroyed us on different ocassion when we needed the boost while playing at Hawaii. One of those memorabe days, which we can’t forget is when it was announced that Ty Detmer had just won the Heisman Trophy, and then, with two seperated shoulders went into the Hawii game got destroyed by the Warriors. I was there. Another time, was when we thought we were qualified with rankings, strength of schedule, and all else that it took to get into the BCS bowl, it was Hawaii again, that destroyed us in Hawaii. Oh yes, I remember that the BCS said that even if we beat Hawaii, they would not let us have a BCS Bowl. I was there.
Seasider,
While a like and agree with almost all of your post, I do take issue with one little statement, not to take away from all the other good statements. Regarding hard feeings between Chow and BYU:
” I think that most, if not all of that is Water Under The Bridge”
Please read again the posting of Lowell, Ryan, and the tone of the post from many others. I still see
much resentment for Norm Chow.
Weather all the perceived resentment is justified or not, I am not sure. That is not the point. The point is,
If we as fans, as Mormons, as Christians, learn to express the gratitude to people that for one reason or another leave us, that had much to offer us, like Norm Chow, Ben Olsen, Harvy Unga, and Jake Heaps, a voice of gratitude for the time they did spend with us, instead of complaining about things which we may or may not have reason to complain about, than we, as fans, as Mormons, as Christians, will be much better off for it. And——it return, the rest of the non Mormon world will respect us more for it too. That is important to me. I think it should be important to all of us.
Thank you Lowell. I agree that many BYU fans and media critiques in College Football are misinformed when it comes to Norm Chow. You are correct, he was not the OC until 1996. Even in 1996, his playcalling wasnt as good as it couldve been. Go back and watch some of those games. Norm Chow left BYU on a bad note. He was handed Heisman quarterbacks and runningbacks during his spoiled tenure at USC. What happened when he went to the NFL? To UCLA? Even Utah? He sucked! Why? Because he may quite possibly be the most overrated Offensive Coordinator in the history of college football. Do not give Norm Chow all the credit for BYU’s offensive success during the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s. Like Lowell said, if we want to give credit where its due, look at the pioneer Dewey Warren, offensive genius Doug Scovil, and then Mike Holmgren and Roger French. They were the ones calling the shots. Norm Chow had all the talent to work with in 96, and then produced mediocre seasons in 97, 98, & 99. He left Provo, and the rest is history..
@Lowell & Robbie H
The arrangement of coaching duties between Roger French & Chow was a little unconventional. Chow handled all the play calling during most of the years French was the OC.
Chow played a bigger part in some of those earlier offensive successes maybe than French did.
Hate to say it, but Doug Scoville was the one who built the old BYU offense. Norm gets the credit, but it was Doug.
Ralph, French coached the offensive line. Sonny Detmer developed Ty Detmer–not Chow. The guy is way over rated.
My summary,
after reading all the pint up frustrations among the fans when it comes to Norm Chow is this:
La Vell Edwards could not have been wrong for all of the 27 years that he praised Norm Chow, regardless of his coaching duties. The press for the 27+12 years can not be ALL wrong about the praise that they too give the man.
I can see some frustration over the way Norm Chow left BYU 12 years ago. Yes indeed, Norm did feel that he had been promised, right or wrong, that he would have the HC position upon the retirement of L.E.
Yes indeed he was extremely unhappy, dissatisified, and felt cheated when Gary Crowton got the job.
But the icing on the cake that make him leave was when someone with great authority said, regarding the new indoor practice facility, that we can get this done fast if we can get enough Chinamen here to do the job. (Yes this is paraphrased because I do not remember the exact wording but the results are accurate.)
Yes, I see perhaps some anger over the missionary transfer denyal. Yes, perhaps I can see some anger going and coming from each direction stiming from different time spans and duties.
I conclude: Get mad as hell as the man for what you don’t like about him, understand that difference of opinions do exist on the many issues between BYU and Chow and,—- accept that for what it is,
a difference in opinion.
Give the man full credit for the good that he did while at BYU. Hate him for what you don’t like about him, but appreciate him for the good that his head coach of 27 years saw in him.
OK Gayle and all other fellow DSOB Cougar fans, it is time to set the record straight and show my true colors. I’ve gone back & read all of my posts here recently and decided that they don’t really reflect how I really feel about the football program and especially Coach Mendenhall. Like I said Gayle, I do like to give credit where credit is due and so I commend the Utes for where their program is right now. But, that’s not what I wanted to say. I do feel that Coach Mendenhall has done an incredible job since taking over the program in 2005. I will go out on a limb and say that I think he is a better head coach than he is a defensive coordinator. That is not to say that he isn’t a good DC, because he is, but he is absolutely a great head coach.
I love what he has done on and off the field with the program. I love that he is a great reader and is able to draw the best teaching points from each book to use with the program. He took over a program that was going south, cleaned it up and ended up with a .733 winning percentage, won 5 out of 7 bowl games and three in a row. He is fair, honest, loyal, a hard worker and keeps everything in balance (football, academics, family, etc.) He isn’t the easiest person to get close to ands he is very private which sometimes comes across as not caring about us fans. But, I don’t think any of us actually realizes what a tough job it is to be the BYU head coach. Coach Edwards didn’t face near the scrutiny as what Coach Mendenhall has had to deal with today. There were all kinds of infractions during Coach Edwards’ time but the difference is that they were kept hidden away from the press.
Finally, for those who think he doesn’t place enough importance on winning, at the state of the union, he clearly said that although he is proud of what has been accomplished, he sees the next summit as being a top 10 team year in and year out. That is a huge paradigm shift. The top ten teams over the past few decades have been Florida, USC, Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, Penn State & Auburn. And, for him to say now that this is his and the team’s next summit to reach is remarkable. But, if anyone can get us there it is Coach Mendenhall. It will be a sad day when he decides to step down…long live Coach Mendenhall. Oh yes and by the way, I think we go 12-1 this and I hope that one lose will not be to the Utes!
“Oh yes and by the way, I think we go 12-1 this and I hope that one lose will not be to the Utes!”
Walt,
I liked your article and your support for our HC and DC, BM.
I hope and pray that we win the games vs. Notre Dame, Utah, Boise State, Ga. Tec.,
Washington State, and Oregon State. Nothing in the world of sports that I can think of could pull me away from these games. I may or may not watch the Hawaii game because of the Norm Chow interest of late.
The rest of the games, I may watch some of other teams play or a tennis match or something. I see no joy or sport in playing teams ranked below 100. We have not yet earned the respect to get away from this nonsense. We are not USC, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma or LSU that has earned the respect to get away with scheduling some give me games. We have not yet earned that respect.
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