Two Former Hawaii Football Heroes Tied To UH Offense

It was a spectacular week for two familiar faces of Hawaii Football. Paul Johnson, head coach of Georgia Tech and Oregon’s QB Jeremiah Masoli.

Now, let’s start with Paul Johnson, if you were a die hard fan of the Rainbows back in the 80 -90’s you remember Johnson as the offensive coordinator for Bob Wagner’s offense. Wagner’s most heralded move in his UH coaching career. Johnson’s spread option offense made a spectacle of the WAC’s defenses. It became the savior that would take UH fans and the program to the next level. To be the best in the WAC you had to beat BYU, and until then you were just second rate. Well, then came Johnson’s coveted offense. The offense that had won Johnson a couple of National Championships at Georgia Southern, an offense that helped defeat BYU, not once, but twice and pushed UH Football into another stratosphere. Something Dick Tomey, Wagner’s predecessor could not achieve. Oh they came close so many times...

When Wagner left UH so did Paul. He found greener pastures at Navy. Unfortunately for Wagner he ended up at UTEP. Johnson took a mediocre program and turned it into a winner. Beating their armed forces rivals year in and year out. He had an astounding 11-1 record versus Army and Air Force. Oh by the way he also led a mediocre team to defeat Notre Dame. Fast Forward to 2008, taking a Georgia Tech Team that was supposed to have a losing season and finish at best in the middle of the ACC. On Saturday facing the preseason number one team, the Rambling Wreck side railed a proud Georgia team.

A proud Georgia program that exalted over rated jeers at UH in the 08 Sugar Bowl. Johnson has taken the GT offense with no seniors to number one in offense in the ACC averaging 377 yards and 3rd nationally in Rushing Offense (282). GT ended a seven year losing hiatus to Georgia, sound familiar? Johnson is in the discussions as possible national coach of the year (already been named ACC coach of the year). He has our vote. Skip to several years in UH offense (please exclude the Von Oppen era) to June Jones. Jones offense was different than the spread option attack of Johnson, and relied more on the pass versus the run. I believe in college sports you have to practice crop rotation. If you stay too long in one type of offense the conference figures out how to stop your attack and you head to mediocrity. Hence, bring in the option, then rotate to the run and shoot and then back to the option etc......

What about this Masoli, who is he? Born of Samoan ancestry grew up in Northern California, started as an offensive lineman but later converted to quarterback. His family later moved to Honolulu. He played Quarterback for St. Louis sharing time with Cameron Higgins now at Weber State, Masoli was also a Hawaii all state basketball player. After graduating from St Louis he went on to play at City College of San Francisco.

Wait, this Masoli story kind of ties it all together. June Jones tried to recruit Masoli as a defensive back, but Masoli was determined to play QB. Masoli led the City College of San Francisco to a National Junior College Championship in 2007 and threw for 3,065 yards and 26 touchdowns and 349 completions. He would then transfer to Oregon and fight for a right to play among half a dozen good qb prospects. Coming out of camp he was not a starter but someone high on the depth chart.

After some injuries to their starters the Ducks inserted Masoli and the rest is history. He has earned his spot. This Saturday in the biggest game of the season for Oregon and Oregon State, Masoli completed 7 for 11 passes, 274 yards and 3 touchdowns leading the ducks to a 65-38 win.

Wait how is Masoli tied to this story. Doesn’t City College of San Francisco sound familiar? Isn’t that the JC where Nick Rolovich went to and set several passing records and spent the last couple of years coaching and grooming JC QB’s to four year programs? The same Nick Rolovich that set some UH records and is the current QB coach at UH? Yes, it is and now you know the rest of the story……