You can take your job very seriously without taking yourself too seriously.
Nick Rolovich is a great example of that. Whether it be suiting up for the spring football game — as the Monopoly guy — or enlisting an Elvis Presley impersonator as his wing man in Vegas, the University of Hawaii coach’s quirkiness and creativity serve a dual purpose.
He brings attention to his program while at the same time reminding us that this is a game, and games are meant to be fun.
It’s OK to be a little different, and Rolovich has UH on an upward arc so far. Few thought the first-time head coach could lead the Rainbow Warriors to their first non-losing season since 2010, but he did exactly that last year.
The next step is a winning record, while continuing to rebuild a severely damaged fan base.
He doesn’t hit a home run with every idea (who does?), and sometimes the eccentricity can seem too calculated. But for the most part, it’s genuine and harmless. And it gives a program that needs it some exposure.
There are still a few folks out there calling themselves fans who say Rolo is “embarrassing.”
Really?
Maybe you’d rather have a coach you can be proud of, like the ones of recent or even current vintage at Ole Miss, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Louisville who have participated in or condoned criminal or immoral behavior.
Those four schools come to mind immediately. But there are others with coaches who have also displayed judgment you’d expect more from teenage boys than leaders at major colleges responsible for the welfare of more than a hundred student-athletes and a dozen paid staffers and millions of dollars of resources.
The most questionable things Rolo has done are wearing a (sheathed) hunting knife on the sideline at a game against a team called the Wolf Pack (get it?), and offering a scholarship to a kid still a few years away from shaving and nearly a decade away from college.
I’m not even sure those are sins at all. If they are, they’re venial. Throw a couple of Hail Marys and move forward.
And don’t mistake Rolovich’s stunts for a lack of caring; if anything, it’s the other way around. There’s a special bond between players when the coach played at the same school, as he did. Rolovich gets it that in Hawaii it goes even further, to the entire community — a community bereft of pro sports teams.
As players report for preseason camp today, UH has been picked by many prognosticators — including the media that covers the league — to finish second in the West Division of the Mountain West Conference.
That seems like a fair assessment on the surface; the Rainbow Warriors have about a dozen starters back from the team that went 7-7 and won a bowl game. The returnees include one of the better quarterbacks in the league in Dru Brown, outstanding running back Diocemy Saint Juste, and superb defenders in linebacker Jahlani Tavai and safety Trayvon Henderson.
Hawaii has enough offensive playmakers to do the job and experienced and capable second- and third-level defenders.
But the biggest question is depth on both the offensive and defensive lines. More often than not, those are the guys who win and lose the games. The trenches were hit hard in the offseason.
Rolovich’s three predecessors — Norm Chow, Greg McMackin and June Jones — all won fewer games in their second seasons as head coach than their first.
Rolo can break that sophomore slump trend, especially since the schedule is much more manageable than last year’s. His rookie campaign included a crazy nonconference slate of games at Sydney, Australia (against Cal); Michigan and Arizona.
At UMass and UCLA and a regular-season closer at home against BYU still will be challenging, but they are winnable if the Warriors remain healthy and confident.
Whatever happens it will be interesting, and it will be unique.
Nick Rolovich will make sure of that