Fresno St. coach at UH spring practice
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
In another strange but true tale from the University of Hawai'i football team, rival Fresno State coach Pat Hill attended spring practice yesterday on an invitation by UH coach June Jones.
The unique visit by an opposing coach follows an interesting two weeks of spring practice that saw, not one, but two Rainbow basketball players try out for the football team.
Jones said he's known Hill since their National Football League coaching days and called the Fresno State coach a "good guy." Last month, Jones announced that he invited Hill to drop by spring practice.
As guests of Jones, the vacationing Hill and his two sons, Matthew, 17, and Zachary, 14, were allowed special sideline access on the UH grass practice field where they watched the majority of the two-hour practice. Hill said he and Jones talked about various players, recruiting, football situations, quarterbacks and scheduling. Hawai'i will play Fresno State on Oct. 11 at Aloha Stadium.
"I just said (to Hill) if you're gonna be here, I said we're practicing, come by," Jones said. "I've known him when I was with the Oilers and Atlanta, he was in Cleveland with Bill Belichek. I've known him for a while."
"It's fun," Hill said. "I'm on vacation. I brought the boys up, we looked at the campus and watched practice a little while. Now we're going over to the North Shore and have a little fun."
Yesterday, Hill offered to return the favor and invite Jones to Fresno State's spring practice.
"This time of year, if June ever came to Fresno, he could stand on our sideline," Hill said. "But I doubt that he'll be doing any vacationing in Fresno."
Countered Jones: "I'm not really interested in going to Fresno. I don't even like going there when we have to play them."
When asked if he was concerned about divulging too much information to a rival coach, Jones said he wasn't worried.
"No, no," Jones said. "If you're not smart enough to look at the film and know what we're doing, then we're one up on him."
Jones also said he wasn't concerned about the public's perception of him allowing an opposing coach on the sideline during a spring practice.
"I've never been one to not do what I want to do," Jones said. "I don't really care about what people say about it. I'm just that way. (Hill's) a good guy, and he doesn't get anything out of our practice other than just seeing how we do it."
Hill agreed with Jones and said the public shouldn't fret over his visit to UH.
"They don't have to worry about anything," Hill said. "When that game goes off in October we won't be talking to each other then. It's a great rivalry. Both teams play very hard against each other. We've had a very tough time with Hawai'i the last four years. We're 1-3 against Hawai'i and they've all been great games. This year's game will be no different."
Jones said he wouldn't allow opposing coaches to view regular-season practices, but saw nothing wrong with allowing Hill to watch a spring practice.
"Unless it was game week or something, I pretty much wouldn't care at all, probably," Jones said. "Pat's a competitive guy, a good guy, and he's good for our conference. He's done a great job at Fresno, so we're kind of all in this together."
Hill's sons said they enjoyed touring the Hawai'i campus and watching the football team. Matthew is a sophomore defensive back for Clovis West High School. Zachary is an eighth grader at Kastner Middle School and plays outside linebacker.
"I wanted to look at the university, and see how practice went, and see how they do things around here," Matthew said. "I might come to Hawai'i just to come to school."
Added Zachary: "It's a nice campus, nice athletic facilities, nice stadiums, the players look like they're working hard out there even though it's an easy practice."
