By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When June Jones was up for his new, $800,016 contract, it was pointed out that the University of Hawai'i would be paying him more than Texas-El Paso shelled out for its entire 10-man football coaching staff.

But as a Jones supporter retorted at the time: "Yeah, and look what they (UTEP) get for the money ($636,000), too."

A glance at the standings shows the Miners, at 2-7 (1-3 Western Athletic Conference), are assured a 14th losing season in 15 years while UH, at 6-3 (5-1 WAC), is looking at the possibility of a fourth eight-win or better season in five years.

We bring this up because, for the second time in three games now, the Warriors on Saturday won a tight fourth-quarter game in which questionable coaching decisions by a much lower-paid staff figured into the outcome.

In head coach June Jones, maybe the Warriors are getting what they paid for. Advertiser library photo • Aug. 16, 2003

Perhaps, as 12-point underdogs, the Spartans got their money's worth just by stuffing Jones' vaunted offense and making a game of it until the final nanosecond.

Of course, the Warriors also did what they had to do to win. And, it also comes down to the players. No matter how brilliant — or inept — the coaching might be, the game is ultimately in the hands of people usually between the ages of 18 and 22 who might have just had a romance run aground or whiffed on a chemistry midterm.

Sometimes, as Tulsa's coaches proved in springing the 27-16 upset, it is the plays, not the paychecks, that matter.

But you also have to wonder how much of a role the financial equation plays from time to time, too. How much does the often huge disparity in coaching salaries come into play, particularly in a tight game?

At Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs squandered their second-half timeouts to the point that when the game was on the line late in the fourth quarter, they called one they no longer had. Then, after Ryan Moats ran over, around and through the Warriors' for 7.9 yards per carry on a 267-yard day, Tech's head coach Jack Bicknell chose to go for the game-tying 52-yard field goal on fourth-and-2 with 1 minute, 32 seconds left rather than give the ball to his running back.

Small wonder the crowd at Joe Aillet Stadium screamed for Bicknell's skin. But was the team with the lowest budget in the 10-school WAC, nearly $10 million below UH's $18.4 million, beaten by the bottom line as much as a bone-headed call?

Now, fast forward to Saturday where San Jose State deflated the nationally ranked Warrior offense and had a golden opportunity to win the game with a first down at the Hawai'i 17 and 58 seconds left.

Instead of going for the end zone on a series of pass plays, the Spartans ran the ball three consecutive plays. Rather than kicking a game-tying field goal to force an overtime, with 20 seconds left from the UH 5, they went with a time-consuming screen pass and came up short of the end zone.

Again, we are left to wonder how much the Spartans' failure was a function of finances. Particularly when San Jose State has trouble keeping coordinators and, as a sign of the paycheck imbalance, its head coach's base salary is less than a fourth of Jones' while the entire staff probably gets less than two-thirds of its Hawai'i counterparts.

Times such as these, perhaps the Warriors are actually getting what they paid for. And, maybe, so are their victims.

In a week in which the Warriors have an open date, it is something to ponder.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.