Familiar foes await Jones on road trip
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Can we cue up the National Football League theme song and some of those exploding graphics, perhaps?
How about calling in Al Michaels and John Madden for duty, or at least summoning Howie Long and Boomer Esiason to stand by?
Forget what you might have heard about this being the NCAA, these next two weeks are where the University of Hawai'i football team goes on the road for the NFL portion of its schedule.
Officially the next two opponents, beginning Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and stretching through Sept. 19 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, are Southern California and Nevada-Las Vegas.
But when the head coaches on the sidelines opposite UH's June Jones are Pete Carroll and John Robinson and paths have crossed on several Sundays, there is a definite pro feel to the situation. Minus the salary cap, of course.
When each of them returned to college, they might have thought they left their NFL pasts behind. But encounters like these next two weekends serve as reminders that they really haven't drifted that far apart after all.
When these guys get together, you don't think ivy towers and alma maters so much as lessons learned and talents honed in Paul Tagliabue's league. The history is NFL and each of them has a decade or more in it, not to mention a stake in the NFL pension fund.
As much as their minds will be on the upcoming clashes, you can bet that they haven't let go of some past battles, either. Not when Jones is 2-0 against Robinson and 2-5 against Carroll. Not when they've shared afternoons in the NFC West.
Think Carroll might not have a clue what Jones will be inclined to call on third-and-8? That Jones won't have a feel for what Carroll's instinct is inside the 20? Or, Robinson, as he did with the Los Angeles Rams, won't try to run first and ask questions later?
Indeed, seasons and teams might have come and gone, but some things haven't changed. Take Jones and Carroll, for instance. They worked their way up the ladder, jousting at all the rungs along the way: Jones as a quarterbacks coach (Houston and Detroit), offensive coordinator (Atlanta) and head coach (Atlanta and San Diego). Carroll as a defensive backs coach (Minnesota), a defensive coordinator (New York Jets and San Francisco) and head coach (Jets and New England).
"A lot of these guys run what they have always run and that can be somewhat beneficial," Jones says. "I was looking at some tape (one day) and Pete is running a lot of the same things he ran in the NFL. So, there won't be a lot of secrets."
Not when they come from the fraternity of former NFL coaches.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
