Cal Lee was the Legend of the Fall as the most successful coach in Hawai'i high school football history.

Now Lee is positioned to be the Legend of the Winter.

During a team meeting yesterday, Lee was introduced to the players as the next University of Hawai'i defensive coordinator.

But make no mistake, Lee, who has been UH's linebackers coach the past five years after a historic run as Saint Louis School's head coach, has the immediate responsibility of jump-starting a recruiting effort that had been idled for more than a month. There are only three more recruiting weekends before Feb. 6, the first day recruits may sign binding national letters of intent.

During June Jones' tenure at UH, Lee had a restricted role in recruiting. He was assigned to only a handful of schools. But after accepting the head coaching job, Greg McMackin promised to make Cal Lee, Ron Lee and Rich Miano the point men in local recruiting.

McMackin said those three are "legends on these islands. They know the talent and they know the families. And people trust them. I think we can go back to getting the top guys from here."

Asked about the expectations, Lee shook his head, then smiled.

"I'm not a savior," Lee said. "I don't know if I'm a good recruiter or a bad one. I talk to people straight up, and tell them who I am. I try to find out about the recruits — what kind of person they are, what kind of family they have. You want to know all of that before you get them on your team."

In the past two days, Lee has fielded scores of telephone calls on recruits. There are notes covering the white greaseboard in his office.

"I think the most important part of recruiting is your players," Lee said. "The coach can only do so much. Your players do the recruiting.

"Whenever a (recruit) visits a school, you tell him to meet the position coach, the head coach, look at the facilities, all of that, blah, blah, blah. When all of that is said and done, you'd better talk to the players who are going to that school. How does he like it? How does he feel? That's how you get the answers. Not through the coach. Some kids don't know how to talk (openly) to a coach, but they can talk to a player easily."

While Lee will have an expanded role as the defensive coordinator, McMackin, who was the UH defensive coordinator in 1999 and 2007, is expected to call most of the defensive plays during games.

"The bottom line is everybody is working well together so we can put out a product that our fans can be proud of and help us win games," Lee said. "That's the bottom line. Titles? They don't mean much. We're looking for results."

Friends describe Lee as a football junkie. When he worked as a manager at a Waikiki showroom, he often would spend his downtime drawing up plays. His defenses at Saint Louis were aggressive, relying on physical play and blitzes — a philosophy that matches McMackin's approach.

Lee, like McMackin, has pared football strategy to the basics.

"It's assignment and alignment," Lee said. "If anything comes your way, you have to be able to make a play."

Last season, the Warriors improved in nearly every meaningful defensive category — yards per rush, third-down efficiency, turnovers, points scored by the defense.

"The challenge is for us to get better," Lee said. "There's always room for improvement. We're never going to be satisfied."

As for the pressure to match last season's success, it's all relative — or irrelevant.

"You get pressure all of the time, no matter what job you're in," Lee said. "As a sportswriter, you get pressure. As a coach, I have pressure. A secretary has pressure. Anybody who's working has pressure. If you do the job you think you're capable of doing, and you work hard at it, you have a chance to succeed. And that's all you want to do, no matter what field you're in.

"I try to work hard at what I'm doing and give myself a chance to succeed. The end result is the product that you put out."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.