New Hawai‘i football head coach Nick Rolovich announced that he will be retaining two coaches from Norm Chow's staff. The pair will be offensive line coach Chris Naeole and defensive backs coach Abe Elimimian.
"I'm excited to have Chris and Abe on the team," Rolovich said in a released statement. "On film, I've seen Chris develop the offensive line these past few years and I've seen improvement. Abe, I know, has passion for this University and this football program and his work ethic is all things we want in our staff as we move forward."
Naeole took over as interim head coach when Norm Chow was let go after the Warriors loss to Air Force, and he did get one victory as the head coach when thy defeated Louisiana-Monroe, 28-26. He also was the offensive line coach for the previous three years in Hawaii. Naeoloe has NFL experience by spending 13 years in the league.
Elimimian joined the Hawaii staff this past March, and prior to that spent the 2014 season as the defensive coordinator at Simon Fraser (Canada). He to is a former Warriors player and earned all-conference cornerback during his time between 2001-04.
Have a coaching staff that features Hawaii ties is very crucial for the Warriors long term success, plus these two units were one of the few bright spots for Hawaii so it makes sense to keep coaches on staff.