There’s a lot to like about Craig Stutzmann, and it isn’t just that he was born in Hilo and carries his Big Island pride everywhere he goes as a first-year member on the staff of University of Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich.
Stutzmann is more than just a former teammate of the coach with local ties. They played together for the ‘Bows, Stutzmann catching passes out of his slotback position in the run and shoot offense from Rolovich, his quarterback. They both had their shots at professional football, Rolovich missing a roster spot in Denver before playing in the now-defunct European League and taking a tour of some indoor football franchises while Stutzmann gave it a go with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.
In a private moment, each of them might admit they weren’t destined to be NFL stars, lacking some of the exceptional physical qualities at their positions, but they knew and loved the game and you can see why they became coaches when you listen to them talk about their passion.
It was a natural for Stutzmann to play for the ‘Bows after his family moved to Oahu almost next door to the Manoa campus on 9th Street.
“He was over there all the time,” said father Craig Stutzmann, living in Kona these days, growing coffee beans and fishing. “It was like the athletic fields at the school were his backyard.”
He was marinated in UH athletics from the time he was 6-years-old, and he was on the team in some of those magical times with coach June Jones, but beyond all that, Stutzmann gets it.
Like Rolovich, he “gets” what made Hawaii football stand up against national powers, he completely understands the pride players must feel to be a part of the program and how that pride is transferred to the statewide community that follows every up and down with its athletic teams, especially football.
It’s that last part that distinguishes college football programs, and it doesn’t matter where you are, there’s always at least one particular moment — schools like Alabama, USC and Michigan have dozens of them — that engenders a self-respect that resonates over the decades.
Stutzmann came back to UH Manoa from a job as offensive coordinator at Division III Emory & Henry, a small private school in Southwest Virginia known all over the South for an unconventional formation it used to win games a long while ago. Until he got there, Stutzmann had no personal investment of any kind in Emory & Henry tradition.
But he’s a football guy, he respects the importance of tradition and how it binds teams, players, coaches and fans.
After he arrived, two years ago, Stutzmann began hearing stories about how former Coach Conley Snidow dreamed up the formation — tackles lined up wide, almost to the sideline stripe, next to the ends on both sides of the ball, with a back behind each set. That left only the center, two guards, the quarterback and a halfback in the middle of the field. He saved the formation for a climatic game against Hanover College in 1949, a matchup of what were considered the two best small college teams in the country.
Emory & Henry won the game, 33-0 against a Hanover squad that had only allowed 32 points all season.
What made the legend more durable over the years was that the game was played in Johnson City, Tenn., to the delight of a 6 year-old in the stands that day, Steve Spurrier.
Born in Miami, Spurrier is the son of a preacher who moved the family to Johnson City, and Spurrier, who became a Heisman Trophy winner at Florida, never forgot the play he saw in his childhood. When he coached the Gators to an SEC championship with a 24-23 victory over Alabama in 1994, Spurrier employed the Emory & Henry formation twice in the game-winning drive, once for a 9-yard gain and the second time it clicked for 20 yards on a halfback pass to the 2, setting up the winning touchdown. Spurrier also used the play a couple of times when he was at South Carolina.
Last year, Emory & Henry had a game against East Tennessee State that had to be played at Science Hill High School in Johnson City because of renovations being made to the ETSU field. Steve Spurrier attended Science Hill, the stories of him and “The Play,” are part of the lore of the region.
“I thought, ‘Man, what an opportunity, let’s show some respect for where we are, for Coach Spurrier, and bring back that formation as a tribute,’” Stutzman said last week in Hilo. “I thought if it was good enough for him to win an SEC championship, it ought to be good enough for us to use, at least once.”
Stutzmann’s offense came out and lined up in the Emory & Henry formation on its first play of the game, an eventual 27-24 win for the D3 school on the road against an FCS opponent.
“I can’t remember how much we gained, but it picked up a few yards,” Stutzmann said. “We really did it just for the gesture, to remember who we are and that the first time the play was run was in Johnson City. The fact that we were at (Spurrier’s) high school clinched it for me — I thought, ‘we gotta’ do this.’”
As he designs the ‘Bows passing offense in this first season out of the shadows of the ineffectual and doctrinaire Norm Chow era, Stutzmann may have to rely on some sleight of hand here and there until a year or two of recruiting brings in more players suited to Rolovich’s wide-open offense.
He has a redshirt senior quarterback who has been coached by as many different people as he’s had years in college, and behind Ikaika Woolsey are unproven freshmen.
“The models these days are people like Marcus Mariota, Deshaun Watson and Colin Kapernick,” Stutzmann said, “big, strong guys who can pass and run to really keep a defense off balance.”
There doesn’t appear to be anyone like that at Manoa and Rolovich said last week if nobody steps up and separates from the pack, “maybe we’ll have two quarterbacks, we’ll do whatever we have to do to get our best players on the field.”
If it requires a little deception by formation here and there, so be it. Stutzmann said the Emory & Henry formation isn’t in the playbook.
“It’s early,” he said, smiling, “our opponents should be prepared for anything.”
Maybe even a blast from the past.
Contact Bart at barttribuneherald@gmail.com
