Rounding up the offensive staff

Washington State’s new offensive coordinator first viewed college football through the prism of offensive-line play. But his boss likes the way he’s absorbed the principles and throwing and catching.

Brian Smith is accompanying head coach Nick Rolovich from Hawaii to WSU, the Cougars acknowledged Monday as they made official four offensive hirings that had been reported earlier.

While Smith will coordinate Rolovich’s pass-heavy run-and-shoot offense and also coach running backs, he’ll be aided by Craig Stutzmann as co-OC and quarterbacks coach, Andre Allen as receivers coach and Mark Weber as O-line coach. All of them worked for Rolovich at Hawaii.

That completes the school’s announcements concerning Rolovich’s primary assistants.

Smith, originally from Thousand Oaks, Calif., played for Hawaii as an offensive lineman from 1998 to 2001, and he has coached that position for Portland State, Hawaii, Occidental and California Lutheran. But he’s spent the last few years overseeing Rolovich’s offense and working with running backs and tight ends.

“Brian is an excellent coach top to bottom on the offensive side of the ball,” Rolovich said in a news release. “He brings a great perspective to our offense; he is one of the few former offensive-line coaches that I’ve been around who also understands the route concepts and run-game concepts for all skill positions at a high level.

“Brian is a great family man,” he said, “is very loyal and trustworthy, and has a lot of experience recruiting in southern California.”

Now he and the other offensive coaches will be tasked with converting Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense to the run-and-shoot. Leach, who jumped to Mississippi State last month after eight years with the Cougars, drew heavily from run-and-shoot concepts when formulating the Air Raid with then-boss Hal Mumme three decades ago.

Hawaii ranked fifth nationally in passing yardage last year and ninth in 2018.

While Rolovich gleaned much of his WSU defensive staff from the Wyoming Cowboys, he stuck with familiar faces on the other side of the ball. Allen, for example, was an assistant on the City College of San Francisco staff when Rolovich played quarterback for that school two decades ago.

“I have known coach Allen for a long time and I’ve respected his knowledge and desire to develop athletes into young men,” Rolovich said. “He is one of the best coaches at teaching the run-and-shoot offense.... Coach Allen is a perfect fit for our offense and his loyalty as a man also makes him a perfect fit for our program and community.”

Stutzmann was with Rolovich for his entire four-year tenure at Hawaii. The head coach called him “an excellent technician” who has “created a great foundation in coaching the run-and-shoot offense. When we first started coaching together, it was tough for me to give up coaching the quarterbacks, but Craig has been excellent at evaluating, teaching and developing the position.”

Weber joined the Hawaii staff two years ago, and before that spent time at Fresno State, Utah State, Nevada-Las Vegas, Nevada, UCLA and Oregon State. He may be more familiar with the West Coast recruiting terrain than some of the others.

“Mark is a veteran offensive-line coach who is making his third coaching stop in the Pac-12, so he knows the league well,” Rolovich said. “He has coached various schemes and his groups always play with great chemistry.”