Nick Rolovich

Rolovich was a two-time junior college All-American (1998–99) at City College of San Francisco, where he led the Rams to a national championship in 1999.[4]

Rolovich was a two-year letterman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he replaced starter and eventual all-time NCAA career passing leader Timmy Chang early in the 2001 season, leading the team to an 8-1 record. During those nine games, Rolovich threw for 3,361 yards and 34 touchdowns on 233-of-405 passing. He ended his college career with three straight 500-yard passing games. He also tossed school single-game records of 8 touchdowns and 543 yards in a 72-45 win over BYU on December 8, 2001. Those numbers helped him place tenth in the nation in pass efficiency (105.5) while breaking 19 school passing records and eight total offense records. Rolovich participated in and was named one of the two MVPs from the 2002 Hula Bowl college all-star game.

On November 27, 2015, Rolovich was hired as the new head football coach at the University of Hawaii replacing Chow and interim head coach Chris Naeole.[6][7][8] In Rolovich's first season, Hawaii finished the regular season 6–7, but had their first bowl invitation since 2010 to the Hawaii Bowl, where they beat Middle Tennessee 52–35.[9] In 2017, Hawaii suffered a setback with injuries to John Ursua among other players, finishing the season 3–9 while losing their last 5 games. In 2018, Rolovich opted to change from a balanced spread offense to the pass-oriented run and shoot offense that June Jones successfully ran while Rolovich was a player at Hawaii.[10] In their first year under the run and shoot, Rolovich and Hawaii finished 8–6 while losing to Louisiana Tech in the Hawaii Bowl 31–14. In 2019, Hawaii opened the season with wins against Pac-12 opponents Arizona and Oregon State before losing to No. 23 Washington. They clinched a berth in the Mountain West Championship Game with a 14-11 over San Diego State on November 23, 2019. He was named Mountain West Coach of Year in 2019 after leading Hawaii to a 10 win season and a division title.[11]

On January 13, 2020, Rolovich was announced as the new head coach for Washington State University, replacing Mike Leach who had departed to take the head coaching job at Mississippi State.[12][13]

• Trevor Davis – Former Hawaii wide receiver (2011–12). Drafted 163rd overall in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers.
• Joel Bitonio – Former offensive lineman for Nevada (2009–13). Drafted 35th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. 2x Pro Bowl selection (2018, 2019), 2x 2nd Team All-Pro (2018, 2019).

• Marcus Kemp – Former Hawaii wide receiver (2014–17). Signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Won Super Bowl LIV with Kansas City in 2020.
• Leo Koloamatangi – Former center for Hawaii. Signed by the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Currently on the New York Jets roster.
• Jahlani Tavai – Former linebacker for Hawaii (2014–18). Drafted 43rd overall in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions.
• John Ursua – Former wide receiver for Hawaii (2016–18). Drafted 236th overall in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks.
• Cole McDonald – Former quarterback for Hawaii (2016–19). Drafted 224th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans.

During his stint as offensive coordinator at Hawaii, Rolovich used the run and shoot offense that June Jones had run when Rolovich was the team's starting quarterback. As the offensive coordinator, he made adjustments to the offense so that it could be run out of the pistol formation, creating opportunities for the quarterback to be a second runner. This led to an increase in success in the running game. When he became the offensive coordinator at Nevada, he ran the pistol offense that longtime Nevada head coach Chris Ault had popularized. When he was named head coach at Hawaii, he was the de facto offensive coordinator with Brian Smith and Craig Stutzmann named running game coordinator and passing game coordinator for one season before naming Smith the offensive coordinator for the 2017 season. After running a balanced spread offense for the first two years, he switched back to the run and shoot. With the rise in popularity of the run-pass option (RPO), Rolovich once again made adjustments to the run and shoot offense so that the quarterback of the offense could run RPO plays.

Rolovich is known for his zany personality, where he brought a tarot card reader, a Britney Spears impersonator, and an Elvis Presley impersonator to Mountain West Conference Media Days during his head coaching days at Hawaii.[14][15] In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rolovich went around Washington State's Pullman campus on a bicycle FaceTimeing a recruit with a phone taped to his bike helmet to show the recruit what Pullman and the campus looked like.[16]