Georgia Tech wide receivers coach Buzz Preston said he will apply for the head coaching job at Hawaii, his alma mater.
The job opened Sunday when coach Norm Chow was fired near the end of his fourth season. Preston is in his 35th season of coaching, all at the college level, including stops at Stanford and Notre Dame prior to coming to Tech in 2008. He played at Hawaii and then was a graduate assistant there.
“I’m interested,” Preston said Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens. That’s all you can do; there’s not much to say about it right now.”
Preston applied for the job in Dec. 2011 when it ultimately went to Chow, then the offensive coordinator at Utah. At Tech, Preston has played a leading role in what has been one of the most efficient offenses in the country. Under his tutelage, four Tech wide receivers have been drafted – Demaryius Thomas, Stephen Hill, DeAndre Smelter and Darren Waller. Since 2009, only five FBS teams have had more wide receivers taken in the draft than Tech.
“(FBS head-coaching jobs) are hard to get and there’s a lot of qualified guys out there,” Preston said. “And you just hope that you get the opportunity.”
With only one season of experience at the coordinator level, Preston would have to be considered an underdog candidate. Former Hawaii coach June Jones, the winningest coach in school history, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he wants the job.
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