About how some players would do things off the field in Hawaii that affected their on-field performance, Kelly said:
"It happens more than you think. Or maybe not. Maybe it happens just as much as you think. It's real depressing when you see good kids with good talent come over there, and just fall into the drugs and alcohol and the partying and that nightlife, and basically lose sight of why they're really there. And at points I did lose sight of why I was there, and I did make bad decisions. I can honestly say, as a 23-year-old, I've never smoked a cigarette, I've never done any kind of illegal drugs. I'm not gonna lie and say I haven't drank. When I came here, it was a commitment I made to stop, and I have. But most people aren't blessed with the willpower to say no when it comes to being popular, doing the cool thing. For me it was never about being the cool guy. I didn't care. I was kind of by default the cool guy because I decided I didn't want to be the cool guy. That kind of made me the cool guy in general." (RPE)
About how not caring about being the cool guy helped him become cool, Kelly said that UH would be a powerhouse in football if the players had better willpower to say no to temptations, Kelly said:
"It makes you a different kind of cool. I hate blending. I hate being the kid that does everything the other guys do. They do all the cool stuff, just like the other guys do. And for me, that's just the way I live my life. But other kids, they like to be a face in the crowd. They like to go with the flow, to be a part of the place that they're in. It wasn't for me, but you'd be surprised how talented Hawaii would be if the players there that you don't know about had better willpower to say no to those things and actually focus on what they're doing. They'd be a powerhouse, I believe." (RPE)
About how some of their talented players didn't develop into anything because they didn't have the drive to excel, Kelly said:
"I wish ESPN would do a 'Top 10 Players Who Never Played,' one of those type of things. We had some of the best high school kids coming out, and they don't develop anything because they don't have the drive. They don't have the sustaining power to last 13 weeks, 14 weeks. And you only play one game ... That's another thing I hate about football. You work so hard throughout the week to play one game." (RPE)
About how important each game is during a football season, Kelly said:
"If you lose, it's all about recovering a lost season. If you win, itsall about sustaining a perfect season." (RPE)
Asked about how football is a game of overreaction, Kelly said:
"It takes a different breed of person to play football, and I wasn't bred that way." (RPE)
Asked what was JJ's impact on the UH program and the people who played for him, Kelly said:
"This is not to offend June, because June made me better. He treated me like an adult. He didn't resort to public ridicule and basically a lack of respect between player and coach. He treated you like a professional, and in my first few years it made me think, 'Well, if he's going to treat me like an adult I need to act like an adult.' The coaching staff senior year didn't do that. But he really forced upon (us) professionalism, and not in the way of, 'You need to wear this and look professional.' No, it's just ... he treated us like professionals. 'If you want to go make a bad decision, it's on you. I'm not going to give you rules. Don't do stupid stuff. Don't do stuff that'll get you in a bad situation.'
I felt like I grew up more the first three years under June than I did my last season, as a senior, just in the way of having to regulate myself. Not to mention that man, that guy ... he could draw up a play and it would be the most beautiful thing ever. He really had just a master mind for play-calilng and constructing an offense. He was a fantastic offensive coordinator, and I still to this day think he's one of the best coaches I've ever had, just the way his mind worked.
I wasn't happy when he left, I can say that much. But that's the way it goes." (RPE)
About how JJ coached them like he coached NFL players, and how Mac coached in a college style that he didn't like, Kelly said:
"June was very NFL minded. He did everything NFL. Which was cool. I enjoyed it. Senior year wasn't NFL style, it was collegiate style and I didn't like it as much. I thought they treated you too much like a little baby. But you could definitely see the NFL influence when he was the coach, that's for sure.' But he moved on, and so did we. We had to move on, too." (RPE)
About how he moved on to Cal Baptist, Kelly said:
"And I don't regret it." (RPE)
http://blogs.pe.com/collegesports/2009/09/kelly-on-what-was-at-hawaii-an.html
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