Duane Akina, one of the longest-serving members of Mack Brown's coaching staff at Texas, has applied for the open head coaching job at the University of Hawaii.
The job would be a chance for Akina, a native of Honolulu, to return home:
"That (Hawaii) is home for him," Brown said. "We want him to stay, but if he has a chance and wants the Hawaii job, it would be a great opportunity for him, and we would be all for it."
Akina, the Longhorns assistant head coach and defensive backs coach, has served in a variety of defensive positions in his ten years in Austin.
He was one of the only veteran coaches to survive the blood-letting that occurred after Texas' 5-7 2010 season, with long-time offensive coordinator Greg Davis retiring and head-coach in waiting Will Muschamp jumping to the Florida job.
Akina is widely respected for his ability to develop defensive backs, coaching two Thorpe Award winners at Texas -- Aaron Ross (2005) and Michael Huff (2006) and sending a long line of Texas secondary players to the NFL, with junior safety Kenny Vaccaro likely to make the jump next.
The Warriors, who begin playing in the Mountain West Conference in 2012, reached their program's high-point under current SMU coach June Jones in 2007, when they became only the third non-AQ team to appear in a BCS bowl in the 2008 Sugar Bowl against Georgia.
Jones' replacement, Greg McMackin, was unable to replicate his success, going 29-25 in four seasons and resigning under pressure a few weeks ago.
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