Former NFL head coach Romeo Crennel and long-time college football coach Mark Richt will be the head coaches for the 2023 Polynesian Bowl, the annual Hawaii all-star game featuring 100 of the nation’s top senior high school football players.
Crennel, who served as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, will serve as head coach for Team Mauka. His coaching career covered a half-century with 39 of those years in the National Football League.
One of the most-decorated assistant coaches in NFL history, Crennel was a part of 17 playoff appearances, winning five of the six Super Bowls his teams appeared in. He won Super Bowls XXI and XXV with the New York Giants and Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX with the New England Patriots.
“It is a genuine honor to be selected as a Polynesian Bowl Head Coach,” said Crennel. “I’m excited to not only coach these top athletes, but also learn about the Polynesian Culture.”
Richt will serve as Head Coach for Team Makai. During his 18 years as a head coach, Richt’s teams compiled a 171–64 overall record.
At the University of Georgia (2001-2015), his teams went 145-51 and won two SEC championships. He served as head coach for the University of Miami Hurricanes from 2015-2018 with a 26-13 record and was named ACC Coach of the Year (2017) and the Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2017).
Prior to becoming a head coach, he was an assistant coach at Florida State University where he was a part of two National Championships (1993 & 1999) and coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks – Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke.
“The 2023 Polynesian Bowl is going to be an amazing experience,” said Richt. “I look forward to celebrating culture and coaching the nation’s best players in paradise.”
Coaches Crennel and Richt join an impressive list of Polynesian Bowl head coaches from prior games, including Dick Tomey (2017), June Jones (2017 & 2022), Dick Vermeil (2018), Terry Donahue (2018), Mike Bellotti (2019), Jim Zorn (2019), Steve Spurrier (2020), Frank Beamer(2020) and Doug Williams (2022).
The Polynesian Bowl, presented by the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame will be broadcast live in primetime on NFL Network on January 20, 2023, at 9:00 PM Eastern Time. The game will be played at Kūnuiākea Stadium on the Kamehameha Schools Kapālama Campus.
