Like Elvis, the man he famously used to leave football tickets for, Jerry Glanville has left the building as the University of Hawai'i's defensive coordinator, taking the head coaching job at Division I-AA Portland State.

If that comes as a surprise, well, it shouldn't.

UH was but a career pit stop for the former NASCAR driver and announcer. And that's all it was intended to be. The wonder might be that he was even here this long. We should be happy that he was and for what he leaves, which is a UH defense in far better shape than when he arrived.

To be sure it was both fun and fruitful while it lasted. Nobody has regaled Manoa and its fans with more stories or fired off more one-liners than Glanville. He had enough to last a decade.

What he didn't have, however, was nearly that much time. At age 65 — he'll reach 66 during mid-season — if Glanville was going to get one last crack at the head coaching job he craved, it was going to have to be sooner than later. And be assured he wanted one more team to call his own before he called it a career. That's why he was talking to Northern State, a Division II program in South Dakota, when UH coach June Jones phoned two years ago.

It wasn't just to talk old times and X's and O's, either. Jones needed someone to turn around a defense that had been in the bottom five nationally in several major categories in 2004. And, after 12 seasons away from football Glanville needed a stage to show what he was still capable of. Today's recruits, who were toddlers when Glanville last coached in the NFL, had no identification with the name. Little concept of the "Gritz Blitz" or "House of Pain" without parental explanation.

So, Glanville's arrival in 2005 was the best of deals, a win-win proposition for all concerned. And win they eventually did. Under Glanville the UH defense improved from 117th nationally (252 yards per game) against the rush to 59th (136.1). From 112th (38.4 points per game) in scoring defense to 69th (24.1). For 2006, a will-breaking defense complemented the record-busting offense, allowing the Warriors to reach 11-3 and a Top 25 return.

Beyond that, Glanville also gave the defense a degree of autonomy little known by his predecessors — Greg McMackin, Kevin Lempa, George Lumpkin, etc. Such was his stature and rapport with Jones, that Glanville had as much of a free hand as we are likely to see. Jones was even persuaded, from time to time, to let special teams go after punters.

How much operating room Glanville's successor gets remains to be seen. But there is no doubting that the defense has been strengthened. That a hard-hitting style of play has been reaffirmed for the new coach to build upon.

Glanville left his mark at UH but there was never any doubting he would also leave the premises. It was just a matter of when. Whether it would be North Texas or a handful of places where his name had come up earlier, Portland State or the next place that needed his expertise and energy.

There are two kinds of coaches who move through a program quickly. The type that are scarcely remembered and those who aren't soon forgotten. Glanville is definitely among the latter.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.