Good Answer

Jamie Newberg of Superprep.com ranks Boise State 14th and Hawaii 18th in his Football Blitz Power Rankings. Jamie has a great answer for an ignorant fan who doesn't think Hawaii and BSU deserve to be ranked.

How can you rank Boise State and Hawaii in the top 20, when there are at least 40 schools that would be favored over them on a neutral field. Is it all on their record? The talent certainly isn't there.
Steve (Salem, Virginia)

Boise State and Hawaii are two good programs worthy of their ranking. Boise State is unbeaten and is in everyone’s top 20. On the other hand, I have Hawaii a little higher than most polls. Right now the Warriors are sitting at No. 25 and could work their way in the top 20 with wins in their final two regular season games.

Both Boise State and Hawaii play in the WAC and they are the two dominant teams. Earlier this season the Broncos held off the Warriors and won by a touchdown. Both teams have high octane offenses that could certainly put up some big numbers against teams you would see ranked anywhere between 21-40. Hawaii’s other loss was an opening day defeat on the road to Alabama 23-15. In that game they held the Crimson Tide to two offensive touchdowns and only 21 rushing yards in the second half. In that game Hawaii also committed five turnovers. If that game were played today, on a neutral field as you say, the outcome could be different. They are playing good football right now.

Hawaii has always been good on the offensive side of the ball. It took a few weeks this season but that offense has taken off and put up some unbelievable numbers. Quarterback Colt Brennan is on pace to throw for over 50 touchdown passes and 5,000 yards. The offense has scored 49 points or more in six straight games. They have scored 34 points or more in all but one game and that was their opener. Now obviously those numbers are against the conference foes that don’t exactly play great defense and they certainly wouldn’t put up those kinds of gaudy stats against top 40 type of opponents. But what makes this Hawaii team different is their defense. They are not exactly LSU or Michigan defensively but they are vastly improved and playing light years better then they have under Defensive Coordinator Jerry Glanville. It’s even more impressive considering Glanville and Hawaii don’t have near the talent you see in Tuscaloosa or Columbus.

We will all get a real sense of how good this Hawaii team is over the course of the next two weeks when they play Purdue and Oregon State. They get the Beavers to end the regular season and this Oregon State team that knocked off USC a few weeks ago.

Boise State on the other hand has been good for a while now. They will finish the regular season unbeaten and perhaps get a BCS bowl berth. They have a great offense and a great running game with sophomore running back Ian Johnson. He has rushed for 1,466 yards and scored 21 touchdowns. Senior quarterback Jared Zabransky has had a good season, completing 65% of his passes for 2,026 yards, 19 touchdowns and only six interceptions.

Hawaii leads the NCAA in scoring with 49.2 points per game while Boise State checks in at No. 4 overall with 39.5 points per game. Defensively the Broncos are 22nd in scoring defense (16.4 points allowed per game).

So can both Hawaii and Boise State compete and beat such top 40 teams like Houston, Maryland, TCU, Texas A&M, Penn State, Ohio, Navy, Kentucky, Purdue, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon State, etc? Well, we will all know more on Hawaii as they get the Boilermakers and Beavers over the next two weeks and whoever they play in their Bowl game.

The bottom line is that there are very few great teams in college football. There is a lot of parity between teams 20 and 40 and I really believe that these two teams are two of the better teams in that category.

The whole Q&A column is pretty good, so go check it out! Jamie also ranks Colt Brennan 3rd in his picks for the Heisman race.