Whine-O

Purdue head coach Joe Tiller does his best John L. Smith impersonation. Actually, in some ways, he OUTDOES John L, if you can believe that, with all his bitching and moaning BEFORE the game is even played! #@%! From Stephen Tsai's Ferd Lewis' article:

Asked on a media conference call yesterday what the pluses of playing the game might be, Tiller said, "I'm still looking for 'em. If you know of any, let me know, will ya?"

Tiller said, "I don't know the motivation for it. The game, in my opinion, would have been more palatable if we had an 11-game season instead of a 12-game season. It would have been more palatable if we would have been like Notre Dame and had a bye in the fifth week of the season. It would have been more palatable if there was a big pay day at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. This may end up being a net-dollar loss, because I don't know if all the expenses are covered."

Athletic director Morgan Burke said there would be a $40,000 loss.

After Northwestern and Michigan State lost games to UH at Aloha Stadium in 2004, Tiller said their coaches, "talked about it to all the other coaches (in the Big Ten) and their advice to every coach in that room was, 'Do not go there and play.' Michigan State's game was unbelievable. They had two touchdowns called back. They would have won the game going away. And they needed that game to become bowl eligible."

Since then, the Big Ten has requested and gotten Pac-10 officials.

And he just goes on and on and on! Just play the f%@#ing game! Geez, the Big Ten sure got some whiny ass coaches. Dave Reardon has Herman Frazier's response.

Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier issued the following statement after hearing of Tiller's comments:

"I am somewhat baffled by the comments made by the coach at Purdue University, because all of our contract negotiations, the present and future, have taken place with administrators. On that note, we look forward to hosting the Boilermakers at Aloha Stadium Saturday night. It should be an exciting game for everyone."

Ferd Lewis has another quote from Herman regarding the travel deficit.

UH athletic director Herman Frazier said through a spokeswoman, "I don't think (finances) is becoming a hurdle (in scheduling). I think we have a problem with a couple of coaches. That is very obvious. But, for the most part, it has not become a hurdle."

Frazier said, "The guarantees that we are offering have been sufficient for everyone we've talked to thus far."

EXACTLY. And Ferd writes a column that sets Joe Tiller straight on the rest of it. The column is appropriately titled "Excuses, excuses, excuses"

The trip is too arduous.

The weather is too hot.

The season is too long.

They never wanted to come anyway.

To hear Purdue football coach Joe Tiller tell it yesterday in a plaintive media conference call lacking only violins, it sure sounded like the Boilermakers had all the familiar excuses set up, in case they lose to the University of Hawai'i Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.

Now, if only the offense, defense and special teams were as well aligned and ready, the Boilermakers might not need any of them.

Too bad the old standby, Western Athletic Conference officiating, was rendered moot when UH caved in last year to the Big Ten and began bringing in Pac-10 crews.

Of course, Tiller also alluded to the real reason, one of them certainly, for the woe-is-us chorus when he said, "... and we're going to play against a team that we won't see the likes of offensively maybe ever again as long as you are playing football. And this happens to be one of the great Hawai'i teams. You don't know that when you're scheduling them."

Indeed, if the Boilermakers had played this game when it was originally scheduled (2002), they would have found a good UH team, but not one of this potency. Not one on this much of a roll. "We should have gone ahead and played it three years ago if we knew then they were going to have this good of a team," Tiller lamented.

Funny how that works.

What a great example to set for your players, your coaches, your school, your fans. I really hope UH drops 80 points on you to justify all this whining!

Breathe. Just breathe.

To end on a happier note, today's installment of "Colt Following" is about Colt Brennan getting a chance to go Orlando as one of three Davey O'Brien Awards finalists.

Troy Smith of Ohio State and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame are the other finalists.

"Those are two of the most talked-about guys in college football right now. To be put up next to them is obviously a great honor," Brennan said after practice yesterday. "It's fun to be recognized and to know that our school is going to be up there with them. It's cool. But we just got to make sure we take care of these next two (regular-season) games. A lot of teams are done for the year, but we gotta make sure we go out and take care of these next two games."

Stephen Tsai has more happy news.

Next year, Brennan expects to remain in Manoa.

"Those are my full intentions," said Brennan, a fourth-year junior who is eligible to apply for the National Football League draft.

Brennan said it would take an "extraordinary situation" to make him forgo his senior season.

But after the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, Brennan will seek an evaluation from NFL scouts.

"There are things you can do," Brennan said of finding his rating. "There are ways to go about it."

If he were to project as a first-round selection in April, Brennan said, "you'd have to consider (applying for the draft). That doesn't mean I'd go, but you'd have to consider it."

But Brennan insisted: "My full intentions are to come back. I have no problem with coming back next year. I would love it."

I have more and more confidence Brennan will be back to compete for a WAC title and the mythical undefeated season. But if he does leave, and I couldn't blame him, we'll still have The Graunke and The Funaki and The Brogan to step it up. Glad to end it on good news, though I'm still PISSED! Well, let's just turn these lemons into lemonade and hope the Warriors take it to the Boilermakers.

GO WARRIORS!!!!