Hula Bowl

Dave Reardon covers the Hula Bowl press conference, writing about Boise QB Jarad Zabransky, who talks about getting a shot at the NC.

"Oh yeah, definitely. You go 13-0 and win all the football games you're given, it wouldn't be too bad to get that extra shot," said Zabransky, who led BSU to a 43-42 overtime win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day. "We just played what they gave us and we went from there. We're excited to do what we did. Winning the Fiesta Bowl was pretty exciting."

The Broncos proved a team from a so-called mid-major conference could beat one from the top of a major conference in a bowl game, and that the smaller schools deserve to be in high-profile, big-money BCS games. Some say the game might change the structure of postseason college football.

BCS is a bunch of crap. Anyway, Reardon also talks to Nate Ilaoa.

Like Zabransky, Ilaoa is an outstanding college player looking to get a chance in the pros.

This season, Ilaoa led the nation's most productive offense in all-purpose yardage and scoring. But he needs to answer questions about his durability and weight.

At yesterday's pro day, the Hula Bowl players filled out paperwork for NFL teams, underwent interviews with scouts and had their heights and weights measured. It was a 6-hour process, and it wasn't completed for everyone. It was scheduled to be finished after today's practice.

"A lot of interviews, a lot of questionnaires. A lot of information being transferred," Ilaoa said. "It was great to talk to these people who you might have an opportunity to hopefully play for. It's the first step for us in fulfilling our dreams. We were in there doing paperwork today and it seemed like forever. The same questions with the name of a different team on top of it. But it's good preparation for the combine."

Stephen Tsai's Warrior Beat has a post mentioning the Hula Bowl as well.

During the evaluation period at yesterday's Hula Bowl workouts, former UH running back Nate Ilaoa weighed in at 249 pounds. "I lost two pounds," said Ilaoa, who hopes to weigh between 225 and 235 when he competes at the NFL Scouting Combine next month.
Defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis was reported to be 6 feet 5 and 271 pounds.
Offensive tackle Dane Uperesa is 6-4 and 317 pounds.

Monsters! Good luck to the Warriors. That blog post also mentions that Junior Seau's son, linebacker Tyler Seau-Sparks, will decide on whether to take a scholarship from UH.