News on Boise and the BCS

Lots of news. First off, some Boise-related stuff:

The UH Athletics Department has a press release with game notes, trivia, information, etc. And here's a release with parking information to the sold out game.

Rachel Gehrlein of The Garden Island writes about Warrior fever on Kauai.

As the University of Hawai‘i football team goes into Friday’s sold-out game against Boise State University with an undefeated record, die-hard fan Trish Moura will be at Rob’s Good Times Grill in Lihu‘e cheering on the Warriors.

“I’m a big Warrior fan,” Maura said. “I’m an island girl, I can’t help it.”

Maura isn’t the only one caught up in Warrior fever. According to Jason DelosReyes, manager of LIDS — a sportswear shop — at the Kukui Grove Center, visitors and locals are getting caught up in the Warrior’s growing popularity.

“People from the Mainland are buying a lot of hats,” DelosReyes said. “People like to watch Colt Brennan and the exciting offense.”

Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman has a couple quotes from Colt Brennan on this week's game.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan said Monday afternoon that he’s healthy for Friday night’s WAC championship showdown with Boise State.

“That’s why I sat out last week — so I could be 100 percent for the rest of the season,” Brennan said. “Now I don’t have anything to worry about. I’m as close to 100 percent as possible.”

“The struggle has just been to get here, to get to this point,” Brennan said. “Everyone has been wanting to play Boise with the last two years, how crazy those games have been, how well we’ve done and come away with losses. We’re dying to play Boise. To be here finally, it’s a relief.”

Todd Dvorak (of the AP?) writes about the hype surrounding Friday's game.

Beyond the WAC title, the matchup pits two of the league's most exciting coaches and two of the WAC's most nationally recognized players ever: Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan and Boise State tailback Ian Johnson.

Oh, but there is so much more.

So courtesy of the WAC, here is a sampling of additional hype surrounding Friday's game between No. 17 Boise State and No. 14 Hawaii:

_ The first time two such highly ranked WAC teams have played each other since 1994, when No. 11 Colorado State met No. 15 Utah, neither of which is still a member of the conference.

_ Boise State and Hawaii have combined for 44 wins the past two years, more than any other duo of teams in any conference in the country.

Here's a link to the WAC press release he refers to.

And now a bunch of BCS stuff:

Here's an ESPN College GameDay Final article, which highlights Dan Kelly's kick to keep UH's BCS hopes alive.

SI's Stewart Mandel has a blog post yesterday with his reaction to the UH-Nevada game.

I'll admit it. I thought Hawaii would meet its demise Friday night at Nevada. Not only did the Warriors prevail 28-26 on Dan Kelly's last-second 45-yard-field goal (more on that in a moment), they did so without star QB Colt Brennan, who stayed on the sideline for all but two plays after suffering a concussion against Fresno State. His replacement, Tyler Graunke, was an impressive 33-of-46 for 358 yards, two TDs and no INTs, but more noteworthy was that Hawaii showed it can play some defense, holding the Wolf Pack to 350 total yards, 130 below their season average.

And what this week's game might mean:

The end result of Hawaii's dramatic victory is that Saturday's Boise State-Hawaii game will most likely serve as a Sugar Bowl play-in. Both teams were already fairly close to the top-14 BCS threshold necessary to be eligible (as of last week, Hawaii was 16th, Boise State 18th), and among those ahead of them were four ACC teams (No. 10 Virginia Tech, No. 14 Virginia, No. 15 Clemson and No. 17 Boston College) of which only one can win out (and the Tigers already went down Saturday). Even if the Boise-Hawaii winner does not rise all the way to No. 12 (which would guarantee it a berth), the Sugar Bowl most likely won't have a choice in giving the last BCS at-large berth to the WAC champion because it doesn't look like four different BCS conferences are going to produce multiple, eligible teams.

I still think UH ascends to top 12 if we win out, but that's great to hear.

Oh by the way, the BCS just decided on some new rules.

In an attempt to avoid a potential headache at the end of the regular season, the commissioners of the six BCS football conferences have voted to expand the pool of BCS at-large candidates from 14 to 18.

And while that may sound scary, I believe the above-mentioned scenario remains in play.

"The commissioners voted that in a case where there wasn't enough teams in the at-large pool, they would expand it by four," said Charles Bloom, associate commissioner of the SEC and BCS media coordinator. "If there were enough teams to fill the BCS from the pool of 14, it wouldn't be expanded."

However, I wouldn't put anything past the bastards!

This article by ESPN's Mark Schlabach compares the strength of schedules of Kansas and Hawaii.

The Jayhawks haven't been penalized for playing a soft schedule; the Warriors have been penalized heavily.

During the past five weeks, when Kansas beat two teams that are close to firing their coaches (Nebraska and Texas A&M), two teams with losing records (Colorado and Iowa State) and one of the most inconsistent programs in the country (Oklahoma State), the Jayhawks climbed from No. 13 in the BCS standings to No. 2.

During that same time frame, when Hawaii beat San Jose State (in overtime), New Mexico State, Fresno State and Nevada (they played mostly without the injured Brennan in that game), the Warriors actually fell from No. 14 to No. 15 in the BCS standings.

"It wasn't like we didn't try to go out and schedule good teams," Brennan said. "We tried to play everyone. We couldn't get anybody to take the offers. This is what we've dealt with and this is our schedule. I know we've won some close games and it's been a crazy year, but this team knows how to win. That's what's scary about us -- this team is used to winning."

And the Warriors can beat only the teams that are willing to play them.

Matthew Zemek of CFN has some good things to say about UH.

Hawaii might not have many quality wins, but let's say this much about June Jones' Warriors: they truly are Warriors. Tyler Graunke battled like a champion on Friday night at Nevada, while kicker Daniel Kelly has the poise of a 15-year veteran placekicker. Whenever Hawaii needs to make a play, someone steps up to get the job done. Whenever adversity strikes, someone on the UH roster immediately finds a way to turn a game around with an impact performance. Kudos to a ballclub that never quits, and has earned respect by winning tough games on the mainland, which has been a long-term problem for Hawaii football.

Jared Reback of The Bleacher Report wonders why Hawaii isn't getting any respect in the polls.

A team that won a road conference game with a backup quarterback dropped in the polls.

That struck me as a bit odd, but I figured that the team in question was probably dropped because of the solid performance by the teams behind it.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the teams that had jumped in the polls had not even played over the weekend.

It has now reached the point where not only is Hawaii criticized for having a weak schedule (a valid argument), but BCS conference teams are rewarded for sitting on their couches and watching games while Hawaii is punished for taking the field and winning, regardless of opponent.

How is that possible?

Actually, The Bleacher Report was pretty busy today discussing Hawaii, with Dave Nemetz hating on the Warriors, and Ryan Fritsche supporting them.