UH News from Around the Nation

There's been a lot written about Hawaii, the BCS and what-if playoff scenarios over the past week-- from brief mentions to full-on articles. Below are some of them...

From Payton Towns III of the Courier Herald in Georgia, in a column making a case for playoffs:

While we’re talking about sense, how is it that Hawaii is at No. 11 and hasn’t lost a game all year? They just won the WAC beating Boise State who went to a BCS game last year.

I know one of the problems for Hawaii is the fact its schedule wasn’t hard. But if there was a college playoff we wouldn’t have that problem.

Sandy Penner of The Bulletin in Philadephia has a great column advocating playoffs, and saying UH would deserve a shot.

Which brings me to Hawaii, which is as exciting and as talented a team as you'll find in college football.

The logic that it can't play with the big conference teams would hold some water if there was evidence to back that up. If we learned anything from this wacky 2007 season it's that nobody is much better than anyone else. Brennan is as good as any QB in the country and Hawaii coach June Jones is probably the best offensive mind on the college level.

I refuse to believe that fans wouldn't watch if Hawaii was involved in the championship game this year. As a college football junkie, I would've been more stoked last year if it was Florida against Boise State for the title. And I know I would've gotten a better game out of it because Ohio State was run out of Glendale in January.

The class system is damaging because there's no path to the national title for the non-BCS members. None of these so called "mid-majors" will ever have a preseason ranking high enough to make them a Top 10 team when the first BCS standings come out in October. And they will always get leapfrogged by big conference teams that already have lost because their league supposedly isn't powerful enough.

Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio is another playoffs advocate who mentions UH.

What if Hawaii goes undefeated and the national champion has two losses? Perhaps it's still possible to dismiss a Western Athletic Conference champ out of hand, but not for much longer. The Warriors, for instance, have NFL talent at skill positions. They don't deserve a shot at a national title? Why, because of their schedule?

In the midst of all this love, gotta have some bitterness.

Washington at Hawaii - Thank goodness the Warriors weren't ranked No. 6 in the preseason, or they'd be on the verge of a phony national title like the one BYU stole in 1984. Hawaii, 38-17.

Yikes! Okay, back to nicer articles:

Chris Wright of the Indianapolis Star writes about teams deserving of a shot to be champs.

Why? Victory over then-No. 19 Boise State was as impressive as any West Virginia or Ohio State registered. The flag-football nature of the Warriors offense, all of which starts with record-setting quarterback Colt Brennan, is fun to watch, if not to defend.

Why not? Its schedule is the weakest in D-I. Hawaii wanted to play Michigan; the Wolverines rejected. Michigan State paid Hawaii $250,000 to get out of its scheduled game. USC also said no, and Florida coach Urban Meyer told reporters that Hawaii is a great place to vacation, but no place to play. "We offered to play everybody," Hawaii coach June Jones told reporters. "No one wanted to play us."

Hawaii fan "Rad" has a great post about the team on The Bleacher Report.

Winning the way we did earlier in the season helped build a few things you can't coach: Character, Camaraderie and Chemistry.

This team is as complete a team as there is in the nation. They are all brothers and they are literally one for all and all for one.

People can go their whole lives and never truly have the feeling this team is overflowing with. It's so powerful, it's engulfed the State of Hawai'i with a feeling that can only be described as a "glow". People on our roadways are a little bit nicer, bosses are a little less bossy, wives are a bit more understanding, friends in football are finding a closer bond to their fellow brothers and sisters.

Derek Clarkston of the Kodiak Daily Mirror will be watching tomorrow's game from Alaska.

I hate to see the Huskies lose. I can’t stand it.

But, I’m also enjoying the season the Warriors are putting together and would hate to see their BCS hopes dashed by a pretty lousy Dawg squad.

I know many ... err ... everybody thinks Hawaii probably doesn’t deserve a BCS bowl, but just look at what happened last year when a WAC team played in one.

Joe Ellison of the Nevada Appeal thinks UH deserves to be in a BCS bowl, but wouldn't be surprised if the Warriors were bumped out.

No. 5 on my list is undefeated Hawaii, who should be ranked ahead of every two-loss team. The Warriors finally reached No. 12 in the BCS, where in theory with a win over 4-8 Washington they would automatically be invited to one of the five major bowl$, and turn the Nevada-Louisiana Tech match into a winner-take-all battle for one of the three WAC bowl bids. But knowing the BCS, with Arizona State playing tomorrow and ranked directly behind Hawaii, even with a win the Warriors are not a sure-fire lock to remain at No. 12. If Boston College defeats No. 6 Virginia Tech, and USC beats rival UCLA, it is perhaps possible that Arizona State could move Hawaii down to No. 13 with a victory over 5-6 Arizona. Shutting an undefeated Hawaii team out of a major bowl would be a travesty, but it certainly wouldn't be a shocker coming from the BCS.

John Henderson of The Denver Post wants to lose a bet he has with Karl Benson and see UH in a BCS game.

Erase the opponent from your TV screen and you're looking at the most exciting offense in college football. It's wilder than Boise State's a year ago. Colt Brennan isn't just a run-and-shoot-system quarterback. He's a 6-foot-3, surefire first-round draft choice throwing to three NFL-caliber receivers who will drive LSU's ballyhooed but slumping defense crazy.
As with me, word is spreading among the media and voters.
''They're slowly coming around,'' Benson said Tuesday. ''I heard ['ESPN College GameDay's' Kirk] Herbstreit yesterday acknowledge he was wrong earlier after watching Hawaii play the last few games and [believes Hawaii] is deserving of a bowl.''

Jake Curtis of The San Francisco Chronicle can think of several controversial issues that will be brought up if Hawaii defeats Washington and does or doesn't get into a BCS game. Here's one of them:

5. The Hawaii Issue, Part III: Hawaii's game Saturday probably won't end until after midnight on the West Coast, which is 3 a.m. in the East, so most folks will go to bed Saturday not knowing what to expect Sunday morning. The BCS fate of a team like Florida or Illinois could depend on the outcome.

Of course most of these points don't matter if UH doesn't beat the Huskies, who by the way, should be landing in Hawaii right around gametime. Here's to a great game and a memorable night for the UH seniors.
GO WARRIORS!!!!!