Friday Night News

One more day!

News below compiled by Chawan "Lego Nut" Cut.

Part 1 has news from KHON's John Veneri and KGMB's Liz Chun, Guy Hagi (with the weather) and Tim Sakahara, who reports on a green t-shirt shortage.



Part 2 got a cool segment from KITV's Pamela Young about a UH vs UW reindeer lawn display, Keoki Kerr reports on the price and availability of tour packages to say, New Orleans around New Years, and Robert Kekaula has a game preview. KHNL's Jason Tang has a preview, Marvin Buenconsejo talks to the fans and the UH band, and Sharie Shima got the weather.



And finally, UHBows has uploaded a crapload of videos this past week or so, including this interview with June Jones on FSN today.

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!!!!!

Karl Benson on College Football Live

In a phone interview, talking about UH, the WAC and the BCS. And as he's speaking, watch as ESPN shows the same highlights over and over and over again! Thanks to UHBows.

Friday News - Washington

Hawaii News:

Ka Leo's Rebecca Gallegos has a preview of the game.

Dave Reardon talks to the players and coaches about playing a team with "Pac-10 talent."

"We showed that at the beginning of the summer when they couldn't get enough top BCS schools to play us in the first place. That should tell you something there, you know? We're not worried about that," said Grice-Mullins, one of three UH players on pace to go over 1,000 yards in receiving this year. "Football is football. A game is a game. All you have to do is go out there and win, no matter who we play. Boise made the BCS last year and people thought we'd struggle against them. That just tells you it's the players and who wants it most."

Billy Hull talks to two Huskies from Hawaii, Wilson Afoa and Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, about coming back home to play against UH.

"This isn't go home and play your friends," Te'o-Nesheim said. "The whole nation is going to be watching. This is a huge deal."

Afoa and Te'o-Nesheim passed up opportunities to play for Hawaii to travel to the Pacific Northwest.

Both cited wanting to experience playing in a major conference against the nation's best teams as reasons for leaving the islands.

Little did they know Hawaii was on the verge of establishing itself as a top-15 ranked team.

"I couldn't even imagine UH playing a game as big as this when I was in high school," Te'o-Nesheim said. "I can't imagine what it's like for them over there. It's going to be really exciting."

Ferd Lewis has a column about Washington coach Tyrone Willingham.

Stephen Tsai writes about Colt Brennan, his life in Hawaii, the fan frenzy surrounding him, and his thoughts about leaving. Tsai also has quotes from many of the seniors on their best UH memories.

Susan Essoyan profiles Colt Brennan and his family.

Paul Arnett discusses the facilities and some of the bureaucratic difficulties involved in upkeeping and upgrading them.

Another story about those lovable scalpers.

UPDATE: Saw this on Garret's site -- Lanaly Cabalo of The Garden Island profiled DB Kenny Estes.


Washington News:

Christian Caple of The Daily has a preview of the game.

Don Ruiz of The News Tribune interviews Huskies from Hawaii, Wilson Afoa and Daniel Te’o-Nesheim. Here are a few quotes:

“I watched UH football when I was there, but I wasn’t a super hard-core UH football fan,” Te’o-Nesheim said. “They never did this good when I was there.”

“I’m happy for the state of Hawaii, where the program has gone,” Afoa said. “I respect coach (June) Jones and where he has taken the program to. But I have no regrets picking Washington over Hawaii.”

The Seattle Times' Bob Condotta details two previous matchups between UW and UH.

Condotta also has a profile of the Warriors' linebacker Adam Leonard. He also talks to Tyson Kafentzis, also from the Washington area.

Molly Yanity of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about Colt and his Heisman chances.

The Final Helmet is Returned

And they give it to Kekaula again. Inoke's getting his helmet back, but whoever took it peeled off the stickers first. Anyway, all of the helmets have been returned, which is amazing.



The video also has a weather report for the game. And below, KHON profiles Davone Bess, KGMB previews the game, KHNL discusses the Honolulu Hale tree lighting ceremony conflicting with the game, and also has a feature on the fans at Aloha Stadium, and then back to KITV for a story about the seniors. Thanks again Chawan.

From the Blogs: Contests, Cartoons, Practice

Stephen Tsai's Warrior Beat got several contests going on. Prizes include t-shirts, tickets to the banquest, and sideline tickets to the Washington game. Be there! He also has details of something that might be showing on the ESPN2 broadcast this Saturday.

And after that, Colt Brennan, Davone Bess, Ryan Grice-Mullins and C.J. Hawthorne went to the Black Point for an ESPN shoot. The segment, which will air during Saturday's game, will show Brennan drawing up a play in the sand. The receivers then run the routes.
And UH wonders why people think it runs a gimmick offense.

And this was from a couple days ago, but the Leahey & Leahey blog has an Aqua Teen Hunger Force clip which has a great representation of the typical Hawaii hater, as well as a bonus Cartman clip.

And Dave Reardon has a post listing the seniors who will be honored on Saturday night (and those who may be petitioning for an extra year). There's also a few words from Yahoo's Mike Huguenin about some possible BCS scenarios for UH, as well as some details about this morning's practice.

Jason Rivers, Timo Paepule, Fale Laeli and Aaron Bain looked very comfortable this morning at practice. Maybe because they’d returned to the site of their high school workouts, the FieldTurf surface at Saint Louis School. UH assistant coaches Cal and Ron Lee, who led Saint Louis to 43 zillion Prep Bowl titles, were in their element, too.

Colt a Finalist, Davone an All-American

Looks like Colt Brennan is a finalist for the 2008 Manning Award.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl announced today the names of the 10 finalists for the 2008 Manning Award, given to college football's top quarterback.

This year's 10 finalists include: Erik Ainge (Tennessee), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Colt Brennan (Hawaii), Chase Daniel (Missouri), Dennis Dixon (Oregon), Graham Harrell (Texas Tech), Matt Ryan (Boston College), Tim Tebow (Florida), Patrick White (West Virginia) and Andre' Woodson (Kentucky).

"Each year, the competition for the Manning Award intensifies," said Ray Jeandron, Sugar Bowl President. "This season, there were many outstanding performances as quarterbacks across the country displayed tremendous character and led their teams with great success. Our 10 finalists are all representative of this success and worthy of being honored with this prestigious award."

And Davone Bess is a Rivals 3rd team All-American.

University of Hawai'i receiver Davone Bess was named to the Rivals.com All-America third team. He was the only Warrior named to either the first, second, or third teams.

Rivals.com had this to say about UH's leading receiver: "Bess ranks second among all active receivers with 281 career catches and 3,508 career receiving yards. He has 96 catches for 1,164 yards and 12 TDs this season, and ranks fourth in the nation in catches per game. Bess has caught at least 10 passes in five games this season. He had 15 receptions for 181 yards and two TDs against Boise State."

Congrats to both!

Thursday News - Washington

News from Hawaii:

Brian McInnis profiles senior linebacker Micah Lau. He talks about dealing with having less playing time than last year.

"Well, from playing a lot last year, it's hard to switch (roles), but I'm happy to because this is where, as a team, you rather have a team championship than have individual recognition," Lau said. "It feels way better now than when I played last year, a lot. Just to have any contribution to the team, even if it's just on special teams, it's better than nothing. And the feeling of being a champion is way better than starting."

Dave Reardon and Billy Hull have a Sports Notebook article about yesterday's rain-out, with a quote from Colt:

"It was a nice downpour," Brennan said, smiling. "We were going to run over into our indoor facilities, but there was some problem I think. It hasn't been built yet. Then we thought we'd go to Cooke Field, but there's no field."

They also report that Colt filmed a segment for ESPN, with Desmond Howard interviewing him next to a Heisman trophy about his chances to get one.

Stephen Tsai talks to players about the rain, has injury updates on Dane Porlas, Dan Kelly and Jacob Patek, and interviews Timo Paepule about almost becoming a Husky.

"It all worked out," Paepule said. "I would have been at Washington playing (against) the WAC champs, but now we are the WAC champs."

Robert Shikina has a forecast for the game.

"It looks like the ballgame should be good," said lead forecaster Roy Matsuda at the National Weather Service. "Just a few showers, if any."

Ferd Lewis has details on all the different colleges recruiting Hawaii high schools these days.

And a BCS coordinator tells Ferd Lewis that the BCS is working.


News from Washington:

The Daily, a Washington student paper, has a roundtable discussing among other things, what a Washington victory over UH could do for the program.

John Boyle of HeraldNet writes about the struggle Herman Frazier had putting together this year's schedule, and the resulting criticism about it.

Boyle also has some news and notes, and profiles Husky from Hawaii Daniel Te'o-Nesheim.

Don Ruiz of The News Tribune talks to Warren Moon about playing in the run and shoot and what he thinks about it.

“It’s definitely a passing-quarterback’s fancy, and it can inflate numbers,” Moon said. “But it can inflate them even more if you’re more gifted. It can make an average quarterback look good, but it can make a good quarterback look great. I think that’s what it’s doing for Colt. I think he was a really good quarterback when he got there, but I think it has made him great.”

The article also has a few quotes from June Jones.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times profiles Washington receiver Anthony Russo, and has some news and notes.

Molly Yanity of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a blog, with a few posts about the upcoming game.

Return of the Helmet

Someone ships Jason Laumoli's "missing" helmet to KITV's Robert Kekaula. Out of the six helmets that were unaccounted for, five have turned back up, with Inoke Funaki's helmet still nowhere to be found.

UH vs UW Game Notes, Previews, Etc.

Here are press releases with notes and info about Saturday's game from the UH athletic department and the UW athletic department.

Here's a preview of the game from The Sports Network.

Here's a preview from ESPN (which might be an AP preview).

CFN has a preview and prediction in their round-up of this week's PAC-10 games.

And finally, this blog has a back and forth Q&A with a great Washington Husky Sports blog run by a fan named John Berkowitz. His blog's address is uwfootball.blogspot.com, one letter off from this one. I know, spooky. Anyway, it was a fun Q&A

Rainy Day Videos (w/UPDATE)

Is John Fink a detective from a 50s noir film? Well, he should be. He waxes rhapsodic over the Warriors in this "Think About It" segment.



And check out Leila Wai's video from today's practice, which got rained out. Watch as the Warriors play in the rain. I'm glad no one got struck by lightning! There's a funny interview with Colt Brennan talking about the facilities, along with a few words about the rain from Jason Rivers and Jacob Patek. The video ends with Ryan Mouton interviewing Solomon Elimimian and Adam Leonard, with Jason Rivers as the camera operator.

UPDATE: Tonight's news, compiled by Mr. Cut.

Stuff about the rain, the game, and "June" on PTI.

Wednesday News - Washington

I liked the format of yesterday's news post, so I'll stick with it today:

Washington News:

John Boyle of HeraldNet talks to Huskies offensive coordinator about their gameplan.

"We've got to be able to run the football," offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said. "It's really important that we're able to run the football and manage the clock. You're not going to be able to shut them out. You try to slow them down, and I don't think anybody has done that, that I'm aware of. So it's really important that we stay on the field and convert third downs."

Christian Caple of The Daily, a Washington student paper, has an article about the Huskies wanting to defeat a second WAC team this year.

“I think the Pac-10 is a strong league this year,” Locker said. “The Pac-10’s really done a lot of good things for itself … Being able to go in and beat a nationally ranked Hawaii team that’s playing really good football would just kind of solidify that feeling of how good the Pac-10 is this year.”

Molly Yanity of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a profile of Adam Leonard.

Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times profiles Colt Brennan, and talks to him about the game, the season, the BCS hopes.

John McGrath of The News Tribune is a little worried about the game.

Don Ruiz of The News Tribune has an article about June Jones and what he has brought to Hawaii's football program.


Hawaii News:

Alexandre Da Silva writes that the Warriors' success is helping the economy, especially restaurants and bars with lots of TVs.

Dan Nakaso has an article about the frenzy over UH merchandise.

Brian McInnis talks to Herman Frazier, who asks the fans who may rush the field this Saturday to have some respect for the seniors and let them do their Senior Walk. Let me also add -- "Don't steal their helmets."

On the same page, Dave Reardon profiles Ryan Mouton.

Reardon and Billy Hull have a Sports Notebook with an injury update on Francis Maka, details of Davone Bess being reprimanded by the WAC, and Seattle native Adam Leonard's Washington connections.

Ferd Lewis writes about a yet-to-be-announced party/event surrounding the BCS selection show on Sunday.

Stephen Tsai has injury updates on Jacob Patek, Adam Leonard, Francis Maka and Dan Kelly. He also writes about Leon Wright-Jackson practicing with the scout team to give the UH defense a good look, and has details on the generosity of Sacramento Kings owners, the Maloof brothers.

"June Jones' team is such fun to watch," Maloof said. "I've never had so much fun."

The brothers are putting their money where their heart is. Last month, they donated $50,000 to Na Koa, the football program's booster club, to double the Warriors' annual recruiting budget.

They also wrote a $25,000 check to the June Jones Foundation.

And now, the brothers will establish a scholarship in Jones' name. Joe Maloof said the scholarship, valued at about $15,000 annually, will go to a player who has completed his NCAA eligibility but "still has more school left. We'll pay for the extra year."

That is pretty cool. I think I'm a Kings fan.

Ferd Lewis writes that the UH-Boise game gave ESPN some of good ratings.

ESPN was also rejoicing after the game produced the largest audience, 2,647,000 households, of its 14 Friday night college football games on ESPN or ESPN2 this season. And the WAC is hopeful it will be ammunition for an improved network television contract.

"That (2.8 share) was also ESPN2's best rating (overall) of 2007, a great rating," said Mike Humes, an ESPN spokesman.

The article also discusses the current contract between the WAC and ESPN, and hopes for a bigger payday when it's renewed.

And Michael Tsai talks to Herman Frazier, who discusses the Boise game, and responds to some comments made by ESPN's Sean McDonough about June Jones' contract and the state of the athletic facilities.

UPDATE: Dave Reardon has an advisory from Aloha Stadium's Lois Manin and Scott Chan asking people not to rush the field this Saturday so the Senior Walk can proceed unencumbered. And also news about today's practice:

The UH football practice this morning was called off midway through the two-hour session due to continual heavy rain making the grass field unusable.

UPDATE: The plan now is to complete practice at 4 p.m. at Aloha Stadium. This session will be closed to the public.

TV News from Last Night

From Mr. Lego:

Tuesday News

Unlike the Warriors, I received no robot love today as my computer decided to take a giant dump on me. If only I were speaking figuratively! Actually, I am, here's today's news items.

Local:

Stephen Tsai writes about the football helmets stolen from UH players during the post-game celebration (sigh), Greg McMackin designing the WAC championship ring, Washington native Leon Wright-Jackson getting ready for the Huskies, and Jacob Patek and Davone Bess being named players of the game by their coaches.

Ferd Lewis writes about Herman Frazier's psychic abilities.

Dan Nakaso takes a look at UH's facilities, finances, revenue streams, what may be lacking, and how BCS money may help.

Davone Bess apologizes for taunting Nevada fans.

Robert Shikina writes about being wary of scalpers and counterfeit tickets for the Washington game.

Dave Reardon writes that C.J. Hawthorne, Hercules Satele, Michael Lafaele and Jason Rivers will play in the Hula Bowl. Also on that page is an article by Reardon about the Warriors being focused and ready for Washington.

Kalani Simpson comes from out of Nebraska with a cold and gray Sidelines column about the Huskers, firing coaches or ADs, the perception of UH in the "heartland," drinking booze, and not wanting to stay up late anymore. Pretty depressing stuff.

Reardon and Brian McInnis have a few words from Washington coach Tyrone Willingham about his team's potential role as a spoiler. The article also mentions the ESPN announcers bringing up the state of the facilities, and the stolen helmet situation.

Speaking of which, Stephen Tsai writes on the Beat that Greg Salas' helmet has been returned, with three still missing. He also has some injury updates, news that Colt is not a Davey O'Brien finalist, and video from today's practice.

Dave Reardon writes on the Extra that Francis Maka, who is recovering from a fracture in his leg, may be able to play against Washington. Also from the post is news about Davone getting reprimanded by the WAC, and a few words from Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter and AP voter Molly Yanity about where she's been placing UH in her poll and why.


Washington:

Don Ruiz of The News Tribune profiles Colt Brennan. Washington QB Jake Locker has some words of praise.

John Boyle of The Olympian writes about Saturday's matchup, with quotes from Colt Brennan and June Jones about not taking Washington lightly.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times has some notes about the Huskies from Hawaii and what they're saying about playing against UH. A couple quotes from Wilson Afoa:

"Basically you are going against the state of Hawaii when you are in that stadium," said the senior defensive tackle.

"We have a chance to spoil their BCS bowl," he said. "And that's a goal for us."

And John Boyle talks to some Huskies about staying focused in Hawaii.


National:

Here's an AP article about Hawaii's perfect season so far.

The AP's Tim Booth previews the game and writes about the teams on the BCS periphery that will be rooting against the Warriors.

Vote for Colt!

Bill Dwyre of the LA Times has a great column about his hopes that UH will crash the BCS.

ESPN's Tim Keown writes a half-serious half-joking column about wanting to see Hawaii play for the national championship.

Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel has an all-serious proposal that would make it possible for UH and other non-BCS teams to actually compete for the national title. Playoffs, baby!

Monday night news

Tombo is down hard. No, not from the bottle, just from the internet. So he asked me to post the vids for him.

Chawan Cut's Works of Art

I've said before that Chawan Cut is a crazy UH fan. Truly crazy. And now we have proof. First, you need to know that he's also into legos. Here's a closeup of his new creation:



Anything look vaguely familiar? Let's zoom out a little more...



Awww man, is that a face? I've seen it somewhere before. And zooming out completely...



Awwww yeah, it's Lego Colt. Put together by Chawan Cut. Pretty awesome. So don't question his fanhood! Here's the side-by-side with the pic he based it off of:



And if that wasn't enough, CC also made an H-lego.



Oh, and ladies, he's available. Wooooooooo!!!!

P.S. Here's his post on Sportshawaii, which has more pics.

Photos from the Boise State Game

Orlando of UHWarriorFan.com got a whole lot of great photos from the UH-BSU game. Also lots of stuff from pre-game, halftime, post-game celebration, etc. Be there!





Also check out Irse's photo gallery of the game, as well as the Pbase photo gallery for more awesome pics.

...Sportshawaii.com also got photo galleries from Betsy, uhwarriors, and hafba69.

From the Blogs: Bess, Helmets, Define Good

The Leahey & Leahey Live blog has posted audio of their interview with UH receiver Davone Bess, discussing the game, the WAC championship, the fans' reactions, etc.

Stephen Tsai writes that four UH helmets were taken during the post-game celebration and the team is asking for their return, no questions asked. What kind of fan would take the players' helmets? They're the reason you were celebrating!

And Dave Reardon wonders if a team that has 4 wins and 8 losses deserves to be called a "good team." Good or not, the Huskies are gonna bring it, and they'll be a great challenge for the Warriors.

C&K Show, June Jones Show

The C&K Show got a good one this week. They gave Blaze Soares the camera, and he got a whole lot of behind-the-scenes footage - in the locker room, meeting rooms, training table, etc with him narrating along the way. He also interviews a bunch of players, catching them in candid moments. You can see what kind of family atmosphere this team has. Right on.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3 (which has highlights from the Boise State game as well as footage of the locker room celebration)



Irse has the new June Jones Show up in Windows Media format.

And Orlando has it up on Youtube. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Wooooooooooooo!!!!

BCS, Washington

Dave Reardon writes about Hawaii's unprecedented rankings, a Harris poll secret admirer, and BCS bowl scenarios.

Since the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans has last choice of teams, that's where midmajor Hawaii without a proven mainland following would probably end up. It's not impossible that the Warriors could play in the more geographically friendly Fiesta Bowl in Arizona, but Benson said bowl games officials make the final decision.

The Rose Bowl is an outside possibility if Ohio State gets in the national championship game, but officials of the granddaddy of 'em all may be hesitant to break far enough from tradition to invite Hawaii.

UH athletic director Herman Frazier was a Fiesta Bowl director and chairman when he worked at Arizona State. He reserved comment on the situation.

"(Frazier's) got great relationships there, but the Fiesta Bowl will do what's best for the Fiesta Bowl. Right now I think the BCS takes care of itself, and there's no lobbying to do there," Benson said. "It's a matter of which bowl believes that Hawaii's the best team for it."

I can see 20,000 UH fans going to the Rose Bowl or Fiesta Bowl. Lots of ex-Hawaii residents on the West Coast and Arizona, and no matter what, thousands of Hawaii residents would fly up, guarans!

Here's what Mike Huguenin of Rivals.com has to say if UH plays in a BCS bowl.

Hawaii is a scary opponent for any defense. Yeah, we know all about how Hawaii has no running game, has played a weak schedule and is mediocre on defense. So what. If the Warriors get into a BCS game, woe is the team that plays them. QB Colt Brennan and his deep corps of receivers are going to pose problems. Now, we're not saying Hawaii is going to win. We're just saying the Warriors will cause a lot of sleepless nights for the opposing defensive coordinator and defensive backs.

Hope UH gets a chance to disprove a few of the stereotypes he lists in the first sentence.

Ferd Lewis talks to some "BCS experts" about Hawaii's chances of going to a BCS bowl.

"If Hawai'i beats Washington that should be enough," said Sam Chi, of www.BCSguru.com. "I'd put it at about 95 percent. It should be a near slam-dunk now." Last week, Chi had posted on his Web site: "The Warriors, at No. 15, may have already climbed to the top of Mauna Kea and can't go any higher."

Jerry Palm, whose www.CollegeBCS.com tracks the BCS standings, estimated at "90" percent the Warriors' chances of earning the prized BCS berth if they prevail over Washington. Last month, Palm had warned, "Hawai'i's schedule is so bad that they might not crack the top 15 in the computers, even at 12-0."

Bob Frantz of the San Francisco Examiner isn't just thinking BCS bowl for UH, he's thinking championship.

It’s almost as if the best teams in the nation, uniformly disgusted with the NCAA’s archaic method of determining national championship participants, put their heads together and agreed to jumble the BCS standings beyond repair, thereby forcing university presidents and multi-billion dollar sponsors to join the 21st century and institute a national playoff system.

So with the top teams all falling by the wayside one week at a time, and with a boatload of flawed one- and two-loss teams scrambling to replace them for their own temporary stay in the Top 5 land of instant mediocrity, it’s time for someone to ask this question:

Why not Hawaii?

It’s time to bury this power conference nonsense once and for all. If they finish their perfect season with a win over Washington on Saturday, the Warriors deserve their shot.

Unfortunately, this will just remain in the land of the theoretical. Perhaps in 20 years, there will be a Division I-A football playoff.

Ferd Lewis writes about a likely Hawaii Bowl scenario should UH happen to not be there.

Fresno State vs. East Carolina is emerging as the most likely matchup in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, should the University of Hawai'i earn a Bowl Championship Series berth.

It's really nice to think about all these scenarios, but first of course there's Washington. And they're a lot better than their record indicates, having played one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

Don Ruiz of The News Tribune writes about the Huskies' chance to destroy all our BCS dreams.

Washington coaches and players say they are grateful that they have one more chance to ease their pain Saturday (8:30 p.m., ESPN2) by spoiling Hawaii’s dreams in what will certainly be a loud and full Aloha Stadium.

“We’ve got an opportunity to go play a football team that gives us an opportunity to recover some of the things that we’ve lost this year,” coach Tyrone Willingham said. “We’ve got an opportunity to play a football game in December. When you start playing in December, usually good things are happening, and we want to start recognizing that.”

John Boyle of HeraldNet has a column previewing the game.

Instead, let's just assume that Hawaii and quarterback Colt Brennan will put up some crazy numbers in Honolulu on Saturday evening (I'm going to put the unofficial over-under on Hawaii passing yards at 600. Anybody want the under?). So how the heck can Washington win if unbeaten Hawaii is throwing the ball around and scoring with ease?

Well, that's where the offense comes in. Let's say Jake Locker, Louis Rankin and company can put together a game reminiscent of their better efforts this year. Picture 500-plus yards of offense and 45-55 points. That just might be enough to do it, especially if the rushing game can get going and keep Brennan off the field for large chunks of time.

Is a 500-yard, 50-point day too much to expect out of an offense? Absolutely. Is it the only way the Huskies can win? Most likely.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times takes a look at the matchup.

Lots of December games will determine bowl slots and conference titles, but UW will be playing solely to prevent a disappointing season from getting worse. The Huskies fell to 4-8 and with the loss to WSU are 1-8 against the traditional Northwest rivals under Willingham.

Most on the hot seat in Hawaii will be a UW defense that is now almost assured of being the worst in school history. The Huskies are giving up 438.8 yards per game this season — the previous worst is 419.1 in 2005, the first year for Willingham and defensive coordinator Kent Baer.

But Baer said after the WSU loss that the Hawaii game is a chance "to make a statement in a huge game" and, sounding like a coach who plans on being around for a while, he talks about the bright future he sees for the UW defense.

"I think we will get better," Baer said. "We've got a lot of good young kids."

Nathan Ware of The Dawgblawg has a prediction, as well as a backhanded compliment.

Their strength (passing) is our weakness (defending it). It's got the look of an ugly game but the spread is only 10 points. If you're a bettor, bet the ranch on the Warriors with that point spread.

The worst part about this for UW is that the entire country will be watching. I'll give you my prediction early this week: Hawaii 54, UW 37. How bad is the defense when we are predicting blowout losses to WAC teams?

Nothing wrong with getting blown out by a WAC team. It happens. Ask Arizona State.

And Ferd Lewis writes about another meeting between Washington and Hawaii, back in 1973.

The University of Hawai'i football team opened as a 10-point favorite over Washington for Saturday's season finale, which is a far cry from the last time the two teams met.

"Back then (in Seattle in 1973)," recalls Rick Blangiardi, "we turned on the TV and Jimmy the Greek, who was doing telecasts, said we were 50-point underdogs. That was the way people viewed it."

A prized game ball — with the score, Hawai'i 10, Washington 7, emblazoned in white — sits in a prominent place in Blangiardi's office of president and general manager at KGMB-TV, enduring testimony to one of the biggest victories in UH history.

Colt and Sol WAC Players of the Week

Congratulations to Colt Brennan and Solomon Elimimian, who were named the WAC's offensive and defensive players of the week.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan, Hawaii linebacker Solomon Elimimian and Boise State placekicker/punter Kyle Brotzman were named the Western Athletic Conference offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week today.

Brennan completed 40-of-53 passes for 495 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions in the WAC title-clinching 39-27 win over Boise State last Friday. He also rushed for 18 yards and a touchdown. Three of his touchdown passes came in the third quarter after Hawaii led just 19-17 at the half. Brennan’s 513 yards of total offense marked the third time this season he had 500 or more in a game.

Elimimian had a game-high 14 tackles (10 solo) in the win over Boise State. Elimimian helped the Hawaii defense limit the Broncos to a season-low 101 yards rushing, including just 14 from the WAC’s second leading rusher – Ian Johnson – over the last three quarters

Sunday Night News

Lots of news about the BCS rankings... and t-shirts. Thanks to Chawan Cut for posting today and keeping up with the compilations.

BCS Ranking Reactions and Analysis

Below are some articles about UH being ranked #12 in the BCS and what it all means. But first, check out the computer rankings to see all that robot love UH got this week.

LSU fan Ryan, who has posted in the comments and on the Tsaiblog great breakdowns of the BCS rankings and how teams ahead and behind UH may affect the Warriors' standing has updated his analysis after the release of today's numbers. Here's his look at this weekend's games:

-#6 Virginia Tech plays #11 Boston College for the ACC championship. Whoever loses this game will likely fall behind Hawaii in the BCS rankings, however, there is a chance Virginia Tech loses and stays ahead of Hawaii so play it safe and hope Boston College loses.

-#8 USC plays unranked UCLA this weekend. A loss by USC would definitley drop them behind Hawaii.

-#9 Oklahoma plays #1 Missouri for the Big 12 Championship. A loss by Oklahoma would drop them behind Hawaii.

-#13 Arizona State plays unranked Arizona. Arizona is ranked slightly higher in the BCS than Hawaii's opponent, Washington, so if Hawaii and Arizona State both win it is possible that Arizona State could jump Hawaii due to how close their BCS rankings currently are. Again, play it safe and root for Arizona.

-#14 Tennessee plays #7 LSU for the SEC Championship. Due to LSU being ranked so high, a win by Tennessee would likely move them ahead of Hawaii.

As things stand, things are looking good if the Warriors can beat the Huskies.

Here's a brief mention of UH from CBS Sportsline's Chris Dodd, who also ranks Hawaii 9th in his power rankings.

Hawaii looks like it's going to clinch an automatic berth if it beats Washington this week. The pollsters and computers were impressed with the Warriors' win over Boise State. Hawaii got a huge lift in the computers (from 22nd to 14th) and benefited from Oregon and Texas losses to move up three spots to No. 12.

From ESPN's Brad Edwards:

And then there's Hawaii. The big win over Boise State vaulted the Warriors three spots into the coveted No. 12 position, which means they should earn an automatic bid to the BCS by closing the season with a win over Washington. The only scenario that could potentially push Hawaii back out of the top 12 would be for BC, Tennessee and Arizona State all to win this weekend.

From CFN's Richard Cirminiello:

The legions of doubters surrounding the program have shrunk considerably since Friday night’s pivotal defeat of Boise State that locked up an outright WAC championship and moved it to No. 12 in the rankings. More important, the Warriors took an enormous step toward that coveted at-large BCS bowl invitation, a berth they’ll secure with a win over Washington this Saturday.

From the New York Sun, Russell Levine illustrates why the BCS would want UH to slip up, with WAC commish Karl Benson trying to allay their concerns.

With the Sugar Bowl their most likely destination, game officials in New Orleans can't be too thrilled at the prospect of selling tickets to Hawaii fans who would face roughly a 4,500-mile trip to the game. While Boise State was able to bring plenty of fans south to Glendale, Ariz., for the Fiesta Bowl last season, the prospect of inviting Hawaii to New Orleans is like a dinner check that nobody wants to pick up.

Yet WAC commissioner Karl Benson is confident that Hawaii could represent itself just fine.

"Hawaii has historically had a great fan following when they play on the mainland," Benson said. "This year when they played UNLV in Las Vegas, they had 12-15,000 fans there and maybe only 2,000 made the trip from the state of Hawaii."

The article also has this from BCS expert Jerry Palm:

The resulting soft slate, which ranks near the bottom of NCAA's strength-of-schedule metrics, is the prime evidence cited by those who feel Hawaii doesn't merit BCS inclusion even at 12-0. According to BCS expert Jerry Palm, it no longer matters. On his Web site Sunday, Palm said Hawaii is a virtual certainty for the BCS if it wins next week.

Michael Hunt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this to say about the BCS as well as the Heisman:

Colt Brennan - now there's a guy I'd vote for just on the coolness of his name - threw for 495 yards against Boise State, which didn't win the national championship last year because it was Boise State. He's passed for more touchdowns than anyone in Division I history. If you put all the footballs he's completed end to end, they'd stretch from Honolulu to Seattle.

It's too bad that no one is taking Colt Brennan seriously for the Heisman, just as Hawaii will get the Boise State treatment in the BCS. Hawaii has a good chance to be 12-0, but the team and its quarterback are regrettably downgraded because of their schedule. It's not always Hawaii's fault, because no one wants to go out there and play the Warriors now that they're good. Just ask Michigan State, which paid a large escape fee to make Hawaii go away.

There will be a lot more about UH and the BCS all throughout this week. Gonna be crazy!

BCS - We're #12!!!!

It has also been announced on TV on Fox, but their website hasn't been updated yet, but here's the poll from scout.com

ok, here's a more detailed nicer looking poll at espn.com.

Just gotta take care of business now this week!

Hawaii UP 3 Spots in AP (#11) & Coaches (#10) & Harris (#10) Polls

(Tombo is without internet at the moment so I'm stepping in. I hope I can make him proud of me...)

Woo! I guess the whole world saw us on ESPN and finally are giving us our due.

UH moves up three spots to #11 in the AP poll.

And UH also jumps up 3 to #10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Top 10 Baby!!!

UPDATE! Harris poll released! #10 too! and we got ONE #1 vote!!! pdf version here!

**** BCS poll to be released later today. Check back later! Can't wait! ****

Warrior Fever, BCS, Big Plays, Washington

Robert Shikina writes about the fan frenzy surrounding UH's championship season.

The whole state seems to be sharing in the University of Hawaii football team's championship victory Friday night.

"You're going to see a little more pride with the state of Hawaii, and people will walk with a little more swagger now," Lt. Gov. James Aiona said yesterday.

The Warriors' winning ways are boosting state pride and boosting business, said Eastside Grill owner Robbie Acoba.

"It helped everybody," he said. "It helped the whole state business-wise, from merchandisers to the run-of-the-mill grill and bar."

Stephen Tsai talks to several players about fan, friend and family reaction to Hawaii's victory over Boise. Colt Brennan talks about what it means for the UH players that have come before.

"I don't think this championship is solely for this team," Brennan said. "It goes to so many teams, ever since coach Jones got here. All of those teams built up this standard, and now we've taken it to the next level."

And he discusses what this team has learned about winning.

Brennan said the Warriors' comeback victories on the road instilled confidence.

"We could be down by 14 or 20 points in the fourth quarter, and we still believe we're still in that football game," he said. "That's the difference in this football team, and that's the difference between winning and losing. That's what a lot of analysts don't realize about what football is and what winning is."

Dave Reardon writes about where Hawaii may end up in today's BCS rankings, which will be released later today.

UH's 39-27 victory over Boise State on Friday -- coupled with losses by No. 9 Oregon and No. 13 Texas -- is expected to push Hawaii up two spots. There's an outside chance that No. 18 Tennessee could move past the Warriors after winning 52-50 at Kentucky, but it is unlikely.

Paul Arnett has a column about WAC commish Karl Benson's and UHAD Herman Frazier's faith in the BCS system.

Benson is confident that if Hawaii takes care of business Saturday night against the Pac-10 Washington Huskies, the Warriors will finish high enough in the BCS standings to merit an at-large selection, a sentiment shared by Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier.

MSNBC contributor John Tamanaha writes that if the Warriors go undefeated, they deserve to play in a BCS Bowl.

Sure, a couple of Hawaii’s victories were of the less-than-dominating variety. Overtime wins over Louisiana Tech and San Jose State aren’t signature victories, but they were both on the road, and the Warriors showed their mettle while overcome deficits in each. The same can be said of their 28-26 victory at Nevada, which led up to Friday’s validating victory over Boise State.

Taking care of business needs to be rewarded. Hawaii has won 21 of its past 22 games, and that one loss to Boise State last season was just avenged.

And whoever was holding this sign at Aloha Stadium is awesome:

Critics will point to Hawaii’s lightweight schedule, but you can’t hold that against these Warriors. Nobody wanted a piece of them. Michigan State was on the 2007 slate, but paid a hefty sum to buy out of the game. Apparently, a couple days on the beach in Waikiki weren’t worth the substantial challenge that Hawaii presents at Aloha Stadium.

Amid the pandemonium on the field after the game, a proud fan paraded around with a sign that said: “People pay us not to play us!” How many teams can say that?

Dave Reardon discusses Colt Brennan's longshot Heisman candidacy and has this week's Warrior Replay. Here's #5:

5. D-line depth

The Setup: Hawaii 39, Boise State 27, 6:25 remaining, fourth quarter, Boise State ball, fourth and 7 at Hawaii 24.
The Play: DE John Fonoti beats star LT Ryan Clady and sacks Tharp for a 12-yard loss and fumble. DT Joshua Leonard recovers.
The Impact: The big play by two of Hawaii's backup defensive linemen emphasizes the team's depth up front. It also helps Hawaii ice the game by consuming the rest of the clock in 13 plays, finishing up inches from the Boise State goal line.
Defensive coordinator Greg McMackin: "We were more disciplined in the second half, but it came down to the players making plays."

Robert Collias of the Maui News writes about Hawaii's special teams play against BSU.

“All week long we emphasized special teams,’’ said Bess, a junior. “My freshman and sophomore years we had troubles with the kicking game against them. We wanted to make sure that didn’t happen this year. The guys on the line did a really, really good job of taking care of their assignments, just executing on special teams and it paid off.’’

Bess said Brotzman and his unorthodox style is hard to deal with.

“Somewhat, it is hard to deal with but at the same time we just wanted to do our part,’’ Bess said. “We didn’t give up any fakes and that was our main goal. We stayed poised and we executed and it worked out.’’

And Ferd Lewis writes about the importance of not having a letdown against Washington.

The school's first outright Western Athletic Conference championship in football has been realized, the Boise "jinx" exorcised and the unbeaten season extended. The two-year win streak stands at 12. All deserving of a hearty pat on the back for the Warriors and necessitating fan revelry to be sure.

But there is a cutoff point at which attention needs to return to what lies ahead for UH rather than immediately behind. There comes a juncture when the big picture is paramount. Let the celebrative hangover from the Boise State victory linger too long and this season of opportunity closes its regular season with a thud rather than a blast.

Ikaika Alama-Francis Update

Even though Ikaika Alama-Francis hasn't had much playing time this year, he's been learning, progressing and getting better and better. Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli has lots of praise for Ikaika in this Detroit Free Press article by Carlos Monarrez.

"Great athlete and he's tough, he'll hit," Marinelli said. "He's a great kid. He wants to please. He's the perfect guy you like in terms of 'want to, desire, smart.' He's got all the things you want to coach. He's going to be a house. He's big as a house right now. He's gonna get bigger.

"I just think he's so raw and so talented and such a good person."

Alama-Francis, who is 6-feet-5 and nearly 300 pounds, knows he has no other option than to excel at his demanding position. The competition is too stiff in the league and in his own locker room.

"In the NFL everybody's good and it's all about you're going to be going up against someone who's just as equal as you are," he said. "But it's all about technique and how you're fluid, play-in and play-out. And being consistent is a good word that a lot of people use, so every day I work on trying to be consistent every play and every down and every game."

He's gonna be a monster!

News About the WAC Champs

Just like typing that, haha. Chawan is working tireless compiling stories from the news anchors and reporters who are themselves working tirelessly documenting this great moment in UH sports history. Please let me know if having 30 videos on the front page of this blog is giving you any problems. It makes my browser slow down, but my computer is slow anyway, so I dunno.

KGMB got lots of news about the fans in the stadium, on the field, around the island, as well as interviews with players, etc. And is that a cameo by K?



KHNL has the same, lots of great interviews, fans buying shirts from Rainbowtique, etc.



From KITV and KHON, fans, players, celebration.



More from KHON:

Blaze's Hit, Colt's Comments, Blogs, Etc.

I know this blog is on video overload right now, but here's another one. More game highlights from ESPN, which includes a clip of Blaze Soares' HUGE HIT on Boise State's Jeremy Avery. Woooooo!!! It also has some post-game comments from Colt. Thanks to UHBows.



Also, check out today's post by Stephen Tsai for some day-after musings and links to video highlights from Leila Wai. And check out Dave Reardon's post and the comments about UH taking a knee to end the game instead of trying to punch it in from less than a yard out.

BCS Scoreboard: 11-24-2007

Here's this week's BCS scoreboard, the most important in UH football history! Until next week. The results in red indicate teams that have won, green for teams that have lost. I'll be updating it throughout the day. New polls come out tomorrow.

UPDATE: With the loss by Kansas today, Hawaii is now the only undefeated team in the nation. That's crazy.

BCS Rank	Team	Result
1	LSU (10-2)	48-50 LOSS vs Arkansas
2	Kansas (11-1)	28-36 LOSS vs #4 Missouri
3	W. Virginia (10-1)	66-21 WIN vs #20 Connecticut
4	Missouri (11-1)	36-28 WIN vs #2 Kansas
5	Ohio State (11-1)	season done
6	Arizona State (9-2)	24-44 LOSS vs #11 USC
7	Georgia (10-2)	31-17 WIN @ Georgia Tech
8	Va. Tech (10-2)	33-21 WIN @ #16 Virginia
9	Oregon (8-3)	0-16 LOSS @ UCLA
10	Oklahoma (10-2)	49-17 WIN vs Oklahoma State
11	USC (9-2)	44-24 WIN @ #6 Arizona State
12	Florida (9-3)	45-12 WIN vs Florida State
13	Texas (9-3)	30-38 LOSS @ Texas A&M
14	Boston Coll. (10-2)	28-14 WIN vs Miami (Fla.)
15	HAWAII (11-0)	39-27 WIN vs #19 Boise State
16	Virginia (9-3)	21-33 LOSS vs #8 Virginia Tech
17	Illinois (9-3)	season done
18	Tennessee (9-3)	52-50 WIN @ Kentucky
19	Boise State (10-2)	27-39 LOSS @ #15 Hawaii
20	Connecticut (9-3)	21-66 LOSS @ #3 West Virginia
21	Wisconsin (9-3)	season done
22	Clemson (9-3)	23-21 WIN @ South Carolina
23	South Florida (9-3)	48-37 WIN @ Pitt
24	Cincinnati (9-3)	52-31 WIN @ Syracuse
25	BYU (9-2)	17-10 WIN vs Utah

Herbstreit Jumps On

After dogging and doubting Hawaii for most of the year, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit jumps on the Warriors' bandwagon in this ESPN College Gameday segment. Lee Corso and Chris Fowler got some good things to say too.

Hawaii vs Boise State Wrap-Ups

What a beautiful morning! I'll be adding to this post throughout the AM (and maybe PM) as I go through all these stories about Hawaii's sweet victory over Boise State.

UPDATE: Done. I think.

To start off, here's game stats and scoring breakdowns from the Advertiser.

Stephen Tsai has a great wrap-up. Here are some excerpts:

"I'm happy," said UH head coach June Jones, who earned the first outright championship of his coaching career. "I'm happy for the state of Hawai'i, and I'm happy for my team. These players are very committed, and they did a hell of a job all year."

The Broncos were held to a season-low 101 rushing yards, with only 32 in the second half.

Running back Ian Johnson, who finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting last year, rushed for 86 yards and two touchdowns — one for 50 yards in the first quarter— but he had only 11 yards after intermission.

"When I signed, people asked, 'Why Hawai'i?'" said defensive back Ryan Mouton, who joined the Warriors in August. "The reason is these guys around here. This is what a team's about — love, family, and competing and fighting to win games."

Dave Reardon's wrap-up has the line of the day.

Hawaii won the physical battle against the team that went unbeaten last year and beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Not only did the Warriors take Cinderella's slipper, they hit her on the head with it. Repeatedly.

"They're physical," BSU coach Chris Petersen said. "When they bring it, they bring it."

Awww damn. And in the same article, Blaze Soares got the line of the year.

"I want to thank ESPN and Mel Kiper," said linebacker Blaze Soares, who had seven tackles, including a huge sack. "He called us a cupcake defense. Well, how do you like these cupcakes? Have some for breakfast."

Mmmm, I hope they're delicious.

Here's a wrap-up from Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman.

Freshmen wideouts Titus Young and Austin Pettis combined for just four catches. Several catchable balls were dropped or knocked out of receivers' hands. And the Warriors sacked Tharp three times and got so much penetration that Johnson often didn't have time to even look for a hole.

"They were just playing with their heads on fire and doing an awesome job and sometimes winning one-on-one battles," Johnson said.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman has a wrap-up as well.

"We proved something tonight to all the so-called experts who picked Boise to beat us. I guess they just don't know what they're talking about," Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan said.

Brennan, the undisputed leader of Hawaii's team and its Heisman hopeful, threw five touchdowns and added a sixth on the ground.

Brennan carved up the Broncos worse than a Thanksgiving turkey, completing 40-of-53 passes. Without enough cornerbacks to play man-to-man, Hawaii feasted on a steady diet of zone coverage. And Boise State rarely applied enough pressure to disrupt Brennan's timing as his receivers ran free.

It was a sublime performance, a conductor in perfect harmony with his symphony.

Not so the Broncos, on this night, a disjointed garage band.

Speaking of those so-called experts, if I have time, I will put-together a compilation of some of their pre-game predictions and hating on UH, awww yeah.

Brian McInnis highlights the performance of the UH offense.

"Ryan, and Davone, and Colt, all of them, they rise to games," quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison said. "Any time a game gets tougher, they get better, and they've always been that way. That was again evident tonight."

Stacy Kaneshiro highlights the performance of the UH defense.

The leader in tackles for lost yardage was Soares. Despite playing with an assortment of aches and pain, the 6-foot-1, 239-pound sophomore linebacker still registered the second-highest number of total tackles on the team with seven, three of them for losses.

"Football, you have to play through pain," he said. "Not only me. Michael Lafaele, Karl Noa. Everybody's battling through pain. A little shoulder injury, my shin. That ain't going to stop me."

Neither could Boise State's blockers.

Kaneshiro also discusses Colt and the offense.

Brennan, who admitted to throwing up before the game, got off to a stutter start, completing 1 of his first 4 passes of the game. He also was intercepted twice on a 40-of-53 night, while breaking two records held by BYU's Ty Detmer.

"I made some mistakes, but I didn't let it affect me," Brennan said. "I bounced back really well when I made mistakes."

Indeed.

Jason Kaneshiro looks at Hawaii's dominant 3rd quarter performance.

Said McMackin: "The guys played their responsibilities and played hard. They were throwing the ball a little bit (in the first half) and we made some adjustments in the second half, blitzed more, tried to put more pressure on (BSU quarterback Taylor Tharp) and our guys made plays. It's not schemes, players make plays."

Dayton Morinaga has an article about the great game by Davone Bess.

One of his finest games in an already stellar career at Hawai'i came in a victory that clinched the Western Athletic Conference title for the Warriors.

"I'm so happy, I'm speechless," the 5-foot-10 junior said. "I give all the credit to my teammates. Without the line blocking, and without Colt (Brennan) throwing me the ball, I'm nothing."

Ferd Lewis talks to coaches, players and spectators about the victory, and writes about the fans storming the field.

The turf turned mosh pit as students and fans stormed the field. Security settled for protecting the goal posts and the departing Broncos. UH fans, meanwhile, danced and hugged. They posed for pictures to mark the occasion. Amid a deafening roar, someone yelled: "Did you ever think you'd see something like this?"

Michael Tsai writes about the UH fans showing aloha to the Boise fans in the stands.

Boise State fan Brooks Aberg, 37, said he expected to face some "issues" when he showed up in a Broncos game uniform, but he was pleasantly surprised at the reception he got from UH fans.

"Everybody has been really good," he said. "We talk back and forth. I was tailgating all day surrounded by Hawai'i fans and we just traded stories and drinks. You all are gracious hosts and we'll definitely be back."

Boise State graduate Zach Smith, 32, said he too had some concerns about coming to the game after hearing stories about what happened to Fresno State fans. Still, he and his wife Jennifer, 27, felt nothing but aloha as they strode through the sea of green.

"I think as long as you're respectful, you'll be treated the same way," Jennifer Smith said. "I don't think I'm concerned at all."

Mark Mooney, 40, flew to Hawai'i for the game as a birthday present to himself. He couldn't figure out what all the concern was about.

"These are some of the nicest fans I've ever seen," he said.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman has more in a story about the Boise fans visiting Hawaii.

But concerns about the safety and security of Boise State fans at Aloha Stadium seemed unfounded before the game. The issue surfaced after incidents at the Warriors' home game with Fresno State and led stadium and university officials to increase security for Friday.

Hawaii coach June Jones appeared in television and newspaper ads, encouraging fans to "show our aloha spirit and exhibit good sportsmanship towards our visitors."

The message seemed to have gotten out. A few scattered boos greeted Bronco fans, but the majority of comments were welcoming to the orange-and-blue clad faithful during the first sellout for Hawaii and the largest crowd in the WAC this season. The press box atop the stadium swayed and the lights flickered at times.

Dan Nakaso was with some UH fans at Eastside Grill.

Worried about UH quarterback Colt Brennan's recovery from a concussion suffered two weeks ago, nearly the entire crowd shouted "Slide, slide, slide!" whenever Brennan carried the ball.

The Star-Bulletin Sports Notebook has some notes about injuries, school records, a happy Mufi, and overcoming some special teams miscues.

"It's satisfying. It wasn't a perfect game, but we were able to overcome a nonperfect game, which shows a lot of character about this team," said kicker Dan Kelly, who had those two PATs blocked and made three others.

Dayton Morinaga has some game notes featuring how UH defense stopped Ian Johnson, John Fonoti's big sack and forced fumble, the record crowd, and some winning streaks that were extended.

Yesterday was Hawai'i's 12th consecutive victory, a streak dating to the final game of last season.

It is the longest winning streak in school history, breaking the former mark of 11 that was set during the end of the 1980 and start of the 1981 seasons.

It is also the longest current winning streak in the nation. At least for the moment.

Kansas, which has an 11-game winning streak, will play Missouri today.

Ian Johnson talks about the game and gives UH props in this Nick Abramo article.

"They (Hawaii) kept scoring, so we needed to pass more," he said. "We wanted to continue to pound the ball, like we did in the first half. Try to wear their defense down. But all we could come up with (in the second half) was possession runs of 3 or 4 yards, just to keep the chains moving. Maybe we abandoned our game plan a little too early."

Johnson was highly impressed with the Warriors.

"We already knew that Hawaii was amazing at home, but over the last three years, they've done so much," he said. "I have nothing but respect for them. They have intensity and their fans have intensity. They had this place sold out and they've put together quite a season."

In his own way, Boise president Robert Kustra complimented Hawaii by saying Boise isn't looking to leave the conference.

Robert Kustra, who said he has written MWC presidents seeking to gauge their interest in Boise State, said, "Frankly, there is no (expansion) talk in the Mountain West that I know of. So, we are completely comfortable continuing to play in the WAC, especially playing teams like Hawai'i. It is a great rivalry (with UH) and one that, one way or the other, I hope can go on for many years no matter what conference we're in."

So generous of him.

Michael Tsai has a few complimentary quotes from Broncos coach Chris Petersen.

"You've got to give credit to Hawai'i," he said. "They've got good players and they play hard. We had our opportunities, but they're an excellent team and we knew it."

Petersen said he thinks the Warriors should be invited to a BCS bowl game if they beat Washington next week.

"They're a heck of a team. They've got great energy and great momentum going now, and if they win out, I do think they ought to go."

Now that the WAC season is over for UH, Billy Hull talks to some of the players about fighting for some national respect.

"Since last spring and into the summer, all we have preached is being WAC champs," Leonard said. "Now that we got it, we can start focusing on the BCS."

Their schedule obviously hasn't been up to the standards of most teams in the country, but it's something out of the players' control.

All they have had control of is winning games, and the Warriors have done it 11 straight times this season and in 21 of their last 22.

"It is what it is," Lewis said. "Everyone has an opinion, but we're the ones actually out here playing. Other teams have lost and we're still undefeated."

And finally, I think, Paul Arnett writes a column about this big victory and a big game against Washington up ahead.

You could hear it in the locker room as they sang songs and relished beating Boise State for the first time in the 21st century. Warriors quarterback Colt Brennan addressed quietly in this massive celebration the possibility of a letdown next week against the Pac-10 foe.

He shook his head and smiled that Colt smile as he said the importance of that game would not be lost in yesterday's celebration. In his mind, the players and coaches know fully what's at stake. It's one thing to be the WAC champions, but qualifying for a major BCS bowl is bigger still.

Just from watching some of their games, the Huskies are a lot better than their record indicates. It'll be a great battle. But for now, basking in the afterglow, awww yeah, right on, woot woot!

WAC CHAMPS, WARRIORS 2007

WWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

OK, SO TIRED, BUT I COULDN'T LET YOU GUYS DOWN. oops. anyways, sorry Tombo but there's gonna be a lot of vids here. there was just too much news to put it all in one vid.

Enjoy and Go Warriors!!!! One more game!!!!!!!

Hawaii 39, Boise State 27

WAC Champs!!!!!!!



What a great game! So many guys stepped it up today. Great performances by Jacob Patek, Ryan Mouton, Colt Brennan, Davone Bess, the entire team, too many to mention right now, wooooo!

Here's some game stats from the UH website.

• UH held Boise State to 315 332 yards of total offense.


• Colt Brennan was 40 of 53 for 495 yards with 5 touchdowns and 2 INTs.


• Davone Bess caught 15 passes for 181 yards and 2 TDs.

UPDATE: Here's an AP wrap-up via ESPN, which also has a couple photos, stats, etc.

Unbeaten. Record-breaking. Western Athletic Conference champion. Maybe BCS bound.

All apply to Colt Brennan and Hawaii.

The Warriors' prolific passer threw five touchdowns to break the major college career record as No. 15 Hawaii (No. 14 AP) beat nineteenth-ranked Boise State (No. 17 AP) 39-27 Friday night to win its first outright Western Athletic Conference title.

Brennan finished 40-of-53 for 495 yards for the Warriors (11-0, 8-0), who set a school record with 12 straight wins and denied the Broncos (10-2, 7-1) a sixth straight conference championship.

Here's a wrap-up from the Advertiser. And oh by the way:

Brennan completed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Grice-Mullins to give Hawai'i a 7-7 tie with 3:53 remaining in the first quarter.

Brennan broke the NCAA career passing touchdown mark with his 122nd. BYU's Ty Detmer held the previous record.

Here's a wrap-up from the Star-Bulletin.

UPDATE 2: CFN has an in-depth "instant analysis" of the game. Here's an excerpt:

In every facet of play, Hawaii exceeded Boise. The Warriors pulled away in the second half because they were able to win while displaying multiple personalities against a Boise bunch known for its resourcefulness. When Hawaii needed finesse football, Brennan and his flotilla of fleet-footed flankers overwhelmed the Broncos’ defense with quick reads, fast throws, and explosive open-field running ability. When the Warriors needed to display strength and power, coordinator Greg McMackin’s defense shut down Ian Johnson and the rest of Boise’s ground game.

Throwing darts with eye-popping consistency, Brennan also showed tremendous pocket presence and a knack for making well-above-average plays with his legs. For a man shrugging off a concussion, Brennan played extremely well; when you then consider the pressure sitting on No. 15’s shoulders before this contest began, one can fairly and legitimately call this the best performance of his tenure as the main gunslinger for yet another prolific Hawaii offense.

Boise writer "Rocketman5000" offers congratulations to the Warriors.

Colt Brennan and company were unstoppable as Brennan picked apart Boise State's talented defense like a surgeon. Brennan, who set an NCAA record for career touchdown passes tonight, was seldom bothered in the pocket and fired passes at will to his bevy of talent receivers.

Congratulations to Hawai'i on an amazing win and to Boise State on a great season in what was supposed to be a "rebuilding year". As Bronco fans know by now, Boise State doesn't rebuild, it reloads. A great game tonight featuring two true champions.

And here's some highlights from the game from ESPN's Neil Everett:

Ways to Follow the Hawaii vs Boise State Game

Bumped!

Even though it's Black Friday, fans going to Aloha Stadium are encouraged to "Think Green" and wear green t-shirts. Here are ways to follow the game:

If you're going to the stadium here's some parking, bus, shuttle and tailgating info compiled by the Advertiser.

Watch it on ESPN2.

Streaming video from ESPN360.com, if your ISP supports it.

Listen to 1420 on your AM dial. Neighbor islands can listen live on KNUI on Maui and KPUA in Hilo.

Streaming audio via 1420 AM online.

Live online stats from Internet Consulting Services via the UH website. You can also get stats from ESPN's Scoreboard, which should have a "Gamecast" link during the game. Or try CBS Sportsline's scoreboard for a "Gamecenter" link.

Oh man, cannot wait. GO WARRIORS!!!!

Hawaii vs Boise State PreGame

Here's some stuff to read and view as we approach kickoff. I'll be adding more and more to this post as I catch up with stuff I missed during Turkey Day. Just wanted to thank Chawan Cut for posting his uploads when I was away. He's a crazy Warrior fan, and we'll have a few of his creations to post this weekend. Anyway, without further ado, pregame stuffs:

Here's an awesome profile of UH graduate assistant Brian Kajiyama, from CSTV.



Orlando from UHWarriorFan.com has a bunch of new photos from this week's practices (as well as many previous practices) up in his 2007 Practice Pics Gallery.



Tim Scott of the Vallejo Times Herald profiles UH safety and Vallejo native Desmond Thomas.

Thomas' road from Vallejo to Hawaii reaches a crescendo, so far, today. Just like it has for the Warriors. Thomas said the Hawaii defense has been getting ready for the multiple shifting that the Boise offense employs.

"We're focused. There's a tenacity, just hunger ready for (today)," Thomas said. "Everybody knows, even the scout guys. ... We came this far, we've got to go all the way."

Here's an AP article from Jaymes Song previewing today's game.

"If we wanted to win the WAC, we knew we had to beat Boise and that's where we're at," Hawaii coach June Jones said. "They do a great job executing. They're good in all phases of the game and we're going to have to play our best game to beat them."

Stephen Tsai had an article yesterday about how June Jones is keeping his cool in the face of the hype. Also in the article, Keenan Jones talks about returning kickoffs, and Fale Laeli says he's good to go.

Dave Reardon had an article with Kealoha Pilares saying his knee is a lot better, along with other injury updates.

Dave Reardon had a few words from Colt Brennan and June Jones about the big game.

The Star-Bulletin had two articles about Aloha Stadium having a zero-tolerance policy against hooligans, and details about traffic control measures.

Dave Reardon wrote how Boise QB Taylor Tharp was almost a Warrior.

For an unmitigated Boise fan who likes dogging UH, Zagco has a pretty good and even-handed preview of the game, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. Of course, he picks the Broncos to win. Actually, a lot of writers are picking Boise to win. But they just don't know!

Paul Arnett had a column taking a look at today's game.

And Ferd Lewis gave thanks.

Black Friday

photo courtesy of UHWarriorFan.com

=======

Dave Reardon has a big gameday preview with stats, probable starting line-ups, players to watch, and this key matchup:

Boise State special teams vs. Hawaii special teams

The Heisman hopefuls, the big guys on the line, the great runners, receivers and defenders -- the big stars, and even the coaches, might just all cancel each other out tonight.

It could all come down to a holder on a point-after-touchdown when Hawaii and Boise State meet for the Western Athletic Conference championship.

It has before.

A blizzard of botched kicks, often having to do with the holder not performing his function, have helped Boise State get the winning edge the last two times the teams met.

Ferd Lewis writes about the bigness of this game.

The game has been sold out for more than two weeks, ESPN2 is here to show it, the Orange Bowl is on hand from Florida to scout it and national media have been talking it up. WAC "Championship" T-shirts are popping up around town and more than 2,000 Bronco fans have brought an Orange Wave of electricity here.

Attached to Ferd's article is some Aloha Stadium parking, shuttle and tailgate info.

Stephen Tsai has a great article with a lot of great quotes from players, coaches and fans about today's game. Here are a few:

"The loser goes home from the prom with his sister," UH offensive line coach Dennis McKnight said. "You don't get points for second place."

Lafaele should be the symbol for the Rehab Hospital of the Pacific. His right hand is fractured; his left wrist is sprained. He also has a strained right knee and sore left quadriceps. After every practice, he sits in an exhausted heap, a scarecrow with unraveling athletic tape hanging from every limb.

"I can't sit out," Lafaele said. "I sat out one game, and it was hurting me inside. I'm all beat up right now. But it's not going to stop me from playing in this game."

For John Wade, the destination could be almost as fun as the journey.

Wade was the pilot of the Hawaiian Airlines jet that brought in several Boise State fans. During the flight, he announced: "Please remove all blue and orange items. The flight attendants will hold them until we land."

Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman has a short preview.

The undercard is over. The main event is here - and it's a doozy.

The five-time defending WAC champions from Boise State hope to continue their conference domination Friday at Aloha Stadium (7:06 p.m., ESPN2).

The undefeated challengers from Hawaii think they can start a dominant new era of their own.

It's the WAC's Game of the Decade for sure - and perhaps the biggest league game in conference history. The victor gets the outright WAC championship, a Top 15 ranking and a possible Bowl Championship Series berth.

Cripe has an article about the preseason Heisman hype for Colt Brennan and Ian Johnson and how they've played this season, details of the "experimental" officiating crew for today's game, and a glimpse at Boise State's strategy against UH.

You hear it all the time: The way to beat a team like Hawaii, which leads the nation with 48 points per game, is to control the ball and eat the clock.

"That's everybody's game plan," Utah State coach Brent Guy said.

Not Boise State's.

The Broncos always have eschewed that idea. They are an aggressive team, and that won't change against the Warriors' high-powered passing attack.

"You've got to do what you've got to do to score points," Petersen said. "You can't just play to keep it away from them."

Les Keiter tells Dave Reardon that this is a huge game in Hawaii sports history.

But the ardent observer of island sports since 1970 said he thinks it is the biggest sports event ever to be staged in Hawaii with interest level as the judge.

"When you say magnitude, there's nothing else," Keiter said. "I know we've had some great boxing matches, volleyball, basketball and baseball games, but nothing that has caught fire with everybody like this. What they've done so far is unbelievable."

Ferd Lewis has a great column about what June Jones has done for the program, and what he still hopes to accomplish.

Even for a coach who resuscitated a once moribund UH program, stanching record losing streaks to make bowl games the rule rather than the exception, this has defining moment written all over it. As crossroads go for UH's winningest coach against an all-college schedule, this is the biggest since he engineered an NCAA record turnaround from the 0-12 (1998) season preceding his arrival to 9-4 in his inaugural season (1999).

Dave Reardon writes about June Jones taking it one game at a time.

But UH coach June Jones is among those who can't sit back and enjoy the ride. Simply, there's still too much traffic ahead.

"You don't really have time to do that. You're getting ready for Boise State," said Jones, when asked if he'd taken a moment to savor the flavor. "I'm sure I'll do that after Washington, before the bowl game. Right now you're just getting plugged into what you're doing."

Dave Reardon writes about BSU coach Chris Peterson trying to keep his team focused.

"We're not gonna get caught up in all the other stuff that doesn't really concern us or help us play better. We're just directing all of our attention right to Hawaii."

And Ferd Lewis writes about the WAC hiring a media consultant to get the word out about UH and BSU.

"He (Rose) has been bird-dogging (media) people making sure they don't overlook WAC teams and the seasons they are having," Benson said. "It is part of a combined effort (with UH and BSU) to try and position our teams, and I think we've seen some positive results," Benson said.

Last news before the big game

headed off to tailgate soon. here's the news from last night. the 3rd clip ends with a nice music video from KITV and Johnson Enos, "We are the Warriors!"

Yes we are. Go Warriors!!!

Turkey and the Ice Man

Not related, but Happy Turkey Day!! And the Iceman, Dan Kelly was the special guest on the L&L show last night. Here's the interview.

TOMORROW!!!! BOISE!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

No posting today, just eating and getting fat. For news, check out the usual suspects in the links -- the newspapers, the message boards, the blogs. Be back either tonight, or on the morning of BLACK FRIDAY!

1 more day!!!

Wednesday stuffs. too tired to summarize, so just watch em... heh. had to split into 2 files again.

UH vs Boise State Previews (and BCS Stuff)

Here's a preview of the game from the AP.

For the Western Athletic Conference, the day after Thanksgiving might as well be a holiday, too.

No. 17 Boise State plays at No. 14 Hawaii on Friday night, putting the WAC’s best on display for the whole country to watch. The league hopes what poll voters and bowl organizers see is at least one team worthy of a Bowl Championship Series bid. Maybe even two.

Here's a preview from The Sports Network.

No longer a pushover on the defensive side of the ball, the Warriors are actually getting pretty good at the game, allowing opponents just 23.5 ppg to rank second in the conference and 38th in the nation at the moment. Considering how much teams have to resort to passing the ball once the Warriors post numerous touchdowns early in games, the secondary has been rather impressive in allowing just 223.4 ypg to rank third in the WAC. Opposing quarterback under the gun are not only facing a quick secondary, they are also having to prepare for a mad pass rush that is first in the WAC and fourth in the nation in both sacks (3.5 per game) and TFLs (8.6).

Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced some measures being taken to ease traffic congestion and boost security for the game.

Mayor Hannemann said, “With the undefeated UH Warriors and Boise State Broncos meeting on Friday afternoon for WAC title bragging rights, on top of the post-Thanksgiving shopping spree and rush-hour traffic, we’re anticipating a lot of traffic congestion and we will be prepared.”

He said the City will have technicians manually operating traffic signals at key intersections surrounding Aloha Stadium, while the Traffic Management Center will be providing information to the radio stations.

The LA Times' Chris Dufresne takes a look at this week's matchups, including UHvBSU, and talks to Karl Benson about the rankings.

Kansas is No. 1 in Jeff Sagarin's ratings this week with a schedule rank of 101; Hawaii is No. 32 with a schedule rank of 153.

No one is arguing Hawaii should be ranked ahead of Kansas, but why the discrepancy?

Benson thinks a built-in bias favors BCS conference schools.

"The system is built around the six conferences," Benson said. "And whether it's preseason rankings or regular season rankings, the teams in those leagues are going to get greater recognition."

Tim Dahlberg of the AP writes about the big thing working against UH if it has to rely on an at-large bid.

Everyone, it seems, loves an underdog. But they don't necessarily want to watch them in a BCS game, and Hawaii's selection as an at-large team isn't guaranteed as long as the first mission of the BCS operatives is to keep their rich television sponsors happy.

And by the way, next week's game against Washington is pretty much sold out.

General-public tickets for the University of Hawai`i football team's regular season finale against Washington on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m. at 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium are sold out. Less than 200 UH student tickets remain for the contest, which will be televised on ESPN2.

June Jones on Rome is Burning

Great interview, about six minutes long. Coach Jones talks about the upcoming game, the Heisman, the rankings, etc. Thanks to UHBows for uploading the video.

Wednesday Articles Leading Up to THE BIG GAME

Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman profiles Adam Leonard.

Leonard is one of the top contenders for the WAC Defensive Player of the Year award going into Friday's showdown with Boise State (7:06 p.m., ESPN2). He has 87 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, four interceptions and two touchdowns this season.

Leonard (6 foot, 236 pounds), a third-year junior who has helped turn the defense into a strength, senses a difference this year.

"We're finally playing together as a unit," he said. " We're making more big plays that change the game."

And many of them have come from Leonard, who also has a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two sacks.

"He's been a big-play guy," defensive coordinator Greg McMackin said. " He's a great player with a great attitude."

Dave Reardon writes that Herman Frazier has friends who are telling him that BCS conferences don't want Hawaii in a BCS game. You don't say!

"(Athletic directors from) non-BCS schools think people don't want us to be in that position. ... They say, 'Herm, there's guys at some of those schools that don't want you there. Look and see who's won nine games and is on the BCS bubble,' " Frazier said.

Also on that page is an article about the BCS expanding their at-large eligible teams in case there's not enough in the top 14, and a profile of Keala Watson:

"He just has that wit about him, anything can turn into a joke around him. He's a fun guy to have around. Walrus, he always keeps us on our toes," linebacker Adam Leonard said.

"And you can see how hard he works, especially getting down in weight from last year (334 to 300 on his 6-foot-3 frame). I was shocked to see how much he changed. He's been making plays the past two years. He's one of those guys that when he comes in the game we have confidence he'll get the job done."

Stephen Tsai also has an article on Keala Watson and his wife Leona.

And she has watched as he has ascended the depth chart. Keala is now in the starting rotation at defensive tackle.

"He's doing a really good job," defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said.

While Keala is living up to his promise on the football field, he wanted to keep a promise he made 3 1/2 years ago when he took a knee and proposed to Leona.

"She was crying," Keala said. "She cried for five minutes. I was like, 'is that yes or no?' She said, 'yes.' "

Stephen Tsai has notes about Kealoha Pilares' knee improving, Davone Bess' thoughts on leaving for the NFL, Colt discussing a low hit on him by a Boise corner last year, Hawaii's win over BSU in 1999, and great news for Rustin Saole and the UH special teams.

Saole, a valuable member of three special-team units, missed the past two games because of a partially torn medical collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee.

But he received medical clearance, and he was back on the kick-return and punt units yesterday. He is expected to rejoin the kickoff team today.

"I feel pretty good — 100 percent," Saole said.

Coming up on the biggest game in UH football history, Ferd Lewis recounts some other big and important UH games from years past. Here's #3, which is always a nice one to remember:

3. UH 56, BYU 14 (Oct. 28, 1989) — UH broke out of the 10-game, 11-year BYU "jinx" to set the stage for the school's first NCAA bowl game. As Wagner told the team before the game: "Guys, it doesn't have to be close." It wasn't. Coach: Wagner.

Alexandre Da Silva has an article on those wonderful scalpers.

And finally, Chadd Cripe talks to June Jones about the trophy back-and-forth Ferd Lewis wrote about earlier.

"How often does anyone ever go undefeated and have that type of year and do everything they did?" Jones said. "I just thought he deserved it."

So where's that trophy now?

"It's in my office," Jones said, "behind a bunch of things."

Fittingly enough, the winner of Friday's game likely will get the 2007 WAC Coach of the Year award.

And like the WAC title, this one will be undisputed. Two more days!

UH Worthy of BCS? (w/UPDATE)

Steve Megargee of Rivals.com writes a great, even-handed article highlighting some of the stereotypes and arguments against the Warriors being in a BCS game (one-man team, defense, weak schedule) along with counterpoints quashing, or at least questioning, some of those misconceptions. Here's the intro:

There's little reason to believe Hawaii would win a BCS game.
The Warriors probably don't have a good-enough defense to survive against a big-time opponent. Their high-powered offense likely wouldn't operate as effectively against a BCS-caliber defense.

Then again, most of the nation said the same things about Boise State this time last season.

Argue all you want about Hawaii's allegedly soft defense or softer schedule. The Warriors still deserve a chance to measure themselves in a BCS bowl if they beat Boise State and Washington in their two remaining regular-season games.

UPDATE: Just wanted to add other BCS related articles to this post...

Ferd Lewis talks to the BCS Guru about Hawaii's chances of getting into a BCS game.

For UH to finish in the top 12 without a compelling win over Boise State or some help from other teams "from where they are right now is probably a little bit of a stretch," according to Chi, a former San Francisco sports writer.

"The problem for them is they need all the votes they can get in the polls because the computers are just not going to help a whole heckuva lot at this point because of Hawai'i's schedule," Chi said.

Darrel Moody has a few words from Karl Benson, who remains optimistic.

"I'm disappointed that that the polls were not more fair to Hawaii and Boise State," Benson said. "There is an opportunity in this coming week to be a correction, even the weekend of Dec. 1. There are so many games being played with teams ahead of Hawaii and Boise State.

"The Boise game as well as the Washington game will enhance the computer rankings. I'm still very confident that the system in place will place accordingly a 12-0 Hawaii team."

Tuesday Night News

Compilations from the man, the myth, the 10-second haircut.

KHON has stories about the parking for the upcoming game, Dan Kelly and the hype. KITV has stories about fan excitement, traffic and a weather forecast:



More from KITV, as well as KHNL and KGMB previewing the game, looking at t-shirt sales, etc.

Show Your Aloha

Here's a message to the fans, from Coach June Jones and the UH Athletics Department:



Amen. And if you don't want to listen to June, well, KHNL's John Fink got a slightly different message for you:



And not that I need to say this, but the VAST majority of UH fans are great, show aloha to opposing fans, and are not the monsters you may have heard about. Here's to a great game on Friday.

Injury Reports, BOISE!!!

Stephen Tsai writes that Colt Brennan is good to go for the Boise game, has a few, but not nearly enough details of Dan Kelly's dad's "Fat Man Dance," and has injury updates on Fale Laeli and Kealoha Pilares.

Running back Kealoha Pilares has been cleared to play. He missed the past two games because of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

"I'm trying to get my leg stronger," Pilares said. "I want to play without a brace."

Defensive tackle Fale Laeli said he will play despite a fractured rib. He suffered the injury in the second quarter against Nevada. "I thought it was a spasm, but a spasm usually goes away," Laeli said. "The thing kept on when I talked and breathed."

Brian McInnis has injury updates on Fale Laeli (who is good to go), Michael Lafaele (ditto) and Kealoha Pilares. Also on that page, Boise coach Chris Petersen has a few things to say about the matchup.

"If you're gonna be a good team it's not about one guy," Petersen said of both of the WAC's poster boys -- Johnson and Brennan -- missing time for their teams. "Certain positions get a lot of attention, but if you're gonna have a really good team, you're gonna have a lot of good players. At certain times, guys get banged up, and other guys gotta step up and carry the flag, and I think both teams have had that happen."

Here's a quote from Ian Johnson, from an AP article by Todd Dvorak.

"This game is really huge," Broncos running back Ian Johnson said. "We've done everything to get to this point. This is the pinnacle of our season right now ... the little turning point of whether we finish it off strongly or not. This is the biggest thing for us right now."

Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman talks to Colt Brennan (lot of the same quotes from his blog) and writes about how Boise is preparing for the game.

"We're going over there not for a vacation," Petersen said. "We're going over there to play a game. That's one of the traps teams can fall into. Hawaii is a beautiful place. You think it's time to relax and enjoy the people around you. That's playing right into their hands."

Boise State lost one day of preparation for the Hawaii game, the day the team usually uses to review the previous game. The players took Sunday off while the coaches developed the game plan - they did not do any work in advance, Petersen said - and practice began Monday. The Broncos will practice Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning and leave campus at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Stephen Tsai has some great quotes from UH coaches and players about the upcoming game.

"Just to think about where we were our first year, what we've come to now, to be sitting here at 10-0, I mean, it's been a journey," Brennan said. "Now it's time to have fun and play this football game, which is probably the most anticipated football game for us all season. I mean, you can't even sleep. You can't even get through the day right now. It's that exciting."

"You have to give respect where respect is due," Elimimian said. "They're the champs, and we want the title. They're a great team. We're going to have to battle them. May the best team win on Friday."

And Ferd Lewis writes about the friendly rivalry between June Jones and Chris Petersen and some of the controversy in Idaho over last year's WAC Coach of the Year award.

The voting was blasted in Boise, where outraged fans apparently continue to nurse a hefty grudge. "Jones isn't popular because he won last year's WAC Coach of the Year Award," the Idaho Statesman noted just last month.

Whether Jones got wind of what supposedly went down, to his credit, he packed up the plaque and shipped it off to Petersen. Whereupon, Boise officials say, Petersen re-bundled it up and sent it right back. The official explanation from Boise: Jones was voted the honor and should keep it.

Reading between the lines you can see a lot of pique and pride all around: Jones unwilling to accept an award with a cloud over it and Petersen not about to take it from a coach he had beaten and what his peers had denied him.

Jones could try to pass it back again when they meet at midfield Friday. But you know what they are possibly thinking: Double or nothing?

Monday News Leading Up to Boise State

Chawan got the compilations, with news about the Nevada game, Dan Kelly and Tyler Graunke winning WAC POTW awards, the Boise game hype, scalpers making money, increased security at the game, June's PSA, parking info, etc. And there was so much he had to split it into two parts...





...and he didn't even include Liz Chun's report, which luckily you can watch here at the KGMB website.

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.

Graunke and Kelly WAC Players of the Week

Congratulations to Tyler Graunke and Dan Kelly.

University of Hawai'i quarterback Tyler Graunke and placekicker Dan Kelly today were named the Western Athletic Conference offensive and special teams players of the week, respectively.

Here's a USA Today article about the WAC's standing in the polls and rankings.

"Terribly disappointed," Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said of the fall of his two teams in the coaches' poll. "As for Hawai'i, people don't realize how good a win that was at Nevada with a short week, Nevada had a bye, the altitude, the travel, and the Heisman Trophy candidate on the bench. I don't see how anyone could not recognize that as not just as a quality win, but a tremendous win."

Benson was equally puzzled with Boise's slip. "The polls are so fickle, and I understand their volatility and that the quality of the opponent (Idaho) was not there, but for a team that doesn't play to jump a team that blows out a team it's hard to predict," the commissioner said. (Virginia, which had been idle, was one of the teams that moved ahead of Boise; Boston College, which won at Clemson, was the other.)

And Ferd Lewis writes about Boise State's winning streak against UH.

So long and so maddening had Brigham Young University's streak of football victories over the University of Hawai'i become by the late 1980s that an elderly fan stopped then-head coach Bob Wagner in his tracks with an urgent appeal.

"Please, beat BYU before I die," the fan implored.

It isn't known how long the fan lived, but Wagner's team shortly complied, ending BYU's streak at 10 games over 11 years in 1989.

If June Jones doesn't want to soon begin fielding the same requests, Friday night would be a good time to end Boise State's string of victories over UH as it nears BYU-like proportions.

And I'm gonna be crazy busy today, so I probably can't post anything else until tonight. Check out the noa7588's Youtube page for a new C&K Show, OBhawaii's Youtube page for a new June Jones Show. Irse has it as well.

P.S. Checkout Warriorshaka.com, which has gone through a major revamp.

Sunday stuffs

Ha! Beat Tombo this time... and got all 4 of the stations for you Warrior fans.

More recap and player interviews of this past Friday's game, as well as the polls news. Also they begin the preview and hype for Boise... BOISE!!!!!

Enjoy!

Hawaii Up to #15 in BCS Rankings

UPDATE: Here's a link to an official release of the poll.

Wow again. UH drops in the polls, but moves up one spot to #15 in the BCS Rankings. It looks like we got more robot love than last week to push us just past Virginia. Boise drops one spot to #19.


Thank you Mr. Robot.

Hawaii Drops to #13 in Coaches Poll (#14 in AP, #13 in Harris)

Bumped with release of Harris poll.

Despite a great win on the road, Hawaii drops one spot to #13 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. USC, which had a bye, jumps UH. Boise drops two spots to #17. Not a good way to start the morning!

UPDATE: UH drops one spot to #14 in the AP poll. While this poll isn't part of the BCS rankings, it's still influential. Not a good trend.

UPDATE 2: Wow. Hawaii drops two spots to #13 in the Harris Poll (PDF). UH gets leapfrogged by idle Texas and idle USC. I'm wondering if people realize the Warriors won the game.

UPDATE 3: Here's an HTML version of the Harris Poll.

Iceman, Graunke, Nevada, Showdown

Dave Reardon takes us into the coaches' locker room after the game, talks to coaches and players about big plays and strategies, and has this week's Warrior Replay, which has been renamed Warrior Report. Here's #4:

4. Forced to punt

The Setup: Nevada 26, Hawaii 25, around 2:30 remaining, fourth quarter, Nevada ball, third and 4 at Hawaii 36.
The Play: RB Brandon Fragger is given the ball up the middle. He is met immediately by S Desmond Thomas, who holds him to a 1-yard gain. It is Thomas' game-high 11th tackle.
The Impact: Nevada punts and Hawaii takes over at its own 12 with 2:16 left. Graunke drives the team downfield in a well-executed 2-minute drill to set up Dan Kelly's winning field goal.
Thomas: "I'm just going to fill that hole, and praise God, I made the play."

Dane Kelly talks to the Star-Bulletin about being the Iceman.

This time Kelly smacked it true, a kick that would've easily been good from at least 60 yards.

Hawaii wins, 28-26, thanks to the Iceman.

"It's an old nickname from back when I played club soccer. It's stuck with me from the time I was a freshman in high school. It died when I came to the rock, the islands, because no one else knew it," Kelly said.

It's back now.

Stephen Tsai highlights Tyler Graunke's great performance, and gives us a look at how he was announced as the starter to the rest of the team.

The night before the game, head coach June Jones summoned the players for a special meeting. It was then that Jones announced that Brennan, who had suffered a concussion in the previous game, would not start and only be used for a handful of specific plays. Jones then handed the offense to Graunke, a fourth-year junior who had made two UH starts.

In an act of team unity, each player went up and expressed his faith in Graunke.

"That was one of the coolest things ever," Graunke said. "I'm sure the fans were concerned, but our team has full confidence in me and Inoke (Funaki, the third-string quarterback). After that little team talk, I felt unbelievably special. This is a special team. We're 10-0 for a damn good reason, because we're a bunch of great football players who play together."

Awesome.

Ferd Lewis looks ahead to the gigantic UH-BSU showdown and what it means for the WAC.

It sets in motion this week's long-awaited showdown of unbeaten UH (10-0) and once-beaten Boise State (10-1), not only a battle for the conference championship but a milestone moment of arrival for the WAC. UH's win, coupled with the Broncos' 58-14 victory over Idaho yesterday, sets the table for what should be, after the polls come out today, the first collision of two top-15 WAC teams in 13 years. Not since the breakup of the old 16-team conference after the 1998 season has it had two teams even meeting while in top-20 positions.

And Paul Arnett has a column comparing this season to the great 1992 season.

Yeah Yeah

I was a little late with my compilation... here it is.

You know people are too lazy to go and hunt through each of the individual news websites to find the vids. Thats why I'm here.

Although I missed the KITV one too. The Oklahoma/Texas Tech game went too long and screwed up my recording. Anyways, here's the other 3 (in 2 vids):

News Reports about the Nevada Game

Chawan needs a break from posting videos, but he'll get back to it soon. In the meantime, you can go straight to the source..

Here's a recap of the game from KHNL's Jason Tang.

And here's a great segment from KGMB's Mike Cherry. It includes an interview with Dan Kelly, who has some hilarious things to say about Nevada trying to ice the Iceman. Ryan Grice-Mullins, who has high praise for Kelly, is interviewed as well. UPDATE: Here's an AP article with the quotes from Kelly.

KITV has a Youtube page, though as of right now they don't have any highlights of the game.

KHON doesn't have any recent videos.

BCS Scoreboard: 11-17-2007

Sorry this is so late, but here's this week's BCS scoreboard. The results in red indicate teams that have won, green for teams that have lost. Some big losses at the top. Let's hope the humans and the robots take into account UH's tough win on the road with the backup QB. Polls out tomorrow.

BCS Rank	Team	Result
1	LSU (10-1)	41-24 WIN @ Mississippi
2	Oregon (8-2)	24-34 LOSS @ Arizona
3	Kansas (11-0)	45-7 WIN vs Iowa State
4	Oklahoma (9-2)	27-34 LOSS @ Texas Tech
5	Missouri (10-1)	49-32 WIN @ Kansas State
6	West Virginia (9-1)	28-23 WIN @ #22 Cincinnati
7	Ohio State (11-1)	14-3 WIN @ #21 Michigan
8	Arizona St. (9-1)	bye
9	Georgia (9-2)	24-13 WIN vs #23 Kentucky
10	Virginia Tech (9-2)	44-14 WIN vs Miami (Fla.)
11	USC (8-2)	bye
12	Florida (8-3)	59-20 WIN vs Florida Atlantic
13	Texas (9-2)	bye
14	Virginia (9-2)	bye
15	Clemson (8-3)	17-20 LOSS vs #17 Boston Coll.
16	HAWAII (10-0)	28-26 WIN @ Nevada
17	Boston College (9-2)	20-17 WIN @ #15 Clemson
18	Boise State (10-1)	58-14 WIN vs Idaho
19	Illinois (9-3)	41-22 WIN vs Northwestern
20	Tennessee (8-3)	25-24 WIN vs Vanderbilt
21	Michigan (8-4)	3-14 LOSS vs #7 Ohio State
22	Cincinnati (8-3)	23-28 LOSS vs #6 West Virginia
23	Kentucky (7-4)	13-24 LOSS @ #9 Georgia
24	Connecticut (9-2)	30-7 WIN vs Syracuse
25	Wisconsin (9-3)	41-34 WIN @ Minnesota

From the Blogs (and Gameday)

Stephen Tsai has some "day-after ramblings."

Last night had to be one of the best coaching jobs by the UH staff in years.
Rotating three quarterbacks on the first drive and opening with a five-wide offense? Very creative.
Implementing a nine-man defensive front that left the cornerbacks in single coverage? Gutsy.
Calling for the middle blitz in which the defensive tackles looped to the perimeter? Brilliant, especially when d-tackle Keala Watson forced a crucial fumble.
The Warriors are 10-0 today because UH out-coached Nevada last night.

Tsai also has links to a bunch of video highlights shot by Leila Wai.

Dave Reardon has a great post about UH winning on the road this season. Here's an excerpt:

While Hawaii’s soft schedule has rightfully been ripped by pundits and could still prove to be the Warriors’ undoing when it comes to a BCS bowl bid, one thing should be remembered:

UH’s schedule will always be uniquely difficult for one inherent reason: The Warriors must travel at least 2,000 miles for every road game. No other school can claim that.

And after Chawan Cut stayed up late into the night celebrating the Warriors' victory, he woke up early to compile this video of the ESPN College Gameday crew showing highlights of Hawaii's victory, as well as shots from the crowd where at least two Hawaii fans were representin UH in a sea of Michigan fans.

UH vs Nevada Wrap-Ups

Here's a scoring breakdown and game stats from the Advertiser.

Stephen Tsai has a lot of great quotes in his wrap-up. Here are some excerpts, including the Iceman talking about having to kick the game-winning field goal twice:

"The first one was really ugly," Kelly said of what essentially became a practice kick. "It was a hooker. It looks better for ESPN if the kick is nice."

Awww yeah. Bess talks about Tyler:

"We have so much faith in Tyler," said left slotback Davone Bess, who caught 12 passes for 137 yards. "It goes back to practice. He works so hard."

And about winning it for Tim Grasso:

"We wanted to win it for Tim," Ryan Grice-Mullins said of holder Tim Grasso, whose grandfather Tony died on Tuesday. Grasso wore a T on his left sleeve, and his emotions on the other.

"It was so emotional for me," said Grasso, who attended a wake on Wednesday and rejoined the team Thursday. "I wanted this so much.

Grice-Mullins said: "That's what this year is about. Not just winning, but playing for each other. We love each other. We're brothers. That's why I have tears in my eyes. We did it for each other."

Dave Reardon's wrap-up has some quotes from the coaches.

"We're not just Colt Brennan. We have a lot of good players and they all raised their game," UH coach June Jones said.

"Everyone is always talking about that offense, but they are a good solid defense," Nevada coach Chris Ault said.

Here's more from Dan Kelly, in an article by Robert Perea.

"A kick is a kick, whether it's a PAT, or 45-yarder, it's what we train for," Kelly said, sipping a Diet Pepsi outside the Warriors' locker room. "The only kickers who miss after getting iced are the ones who think about getting iced.

"You've got to keep the mindset that it's just another kick," he added. "You can train for that kind of pressure if you have the right mindset."

Before Kelly's attempt, injured quarterback Colt Brennan gave the junior kicker a tap on the helmet and reaffirmed something Kelly already knew.

"He just told me he believed in me," Kelly said. "Just like we have faith in Colt and the rest of our teammates, they have faith in me. It's a family and we're all brothers."

Ferd Lewis has a great column about the Warriors' come-from-behind victory.

In those agonizing final moments, the Warriors were led by Graunke, a quarterback who believed in his abilities even when an Aloha Stadium crowd had chanted for his replacement two months ago, and Dan Kelly, a kicker whose confidence Nevada couldn't rattle with timeouts.

"It is tremendous testimony to the kids," head coach June Jones marveled. "They really believe in each other, trust each other,"

And they picked each other up. "Colt was there for me (on the sideline) calming me down," Graunke said. "I owed it to him."

Billy Hull writes about Tyler Graunke's big night.

Thrust into the starting lineup in place of an injured Colt Brennan, Graunke completed 33 of 46 passes for 358 yards and two touchdowns.

More importantly, he led the team on a 61-yard drive in the final 2:16 to set up the game-winning field goal by Dan Kelly.

"Tyler has been practicing the 2-minute drill for almost four years and made it work," Hawaii coach June Jones said.

"Whenever I get called upon I just do what I can to help my team win," Graunke said. "I prepared myself all season for situations like this."

Hull also has details about Hawaii's crazy opening drive.

Hawaii opened the game by giving Nevada many different looks at quarterback. Graunke completed the first pass of the game before giving way to Brennan. Later on the opening drive, Inoke Funaki took two snaps as all three quarterbacks saw action in the opening minutes.

"(Nevada) had two weeks to practice," Jones said. "I just wanted to give them something else to think about for awhile."

Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal has a wrap-up. Here's an excerpt about the last drive:

His backup, Tyler Graunke, engineered the game-winning drive. The Warriors took over at the Nevada 12 with two minutes, 10 seconds left to play, and Graunke completed 7-of-11 passes for 61 yards to set up Kelly. The drive included a crucial 13-yard pass on third-and-6 from the Pack 45.

"I know he's a gamer," Jones said of Graunke. "He plays under pressure. He's a competitive kid. I'm proud if him."

Here's a game summary by Darrell Moody of the Nevada Appeal.

Brennan? Hawaii don't need no stinkin' Colt Brennan to have success in the first half.

Brennan played two plays in the first half, completing two passes for 26 yards. Most of the half was turned over to Graunke, who completed 15 of 18 for 123 yards and a score. Graunke engineered three scoring drives, scoring himself on a 7-yard run.

The Star-Bulletin Notebook details a big stop by the UH defense.

With Hawaii out of timeouts and 3 minutes remaining, Nevada had a third down in Warrior territory. Holding onto a one-point lead, a first-down conversion would have allowed the Wolf Pack to run out the clock.

The Wolf Pack's 48th rushing attempt of the game went to Brandon Fragger up the middle. Safety Desmond Thomas, who was thrust back into the starting lineup just last week after an injury to Keao Monteilh, filled the hole immediately and stopped Fragger well short of the marker.

"It's my job to make that play," Thomas said. "I figured they were going to run the ball. They had been doing that all night."

Mike Fitzgerald gets reaction from the Nevada coaches and players.

"They're a good team," Kaepernick said. "They can play. That's why they're undefeated and where they are today."

Defensive tackle Matt Hines was still in shock afterward.

"I'd rather lose by 50 points than like that by two," he said. "It was a tough game. We should have come out on top.

"A lot of guys were yelling and screaming in there (the locker room), but we have two more games left and a chance to go 7-5. We don't need to keep our heads down. We played a good game."

Ault just shook his head when asked if holding high-scoring Hawaii to 28 points should have meant a certain victory.

"We don't talk about holding a team to a certain number of points," he said. "We just needed to find a way to score more than they did."

Is Hawaii a BCS team?

"Yes," Ault said. "They definitely are."

ESPN's Mark Schlabach has a quote from Colt, who talks about his status leading up to this game.

"We just wanted to keep it a secret," Brennan said. "We didn't want to give Nevada a whole week to prepare knowing that I wasn't going to play. The whole goal was to make it seem like I could play and I might play, and you never really know what could happen as the game goes on. If the game had gone a different direction, maybe I would have got in there more. But because Tyler was playing so well, we decided to let him stick it out."

Sneaky! However, as Ferd Lewis details, ESPN almost blew Colt's cover.

University of Hawai'i head coach June Jones' attempts to keep the Warriors' starting quarterback decision under wraps was spoiled Thursday evening when an ESPN staffer leaked the information from a supposed embargoed production meeting, UH officials said.

ESPN put out a news bulletin that Colt Brennan would not start and later that night, after protests from UH, retracked the bulletin.

Jones regularly meets with ESPN crews before games to help them plan their camera and coverage plans. Information supplied at those meetings, UH says, is provided with the understanding it is not to be made public until the game.

June Jones praises Nevada running back Luke Lippincott in this article by Steve Ranson.

"He's a very north-south guy, a blue collar running back," said UH coach June Jones. "Every time he's getting hit, he's falling forward."

Jones said Lippincott's direct style of running fits Nevada's offense.

"It's perfect for what they are trying to do for a back," he said.

Will Hoover talks to some fans who watched the game at Murphy's Bar and Grill.

For Eric Wahilani of Wai'anae, the come-from-behind win in the final seconds was cathartic.

"Double high-fives!" he screamed until he was hoarse as he bulled his way up and down the street between Bethel and Nu'uanu smacking hands with everyone in his path. "Ten in a row! Ten in a row!

"I've been a fan of UH football since I was a kid — my whole life. Hawai'i has never got any respect."

Robert Shikina was also at Murphy's.

"Thought it would be fun," Don Murphy said, adding that some of the proceeds would help the Hawaii Children's Cancer Foundation. "What better way to celebrate our 20th anniversary?"

Marion Murphy said they could have had a rock band to celebrate but felt Hawaii football was a perfect fit.

"I love this," she said behind her brown-framed glasses. "These guys have so much heart."

And finally, here's a postgame extra segment from the ESPN broadcasters who called the game.

Hawaii 28, Nevada 26 (w/UPDATES)

UPDATE: Here's some highlights of the game from ESPN News.



Dan "Clutch" Kelly.

You can't ice the Iceman!

And like a Phoenix out of Arizona, Tyler Graunke rose to the occasion.

WHAT A GAME. Colt Brennan is a great player, but without him, these Warriors stepped it up, rallied together, and showed everyone how great a team this is. With so many things going against them, what a great win by UH on the road.

WAY TO GO WARRIORS!!!!

News articles to follow. Here's some unofficial game stats from CBS Sportsline.

UPDATE: Here's a post-game wrap-up from Stephen Tsai.

Here's a wrap-up from Dave Reardon.

Here's an AP wrap-up via ESPN, so it has links to stats, scoring breakdowns, video, etc.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, here's a wrap-up from The Sports Network.

"That was a total team victory right there," Graunke said. "We never won in Reno, and I really wanted to step up and prove to my team and help them rally."

Ways to Follow the Hawaii at Nevada Game

Bumped. Excitement mounts.

Watch it on ESPN2.

Streaming video from ESPN360.com, if your ISP supports it.

Listen to 1420 on your AM dial. Neighbor islands can listen live on KNUI on Maui and KPUA in Hilo.

Streaming audio via 1420 AM online.

Live online stats from ESPN's Scoreboard, which should have a "Gamecast" link during the game. Or try CBS Sportsline's scoreboard for a "Gamecenter" link.

And please feel free to comment if you find other ways of following the action. Gonna be a great game. If Colt can't go, I have the greatest faith in Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki to run the show. We'll soon see!

GO WARRIORS!!!!

Colt on PTI

Big thanks to Orlando for uploading this interview of Colt Brennan from ESPN's Pardon the Interruption. It's about five minutes long.

GameDay: Hawaii at Nevada

Stephen Tsai writes about the QB situation.

But practices are different from games, and while declaring himself to be physically fit, Brennan acknowledged he has no vote in the decision regarding his availability.

ESPN yesterday retracted its report that Brennan would not play, citing "misinformation." UH spokesman Derek Inouchi said it will be a "game-time" decision.

Brennan did not practice Monday and Tuesday. He was limited to five passes Wednesday. During yesterday's walk-through practice, Tyler Graunke took almost all of the snaps. Graunke, who has started one game this season, and Inoke Funaki are the only other quarterbacks on the travel roster.

Also from Tsai's article:

The Warriors also can clinch a share of the WAC title with a victory tonight.

UPDATE: Anonymous points out that this isn't necessarily the case.

Stephen Tsai's gameday preview has a breakdown of the offense, defense and specialists for both teams, highlights the creativity of June Jones and Chris Ault, and notes how the Warriors will adjust to the altitude.

Altitude? It's about attitude. "Once we get running and sweating, we'll be all right," Newberry said of playing at 4,546 feet above sea level. "We run a lot, anyway."

In preparation for Reno's breathtaking thinner air, the Warriors ran extra sprints this week. "Nobody runs more than we do in practice; it's like a track meet," said Rich Miano, who coaches the defensive backs. "They'll be fine."

Dave Reardon discusses the reasons why some are calling this the ultimate trap game, takes a look at offense, defense and special teams for both UH and Nevada, and has this key matchup:

Hawaii blocking vs. Nevada defense

Nevada isn't much of a blitzing team, but the Wolf Pack might try to become more of one tonight for its own good.
If Colt Brennan plays six days after suffering a concussion, it is Nevada's duty to go after him and try to get him out of the game and disrupt the Hawaii offense.

And even if Tyler Graunke and/or Inoke Funaki play instead of Brennan, a physical pass rush is a good idea against a passing team that is forced to use less experienced backups at quarterback.

Nevada is 70th in the nation with 1.9 sacks per game and has been credited with just five quarterback hurries in nine games. UH is 55th at protecting the quarterback, yielding the same number of sacks as Nevada has produced. Of course, the sack-per-pass-attempt rate is much better for Hawaii than for most other schools.

Ferd Lewis adds that it's hard to win in Nevada.

In his 23 years as head coach, Ault has won 82.5 percent of the games here, including 18 of the last 22.

Opponents decry how hard it can be to win at Aloha Stadium. But even the Warriors' numbers — a 60 percent winning percentage overall and 72.9 in the June Jones era — pale by comparison.

In his gameday preview, Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal talks to Chris Ault about some keys to the game.

"They're terrific," Ault said. "They have three of the best receivers in the country, in fact, four. They have great speed, and they do a tremendous job of running after the catch.

"We've got to stop the big play. They're going to move the ball. They'll do some things where maybe you say, 'God, you should have had that.' But the bottom line is we've got to be consistent, play hard and get around the football."

In a column of random thoughts, Joe Santoro of the Nevada Appeal muses about Nevada's chances against Hawaii.

How realistic a chance does the Wolf Pack have of beating Hawaii? Well, if the Pack defense actually shows up for a possession or two, the Pack's chances are good. Hawaii has never won a game in Reno. But if the Pack defense continues its disappearing act, Hawaii will act out its version of That 70s Show and light up the scoreboard well into Saturday morning. Odds are the final score tonight is going to make the Pack-Boise final look like a World Cup soccer game. And if the game goes into overtime, well, better bring a sleeping bag to Mackay, folks.

And here's the line of the day:

Don't forget that this Pack team plays defense as often as Brittney Spears wears underwear and had two untested quarterbacks with more syllables in their last names than game experience when the year started.

Darrell Moody of the Nevada Appeal has a long article profiling Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick.

"We were just trying to keep it simple," Kaepernick said of his early success. "To come in after the game and see the numbers, it was a little surreal. Now that I have done it, I know I can do it. Instincts took over a couple of times out there."

Kaepernick has thrown for 1,237 yards and 13 touchdowns in the past five games, and ranks fifth in total offense (244.7), third in passing efficiency (155) and seventh in passing yardage per game (178.3) in the WAC.

David Fox of Rivals.com takes a look at the Warriors' season so far, and profiles Colt Brennan.

Ferd Lewis writes that there are a lot of NFL scouts and fans in Nevada to see Colt Brennan play.

And Susan Essoyan writes about Colt's concussion and the attention it has brought to concussions in sports.

Thursday news

Since Tombo is taking care of more important things, here you guys go. Game time tomorrow!!!

Nevada Tomorrow

Dave Reardon searches for Nevada fans in a Reno watering hole, talks to the bartender, and writes about Nevada's freshman sensation QB, Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound redshirt freshman, took over during the Fresno State game on Oct. 6 when starter Nick Graziano was lost for the season due to injury. After Nevada lost to FSU, Kaepernick caught the nation's eye with a breakout performance in a four-overtime 69-67 loss at Boise State. On national television, he rushed for 177 yards and two TDs and passed for 243 and three.

Since then, he's led the Pack to three consecutive wins. Kaepernick is 10th nationally in passing efficiency and has thrown just one interception as a starter.

"I'm very impressed. The young kid has played phenomenal," Hawaii coach June Jones said.

Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal has more about Kaepernick in an article comparing what Colt Brennan has accomplished in his career to Kaepernick, who is just getting started. Watching him play against Boise and Fresno, he's like a cyborg gazelle. The UH defense will need to play a great game to contain him and the Nevada rushing attack. It's an exciting matchup.

Further down the page of the Star-Bulletin article, Brian McInnis writes that Colt Brennan is cleared to play, but...

Just because Brennan is cleared doesn't necessarily mean he will receive the bulk of playing time against the Wolf Pack. He took just five snaps against the Warriors' scout team during practice yesterday, and backups Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki still got the lion's share of the work.
"Tyler will be next and Inoke will probably get some playing time as well," quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison said. "They'll both see playing time. You have to prepare for this, and they're both planning on doing that. So in their mind-set, they assume they will play."

Awww yeah. More excitement from the offense.

Stephen Tsai writes about Brennan receiving limited practice time yesterday, injuries to Malcolm Lane and Kenny Estes, and the promotion of A.J. Martinez to starter on the kickoff team. He also gets reaction from Nevada coach Chris Ault to UH running the pistol last week.

Against Fresno, the Warriors ran the Pistol eight times — four rushes for 33 yards, four pass completions for 80 yards.

"We did see that," said Nevada coach Chris Alt, who created the scheme three years ago.

In the Pistol, the quarterback is in the shotgun, 4 yards from the line of scrimmage, and the running back is 3 yards directly behind the quarterback. In UH's four-wide offense, Brennan also is 4 yards from the line of scrimmage, but the running back is aligned on his side.

Syracuse also has started to use the Pistol.

"It's getting pretty widespread," Alt said.

Brian McInnis has a Notebook article with quotes from the UH coaches about the challenges facing the Warriors against the Wolf Pack.

But McMackin will make no excuses about the No. 13 Warriors' final regular-season road game, especially regarding the quick turnaround from a physical Fresno State contest.

"This is a Thursday for us because we lose a day," he said of yesterday's team practice, "(but) we worked on Nevada during the bye week (before Fresno State). So, we broke down the film and looked at what they did and plan, then compare it to what they've done. We've had enough time, it's just the players getting refreshed. I think we've had a chance to be prepared."

Meanwhile, offensive line coach Dennis McKnight was wary of the Wolf Pack defensive front, calling them "probably the best D-line we'll play." He knows the Pack's D-line coach, Jim House, and his team's tenacious game plan.

"Their ends are up the field, and if you lean on them they'll spin back inside on you," he said. "Their inside guys press the pocket and are relentless like junkyard dogs, which is what you want."

Also from that article:

Quarterback Colt Brennan was named yesterday as one of five candidates for the Johnny Unitas Award, along with Oregon's Dennis Dixon, Kentucky's Andre Woodson, Boston College's Matt Ryan and Louisville's Brian Brohm.

Right on.

UPDATE: Here's a preview of the game from the AP's Scott Sonner.

The weather also could benefit Nevada, with the game time temperature expected to be in the upper 40s.

But don't try to tell that to Brennan, who prepped at Irvine, Calif., before moving to the islands.

"Everyone talks about the conditions. I think everyone on our team is tired of hearing about it," Brennan said.

"When you get out there on the football field, you're running around. Your body temperature rises up. I love playing in the cold. I played some my best football in the cold," he said.

"So I'm dying to get out there Friday because I really want to play because I think I can have a really good day."

Articles about UH and the BCS

Mike Kern of the Philadelphia Daily News writes about the lack of respect for UH in the human and robot polls.

The 9-0 Warriors, of the Western Athletic Conference, are the only remaining unbeaten not named Kansas. Off to their best start since 1925, they've won 20 of their last 21. That loss was to Oregon State in last year's regular-season finale, 35-32.

Ranked 13th in the Associated Press (media) polll, they need to finish in the top 12 of the final Bowl Championship Series standings to earn an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. They're 11th and 12th in the two polls that count (Harris Interactive, USA Today, respectively) but 16th in the BCS.

If you don't play in a BCS conference, legitimacy is always a debatable topic. And they're tied for 27th in computer average.

Jeff Shain of the Miami Herald writes how strength of schedule is affecting Hawaii's BCS ranking.

Critics say Hawaii should have scheduled tougher opponents. But what if none of the big boys wants to play you? As recently as this spring, the Warriors had only 11 confirmed dates after Michigan State paid $350,000 to back out of a visit. ESPN tried to set up a game between the Warriors and Michigan, but coach Lloyd Carr apparently shot it down.

''He wouldn't play us,'' Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier told The Honolulu Advertiser this summer. ``It would have been the opener.''

Instead, the Wolverines booked a game against Appalachian State. Worked out well, huh?

Frazier's scramble led him to contact a dozen schools available for Hawaii's remaining open dates in 2007. ''Every single AD wanted to do it,'' he said. ``There was opposition in the ranks.''

And here's an interesting quote from Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Hawaii is finding an easier time booking its 2008 schedule -- when record-setting Colt Brennan will be flinging passes in an NFLcamp.

The Warriors' opener, incidentally, takes them to Gainesville. Also worth noting: The Gators will not repay the favor. No return trip?

''I've been there [for games],'' UF coach Urban Meyer said this summer. ``If I have anything to do with scheduling -- and I do -- I'm not going to go there. I'll vacation there; I just won't play there.''

This, mind you, from the coach of the defending national champions. Not to mention part of the vaunted -- hey, just ask them -- Southeastern Conference.

The Warriors deserve better. At the very least, they shouldn't be made to suffer for others' insecurities.

Andrew Bagnato also writes about Hawaii's standing in the BCS rankings.

Palm said the Warriors can expect a bump in the computers if they beat 5-4 Nevada (that’s their record, not their height) and 9-1 Boise State. But the computers may hold their noses when Hawaii meets 3-7 Washington, its lone BCS-level opponent.

If Hawaii wins out, Palm gives the Warriors “better than a 50-50 shot” of finishing in the BCS Top 12, which would mean a guaranteed BCS berth, probably in the Sugar Bowl, for Colt Brennan and Co.

And MSNBC's Bryan Burwell has a great column about how ridiculous the BCS system is for determining a national champion.

The regular season has been a blast, but ultimately, the postseason is a fraud. We’ll spend the rest of the season waiting on are mistakes to happen, not greatness to be achieved. We’re waiting on spreadsheets to spit out confusing calculations on strength of schedules, or faceless voters to cast weekly ballots that are determined on whims and suppositions, regional and historic personal prejudices.

The BCS formula for determining a national champion is still too flawed. They think they have it right, but they’re not even close.

It doesn’t matter how the regular season works out, there will be at least three, maybe four more teams among this season’s elite teams who can justifiably lay claim to a spot in the championship mix. But the truth is, once again, someone is going to be left on the outside with no chance to compete for the BCS championship hardware.

Beefing Up Security

The UH Athletics Department has a press release detailing what UH and Aloha Stadium will be doing to make for a more friendly environment during games.

"Our main concern is always public safety," Scott Chan, Aloha Stadium manger, said. "We will implement several security measures in order to ensure that our guests have a comfortable and enjoyable visit to our stadium. We will heighten our staffing and security presence around the visitor's section and implement a task force to focus on inappropriate behavior and allow the officers to remain at their assigned posts. We support the effort that UH is making to help promote good sportsmanship at its football games."

And here's a list of some of the "initiatives":

1. June Jones, UH head football coach, will tape a 30-second public service announcement, which will air on local television and radio stations, asking UH fans to show aloha to our visitors and to demonstrate good sportsmanship. The PSA will also air on the stadium jumbotron prior to the start of the game.

2. Coach Jones will echo the good sportsmanship message in his interview sessions with the media, including his weekly press conference.

3. Print advertisements will be placed in the local newspapers with the good sportsmanship message

4. Through all media outlets, UH will communicate the good sportsmanship message and encourage all fans to act responsibly.

They should print the same message on the sides of the 32 oz. Heinekens too. Awww damn, I did not just go there. Anyway, encouraging good sportsmanship is always a good thing. The Star-Bulletin's Gene Park writes about the incidents during the Fresno game that sparked these initiatives, and on the same page Leila Fujimori has a few words from Lt. Governor Aiona.

Wednesday Night News

Chawan Cut compiles news reports from KHNL's Jason Tang, KHON's Kanoa Leahey, KGMB's Liz Chun and KITV's Rob DeMello. Sounding more and more like Colt will play. But if he can't, the Graunke and the Funaki are ready.

Colt at Practice

Dave Reardon reports on the UH Sports Extra blog that Colt Brennan is practicing today.

Brian McInnis reports from UH football practice that quarterback Colt Brennan is participating in team drills against the scout team.

Brennan sat out practice Monday and Tuesday after suffering a concussion Saturday night against Fresno State.

Brennan apparently has received medical clearance to practice and play in Friday’s game at Nevada.

Awesome news.

UPDATE: There's an update to that post, and there will probably be more:

UPDATE: Brennan took about five snaps today, all against the scout team. Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki shared the rest of the reps, with Graunke having just a few more than Funaki, McInnis said.

UPDATE 2: Stephen Tsai got a practice report as well.

Brennan received a third of the reps — two snaps to Tyler Graunke's four — during offensive drills against the scout team. Brennan did not practice against the first-team defense. But Jones said work against the scouts is more important because the scouts are simulating Nevada's defense.
Brennan saiid he wanted more work, but the "decision is out of my hands."

Tsai also writes that Malcolm Lane and Kenny Estes did not practice today due to injury.

UH-Nevada Previews, Colt, Libre, Security, Injuries

Here's a preview of Friday's game from The Sports Network, with an excerpt about the performance of the UH defense, last week and overall.

A more telling stat is the one that shows the Bulldogs converting just 2-of-11 on third down versus the Hawaii defense. Solomon Elimimian and his teammates zeroed in on FSU quarterback Tom Brandstater, recording five sacks and constantly forcing the visiting signal-caller to throw far off the mark. Elimimian finished with a team-high nine tackles, while Brad Kalilimoku continued to flush the pocket, en route to two and a half sacks. The Hawaii defense tends to get a bit weaker as the game wears on, just as any unit would in college football, but add to that the desperation of opponents and it is easy to understand why the group has surrendered more points in the fourth quarter than any other this season. Still, the Warriors are not only first in the conference in both tackles for loss and sacks, the squad ranks fourth in the nation in both departments with nine TFLs and 3.67 sacks per outing.

Matt Brown of the AP has a preview as well, here's an excerpt about Nevada's offense:

Nevada (5-4, 3-2) boasts one of the few offenses that may be able to keep up with Hawaii's. The Warriors lead the nation with 50.2 points per game, but the Wolf Pack rank 15th with 37.3. In four full games since redshirt freshman quarterback Colin Kaepernick took over for the injured Nick Graziano, Nevada has averaged 43.8 points.

The Wolf Pack opened the season 2-4, but Kaepernick has led them to three straight wins - most recently a 40-38 victory at New Mexico State on Nov. 2. Kaepernick has completed 81-of-145 passes for 1,248 yards, 13 TDs and only two interceptions, giving him a 155.0 passer rating that ranks 10th in the nation. He also has five rushing touchdowns.

It will be a great battle between the Nevada run game vs the UH defense. As Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal points out:

The Wolf Pack (5-4, 3-2 Western Athletic Conference) leads the Western Athletic Conference in rushing at 231.4 yards per game. It is the only team in the conference averaging more than five yards per carry (5.2).

The 13th-ranked Warriors (9-0, 6-0) lead the WAC in rushing defense at 111.3 yards per game. Hawaii holds teams to an average of 3.1 yards per carry, tops in the league.

Something, as they say, has got to give.

"Their defense is very good," Nevada coach Chris Ault said at Tuesday's practice. "Their offense gets all the publicity, but their defense is very good."

Darrell Moody of the Nevada Appeal has a preview of the game and a profile of Colt Brennan.

Ferd Lewis writes that the UH administration vows to beef up security for the Boise game after some Fresno fans complained about abusive treatment during this past game.

In a widely circulated posting on www.barkboard.com, a message board for Fresno State fans, one fan claimed, "... fights, alcohol, lax security and thug fans have turned Aloha Stadium into what is likely the most horrible game day atmosphere in college football." The posting came with a picture of police in the stands.

UH has scheduled a conference call with media from Fresno and Boise today to discuss the issue and announce steps to improve the situation, an athletic department spokesman said.

Let's hope so. The only reason opposing fans should feel bad in Aloha Stadium is because their team got smashed, not their alas.

Brian McInnis writes that Colt may practice today, and profiles running back Daniel Libre.

"Libre for Heisman!"

Running back Daniel Libre couldn't help but grin at Davone Bess' outburst. Suddenly -- and as seemingly from out of nowhere as Bess' theatrics -- the Konawaena graduate has emerged as an unlikely factor in Hawaii's high-powered offense.

The junior displayed fleetness of foot in the Warriors' 37-30 win against Fresno State, going for 61 yards on just six carries to help alleviate the absence of injured Damien alum Kealoha Pilares, who entered the game as Hawaii's leading rusher.

Stephen Tsai writes about Brennan and Libre, and has other injury updates:

Jones said running back Kealoha Pilares will not play in Friday's game.

Pilares is recovering from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

"There's no rush," said Pilares, who leads the Warriors with 294 rushing yards. "I don't want to make it worse. I'm sitting on it. It's getting better every day. I'm just rehabbing it, and doing what I can to get it better. The pain is almost gone. It's not that tender as it was last week."

With the return of left wideout Jason Rivers and left slotback Davone Bess, only one starting receiver — right wideout C.J. Hawthorne — did not compete in team drills yesterday.

Rivers did not practice Monday because of a sore neck. Bess had flu-like symptoms.

"C.J. wanted to practice but I held him out," Jones said.

Hawthorne is suffering from tightness in his right hamstring and groin. He left in the second quarter Saturday.

And Ferd Lewis compares the way MMA and boxing deal with concussions in contrast with football, and hopes that wider awareness of the problem will lead to more protective and preventative measures for the players.

Meanwhile, Brennan's case, where his availability will prudently be decided by team doctors although it will be up to head coach June Jones to decide even then if Brennan plays, is helping to focus attention on the treatment and prevention of concussions in football. As such, it is helping fuel discussion not only here but across wider landscape. The more pointed questions that are asked and the willingness to dig deeper for answers the better.

Tuesday Night News

CC compiles news report from KHNL's Jason Tang, KHON's Kanoa Leahey, KITV's Rob DeMello and KGMB's Liz Chun. There's news about Colt's status, an interview with Daniel Libre, etc. Also, there's just 5000 tickets left for the Washington game.

CB on the Watch, Nevada Notes, Case for UH

The Walter Camp Football Foundation has named Colt Brennan to their watch list for their 2007 Player of the Year Award.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation has announced 15 "Players to Watch" for its 2007 Player of the Year award and University of Hawai'i quarterback Colt Brennan is on the list for the second straight year. The Walter Camp Award is the fourth-oldest individual college football award in the nation.

"It's been quite a college football season so far and the final three weekends are shaping up to be very exciting," said WCFF President John Barbarotta. "We look forward to watching these players distinguish themselves as the possible recipient of our prestigious Player of the Year honor."

A list of the five finalists for the award will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

Congrats to Colt!

The UH Athletics Department also released game notes and a press release for this Friday's game at Reno.

And Jared Reback of the Bleacher Report makes a case for the Warriors in the national title game, which won't happen this year, but he nevertheless writes a lot of good things about UH.

Let's face it: There is not a powerhouse in college football this season. There are a lot of good teams, and maybe a great team or two.

Who is to say that Hawaii is not one of them?

Hawaii certainly has not played the schedules of some of these teams, but they haven't lost either. They have had close calls, as have the BCS conference teams, but each time they have risen to—and beat—the challenge.

Looking beyond just record and schedule, there are other reasons why Hawaii's season merits inclusion in the title game.

Everyone knows that road games in hostile environments are difficult for any team to overcome. Hawaii must deal with all that adversity after flying halfway across the Pacific Ocean.

The New York Giants and Miami Dolphins showed what flying east for eight hours can do to a team on the football field. This is what Hawaii is up against every time they travel.

Colt, Receivers, Nevada

Dave Reardon has several articles together on the same page. He talks to UH trainer Andrew Nichols, and to Colt himself.

Jones said it is possible Brennan might practice today, but it's unlikely.

"You can't make a decision until the end of the week so I just have to sit and wait," Brennan said. "I feel fine. It was a good shot and obviously it got the best of me. But the last two mornings I felt fine. So I just gotta wait pretty much."

Dave also interviews Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki about the possibility of playing in Nevada, and writes about injuries to the receiving corps.

Starting receivers Davone Bess, C.J. Hawthorne and Jason Rivers did not practice yesterday. Bess has a minor ankle problem, Hawthorne is dealing with a tight hamstring, and Rivers has a sore back

Stephen Tsai had details on their injuries and talks to Colt about his status.

Brennan said Jones, quarterback coach Dan Morrison and the team's trainers "are taking (care of) all of the precautionary things for me and my future, and my health is their main concern. They're going to go over everything they can, and turn over every stone, and make sure they do the smartest thing for me and my health."

Brennan said a neck ache was not a concern. He said it was "sore like it would after any game. ... It may be a little sorer than normal. It's not a pain that's not normal."

He added: "Because my body's been feeling like normal, and I've been feeling so good, that's why I really think I can get ready to play this Friday."

Paul Arnett has a column discussing a concussion Timmy Chang suffered under similar circumstances several years ago and compares it to Brennan's situation.

But where does that leave Brennan as Friday's nationally televised game with the Wolf Pack draws near? Jones fully expected Chang to get off the deck to play Fresno State the following Saturday, saying concussions were a part of the game and Chang should be able to play. He didn't. And when he did return two weeks later, Jones' comment was telling, "It took longer than we expected."

Seven years later, Jones took a much more wait-and-see approach to Brennan's status, conceding that what they did in the old days wasn't necessarily a good thing. As hard a shot as Chang took, he didn't lose consciousness as Brennan briefly did.

Dave Reardon has a very interesting comment on his blog from MMA promoter Patrick Freitas.

If Colt Brennan was a mixed martial arts (MMA) figher, he’d receive a 30-60 day suspension after a concussion. As critics inquire about the safety of MMA, lets keep in mind that states with athletic commissions (and self-regulating organizations like Icon Sport) would NEVER let a fighter compete 6 days after a brain injury like the one sustained by Colt, even if it was upgraded from “serious” to “mild.” In either case, Colt’s brain was injured. A concussion is a concussion, no matter how you look at it. Doesnt matter if its football, MMA, or boxing. And all of these are contact sports, so Colt is just as likely to bang his head - either helmet to helmet or helmet to turf - in the next football game as a fighter is likely to be struck in the head in his next bout.

Ferd Lewis writes about the challenges the Nevada game brings to the Warriors.

And Dan Hinxman writes about the challenges the Hawaii game brings to the Wolf Pack.

The key to slowing down Hawaii's offense, Ault and defensive coordinator Ken Wilson said, is containment.
"To me, to beat these guys, you can't make mistakes," Wilson said. "They're going to catch the ball. You've got to tackle. And yards after the catch are huge for Hawaii. If they're catching the ball and running after the catch, it's going to be a long night.
"It's going to be a great test. It's a game you live for."

today's news from practice

lots of news today. so its 2 vids. lots of videos from practice. with JJ and colt.

The Shows Covering Fresno + Pics

Sorry for not posting these earlier, got spirited away by celestial billy goats again. You know how it is. Anyway, there's a new C&K Show, in which they show highlights from the game, visit various tailgates, and give this blog a shout-out, awww yeah.

K gets emotional talking about Colt in Part 1:



C gets hypnotized at the Sportshawaii.com tailgate in Part 2:



Irse has this week's June Jones Show up in Windows Media format. He also took some pics at the game.

Orlando has the June Jones Show up on Youtube. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, which has a profile of Hercules Satele.

I'm pretty sure Orlando will have some pics from the game up sometime soon at UHWarriorFan.com. Even if he doesn't, he already got tons of great photos from previous games and practices to look at.

And the rainbows PBase site got a lot of great photos from the game.

Big ups to C&K and all the Warrior fans sharing photos and videos.

From the Blogs: Practice Reports

Stephen Tsai writes that Colt Brennan is feeling much better.

Colt Brennan said he feels as if he's close to being 100 percent, has no symptoms from the concussion he suffered Saturday night, and is hopeful of playing in Friday's nationally televised game against Nevada.
But he will be held out of tomorrow's practice as a precaution, and he acknowledged that the decision on his availability will be based on long-term ramifications and the chances of suffering a recurrence.

Dave Reardon also has some observations from the field.

He didn’t throw today, but looked and sounded like always. Asked about any loss of memory or if he knows if he was unconscious Saturday after the big hit, Brennan made a joke about not remembering things from the day before under normal circumstances.

Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki took the quarterback reps, with third-stringer Funaki taking the lion’s share. Jones said it was to get Funaki up to speed and did not signal a change in the depth chart. He said both might play if Brennan can’t.

Colt Brennan Monday Update

Dave Reardon writes that the coaches are being extra cautious about letting Colt Brennan play again.

But Jones backed up a little in his comments yesterday. He said Brennan would not practice today, and probably not tomorrow. The 13th-ranked Warriors (9-0, 6-0 WAC) head to Nevada (5-4, 3-2) on Wednesday for the season's final road game Friday.

As for Brennan's availability for the game? No one knows yet.

"Everything's changed," said Jones, who suffered concussions as an NFL quarterback. "When I was playing you just got the smelling salts and went back in. Now it's a little more conservative. We have to see how he reacts. We've got to be smart about it."

Colt and coach Dennis McKnight and June Jones talk to Stephen Tsai about the play and the concussion.

After being down on the FieldTurf for about four minutes, Brennan was escorted to the Aloha Stadium training room.

"There was a lot of fuzziness," Brennan said. "When I really came back to my full coherent self, I was already in the locker room. It's a fuzzy memory. There's stuff I remember, stuff I don't remember."

He said the play in which he suffered the injury "was one of the things I have trouble remembering. I have trouble remembering the incident and what transpired."

After reviewing two angles of the play, at regular speed and in slow motion, McKnight said Riley "took off in a trajectory to go for (Brennan's) head."

"It looks like it was helmet to helmet," McKnight added. "It looked like the forearm was led. ... He was going for his head, and I think the film concurs that. ... I don't know if he was intentionally trying to hurt or whatever, but I think he went to (Brennan's) head."

Jones said he believes Brennan "will play" Friday, but "we'll evaluate it."

An insufficient rest period could make a person recovering from a concussion more susceptible to incurring a second one.

The WAC rules that it was a legal hit.

Although Bulldog linebacker Marcus Riley's helmet made contact with Brennan, commissioner Karl Benson said, "the Fresno player did make contact with his shoulder pads prior to the helmet hit, thus it was not an illegal hit. It was a legal hit."

"I'm feeling better today," Brennan said last night. "I kinda feel like I left my body exposed and he was coming full speed. I think in the NFL a case may be made (about the hit) but this isn't the NFL. This is college football. Honestly, I think I'm the only one that I have to blame."

While the hit to Colt's head may have been ruled "legal," his injury along with an injury to Washington's Jake Locker under similar circumstances prompts Ferd Lewis to write that refs need to be stricter in penalizing flagrant hits.

That their injuries came the same week the NFL notified its teams that a stronger hand would be taken in dealing with players who deliver flagrant helmet-to-helmet hits should be powerful food for thought for the NCAA, too. Sooner rather than later.

It should be pointed out Riley and Afalava were both judged to be playing within the existing rules. A Western Athletic Conference review yesterday reaffirmed Riley's hit and the Pac-10 may do the same today.

Which is precisely why colleges should revisit these rules and their enforcement to limit the circumstances before apparently permissible helmet-to-helmet hits claim a larger, more tragic toll.

The New York Times' Pete Thamel writes a similar article, and talks to coach June Jones about it. I believe the article came out before the WAC's ruling.

Hawaii Coach June Jones, a former N.F.L. coach, said that he was unsure if the hit on Brennan by Fresno State linebacker Marcus Riley was legal. But he is hopeful that the N.F.L.’s recent action, which includes fines for helmet-to-helmet hits, is mimicked by the N.C.A.A.

“We’re a little bit behind,” Jones said. “It needs to be addressed.”

“Ultimately, the conference commissioners are going to have to look at the tapes and decide whether these were flagrant fouls and suspend kids for a game,” Jones said. “Otherwise, I don’t think that it’s going to stop.”

Jones stressed that he saw only the replay on the video screen in the stadium and did not think at first glance that Riley’s hit was illegal. Replays showed that both Riley and Afalava led with their heads and appeared to launch upward, telltale signs of illegal helmet-to-helmet hits, according to Parry and Sorgen.

Regarding Riley’s hit on Brennan, the W.A.C. spokesman Dave Chaffin said in an e-mail message yesterday that “it appears that there was shoulder pad contact just prior to the helmet hit, making this a legal tackle.”

News part 2

Yep I do have more. Colt's updated status. As what Tombo has already posted in the paper coverage below. Day to day...

News About Colt, BCS Rankings

From KGMB's Mike Cherry and Tina Chau, and KITV's Robert Kekaula. I think Chawan will have more to compile later on tonight.

Colt Update

Stephen Tsai has an update on Colt Brennan's status.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan said that he is "fine" after suffering a concussion last night against Fresno State and vowed to play in Friday's nationally televised road game against Nevada.

Jones said Brennan will be held out of practices Monday and Tuesday as a precaution.

Jones said Brennan will be evaluated Tuesday night.

Brennan said he was told he will not need a CAT scan.

He also said he holds no animosity toward Riley, saying the play -- which appeared to be a helmet-to-helmet hit -- was part of the game.

UPDATE: Dave Reardon has another update.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan said today he doesn't know if he will play Friday at Nevada.

Brennan will miss tomorrow's practice after suffering a concussion in Saturday's 37-30 victory over Fresno State.

"I really don't know," Brennan said today in a phone interview when asked about playing Friday. "I just know I want to really badly. I'll just have to wait to see what Coach (June) Jones and the doctors say at the end of the week.

Brennan said today that he has suffered no nausea or headaches, symptoms common to concussions, and that "I feel a lot better."

He met with trainers today and did not undergo a catscan test.

"They told me just rest, no heavy physical work or labor, just rest and stay hydrated," Brennan said.

Hawaii Remains at #16 in BCS Rankings

UPDATE: The official release of the rankings is out.

Hawaii is stuck at #16 in the BCS rankings. This is not the official release, but looks like CFN jumped the gun again. Anyway, the numbers look correct. Not good for UH to be stuck at #16, but it may be a blessing that Boise is making an ascent and is now at #18(!). Shaping up to be the showdown everyone expected. But first things first - Reno on Friday night.

P.S. Looks like we finally got some robot love in these new rankings.



P.P.S. You would not believe the disgusting images you can find searching for robot love on the internet.

Hawaii Remains at #12 in Coaches Poll (#13 in AP, #11 in Harris)

Bumped with release of Harris poll.

UH remains at #12 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, just 2 points away from #11 Texas, which leapfrogged the Warriors. Boise State jumps up to #15.

UPDATE: UH moves up one spot to #13 in the AP poll.

UPDATE 2: Hawaii drops one spot to #11 in the Harris Poll. Here's a PDF press release of the poll.

UH vs Fresno State Wrap-Ups

Dave Reardon's wrap-up had a post-game update on Colt Brennan's status.

Brennan did not talk to reporters afterward, but did release a statement.

"I'm doing fine," he said through a UH spokesman. "I'd like to thank everyone for the support they gave out there. I'm looking forward to getting back on the field for next week's game against Nevada."

His condition was later described as a "mild concussion," and a UH official described Brennan as "day-to-day" when it comes to football duties. Brennan did not require hospitalization.

Coach June Jones said he does not expect Brennan to miss Friday's game at Nevada.

Neither does Brennan's father.

"He's ready to play another four quarters," said a smiling Terry Brennan.

Stephen Tsai's wrap-up has these quotes.

"Colt is a big part of this team," UH linebacker Solomon Elimimian said. "It's not just on offense. Without Colt, we wouldn't be where we are today. Colt is one of our leaders. We all love Colt."

Fresno State coach Pat Hill visited Brennan after the game. "I just wanted to see how he was," Hill said. "He's a heck of a player. ... I wished him luck. That was a heck of a hit he took."

Ferd Lewis captures the mixed feelings surrounding UH's victory.

The postgame rejoicing of being just one of two remaining unbeaten teams was noticeably subdued. The revelry understated. Even the unsightly confetti that usually covers the field was in comparative short supply.

The trademark post-game ha'a went unperformed. "It is hard to celebrate when he went out of there like that," said co-captain Michael Lafaele.

"A lot of things go through your mind when you see a guy like that go down," said assistant coach Rich Miano. "The fact that we won this football game is huge because that (Fresno State) is a good football team but obviously people are subdued because of what happened to Colt. You worry about the health of a guy who turned down a lot of money to help build a dream season we're having. That's first and foremost."

Stacy Kaneshiro has reaction from the UH offensive line.

"We just wanted him to get up," UH center John Estes said. "We think about him as a person. You never want to see that in football, ever."

The offensive line felt responsible. Brennan was sacked twice, both times by linebacker Mike Cheese. To a man, the linemen could not enjoy the victory, as sweet was it is supposed to be to beat Fresno State.

"It's not even a win," UH tackle Keith AhSoon said. "I'm so ------ off. Putting him in a position like that ... A win's a win, but it's not a win for me. I should've done better. I just hope he's ready for the next game."

Brian McInnis talks to FSU's Marcus Riley, who delivered the hit.

"It's tough, because I started to celebrate, and when he (Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan) was still down it kind of changed my whole attitude about the situation," Riley said.

"I was kind of nervous," Riley said. "I kind of relaxed after I knew he was alright, when he got up, started moving around. I didn't really know what to think. I was hoping it wasn't anything major and nothing serious. I didn't want anybody to get hurt, but injuries are a part of the game. I'm just glad he's alright."

Michael Tsai and Stacy Kaneshiro write about the reaction the UH defense had to some of the Fresno players celebrating Colt's hit.

"I wanted to get them back," Paepule said.

He wasn't the only one.

"They were celebrating while he was lying there," defensive lineman Siave Seti said. "They looked at us like, 'That's it for you.' "

As Brennan eventually rose to return to the locker room, the tension mounted. Then defensive back Keenan Jones provided the pressure release.

On the ensuing punt, Jones got a bead on Fresno State punt returner Clifton Smith. Jones bore down at full stride on Smith as he caught the ball and promptly leveled him with a clean but make-no-mistake-what-I-mean tackle.

"That was the turning point," Seti said. "Thank God he made that hit."

Chawan Cut, who was sitting behind the Fresno bench, posted on Sportshawaii.com what he saw from some of the Bulldog players.

Billy Hull writes about a classy move from Fresno coach Pat Hill.

In a sight rarely seen in college football, Hill walked into the opposing team's locker room moments after a grueling game.

He was not made available all week to the media, and his Bulldogs' locker room was closed after the game.

Yet, for the coach of a team who is supposed to be one of Hawaii's most hated opponents, it was important enough for him to address the entire UH team and offer Hawaii words of encouragement for the rest of the year.

"You've got a good football team here," Hill said. "We knew it was going to be a fight and it was fun. I like playing teams that are strong. I like this conference."

It was a sight that left a lot of Warriors shaking their heads. Soares, Noa and Elimimian admitted to never seeing an opposing coach walk into the postgame locker room.

"He showed a lot of respect by coming in here and congratulating our team," Elimimian said. "That's something you don't forget."

Paul Arnett writes a column about the hit and aftermath, and writes that Tyler Graunke will have to rise up in case Colt can't go.

Knowing him, he will want to play, but with what one person described as a Grade III concussion -- later upgraded to a mild concussion -- he may sit this one out and hope Graunke can come to the rescue on a cold November night in Reno. Graunke was shaky in the fourth quarter as Fresno State came close to pulling out the win late.

But Jones is hopeful a week of preparation will settle his nerves in case Brennan's blow to the head is as serious as the original diagnosis on the field. Either way, next week's game is the most important in school history. You know Brennan will want to be in there. You also know that Graunke does, too.

Oh by the way, here's a scoring breakdown and game stats from the Advertiser.

Jason Kaneshiro writes about the great performance by running backs Leon Wright-Jackson, Daniel Libre and David Farmer.

"We complemented each other a lot, we have different styles," said the 5-foot-8 Libre. "I guess they really weren't ready for it, because I came out of nowhere."

Hawaii rushed for 137 yards in the game, with Wright-Jackson and Libre carrying the ball six times each.

"I knew the last four games we would have to run the ball," UH coach June Jones said of the Warriors' pivotal stretch run as they make their push for the Western Athletic Conference title and a Bowl Championship Series berth.

"Daniel Libre has some quickness, happy to see Leon do well."

Michael Tsai writes about the strong debut of Libre.

"He's a great athlete, he works hard in practice and he deserves to be here," Wright-Jackson said. "He did a great job tonight, and I knew he would."

As Libre eased into a groove, the Bulldog defense was forced to adjust.

"After a while, they weren't coming off the blocks at all," Libre said. "They really started to key up on me."

And finally the Star-Bulletin Notebook has a bunch of notes, including:

• Graunke is ready to go if Colt can't.


• Blaze Soares was able to play last night despite his hamstring injury.


• C.J. Hawthorne was pulled from the game after his hamstring tightened up.


• Ryan Grice-Mullins surpassed 1000 receiving yards on the season.

Hawaii 37, Fresno State 30 (w/UPDATES)

UH won, but Colt Brennan suffered a concussion after a helmet to helmet hit by Fresno State's Marcus Riley.

Hawaii held on to beat Fresno State 37-30 at Aloha Stadium on Saturday, but the game ended with concern for the Warriors’ star quarterback, Colt Brennan. Brennan was knocked out of the game with a grade 3 concussion.

But a scrambling Brennan was belted by Fresno State linebacker Marcus Riley with 10:43 left in the game and knocked unconscious. After about five minutes, a shaken Brennan slowly walked off the field. Tyler Graunke replaced him.

Brennan completed 28 of 39 passes for 396 yards before the hit. His status for Friday’s game at Nevada was not immediately known.

Let's just hope he'll be okay. Really scary injury.

Here's an Advertiser article about it. UPDATE: This article has since been revised to say that Brennan suffered a "mild concussion."

Here's an wrap-up of the game from the AP's Jaymes Song.

UPDATE: Here's an updated AP article which has some quotes about Colt.

Brennan later took a jarring, high hit from linebacker Marcus Riley while scrambling on third-and-7 and was knocked out of the game with 10:43 left.

The near-sellout crowd drew silent and teammates prayed on one knee as the game was halted for about 5 minutes. Brennan stood up, wincing in pain and was helped off the field into the locker room.

"He showed a lot of heart by getting to his feet because we all knew he was out of it," Warriors receiver Ryan Grice-Mullen said.

Grice-Mullen said it was a helmet-to-helmet hit, but not dirty. He admitted it was difficult to concentrate on the game because he was so concerned about his quarterback.

"I'm not going to lie. I'm not the only one that had Colt on my mind the next snap," he said.

Jones said Brennan was "fine" and expected him to be ready for the next game.

"If you play football you're going to have concussions," he said.

The former NFL coach said, "I've seen a lot of hard hits but he seemed like he was out before he even hit the ground."

I just hope June is right. It does sound encouraging, but we'll have to see in the next few days.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are some highlights from the game, uploaded by UHBows.

Ways to Follow the UH vs Fresno State Game

Bumped.

In Hawaii:

Buy tickets to the game. Here's some alternative parking and bus and shuttle info from the Advertiser. Also some free shuttle info for UH-Manoa students.

Watch it live on Oceanic PPV at home. K5 will repeat it the next morning.

This list from the Oceanic cable website has a list of bars and establishments showing the game live. This Advertiser page has addresses and phone numbers for some of them.

Listen to KKEA 1420 on the AM dial. Also on KNUI in Maui and KPUA in Hilo.


Outside of Hawaii:

Watch it on ESPN2.

Streaming video from ESPN360.com, if your ISP supports it.


In and Outside of Hawaii:

Streaming audio via 1420 AM online.

Streaming video via HTSportsnet.com. You'll need Windows Media Player or an equivalent. It costs $9.95 for the game.

Live online stats from Internet Consulting Services via the UH website. You can also check out online stats from ESPN's Scoreboard, which should have a "Gamecast" link during the game. Or try CBS Sportsline's scoreboard for a "Gamecenter" link.

Please comment below if you find any other ways to follow the action online or elsewhere. I'll add to the list as gametime approaches. Thank you and....

GO WARRIORS!!!!

BCS Scoreboard 11-10-2007

Here's this week's BCS scoreboard. The results in red indicate teams that have won, green for teams that have lost. I'll try to update the results and records as the day goes on.

BCS Rank	Team	Result
1	Ohio State (10-1)	21-28 LOSS vs Illinois
2	LSU (9-1)	58-10 WIN vs Louisiana Tech
3	Oregon (8-1)	bye
4	Kansas (10-0)	43-28 WIN @ Oklahoma State
5	Oklahoma (8-1)	52-21 WIN vs Baylor
6	Missouri (9-1)	40-26 WIN vs Texas A&M
7	West Virginia (8-1)	38-31 WIN vs Louisville
8	Boston College (8-2)	35-42 LOSS @ Maryland
9	Arizona St. (9-1)	24-20 WIN @ UCLA
10	Georgia (8-2)	45-20 WIN vs #18 Auburn
11	Virginia Tech (8-2)	40-21 WIN vs Florida State
12	Michigan (8-3)	21-37 LOSS @ Wisconsin
13	Connecticut (8-2)	3-27 LOSS @ Cincinnati
14	Texas (9-2)	59-43 WIN vs Texas Tech
15	Florida (7-3)	51-31 WIN @ South Carolina
16	HAWAII (8-0)	37-30 WIN vs Fresno State
17	USC (8-2)	24-17 WIN @ California
18	Auburn (7-4)	20-45 LOSS @ #10 Georgia
19	Virginia (9-2)	48-0 WIN @ Miami (Fla.)
20	Boise State (9-1)	52-0 WIN @ Utah State
21	Clemson (9-2)	44-10 WIN vs Wake Forest
22	Alabama (6-4)	12-17 LOSS @ Mississippi State
23	Penn State (8-3)	31-0 WIN @ Temple
24	Tennessee (7-3)	34-13 WIN vs Arkansas
25	Kentucky (7-3)	27-20 WIN @ Vanderbilt

GameDay: Hawaii vs Fresno State

Stephen Tsai writes about the rivalry between UH and Fresno, and the importance of today's game to both teams.

"That's our rival, man," UH senior linebacker Timo Paepule said. "It's just like how it was at Saint Louis, when Kamehameha was our rival. Here, every game with Fresno has been a battle."

In the past week, the Warriors have received a refresher course.

"We've seen the clips of Hawai'i-Fresno when Ashley Lelie made that catch," UH left guard Hercules Satele said. "There were a lot of close games. It's a good game every time we play them. It'll be a big game for us."

Tsai's gameday preview breaks down the offense, defense and special teams for both UH and FSU. Here's an excerpt about the kicking game.

The Warriors have devoted extra practice time in anticipation of the Bulldogs' kick-blockers. Cameron Allen-Jones, UH's version of a tight end, and linebacker Timo Paepule are wing blockers in charge of protecting the perimeter. Most teams try to send tandem blitzers; Paepule is particularly skilled in jamming the inside blitzer and detouring the outside guy. Opponents should be wary of Allen-Jones, who also can curl into the flat as a receiver. The Warriors have worked extensively on fake punts. In practices this week, Ingram and Grasso have lowered their snap-to-punt time to 1.6 seconds. Grasso has improved the hang time of his punts to 4.2 seconds; anything longer than 4 seconds is considered to be good.

Dave Reardon has a couple articles on the same page, including the fact that oh-by-the-way, Colt Brennan may break Ty Detmer's career TD record tonight. Dave also has breakdowns of both teams, probable lineups, and this key matchup:

Hawaii defense vs. Fresno State running game

There are plenty of ways to play smashmouth football, and the Fresno State offensive line knows most of them. Although not as big as in previous years, the Bulldogs are athletic and skilled up front, led by four-year starter Ryan Wendell at center.

Wendell was part of the crew that generated 503 rushing yards against UH in 2004, mostly running through the Warriors.

"Now they're not so much downhill. They've added some wrinkles," Hawaii defensive tackle Mike Lafaele said. "They're kind of like LaTech the way they run the ball -- draws and stuff. I know they'll come down and try to pound the ball down our throat. But I think if we stop them in the beginning they'll try all kinds of stuff."

Bryant-Jon Anteola of the Fresno Bee writes that the Bulldogs don't think the Warriors can run the ball.

But preparing for Hawaii isn't as strenuous as it was a year ago.

Then, the Warriors had a legit running game, which aided them especially when inside the red zone with bowling-ball-like running back Nate Ilona there for the tough yards. Ilona scored three rushing touchdowns in Hawaii's triumph over Fresno State.

But with Ilona gone, teams can go back to focusing on Hawaii's passing game -- still a daunting task, but less demanding.

When Fresno State won at Hawaii 27-13 in 2005, the Warriors didn't have much of a running game. And Colt Brennan was just getting familiar with the run-and-shoot system.

Hawaii entered Fresno State's 20-yard line eight times and were rejected from the end zone seven times.

"You know they're going to pass the ball," Jenkins said. "That's what makes this year a little like 2005. They're a little more predictable. Still tough to stop, but a little more one-dimensional."

Well well well. And it's Nate ILAOA.

Anteola somewhat redeems himself with an article about Colt deciding to come back to UH. He also has some key matchups and keys to victory, as well as analysis of who has the advantage when both teams, pass, run or kick.

Should be a great game. Let's see if June has any wrinkles to add to the offense. GO WARRIORS!!!!!!

Some more news

Friday's stuff.

Blaze, ESPN, June's Contract , Etc.

Dave Reardon writes about the hard luck Blaze Soares has had with injuries this season.

On Monday, the fan favorite re-aggravated the pulled hamstring that kept him out of the first four games. Although the Warriors are fine at linebacker with Brad Kalilimoku, Adam Leonard and Solomon Elimimian, a healthy Soares would give UH a big boost against the physical Bulldogs.

"He's day-to-day," defensive coordinator Greg McMackin said of Soares, not sounding very hopeful.

"I don't know what else to do," said Soares, who has used rest, hydrotherapy and massage to try to rehab the hamstring. A recurring shoulder stinger doesn't help either.

Man, that sucks. We need the Blaze!

Ferd Lewis writes about the importance of convincing victories in these next four games, starting with Fresno.

Coming off an open date that saw them drop in most polls — and two open slots in the past three weeks that have left them buffeted by movement around them — there are few better times for the unbeaten Warriors to send a reminder of their resume. And, perhaps, no better remaining opportunities in which to do it.

Ferd also writes that ESPN College GameDay probably won't visit Hawaii anytime soon.

"The problem is it costs a lot, facilities are very limited and it would take huge logistical planning," said Fowler, who has predicted UH to run the table this year and go to the Sugar Bowl. "Believe me, it is not a lack of enthusiasm on our part to go to Honolulu," he said.

"I keep telling Chris and Lee we need to get out there for GameDays," said analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

"It is cost prohibitive; I'd never go out there if I was running ESPN," said analyst Lee Corso, who has picked the Warriors to go to the Bowl Championship Series and Brennan to win the Heisman Trophy.

Said Fowler: "We'd love to go out there and I think it would be a blast ... if you promise me that fans will show up at 5 in the morning."

Reardon writes about the negotiations that may or may not be going on over June Jones' new contract. Also from that article:

• Karl Noa was selected to the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Football Academic All-District VIII second team.


• Greg McMackin is confident in Desmond Thomas replacing Keao Monteilh

More Fresno Previews

News from Mr. Leahey, Mr. Kekaula and Ms. Chun, as compiled by Mr. Cut. Kanoa also reports about the Washington game time being set, and Robert shows a few pictures from the USA Today article about UH.

The Schedule and the BCS

Seems like everyone picked the week of the Fresno game to write about the schedule and its effect on UH's BCS chances, or at least the talk surrounding it.

From Reid Cherner of USA Today:

A perfect season gives them a shot at a spot in a Bowl Championship Series game and a boost to the Heisman Trophy chances of quarterback Colt Brennan.

A victory — a la Boise State's against Oklahoma in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl — would give the Warriors the respect they feel has been missing from their detractors who point to their weak schedule.

"I would be lying to you if I said it wasn't talked about or mentioned, but we've done a good job all year of just concentrating on our team and blocking out the outside stuff," says wide receiver Ryan Grice-Mullen, who has 66 catches and nine touchdowns in eight games.

From Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Because of their low computer ranking, the Warriors are only No. 16 in this week's BCS standings. The best team Hawaii has beaten is San Jose State, which blew a big lead and lost to the Warriors 42-35 in overtime and has fallen to 3-6 after losing its two WAC games since then by a combined score of 72-7.

Hawaii won't face criticism about its schedule the next three seasons because it plays Florida on the road in 2008, then hosts Wisconsin in 2009 and USC in 2010, assuming those schools don't buy their way out of contracts the way Michigan State did for this year's scheduled game against Hawaii.

From Russell Levine in the New York Sun:

While Kansas may get knocked for a soft schedule, the Jayhawks' slate looks like a brutal slog compared to Hawaii. Still, by remaining undefeated, the Warriors have put themselves in position to earn a berth in a BCS bowl. Fresno State is by far the best team Hawaii has faced this season — but the Bulldogs have to visit the Islands, where Hawaii enjoys one of the greatest home-field advantages in all of sports.

Conversely, people who say that should be giving UH credit for tough wins on the road with the advantage reversed.

From Bryant-Jon Anteola of the Fresno Bee:

The Warriors' nonconference schedule this year is a complete contrast to the heavyweight bouts Fresno State signs up for in coach Pat Hill's quest for the Bulldogs to also become a BCS buster.

While Fresno State would be the first in line for trips to USC, Louisiana State and Oklahoma and "leave no doubt," as Hill has said, Hawaii filled out this year's nonconference schedule with the likes of Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern.

Nonetheless, a BCS berth to Hawaii this season would render Fresno State's motto of "anyone, anywhere, anytime" irrelevant.

Why spend so much energy bashing down the front door when the back door is wide open?

And from Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News (via the Advertiser):

The problem is the schedule. Hawai'i has played Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern in a nonconference slate that went beyond cupcake to the entire dessert cart.

Benson notes the problems began with Michigan State, which bought its way out of a game this year.

Few big-time teams wanted to face coach June Jone's spread offense and quarterback Colt Brennan, who needs just three touchdown passes to break Ty Detmer's Bowl Subdivision career record. Hawai'i scrambled to schedule name opponents including Michigan, Indiana and several Pac-10 schools.

Michigan opted to face Appalachian State instead. Other schools declined.

Washington Time Set, Chad Owens Back to Jags

The start time for the UH vs Washington game has been set.

ESPN has announced the start time for the University of Hawaii and Washington football game, Saturday, Dec. 1. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. at Aloha Stadium.

ESPN has not determined which network (ESPN or ESPN2) will air the game.

And former UH receiver Chad Owens has been re-signed to the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad.

LWJ, Special Teams, DaBess

Dave Reardon writes that Leon Wright-Jackson is ready to go.

"I think the coaches are taking their time with me, making sure I get my stuff down. I'm not in a rush to get on the field," said Wright-Jackson, who was a high school Parade All-American.

"They're not going to put me out there if I don't know what I'm doing. I've just been patient. ... I might be getting the ball more and getting more playing time. It's a good chance for me to step up and show Coach I do know what I'm doing."

Stephen Tsai writes about the Warriors' focus on special teams, and discusses the running backs besides LWJ and David Farmer who may see playing time.

Head coach June Jones said Daniel Libre will be part of the rotation against Fresno State. But Laumoli, who is 5 feet 10 and 287 pounds, also has practiced with the first team.

Laumoli would provide depth as a back-field blocker. The Bulldogs have an aggressive pass rush.

"The coaches are giving me a chance to showcase," Laumoli said. "I can't ask for more than that."

And Dave Reardon talks to Davone Bess about his history with Fresno, and writes about CJ Allen-Jones and Spencer Smith getting more practice time due to injuries to starters.

Practice Pics

Orlando of UHWarriorFan.com has some new pictures from this week's practice in his 2007 Practice Pics gallery. The new pics are towards the bottom, but he also changed the previous practice sections from Flash to HTML, which should be easier to navigate. Be there!

Fresno, Coach of the Year Nomination

Chawan Cut with the compilation of news from Li'l Timmy, Kanoa Leahey, Liz Chun and Robert Kekaula, mostly previewing Fresno, but also mentioning JJ's nomination for Coach of the Year, which you can also read about in this Advertiser article.

Libre, Estes, Maka, Special Teams

Billy Hull talks to Daniel Libre about his ascent up the running backs depth chart.

After transferring home, Libre, who is listed at 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, was converted to slotback and has seen limited action on special teams. His ascent at running back comes at a critical time as Hawaii prepares for its toughest opponent to date.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Libre said. "It's a lot of pressure, but it's what I wanted since I got here."

Further down the page, Dave Reardon writes about Kenny Estes giving up his redshirt season.

He wasn't sure it was such a great idea at first to burn a year of eligibility for a few games.

"I was kind of like, 'There's only four or five more games and I missed out on more than half of the season.' "

Then, Estes said, he realized that it's an honor that the coaches would want him to contribute to what is so far an undefeated season.

"This is the year to play. This is the year obviously that (UH is) going so far," Estes said.

Stephen Tsai writes about Daniel Libre, Kealoha Pilares, and the loss of Francis Maka.

"He's a guy who each week has made bigger and bigger contributions," defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said. "It's a step back."

Michael Lafaele, the starting defensive right tackle and co-captain, said Maka's absence is noticeable.

"You can tell our defensive ends are not the same as far as rotation and resting time," Lafaele said. "Especially the way (Maka) plays. He makes plays. To not have him out there is heartbreaking."

John Fonoti, who also rotates as a rush end, said Maka served as a mentor.

"Whenever I didn't know something, he told me what to do," Fonoti said. "I'm sad to see him out."

Tsai writes that Victor Clore will take Maka's place in the rotation.

Ferd Lewis writes about the pivotal role of special teams, especially in these last four games.

And finally, The Sports Network has a preview of the UH-Fresno game.

Fresno, Injuries, Heisman

CC compiles news from Robert Kekaula, who previews this Saturday's game, Liz Chun, who reports on the injury to Kealoha Pilares, and Kanoa Leahey, who discusses the injuries to Pilares and Francis Maka.



Dave Reardon has some details about Maka's injury.

UH’s depth on the defensive front has taken a hit, as end Francis Maka is out 2-to-4 weeks with a lower leg fracture he suffered in practice yesterday.

Also from that post is news that Kenny Estes is giving up his redshirt year.

Freshman Kenny Estes has joined the first-team kickoff unit and will likely play on other special teams the final third of the season.

Estes, who grayshirted last year, had been tabbed for a redshirt season. But the Waimea graduate has shown up so well on tape and done consistently well as a scout team player that the coaches decided to promote him for the stretch run.

Rob DeMello has a great post on the Leahey & Leahey blog detailing his Top 3 games in the UH-Fresno rivalry over the years.

And finally, Daniel Lyght of The Fresno Bee has a good article about the obstacles Colt Brennan has to overcome to even be considered for the Heisman, including geography, "the system," the schedule, and stupid Heisman voters.

So far this season Brennan is 225 of 328 for 2,820 yards and 26 touchdowns. Twenty-four quarterbacks have attempted more passes than Brennan, but only three have more touchdown passes. He's seventh in the nation in passing efficiency with a 160.3 rating. Eight quarterbacks have more passing yards.

The only game he did not play in this season was against Charleston Southern, when he had an injured ankle. In that game backup Tyler Graunke was 22 of 36 for 285 yards, two interceptions and three touchdowns.

Graunke's numbers didn't sit well with (Heisman voter Graham) Watson.

"When the backup comes in and does the same thing you did," Watson said, "that speaks to the system more than it does the quarterback."

That's just lazy. And I've read the same thing from other writers too. According to them, the better Graunke performs, the worse Colt is. Like you can't have two good QBs on the same team. Like you can have a hippopatomus run the system and have it lead the nation in passing efficiency. Like there's even a frickin correlation.

And these are the same guys who would be bashing Colt for "padding his stats" if he actually was able to play and put up numbers against Charleston Southern. It's a no-win situation, having to rely on the judgment of these fools looking for excuses to dismiss Colt. Anyway.

Colt Blogs

Here's Colt Brennan's first blog post for the New York Times, in which he compliments his receivers. Here's an excerpt:

Davone is the raw talent, the thick little slot who makes ridiculous catches, jukes you and flat out strikes fear in opposing defenders. Davone plays with a chip on his shoulder. He doesn’t just try to make you miss, he embarrasses you.

Ryan is fast!!! Really fast, if you don’t believe me, watch the Alabama game from last year. The Tide took SEC talent and manned up on him all night. Boy did he have fun. Ryan’s the quick, squirrelly slot who catches balls in ways in people have never thought of. He has the ability to take five-yard routes and turn them into 60-yard touchdowns in a flash.

Nate the Destroyer, Pilares, Pat Hill, Etc.

Congratulations to Nasti Nate Ilaoa, who has signed with the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League.

Brian McInnis writes about the status of Kealoha Pilares' knee injury.

Pilares himself expressed reservations about his ability to go against the WAC rival Bulldogs (6-3, 5-1 WAC), despite the Warriors' having two byes over the past three weeks to help rest injuries.

"They want me to take care of it for the last three games, (at Nevada and at home against Boise State and Washington)," Pilares said. "Rest it up."

On the other hand, coach June Jones said he expected Pilares to play when asked at yesterday's weekly Honolulu Quarterback Club luncheon.

Stephen Tsai talks to Pilares about it.

"It's really weak," Pilares added. "It feels dead. ... It doesn't give back when I push down. Just lateral movement is sore. I can't really make cuts."

Since suffering the injury, Pilares practiced during two bye weeks and played in the Oct. 27 game against New Mexico State.

"I didn't give it time to rest, I guess," Pilares said. "I kind of rushed into it. It got worse and worse."

June Jones compares the UH offense to the Patriots offense, and talks about the upcoming stretch run.

"This is kind of a playoff run, when I was in the NFL, at this point usually in early December or late November, you had to win four in a row to stay alive," he said. "That's kind of what it feels like right now. We've got four big games, and three at home (Fresno State, Boise State and Washington). The kids are pretty focused and have been able to put everything in perspective from week to week."

Ferd Lewis has a pretty interesting column about Fresno coach Pat Hill and his scheduling philosophy.

Nevada has a bye this week, and they're using it to plan for Hawaii.

Ault and the coordinators will likely spend part of the weekend trying to find ways to beat Hawaii, which is 8-0 and ranked 12th in this week's Associated Press poll. Ault said the bye week certainly helps.
"We welcome the extra week to practice and get some ideas down," he said. "It still comes down to execution.
"(Two weeks is) going to be more than enough for us. We'll be more than ready for Hawaii."

Philip Dear of the Tufts Daily has a good article about UH, Colt Brennan and with the crazy season, their chance to get to a national title game. The last month of the season would have to be doubly crazy as the first 2/3rd of the season for that to be a possibility.

The Warriors aren't just winning all of their games, but they're winning them emphatically. In only eight games, they have outscored their opponents 415 to 179, scoring at least 42 points in each. The Warriors are ranked first in the country in points per game, averaging 51.9, and second in the nation in passing yards with 3,676.

Quarterback Colt Brennan, one of the leading candidates in the Heisman Trophy race this season, leads the Warriors. Brennan has thrown for 2,820 yards, good for ninth in the country, but has done so in two to three fewer games than the first eight quarterbacks. But more importantly, he owns a passer rating of 160.3, which ranks him third in the nation.

And in an article about Heisman candidates and some problems with media exposure, Caulton Tudor of the News & Observer has some good things to say about Colt Brennan, even as he writes that it would be difficult for Colt to win it.

Among the early quarterback favorites, John David Booty (Southern California), Brian Brohm (Louisville) and Chad Henne (Michigan) have struggled and/or battled injuries. The primary exception is Hawaii's Colt Brennan, who has lived up to expectations on an 8-0 team.

But Brennan also faces a testy remaining schedule -- games against Fresno State, Boise State, Nevada and Washington. And even if the Warriors finish undefeated, can a football player from Hawaii win the Heisman? Logically, you have to think no. Geographically, it would be more of an unprecedented outcome than the surprise win by Oregon State's Terry Baker in 1962. Brennan probably has more of an exposure issue than Oregon's Dixon.

UH-Fresno Previews / Haʻa

The UH Athletics Department has some game notes for the upcoming game, including this info about how the TV situation is being handled.

Television: Live statewide on Oceanic Cable Pay-Per-View digital channel 255 with Jim Leahey (PBP) and Jim Donovan (color). Call (808) 643-2100 statewide to order. Also delayed on KFVE (ch. 5) Sunday, Nov. 11, at 10:00 a.m. The game will also be shown live nationally on ESPN2, except in Hawai`i, with Ralph Wood (PBP) and Randy Rosenbloom (color) of the Bulldog Sports Network.

Bryant-Jon Anteola of the Fresno Bee has a game preview.

The Warriors (8-0, 5-0) have not lost since their second-to-last game of last season, to No. 24 Oregon State. Hawaii also throttled Fresno State 68-37 last year.

"We've got a big, big challenge ahead, no doubt," Fresno State coach Pat Hill said. "But you know, I like the way we're performing. We've won five of our last six games. We're in position where it's a big game.

"That's all you can ask for, playing in November and have the games mean something."

The Advertiser writes that there's only 9000 tickets left for the game.

Before Chawan gets futless again, here's his compilation of tonight's news from KITV's Robert Kekaula and KGMB's Liz Chun. Kekaula has news that Kealoha Pilares' knee injury might keep him out of the game this Saturday. Here's hoping it's not serious.



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Bill Palka of The Daily Orange, a Syracuse student paper, has an article about the Warriors' haʻa.

"Texas does the horn thing, and the Gators do their Gator chomp," Watson said. "The Hawaii Warriors, we do a ha'a. And that's how we get pumped up for the games."

Before the three players wrote the words and choreographed the moves, they gathered opinions from their teammates about what the ha'a meant to them. Once they had a team consensus, they wrote the lyrics for the ha'a. Galdeira said the motions are meant to be simple and flow with the words.

Those words are not so simple to learn. Many players from the mainland are not familiar with the Hawaiian language. UH head coach June Jones allowed the team to practice the ha'a before and after practice, saying that it added great cultural value.

"It's not whether you're Hawaiian or whether you're Polynesian or whether you're even from Hawaii," Galdeira said. "It doesn't even matter what kind of background you're from. Something people should know about coming to the University of Hawaii is that we have a culture that you're going to represent."

And in a Ka Leo article from last week, Kelli Miura writes about the origins of the football team's haʻa, and what it means to the players.

The ha‘a is a unique and special aspect about this year's team. Not only does it display the Hawaiian culture, but it has benefited the team in several ways.

"The combined effort of all us really resembles Hawaiian values," Watson said. "It's not just from one person; it's from the whole team. That's what makes it so personal for all of us."

The team also developed an identity and closer relationship through learning and performing the ha‘a.

"When you look around in football, there's a lot of teams out there that have certain types of rituals and things that they do," Brennan said. "This is something very specific to us. I really think it gives our team an identity and gives us a chance to really come closer."

Forgotten again...

like always, Mr. Tombo forgets about me.... i'm used to it already, so it doesn't bother me as much.

actually the news last night wasn't that extraordinary, just talking about how we dropped in the bcs rankings. ** also, gotta apologize about the ch2 news quality. i think the rain got to the feed somehow **

The Shows, The Pros, The Bowls

There's a brand new C&K Show out in three parts, wooooooo!!!!

Part 1 has C&K getting picked up at Jack in the Box by Blaze Soares at 5 in the morning. Then they pick up Victor Clore and drive to practice.



In Part 2, C&K interviews Inoke Funaki, Keoni Steinhoff, Adam Leonard, Solomon Elimimian and Brad Kalilimoku.

Part 3 has C&K walking around campus, interviewing students and professor Vita, who teaches Samoan. They document Blaze eating pancakes, follow Blaze to class, and finally interview Jacob Patek. Keenan Jones makes a cameo too.

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Orlando has this week's June Jones show up on Youtube. Part 1 takes a look at the final four games of the season, Part 2 has an interview with June, Part 3 has an interview with Greg McMackin, and Part 4 has a great profile of Michael Lafaele:



Irse has it up in Windows Media format.

And KGMB has started archiving the "Under the Helmet" profiles of players and coaches from the JJ Show, with more to come.

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The Star-Bulletin compiles an "NFL Islanders" Warrior in the Pros summary, which includes news of another great game by Travis Laboy.

Travis LaBoy, DE, Tennessee: made the first interception of his career on a pass by Carolina's David Carr and also sacked Carr for a 3-yard loss in a win over the Panthers; also was credited with a pass defense and a quarterback hurry

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Ferd Lewis writes that representatives from the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange Bowls will be scouting UH games in the coming weeks.

The Fiesta and Sugar Bowls said they plan to send representatives to the Warriors' Nov. 16 game at Nevada and the Orange Bowl is scheduled to send a scout to the Nov. 23 game with Boise State, Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said yesterday.

Speaking of which, Ferd writes not to worry too much about the Warriors dropping two spots in this week's BCS rankings.

"All things being equal and they don't lose again, (the Warriors) should go up from now on," said Jerry Palm, whose Web site, College BCS.com, tracks the BCS.

If there was a week UH was vulnerable to get passed by a herd of BCS heavies and could do little about it, this was it. With UH (8-0) having an open date, dead in the water with its sagging strength of schedule numbers, the fear was that a handful of marquee schools might leap-frog the Warriors.

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And finally, Stephen Tsai's Warrior Beat blog is giving fans the opportunity to write notes of thanks and appreciation to the UH seniors. He'll be posting a new card each day. Here's a card for Jacob Patek, and one for Hercules Satele. Be there!

Hawaii #16 in BCS Rankings

The Warriors drop two spots to #16 in this week's BCS Rankings, as Florida and Texas leapfrog UH. Here's a PDF press release of the rankings. Still no love from the computers. Thanks to warriorx808 for the heads up.

...here's an article from the Advertiser, which also notes Boise is #20 in the rankings.

Hawaii #14 in AP Poll (#12 in Coaches, #10 in Harris)

The Warriors drop two spots to #14 in the AP Poll, having been leapfrogged by Michigan, the one that lost to I-AA Appalachian State, and USC, the one that lost to Stanford at home. Just pointing that out. The polls that count in the BCS standings are on the way...

UPDATE: UH drops one spot to #12 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, being leapfrogged by Virginia Tech this time.

UPDATE 2: UH remains at 10th in the Harris Poll. No leapfrogging this time! Here's a PDF press release of the poll. And now we wait for the BCS rankings.

Desmond Thomas, The Computers, SOS

Stephen Tsai has an excellent profile of Warrior safety Desmond Thomas.

Today is very good for Desmond Thomas.

He is the Hawai'i football team's starting free safety.

He and his wife, Natasha, are expecting their first child in May.

In December 2008, he will become the first family member to earn a college degree.

"I'm blessed, and I'm enjoying everything now," said Thomas, a fourth-year junior. "Tomorrow is never promised."

Ferd Lewis writes about some of the people behind the BCS computer rankings.

That UH's standing varies from 14th to 55th among the computers reflects the differences in the providers and the latitude they have in their programs. "The parameters are up to them," said Charles Bloom, associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, which administers the BCS in conjunction with the National Football Foundation. "Each of the (computers) have its own measures of what they use: i.e. schedule strength, recent results, conference strength, etc." The only prohibition being a margin of victory component, which the BCS did away with in 2002.

Great article, with Lewis speaking to several of them about some of the quirks of their polls.

Ferd also writes about an article that Jeff Anderson of the Anderson & Hester poll wrote discussing UH's strength of schedule, and how it would still be really bad if Michigan State hadn't pulled out of their contracted game. Though it doesn't seem like Anderson factors in how MSU pulling out threw a wrench into scheduling other teams. Of course, there were other factors as well.

Speaking of which, Paul Arnett had an interesting column yesterday about Herman Frazier and his critics.

These are just a few observations that make you wonder what the heck is going on up there, but they pale in comparison to the potential gold mine Frazier is helping excavate. Ironically, all the hoopla about the schedule has turned into a stroke of genius. The first bye actually helped the Warriors in the BCS poll and the second one is unlikely to hurt much, if at all.

Or as another Herman might say...


"I meant to do that!"

Colt on College GameDay

Here's Colt Brennan's interview on ESPN's College GameDay that aired this morning. They open with a video profile of Colt spearfishing, and then Colt has to contend with rude Oregon fans as Chris Fowler interviews him live over the phone. Fowler, Lee Corso and the boto Kirk Herbstreit also debate Hawaii's BCS worthiness.

BCS Scoreboard: 11/3/2007

Here's this week's BCS scoreboard. The results in red indicate teams that have won, green for teams that have lost. I'll update the results and records as the day goes on.

P.S. Congratulations to Kaipo, Paul Johnson and NAVY for beating Notre Dame today!

BCS Rank	Team	Result
1	Ohio State (10-0)	38-17 WIN vs #21 Wisconsin
2	Boston College (8-1)	27-17 LOSS vs Florida State
3	LSU (8-1)	41-34 WIN @ #17 Alabama
4	Arizona State (8-1)	23-35 LOSS @ #5 Oregon
5	Oregon (8-1)	35-23 WIN vs #4 Arizona State
6	Oklahoma (8-1)	42-14 WIN vs Texas A&M
7	West Virginia (7-1)	bye
8	Kansas (9-0)	76-39 WIN vs Nebraska
9	Missouri (8-1)	55-10 WIN @ Colorado
10	Georgia (7-2)	44-34 WIN vs Troy
11	Virginia Tech (7-2)	27-3 WIN @ Georgia Tech
12	Michigan (8-2)	28-24 WIN @ Michigan State
13	Connecticut (8-1)	38-19 WIN vs Rutgers
14	HAWAII (8-0)	bye
15	Texas (8-2)	38-35 WIN @ Oklahoma State
16	Auburn (7-3)	35-3 WIN vs Tennessee Tech
17	Alabama (6-3)	34-41 LOSS vs #3 LSU
18	S. Florida (6-3)	33-38 LOSS vs Cincinnati
19	USC (7-2)	24-3 WIN vs Oregon State
20	Florida (6-3)	49-22 WIN vs Vanderbilt
21	Wisconsin (7-3)	17-38 LOSS @ #1 Ohio State
22	Boise State (8-1)	42-7 WIN vs San Jose State
23	Virginia (7-2)	17-16 WIN vs #24 Wake Forest
24	Wake Forest (6-3)	16-17 LOSS @ #23 Virginia
25	Clemson (7-2)	47-10 WIN @ Duke

Special Teams, E-Rob, Hula Bowl

Jason Kaneshiro writes that the Warriors are paying special attention to special teams.

"Two of the next four weeks, we'll play two of the best special teams (units) in the country," UH coach June Jones said in reference to games with Fresno State and Boise State, both noted for their prowess in the kicking game.

The Warriors devoted a sizable portion of their final practice of their bye week to special teams, concentrating on assignments and technique in punt coverage and kickoff returns yesterday morning.

Also from the article, defensive back Erik Robinson talks about getting more comfortable in the UH defensive schemes.

Robinson got his most extensive playing time of the season in last week's win over New Mexico State and is running with the second unit alongside Dane Porlas in the Warriors' base and nickel formations.

"I feel real comfortable (in the UH system) because as you get more repetitions at something you start getting comfortable. I used to be kind of nervous, but now I'm more relaxed and laid back.

And Stephen Tsai writes that Jason Rivers, C.J. Hawthorne and Hercules Satele have been invited to the Hula Bowl.

"I'm thankful for the invitation," Hawthorne said. "There are probably hundreds of seniors who want to be in that game. It's an honor to be invited."

Ron Lee, who coaches the UH receivers, said Rivers and Hawthorne are "very deserving. It's great for them. It's a nice way to cap their season."

"He's the next (offensive lineman) from this school who will get his shot and go to the NFL," offensive line coach Dennis McKnight said. "He's a great pass-blocker, great trapper, great competitor. Plus, at the next level, he can play center, as well."

Congratulations to all three.

Vili the Anchor, Stephanie the Warrior

The moment you've been waiting for. Video of KHNL anchor Stephanie Lum's evening at Aloha Stadium as Vili the Warrior's sidekick. Then watch as Vili's presence in the newsroom takes Stephanie Lum, Howard Dashefsky and Sharie Shima out of their element! Thanks to the tireless Chawan for posting this.

Leahey & Leahey Blog

There's a new blog on the block, and they're about to put this one to shame. Jim Leahey, Kanoa Leahey and Rob DeMello just started a blog to complement the Leahey & Leahey radio show. They'll use it to give people a heads up of what's on tap for the show, info on guests, news, and whatever else they want to post. Even if you don't or can't listen to the show, looks like it'll be a great place to visit for news and tips like this:

University of Hawaii Warrior Quarterback, Colt Brennan will be featured on ESPN's College Gameday This Saturday!

CB-15 will be Interviewed by Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstriet via phone from Eugene, Oregon.

Be there!

Raphael Ieru, Bye Week, Refs, TV

Stephen Tsai profiles hard-working hard-dieting offensive lineman Raphael Ieru.

As a reward, the now 296-pound Ieru can snack on a new role: No. 2 right tackle.

"Because he showed the dedication off the field to lose the weight, I'm going give him an opportunity to show what he can do," head coach June Jones said.

During the bye week, Ieru has received extensive work during team drills. His strength (benches 225 pounds 26 times) combined with his improved quickness have improved his stock as a perimeter blocker.

"He's playing his (butt) off," offensive line coach Dennis McKnight said. "He's reborn again hard. I'm very proud of him."

Billy Hull writes about how coaches and players are dealing with the second bye in three weeks, and talks to Keith AhSoon and Dennis McKnight about the holding penalties AhSoon got called for against NMSU.

Hawaii's starting left tackle was whistled for three holding calls against New Mexico State, and he wasn't happy about them.

"Maybe we need to have some referee session or something to get to know what's holding," AhSoon said. "I was disappointed (with the calls), man, but at the same time I had to keep my composure."

Offensive line coach Dennis McKnight shared AhSoon's frustration about some of the calls.

"What they call holding and what I call holding, obviously we're on different pages," McKnight said. "To me, an ass-kicking where you put a guy on his back on a flat-ass pancake block is not holding."

Gotta love coach McKnight.

Ferd Lewis writes about the concessions ESPN made to broadcast the Fresno game, and the potential of having the last four games of the season on national TV provides.

The scenario is half football, half poker tour really because with each victory the pot mounts in the game of Bowl Championship Series-buster the Warriors are playing. If they win a ninth, then interest heightens to see if they can win a 10th. Then an 11th. Then ...

It is becoming a drama well beyond the 50th State and the WAC, complete with strength-of-schedule controversy and heated should-they or should-they-not BCS debate. Time was when few knew and even less cared who UH played.

And in unrelated news, they making a new X-Files movie!

The studio is staying little about the film's story line. All that is being revealed is that it is a "supernatural thriller" and that the movie will take the complicated relationship between FBI agents Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions as Mulder continues on his quest for the truth and Scully remains inextricably tied to her partner's pursuits.