Navy Review, Wisconsin Preview

Dave Reardon reviews five big plays from UH's 24-17 victory over Navy in this week's Warrior Replay article.

Bill Wagner of HometownAnnapolis.com has some quotes from Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo regarding the game.

"We are never going to review this tape with the team. I want this game to be over with," Niumatalolo said. "We played bad. Obviously, I did a bad job of getting us ready. We have to forget about this game and move on."

"I'm not sure our players realized how fired up this team would be. We didn't match their intensity," Niumatalolo said.

A crowd of 40,643 at Aloha Stadium was equally fired up and the Midship-men did not respond well to the noise, which Niumatalolo said was more deafening than Ohio Stadium or Notre Dame Stadium.

"It was louder than any of us expected. It was certainly a lot louder than I remember," said Niumatalolo, who played and coached at Hawaii. "We got rattled and mentally we were not sharp. Offensively, I thought we were frazzled. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes."

Dave Reardon writes about Greg McMackin's decision to go for it on 4th and inches instead of attempting a field goal in the 4th quarter.

The Mids can shower and shave in 2 minutes, but going the length of a football field quickly -- especially with no timeouts -- is a bit more challenging for their spread option offense.

Many perceived Bill Belichick's choice to go for it with the lead and time running down a vote of no confidence against his defense. McMackin's was the opposite. If the Warriors failed to get the first down (which is what happened), McMackin was fairly certain his defense could stop Navy from going 84 yards in 5 minutes and change.

He had good reason to be.

Jason Kaneshiro previews the Wisconsin game.

This year's Badgers feature sophomore running back John Clay, named the Big Ten's offensive player of the year after rushing for 1,251 yards and 13 touchdowns through 11 games. Wisconsin had a bye week to regroup following a loss at Northwestern that knocked the Badgers out of the polls.

This week's scenario is similar to 2004, when the Warriors beat Northwestern and Michigan State in the final two weeks to become bowl eligible.

"Since I've been involved with Hawaii football, the end of the year, something special happens on this island," UH quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich said. "Especially when teams come from far away. I don't think they can take it very lightly. I think they understand what this team and field can do, especially come December."

Mike Lucas of The Capital Times previews the game.

While the Hawaii Warriors were in the midst of a six-game losing streak, dropping their overall record to an unsightly 2-6, this looked like a ''laugher'' at the end of the University of Wisconsin' regular season schedule. A trip to the islands. Aloha-ha-ha-ha.

Think again.

And Ferd Lewis writes why this could be the last Big-10 team to play in Hawaii for a long time.

Though the game has been scheduled for Aloha Stadium since the contract was first signed in 2004, the Badgers this spring dangled a $1 million payday if UH would move it to 80,321-seat Camp Randall Stadium in December instead.

It had to have been an enticing offer for UH, which has been running an accumulated net deficit of more than $5 million for several years now. But athletic director Jim Donovan turned down the Badgers' proposal and, eight months later, time has underlined the wisdom of his decision for several reasons.

Donovan said Big Ten teams, once willing to book end-of-season games here are still happy to play UH on the continent, but not on the one-here-and-one-there basis the Warriors seek.

Since the advent of the 13th game by the NCAA, a number of teams have been reluctant to come to Hawai'i and give up one of two possible open dates. Witness not only Michigan State of the Big Ten buying out a 2007 agreement, but Pac-10 member Washington State paying $350,000 to cancel its 2011 game here.

Additionally, as travel costs have risen, several schools have come back to UH demanding new terms or else. Indications are UH sweetened some deals, including the Wisconsin contract.