Sports Watch
That's the kind of score by which the University of Hawaii would beat Prairie View or Southern Oregon. Not lose by. And that's exactly what the score was Saturday in Laramie, Wyo., as the Cowboys humiliated the Rainbows.
In 1949 at the old Honolulu Stadium, I saw the 'Bows lose to College of the Pacific, 75-0, with Eddie LeBaron performing some quarterback wizardry. The game got to be so one-sided that LeBaron let one of his guards score a touchdown.
I also saw Nebraska beat Hawaii, 68-3, at Aloha Stadium to close out the 1976 season. Thousands of red-clad Cornhusker fans cheered Peter Kim's 50-yard field goal for the Rainbows' only score.
Talk about being embarrassed.
Another red-faced moment came the week before that Nebraska game, when a winless Oregon State came to town and wiped out Hawaii, 59-0.
But what happened in Laramie topped it all. It was simply the most embarrassing defeat in UH football history. Bar none. It didn't help having the score shown repeatedly on national TV.
It was 35-0 at halftime, although it wasn't UH's worst showing for 30 minutes of football. The 'Bows trailed, 42-0, at the break in an equally forgettable game at San Jose State to open the 1976 season.
But Wyoming's 24-point third quarter has to go down as 15 minutes of infamy for UH football, because of the worst showing by a Rainbow special teams I've ever seen.
Failure to field a kickoff, a shanked punt that went only 19 yards and a fumble of a kickoff return led to 17 points in less than three minutes. Add a blocked punt for another touchdown early in the fourth quarter that made it "Rout 66" and you can see that the special teams' play was hardly special.
All football is divided into three parts - the offense, defense and special teams. Saturday was a total team effort in the loss.
DESPITE the 66 points - the third most allowed in UH history and most in a road game - would you believe that the Rainbows' defense should be accountable for only 14 of them?
Here's the way I figure it.
The offense gave up 28 points - an interception on the UH 23 and a lost fumble on the UH 17 - besides two more touchdowns after going three-and-out on five of six possessions that had the defense sucking swamp water at the 7,200-foot elevation.
The defense gave up two scores on Wyoming drives of 65 and 62 yards, although a breakdown on two big pass plays proved the key.
The not-so-special teams gave up the other 24 points because of shoddy ball-handling. That turned Wyoming's romp from bad to ugly.
The offense didn't help. Wyoming had too many weapons and wasn't going to be denied. It was a matter of Hawaii keeping up its end of the bargain, offensively.
It didn't against a team that had given up 38 points and 500 yards a game. Talk about an offensive mismatch. The Cowboys had five touchdowns to the Rainbows' two first downs at halftime.
Josh Skinner's coming-out party proved disappointing, although the freshman, who won't turn 18 until the end of the year, can't be faulted. Still, Skinner didn't have a good game and he'll be the first to tell you.
IT'S hard to believe, but there were a few positives from Saturday's debacle.
For one thing, the Rainbows' offensive line did a little better job of protecting the quarterback. Also, it can't get any worse - scorewise - you would think for the 'Bows.
For coach Fred vonAppen, who suffered through his longest day on the sidelines, the Wyoming's game is over and done with.
The best thing he can tell his players is forget Wyoming and bring on the boys from Boise State.