Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Monday, October 28, 1996

Rainbows’ bye week
comes at a good time

WELL, University of Hawaii's football Rainbows can't lose this week. They have a bye.

They don't have to take the field against anyone. Good thing, too. The way the West Coast offense is operating, it might still take the Rainbows eight plays to score even if there's no one else on the field.

Just kidding.

But we could all use a little levity. After all, these are trying times for UH football. For sure, the 2-7 season has been no laughing matter to the players, coaches and fans.

The 'Bows were hapless victims of another road kill Saturday against Air Force, which played the game on automatic pilot and still breezed to a 34-7 victory.

They've been bad on the road. The 16-game Western Athletic Conference losing streak on the road can attest to that. They were 0-4 on the WAC road before - in 1993 and 1995. But they've never been outscored like they have been this year, 176-15.

Thankfully, it hasn't been that bad at Aloha Stadium, where the 'Bows at least haven't been blown out this year. As yet, anyway. Their worst defeat, 28-16, was to Colorado State, which stunned San Diego State Saturday.

The bye this week comes at a good time.

The Rainbows are physically and mentally wounded after nine straight weeks of mostly depressing football.

So the bye will give them time to lick their wounds and prepare for their last realistic shot at winning at least one more time this season. That's against San Jose State the following Saturday night, which promises to be a happy homecoming game.

AFTER that, it's batten-down-the-hatches time. High-scoring Brigham Young comes to town and then the Wisconsin Badgers to close out a tough first year as a head coach for Fred vonAppen.

BYU figures to use the game as a recruiting tool to impress local blue-chip prepsters. And, considering that it might be one of those games in which the Cougars could just about name the score, it could get as ugly as some of UH's road performances this year.

As for Wisconsin, I only hope that the Badgers will come to town disappointed about a Big Ten season gone bad. Still, they have too much size and talent to even consider the possibility of an upset.

So a 3-9 season looks about as good as it'll get for the Rainbows. But a victory against San Jose State isn't a lock. And don't even think about taking UH and giving points.

Once again, the UH offense played miserably in the Air Force game.

The Rainbows went three-and-out in their first four possessions. They didn't get their initial first down until they found themselves trailing, 21-0.

The game was as much fun to watch as a saturation bombing. No wonder the fly boys quickly lost interest and played uninspired football for the most part.

AIR Force quarterback Beau Morgan ran for 192 yards and passed for 131 more. He easily could have bettered his personal record of 206 yards in one game - which he set against the Rainbows last year - but why bother?

So Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, not wanting to contribute to an overkill, sat Morgan out for most of the final quarter.

Morgan had his name torn off the back of his jersey, successfully eluding one UH tackler. But everyone knew who he was: one Beau who knows the triple option.

That's another reason why the Rainbows can use the week off. They have to catch their collective breath after running after Morgan.

So it's rest in peace for the Rainbows this week. The season's R.I.P. comes later.