Sports Watch
THE battle cry for all University of Hawaii football fans has become apparent by now: "Wait 'til next year." ’Bows shoo-in for
worst-ever season recordGreat.
Can we skip the next two games, while we're waiting?
After watching the Rainbows play their ugliest home game of this or any season Saturday night against San Jose State - a 1-8 team with the next-to-last worst defense in the nation - you hate to see how they'll fare in their final two games against Brigham Young and Wisconsin.
Mind you, the easy part of the 1996 schedule for the 2-8 Rainbows is over. No more defenses that rank around 100th in the nation. Now comes the hard part.
Is there a doctor in the house? Somebody other than one named Kevorkian?
Using time-share quarterbacks, San Jose State passed Hawaii dizzy in a 38-17 victory. Understand that with the Rainbows, you can't say upset anymore. It isn't when they lose these days.
Mind you, the Spartans only had the 22nd best passing offense in the country coming to town.
BYU is No. 3, maintaining its reputation as Quarterback U. But it should dip a bit because Steve Sarkisian practically took last week off in the Cougars' 49-0 victory over Rice. He only threw 13 times. Of course, he completed 10 of them for 206 yards and two touchdowns.
I don't know what was scarier. The fact that Rice had beaten Utah, 51-10, the week before only to lose like that to the Cougars, or that BYU didn't need to throw the ball in putting the Owls on the endangered-species list.
Maybe the scariest thing is that Sarkisian's passing arm is well rested for this Saturday night's game - for want of a better word - against the 'Bows at Aloha Stadium.
You've heard of name that tune? Well, this one figures to be name that score. BYU will not only dictate the outcome of the game, but the score as well.
I sure hope that Norm Chow, BYU's offensive coordinator, doesn't have any hard feelings about not getting the UH coaching job. And that head coach LaVell Edwards, out of Christian charity, talks Chow out of running up the score.
Just let Kaipo McGuire, Itula Mili and K.O. Kealaluhi - three local lads wearing BYU blue - catch two touchdown passes apiece and sit them down. I hope Sarkisian will be satisfied with only throwing six TD passes.
OK, also let James Dye break the school record by returning his fifth punt for a touchdown while you're at it.
And let BYU score 56 or 59 points, the same scores Hawaii once posted against BYU in the not-too-distant past when the Rainbows enrolled Prop 48 athletes.
I'm afraid BYU might not stop at 56 though, not only because of Hawaii's sad pass defense. But the 10-1 Cougars have a Top 10 ranking to live up to and a good shot for an at-large berth in an alliance bowl.
BYU could break the record of most points scored against a Rainbow team - 75 by College of the Pacific in 1949. Next was a 74-point rampage by Stanford the following week.
I saw both games at the old Honolulu Stadium and never thought I'd see the likes of that again. I did. The Rainbows ended the 1976 season losing to previously winless Oregon State, 59-0, and Nebraska, 68-3.
Considering that after BYU, the Rainbows will play the Big Ten Badgers with a running back named Ron "Great" Dayne, who carried the ball 50 times for 297 yards in last Saturday's victory over Minnesota, another season-ending double whopper seems very likely.
The rebuilding Rainbows are too defenseless to prevent a 2-10 season, which would be the worst record in school history.