NINE days until the University of Hawaii's season opener against Arizona, but who's counting? VonAppen knows how
to open a seasonApparently, Rainbow football coach Fred vonAppen. He might not know it, but he tipped his hand in how he plans to prepare for the Pac-10 Wildcats, ranked No. 24 in the AP preseason poll.
"I'm looking for some way to annoy the governor in the next five or six days," vonAppen said, referring to his squabble with Gov. Ben Cayetano just days before the season opener with the Minnesota Gophers last year.
"That helped to get our squad ready to play," said vonAppen, whose Rainbows went on to shock the Gophers, 17-3.
VonAppen doesn't know what he can do to rile up Ben this time. But one thing's for sure.
"I can't come out and support (Linda) Lingle. And don't you roll any of this," he told TV crews filming his Honolulu Quarterback Club speech yesterday. "The last one I voted for was Millard Fillmore."
The Gov. and The Coach have since kissed and made up, although Cayetano made a point -- intentionally or otherwise -- of not seeing the Minnesota game. He missed a great game.
DESPITE winning only five games in his first two years, vonAppen somehow has worked with mirrors when it comes to getting his Rainbows ready for season openers.
In 1996, they came within a first down of possibly beating Boston College. Failing to convert, they lost, 24-21, as the Eagles kicked the game-winning field goal with no time left.
Last year, they didn't let Minnesota off the hook. Unlike Notre Dame in the season finale. But that's another story worth crying over.
Let's hope that holding fall camp at Barbers Point those two years had nothing to do with UH's season-opening successes. There was no Barbers Point this year as vonAppen opted to hold two-a-days at Cooke Field instead.
Anyway, vonAppen is looking forward to the Wildcats coming to town for the season opener Sept. 3 at Aloha Stadium.
"It's nice to have Dick and Bob back in town. And whoever else in hell was from here," vonAppen said.
That was a dig at the local media for making a big deal about Dick Tomey and Bob Wagner, the former UH head coaches now with the Wildcats.
"I know the media want to make an issue of the number of former Hawaiian residents now on the Arizona staff," vonAppen said. "I could care less. The players aren't all that interested. They're more concerned about the players on the field and not the coaches.
"We're not going to scrimmage their staff . . . But it makes for good copy.
"Basically, we're here and they're not. And we'll remain here until further notice."
THE Rainbows already are 26-point underdogs against the Wildcats, whose "Desert Swarm" defense allowed only 2.3 yards per rushing play last year. And for a change, Tomey has an offense to go with his defense. Arizona averaged 402 yards a game -- the school's best since joining the Pac-10 in 1979.
In Ortege Jenkins and Keith Smith, Tomey has two talented quarterbacks. They're so good that Tomey can't decide who to start and might wind up alternating them.
VonAppen also can't decide who his No. 1 QB will be, but for a far different reason. None is the complete package.
"We'll probably do it by committee," he said of who will handle the quarterback duties.
Despite all that, I'll still take the points against Arizona.
Maybe the Wildcats will get stuck in Pearl Harbor traffic next Thursday afternoon and show up late. Or lose by forfeit.