I'M sitting here choking over my Pepsi and Rainbow Chips Deluxe while I gawk at this University of Utah football roster. Haven’t we seen
these guys before?Don't look now, but we've been robbed.
Seems to me I remember naming eight of nine local guys I see on the Utes' depth chart to the Star-Bulletin All-State Team.
Now that is quite a talent haul.
And there'd be a ninth all-stater on the chart this year (Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala) if he wasn't busy backing up Jerome Bettis in Pittsburgh.
Isn't the Almighty somewhat merciful to have banished Fuamatu-Ma'afala -- especially now that he is 30 pounds leaner and meaner -- to the NFL?
Yet, though He delivereth the Rainbows from "Fu," he will smite them with Darnell Arceneaux on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Arceneaux, christened by a Utah sportswriter last year as the "Honolulu Houdini," for his uncanny ability to defuse the blitz, is armed and ready.
The kid who won three straight Prep Bowls for St. Louis. Name me another prep QB who has done that for any school. He has scored on two runs and passed for two scores in the last two weeks, both Utah wins.
He's a redshirt sophomore who will only get better -- we've always known it -- and will probably play on Sunday some day.
AND there's the rest of the don't-look-now-but-we've-been-robbed gang.
Not all of them could play as freshmen because their grades weren't there. Utah accepted them but that, of course, is something the University of Hawaii won't do.
No need to get into that one. Everyone knows college is for football.
But just look at who's poised to rattle UH's cage.
Junior slotback Donny Utu, the record-breaking Interscholastic League of Honolulu receiver from Punahou, can do a lot of things when there's a quarterback who can put the ball in his neighborhood.
I remember when people would say, "Imagine what it would be like if Arceneaux and Utu played on the same team."
Then there's former Campbell all-state tailback Clifford Russell at wide receiver. His long, spindly legs made him look like a character from the animated feature, "Nightmare Before Christmas," but he put people behind him fast.
Stop now?
Can't. The local motherlode is on the Utes' defense.
SOPHOMORE linebacker Kautai Olevao, back from his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, has already been named a WAC player of the week. When he was playing for Doug Semones at Kahuku, Olevao's demeanor was that of a very mobile, hungry, snarling panther. If you were a running back, you didn't want to get near him.
Two years of evangelizing apparently haven't sweetened his disposition between the hash marks.
Then we have "Big Ed" Taamu, the Star-Bulletin's 1996 Defensive Player of the Year. An enormously strong athlete, I still recall the day he reached over a couple of blockers and with one arm pulled down a ball carrier at the line of scrimmage.
The Utes have former St. Louis hammer, Wes Tufaga, at rover (he gave Taamu a serious run for top defensive honors in 1996) and Waianae's Taulia Lave (they still find pieces of equipment that belonged to players he manhandled on the Aloha Stadium turf) at middle linebacker.
Ah yes, and there's speedy, body-rocking Kahuku product Stevie Laulu at strong safety. Didn't make it at UH, but he's a new man in Utah.
Other mainland schools have done well at recruiting Hawaii's football elite. But seldom do we get a chance to see it come back to bite us on the butt the way we will Saturday.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.