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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Warrior wishes for
upcoming seasonSPRING is a time when a young man's fancy turns to love.
Older guys mostly think about college football.
Spring is a time for projection, for prediction. You have to use your imagination, because the starters don't do much. Every sub is a potential star, at least for a minute.
And at UH, there's very little hitting to jar anyone back to reality.
Spring is the time for staring out onto the field, at noncontact drills and walk-throughs in shorts, and seeing what you want to see.
Anything's possible in these few weeks.
It's a time in which it's all too easy to get swept away in what might be. To daydream of the future.
So let's walk through a spring wish list for the upcoming Hawaii football season ...
» That Chad Owens returns to the kick-returning form that brought a state to its feet in 2001. (Who isn't excited to hear he'll be back there waiting while the ball is in the air?)
» That diet or no diet, number or no number, big man Uriah Moenoa still has those "Fred Flintstone bowling" twinkle toes that allowed him to shine as a tackle during his freshman season.
» That for the first time in five seasons a backup quarterback won't become a major story line (no offense, guys).
» That everyone holds off on the "Tim Chang for Heisman" hype -- at least until it can be taken seriously.
» That Chang actually forces us to take it seriously.
» And he smiles again, for an entire season.
» That line coaches Vantz Singletary and Mike Cavanaugh get where they hope to go ... eventually. Let's enjoy these guys for a while.
» That Big Ten foes Northwestern and Michigan State aren't just good names in 2004, but good teams, too.
» That UH (if it makes it) can get through a Hawaii Bowl for the first time in the event's history without having to suspend someone for a game the following year.
» That no one uses the phrase "the best thing to happen in the history of the school" in any connection to football -- with the following possible exceptions: 1) Hawaii goes undefeated and then beats BYU in a bowl game (I know all about bowl tie-ins, but leave me to my fantasy); or, 2) One of the players, in his "student" mode, clones a mouse or discovers a new galaxy.
» That pay-per-view doesn't make too much money (because it means UH fans have realized traffic jams happen around every stadium in the United States and you can't find $5 parking anywhere).
» That Boise State coach Dan Hawkins comes up with another line to rival the infamous "Gandhi wouldn't take a knee."
» That I don't have to refer back to the KFVE special "June Jones: On the Record" (especially since I've recorded over it with a "Chapelle's Show" marathon).
» That there's plenty of drama, but all of it occurs between the lines and before the final whistle.
» That next year the wins bring joy, at least for a minute.
» And of course, what I'm dreaming about most of all, this spring: that all games end early, leaving plenty of time to write.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com