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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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The show comes off the road with new life
BUCKLE up. This next stretch could get a little nuts. Coming off what they've just come off of? Heading into what they're heading into?
Yesterday, as June Jones talked about Hawaii's just-completed massive road trip, it sounded more and more like it was another training camp. And then Jones said it was "better than training camp."
Well, most things are better than training camp. But you know what he meant. They'd survived it, and now were better and stronger and closer for it, and perhaps most and best of all, felt joyous and liberated for having finally left it behind.
(Reigning Western Athletic Conference defensive player of the week Solomon Elimimian said yesterday that it "seemed like a month we were out there." It did. It did seem that long.)
There's no feeling in the world quite like breaking training camp. It's euphoric. You draw strength just from having it in the rear-view mirror. It's like new life.
As a reader wrote on our blog yesterday: "Maybe Charlie Weis can pick up some pointers and send Notre Dame on an extended road trip like ours as he says they're going to have to start training camp all over again."
Exactly.
Hawaii, after having survived overtime at Louisiana Tech, after exploding in Las Vegas -- the legend of Colt's purple ankle -- has new life.
Let's say that again. Hawaii has new life.
And now comes Charleston Southern.
That's Division I-AA.
"We're treating it just like it's Appalachian State," Jones said.
That's even worse news for the Bucs.
(Thanks a lot, Appalachian State.)
Buckle up.
It's like the season just started all over again.
The trip to Louisiana Tech was every bit as dangerous as anyone could have imagined (and most of us didn't). But Hawaii survived it. Despite being roughed up and taken to the brink by a vastly inferior opponent, it turned into a hugely positive thing.
Those are games you point to later down the line, and say everything started right there.
Then Hawaii stayed on the road, stayed so long that a New York Times reporter summed up the trip with the Colt Brennan quote: "Is it Tuesday?"
(I've been a little quizzical about some of the national coverage this season. But it seems like this guy had figured out the secret to covering UH football -- find Dennis McKnight and write down everything he says.)
Then, Vegas. Hawaii responded to the Louisiana Tech scare in the best possible way.
(The legend of Colt's purple ankle.)
It could have gone badly, this two-week road trip, as it did in 2003. It could have gone very, very badly. Instead, it turned out to be the best thing Hawaii could have done.
Now ...
Coming off what they've just come off of? Heading into what they're heading into?
Here they are, back home in their own warm beds. They've broken their second camp of the season.
Now here comes another Division I-AA team.
And then, as far as the eye can see: at Idaho. Utah State.
Buckle up. This could be a heck of a run.