Sports Watch
IT was a good Senior Walk spoiled. Washington State proved to be the spoilers as the Cougars defeated the Hawaii Rainbows, 22-14, to put a reality check on their impossible dream season. ’Bows have
one more shot
at Pathetic 10Sure, the Rainbows have still another shot at beating a Pac-10 team to prove that being co-champs of the Western Athletic Conference can be every bit as good as the worst that the Pac-10 has to offer.
Despite their amazing turnaround 8-4 record for a team that went 0-12 last season, the Rainbows are 0-2 against the Pathetic-10 - losing their regular-season finale to the Cougars after getting blasted by Southern California in the season opener.
Never mind that it has been a glorious season in between.
Now the Rainbow seniors - who went through their last-game ritual Saturday night at Aloha Stadium - have another shot to end their season on a winning note on Christmas Day in the Jeep Oahu Bowl against Oregon State. Yes, their third Pac-10 opponent of the season.
Can a third time be a charm?
The Rainbows -- to a man -- think so.
HERE'S hoping that they can. Beating the Beavers, who also enjoyed a great turnaround season of their own, would give Hawaii a 9-4 record and cap a remarkable season.
Unfortunately, that victory would be too late to give first-year coach June Jones the national coach-of-the-year honors.
Oh, he's the WAC coach of the year, no question.
But beating Washington State would have clinched the national award, to my way of thinking.
And, for once this season, he would have won the honors, not so much if his players - especially quarterback Dan Robinson , who had a terrible night throwing the football against the Cougars, had delivered - but if Jones went with the book against the Cougars.
In maybe his most questionable coaching decision of a remarkable year, Jones decided not to go for a two-point conversion try after his Rainbows went ahead, 13-12, on Anthony Smith's 38-yard touchdown return of a fumble recovery late in the third quarter.
Going for two was a "no-brainer," Jones later admitted. "We should have gone for two. I got screwed up." But in the euphoria of the moment, he opted to go for one, and Eric Hannum booted it through for a 14-12 lead.
WHEN the Cougars went ahead, 15-14, on Rian Lindell's 24-yard field goal with 2:53 left in the game, Jones had no option but to try a fourth-and-10 pass from UH's own 20.
That gave the Cougars a cheapie touchdown that made it look as though they were a touchdown better than the Rainbows, which they were not.
If nothing else, it showed than Jones wasn't infallible , that he can't walk on water.
Still, how can you be upset with Jones or his amazing Rainbows? They've accomplished something that nobody, even the most diehard of UH fans , ever thought could be possible - an eight-win season, and a chance to add one more victory.
At the start of the year, most everyone, myself included, thought it would be a good season if the Rainbows could win three games.
Getting a piece of the WAC championship was a pipe dream. Go to a bowl game? You smoking pakalolo or what?
But the Rainbows have done that. They've gone from worst to first.
So they lost to Washington State. But they've been winners many times over. At least eight at the last count.