Monday, November 29, 1999
Big test remains
for Rainbows
Hawaii will find out if its
By Paul Arnett
ready to be a prime-time
player in the Oahu Bowl
Star-BulletinWho's next: Oregon State
UH in top 10 in four stat categoriesIt hasn't been easy to rain on Hawaii's postseason parade this season, but Saturday night's loss to Washington State put a mauka shower in the forecast.
On Christmas Day, the Rainbows will strap on their black helmets on national television to play Oregon State in the Oahu Bowl.
The announcers will talk of turnarounds and two NFL coaches going collegiate. They will say what June Jones has done here is nothing short of miraculous and by most accounts, they will be right.
But are the Rainbows really ready to be prime time players? Are they deserving of a bowl bid or just fortunate two postseason parades happen to be in the neighborhood? It's something to ponder over the next month of Sundays.
Granted, the Rainbows were coming off an emotional three-game run that saw them win their final league games with San Jose State and Fresno State to secure their second Western Athletic Conference championship.
Last week, Hawaii rallied to beat the Naval Academy and equal the greatest turnaround in NCAA history. Being up four consecutive weeks is difficult for any team.
On the other hand, Saturday's loss to Washington State -- a team coming in here with a five-game losing streak -- should give everyone a reality check.
Yes, this has been a season for the ages. And yes, if somebody had come up to Jones last summer and said, "How about 8-4?" he would have taken that to the bank faster than his weekly $7,500 paycheck.
But don't forget, Hawaii's schedule is among the most favorable of the bowl-bound teams.Nobody else has played nine home games. The three road trips to Tulsa, San Jose State and Southern Methodist were against teams located on the back 40 of the Division I ranch.
Not only that, the Rainbows play in a conference that gets beat up by everyone save the Big West. UH's nonconference loss to Washington State is a good example.
Everybody knows the plight of the Pac-10. This week, Stanford became the first team from this conference to crack the top 25 in a month. The five bowl teams -- Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and Arizona State -- haven't been that successful outside their conference.
And yet, the two teams crowding the bottom of the barrel, Southern California and Washington State, beat the co-champion WAC Rainbows at Aloha Stadium by a combined score of 84-21.
That's why the national pundits have been a little indifferent about the Rainbows' success. Sure, a team going from 0-12 to 8-4 is a story in itself. That kind of turnaround has happened only twice before: Stanford in 1940 and Purdue in 1943.
But the inevitable question is, who have the Rainbows played? Their four losses were at home to Rice, Texas Christian, Southern California and Washington State. Of that group, only TCU is a part of the postseason.
On the flip side, two of Hawaii's eight wins came against fellow co-champions Fresno State, in an overtime thriller, and Boise State the third weekend of the season. The Bulldogs are bound for the Las Vegas Bowl and the Broncos are headed to the Humanitarian Bowl that's played on their field.
"Obviously, we're pleased at being 8-4," UH head coach June Jones said after the game. "We lost a couple of those I thought we could have won, but we won a couple we really shouldn't have.
"We'll get better as the years go by and play more consistently. There was a lot of excitement this year. Say what you will about the schedule and games we should have won or whatever, we still brought back some pride to the locker room."
But how far will that carry Hawaii in the Oahu Bowl? Granted, it's a home game, but the Rainbows are already 0-2 against lesser Pac-10 opponents and a dead-average 5-4 at Aloha Stadium overall, including a win over Division I-AA Eastern Illinois. The Beavers also beat three of the Rainbows' opponents in Fresno State, Washington State and USC, something not lost on the UH coaching staff.
"I'm already a little worried about facing Dennis Erickson," UH defensive coordinator Greg McMackin said of the Oregon State head coach. McMackin served under Erickson at Miami, Fla., and with the Seattle Seahawks last season. "He has a great offensive mind and knows how to attack our zone-blitz defense."
Jones has also taken note of Oregon State while watching film of common opponents, but has yet to develop a game plan against the much-improved Beavers.
"We know it's going to be a challenge," Jones said. "The good thing is, we have several weeks to prepare for them."
And that's plenty of time to remind the Rainbows of where they've come from this season and just how far they can go if they get a bowl win on Christmas Day.
"We didn't play well Saturday night," quarterback Dan Robinson said. "But we've still got one more game to prove to everybody that we're a good football team."
NEXT GAME
vs. Oregon State,
Dec. 25, 3:30 p.m.Beavers, 'Bows
By Paul Arnett
surprise bowl teams
Star-BulletinHawaii has a month to prepare for its Oahu Bowl encounter with vastly improved Oregon State.
Beavers head coach Dennis Erickson inherited a program that just missed making the postseason last year, a trick Oregon State managed to turn this time around.
Oregon State finished 7-4 to break a string of 28 consecutive losing seasons. This is the first postseason game for the Beavers since a 1965 appearance in the Rose Bowl. It's also the first time Oregon State finished in the upper half of the Pac-10 since 1971.
"Coach Erickson has done a great job there," UH head coach June Jones said. "He has a very good offensive mind."
Oregon State has three players with ties to the island chain. They are Toalei Talataina, Shawn Ball and Colin Kealoha.
Erickson beat Jones the last time the two met in a 1998 NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Diego Chargers.
UH among top 10
By Paul Arnett
in four stat categories
Star-BulletinHawaii finished in the top 10 nationally in four individual and team categories, a marked improvement over last year.
The Rainbows are fourth in the country in passing offense, averaging 328.7 yards a game, a figure that helped them climb to No. 22 in total offense (417.6 yards a game) and a tie for 35th in scoring (29 points a game) with Southern California, a team that beat the Rainbows the first game of the season, 62-7.
Hawaii had three individuals crack the top 10. They are seniors Quincy LeJay, Dwight Carter and Dan Robinson. Despite hitting only 19 of 51 passes in his final regular-season game, Robinson still placed eighth nationally in total offense, averaging 313.5 yards a game.
Carter finished seventh in receiving yards (104.42) and No. 18 in receptions a game with 6.4. Fellow wideout Craig Stutzmann placed 41st with a 5.2 average.
"This offense is going to always generate a lot of yards and points," said Carter, who set single-season team records in yards (1,253) and receptions (77). "I'm just glad I was here to enjoy it."
LeJay managed his seventh interception of the season to average .58 a game, good enough for No. 9 in the country. He returned three for touchdowns, one shy of the NCAA record set this year by Deltha O'Neal of California.
"If I had looked up quicker on a wide receiver screen, I could have had another one and taken it to the house," LeJay said. "I just wasn't expecting the pass to come that quickly my way."
Conference Standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA x-Fresno State 8 4 0 .667 5 2 0 .714 226 141 x-Hawaii 8 4 0 .667 5 2 0 .714 214 161 x-Texas Christian 7 4 0 .636 5 2 0 .714 245 123 Rice 5 6 0 .455 4 3 0 .400 198 161 Southern Methodist 4 6 0 .400 3 3 0 .500 107 113 Texas-El Paso 5 7 0 .417 3 4 0 .429 183 235 San Jose State 3 7 0 .300 1 5 0 .167 120 268 Tulsa 2 9 0 .182 1 6 0 .143 129 220x-Clinched tie for conference title
Last Week's Results
Washington St. 22, Hawaii 14
TCU 21, SMU 0
Season Statistics
Team
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 251 254 Rushing 64 121 Passing 168 107 Penalty 22 26 RUSHING YARDAGE 1069 2240 Yards gained rushing 1355 2636 Yards lost rushing 286 396 Rushing Attempts 294 567 Average Per Rush. 3.6 4.0 Average Per Game 89.1 186.7 TDs Rushing 13 23 PASSING YARDAGE 3944 2283 Att-Comp 577-297 360-211 Had intercepted 19 17 Average Per Pass 6.8 6.3 Average Per Catch 13.3 10.8 Average Per Game 328.7 190.3 TDs Passing 28 16 TOTAL OFFENSE 5013 4523 Total Plays 871 927 Average Per Play 5.8 4.9 Average Per Game 417.8 376.9 KICK RETURNS No. -Yards 45-876 56-1053 PUNT RETURNS No. -Yards 38-282 29-202 INT RETURNS No. -Yards 17-272 19-218 FUMBLES-LOST 29-16 34-18 PENALTIES-YARDS 115-1069 115-936 PUNTS-AVG 63-40.9 72-40.6 TIME OF POSS. 25:59 34:01 3RD-DOWN CONV. 63/172 75/188 4TH-DOWN CONV. 8/19 7/17Rushing
Att. Yds. TD Long Weaver 114 645 4 47 Thompson 90 435 3 38 Stutzmann 6 36 1 9 Fenderson 2 22 0 11 Grant 5 17 0 13 Phillips 0 6 0 0 Liana 1 5 0 5 Harris 1 3 0 3 Sims 2 2 0 5 Garland 1 1 0 1 Gray 1 1 0 1 Skinner 1 1 0 1 Team 1 -1 0 0 Ho-Ching 1 -1 0 0 Harrison 8 -12 1 5 Robinson 60 -91 4 14Passing
Att. Com. Int. Yds. TD Robinson 556 289 18 3853 28 Harrison 20 9 1 91 0 Ho-Ching 1 0 0 0 0Receiving
No. Yds. TD Long Carter 77 1253 9 75 Stutzmann 63 658 8 34 Harris 56 860 6 48 Lelie 36 518 2 45 Thompson 26 212 0 25 Weaver 19 151 0 29 Brooks 7 187 3 80 Gray 3 31 0 18 Sims 2 57 0 46 Butts 2 14 0 14 Colbert 2 7 0 8 de Laura 1 7 0 7 Noa 1 -1 0 0 Owen 1 -3 0 0 Robinson 1 -7 0 0Punting
No. Yds. Avg. Long Shrout 62 2575 41.5 60Tackles
UT AT TT Ulbrich 42 127 169 Y. Warren 28 76 104 D. Miller 29 53 82 LeJay 22 58 80 Paul 19 56 75 Jackson 20 49 69 Kemfort 12 45 57 Correia 8 41 49 Tuioti 9 39 48 A. Smith 11 32 43 Tucker 16 24 40 Austin 13 18 31 Iosua 6 25 31 Sims 4 22 26 Fuga 2 20 22 Avila 2 18 20 Ho-Ching 5 14 19 Elam 3 14 17 Espiau 5 11 16 Armstrong 1 15 16 Garnier 5 9 14 Fenderson 3 9 12 Garner 0 9 9 C. Brown 4 4 8 Espinoza 2 6 8 Campbell 2 5 7 Williams 3 4 7 Liana 1 3 4 Butts 2 2 4 Morgan 0 4 4 Shrout 1 2 3 Harris 1 2 3 Dietschy 0 3 3 Lelie 1 1 2 Grant 1 1 2
