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Thursday, February 24, 2000

Hula Bowl head coaches
are in place

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech and Mack Brown of of Texas will be the head coaches for next year's Hula Bowl.

Bowl Games Hawaii officials also announced today that one of the assistants will be Purdue head coach Joe Tiller.

Boilermakers quarterback Drew Brees recently declared that he will return for his senior season. He will be a leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. The Hula Bowl has had the Heisman winner four of the last six years. The two who didn't spend a week in the islands were Eddie George of Ohio State - who didn't play in a college all-star game - and Charles Woodson of Michigan. He was a junior and couldn't play because of NCAA rules.

"We feel like we have some big-name coaches who will help us draw caliber players to the game," Bowl Games Hawaii chief executive officer Lenny Klompus said. "Coach Brown will be here in September for the season opener with the Rainbows. And I believe Coach Tiller told us that Purdue will play Hawaii in 2002."

Hawaii football fans will remember Tiller as the head coach at Wyoming. His Cowboys put the hurt on the Rainbows several times in the 1990s.

"He has a very wide-open passing game that fits Brees well," Klompus said. "We're excited that and Coach Brown accepted our invitations to take part in next year's game."

Beamer was an automatic selection after he was named the Division I Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association. Three of the other four Hula Bowl assistants will be this year's Division I-AA, Division II and Division III coaches of the year. They will be announced next December.

Klompus said the Hula Bowl will be played Sunday, Jan. 21. This year's game was played on a Saturday because of a conflict with the NFL playoffs.