Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Sports Watch
WHAT a difference a year makes. And I'm not just talking about the University of Hawaii football team changing its nickname from Rainbows to You Know What. ‘Poster boy’
epitomizes
UH attitudeSorry, but I won't use the W-word. Never have and never will, unless I'm talking about the Kamehameha Warriors.
But, by any name, the 2000 UH football team began fall camp yesterday at the plush new grassy field that also matches its new attitude.
A year ago, safety Dee Miller was one of the new recruits incoming coach June Jones brought in to turn around a pathetic football program -- one that had gone 0-12 in 1998 and 5-31 in three seasons under Fred vonAppen.
Nobody knew what to expect, even Miller. The word confidence was hardly in anyone's vocabulary or playbook.
A year later, Miller's the featured player on the cover of the 2000 football media guide and one of the key returning starters on a team that went 9-4 and set an NCAA record for the biggest one-year turnaround.
Now, confidence abounds. So much so, that one worries the UH football team doesn't get too overconfident. A little overconfidence is OK.
And that's the attitude one felt at yesterday's start of two-a-days.
"The difference between this and last year?" Miller didn't hesitate in answering:
"Last year, we wondered if we could do it. This year, we're going to do it. Everybody's committed to repeat what we did and do it better."
"Now we have higher expectations," added defensive tackle Miles Garner, a three-year letterman.
A few of the great expectations? Winning the Western Athletic Conference outright and a Top 20 finish are two of them, according to Miller.
A football truism is that offense wins games, defense wins championships.
So despite a silo-full of quarterbacks and Jones' penchant for the run-and-shoot (shoot, he's four deep in his four-man set of wide receivers and slotbacks), don't be surprised if defense takes the spotlight this season.
MILLER thinks the UH defense will be one of the best in the nation. Considering it gave up 27.7 points a game last year, improving in that area would be a great expectation indeed.
Thus, it's not surprising that of the 24 seniors on the team, the cover of the 2000 media guide featured Miller, a defensive player.
He gets kidded about it by his teammates. "They call me poster boy," Miller said.
But it goes with the territory, and the UH secondary is where Miller and his teammates back there hope to make it a better season than 1999, if that's all possible.
Another startling difference is how Hawaii is viewed by the preseason pundits.
Last year, UH was picked to finish last in the WAC. This year, it's third behind Texas Christian and Fresno State.
And, if Sports Illustrated's preseason prognostication proves to be true, Hawaii -- ranked 49th in the nation -- should finish with a 9-3 record.
But football's a game that has got to be played on the field, not on paper.
"We're a long ways from being where we want to be," Jones said after yesterday's practice.
His first priority isn't finding a starting quarterback among the six he has right now.
It's finding some leadership on offense and defense in the weeks ahead before the season opener Sept. 9 against Portland State at Aloha Stadium.
Fortunately, Jones has Dee Miller as one of the guys he can rely on to supply the leadership on defense. It's not a wonder that defense has the edge on the offense at the moment.