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Sports Watch
THE attendance at the Jeep Oahu Bowl yesterday at Aloha Stadium was small time. The announced crowd was 24,187, but it appeared half that. Fired coach gains
another big-time winToo bad. A lot of fans missed an opportunity to see a big-time football team in the Georgia Bulldogs, who blew out Virginia, 37-14, to give their departing coach Jim Donnan an emotional Christmas going-away gift he won't soon forget.
It was obvious the players had their coach in mind.
Defensive tackle Richard Seymour pointed to Donnan on the sideline after sacking Cavalier quarterback Bryson Spinner early in the third quarter.
"This one's for you," Seymour mouthed as he saw Donnan waving at him.
"We wanted to send him out with a win," said the 6-foot-6, 300-pound senior. "Four consecutive bowls. Every bowl game we went to, we won. I'm proud of that."
So was Donnan, fired after the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech. The victory gave Donnan an overall 40-19 won-lost record in five years with four straight top-20 finishes and bowl victories.
That's big-time football, all right. Southeastern Conference football.
"Toughest league in America," Donnan said.
You'd better believe it, if four straight top-20 finishes and bowl victories don't cut it.
Hey, do that in Hawaii and you get elected governor. And no recount would be needed.
Instead, Donnan felt publicly humiliated by the one man who mattered -- the university's president.
"We won four consecutive bowl games. That may not be good enough for some people, but it was for us," said Donnan, who shook hands with his players as the scoreboard clock ran down.
"I'm really happy for the team. They didn't win it for me. They did it for their pride. We had a good season -- eight wins -- but we didn't meet our goals."
OBVIOUSLY, the biggest one was making the SEC championship game. Injuries don't show up in a coach's resume.
"We wanted to prove to everybody that we're a good football team and we proved that coach can coach," said sophomore Terrence Edwards, named his team's MVP while pulling double duty at wide receiver and quarterback.
"It's going to be very emotional on the plane ride back," Edwards said. "I've known him for a long time and he knows my family. I can't say enough about him."
Donnan also coached Terrence's brother, Robert, who had a sensational NFL rookie season with the New England Patriots before blowing out his knee in a touch football game during Pro Bowl Week in 1998.
Attendance doesn't figure to be any better in today's Aloha Bowl between Arizona State and Boston College. But, it's not about crowds, according to Georgia's Cap Burnett, who intercepted a pass and returned a fumble for a touchdown.
"It was on ESPN and we were the only game on," the Bulldogs' safety said.
And that's what the Oahu and Aloha Bowl games are all about. Made-for-television games before what amounts to studio audiences.
"Certainly, this is on the cutting edge," Donnan said
The question is, can Hawaii support both bowl games if attendance continues to lag?
It would be too bad, if there's no Oahu Bowl. It would leave one less bowl option for the University of Hawaii, which needs all the help it can get. In a way, UH is the reason why there's an Oahu Bowl. Besides, fans would miss out seeing a big-time football team like Georgia.