Sidelines
SO you say you want to win one of those football awards, major college version. You'd like a Heisman for the mantle. Or an Outland. Or the Lombardi or Thorpe or any of the other 4,000 little trinkets that they offer these days. You want your name announced on ESPN while everybody claps. You would rise, in your rented tux, and shake hands as they give you some great big brick of a thing to symbolize your achievement. A detached arm. A shoe. A little 1930s-era football man in a leather helmet and Knute Rockne shoes. Perfect. Hyping the Outland
a tough jobBut it's not that easy. It's not all glamour. It's not all bronzed limbs and rubber chicken and tuxedos. There's more to life than Lee Corso. The hard part comes first. Hours and hours of endless work and stress and strain.
By your publicist.
Sure, you can be great. Being great helps. Being great is very important. But the first step toward the awards circuit is to become a candidate. Here is how that happens: Somebody says so.
"University of Hawaii offensive lineman Vince Manuwai is a candidate for the Outland Trophy."
K'toosh! He's a candidate. He's on his way.
They tell us that Manuwai is likely the best offensive lineman to play at Hawaii. Better than Adrian Klemm. Better than Kaulana Noa. Better than Jesse Sapolu. Better than Amosa Amosa or Joe Onosai. Better than Leo or Larry Goeas. Better than Jim Kalili. Better than Scott Haneberg. Better (but certainly not bigger) than Mark Nua. Better than them all. That's what we're told.
This is both the blessing and the curse of the offensive lineman. Very few really know how good they are. Nobody knows anything, not even the guys giving out these awards. "Half of them are just picking names out of a hat," says UH Director of Sports Media Relations Lois Manin. And she's right.
Winning the Outland, among a gallery of greats, is often two parts perspiration and eight parts reputation.
And that's where Manin comes in. She's got to get Manuwai's name in that hat.
There will, as in all things these days, be a Web site. The Vince Manuwai Web site. Highlights and spotlights. Materials sent by flyer and FedEx. A CD-rom. Game clips. Manin and her office are hoping for an extra video camera to focus solely on Vince.
YOU HAVETO SPOON feed them when it comes to offensive linemen. There are no stats. Make it obvious. Say his name again and again and again.
Mike Cavanaugh knows this. He has been using the words "Vince Manuwai" and "Outland Trophy" in the same sentence for well over a year. Cavanaugh, the UH offensive line coach, is off-island now, but if you run into him, he'll tell you about Vince. He's telling everybody about Vince. The UH coaches haven't just jumped on the bandwagon, they're driving it. Cavanaugh wants to turn UH into an offensive-line Mecca. An Outland Trophy winner would do wonders for the program.
Still, it's hard. Some listen. Some don't. They fill out the forms and send the flyers and make the calls. "Every single person Coach Jones talks to, he's talking about Vince," Manin says. But UH football does not cast a large shadow. The Warriors were 3-9 last season. Manuwai did not even make first-team all-WAC.
"You don't understand how much it helps when the team does good," Manin says.
THE OUTLAND IS WON in August. OK, that's not true. It's won in the winter. But the primaries are held in September. The finalists are known by then. And then it's up to who catches someone's eye, who gets the Sports Illustrated article, who flattens someone on a national broadcast. Who gets identified again and again as the great offensive lineman in the country.
It's already too late for Vince Manuwai.
"There's no way it's going to be this year for the Outland," Manin says.
But she pushes. Jones pushes. Cavanaugh pushes. If Manuwai can make a run at all-American this season, then the Outland can follow the next. He'd make the list of finalists. Be on the ballot.
They say he's that good.
And then it's all up to him. And the UH team. And the candidate's campaign.
Their theme is "In-Vince-able."
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com