Sidelines
WHEW. That was close. THAT was close. This was big, UH's victory at SMU on Saturday, far bigger than simple overtime. Bigger than just hope for every backup throughout the land (eat all your vegetables, work hard and never, never, never give up, and you too can grow up to be Nick Rolovich). Bigger, bigger, bigger even than a rebirth for Kevin Lempa and his dumped-on Hawaii defense, which now, for another week at least, has hearts as big as Texas. SMU win shows
UH ‘get chance’No. It was bigger than that. They jumped and celebrated, but not just over one game, not just for the joy of one win. This was the season on the line. It was. Lose to Nevada, Rice, then SMU? That's bad. That's it.
Instead they won. They're still in the hot seat with Regis. They still have hope. They still get chance.
UH still has a long way to go. But now it has another week to get there. Some additional time with which to take care of those rough edges, another opportunity to turn the corner. And now, with this kind of win, anything, everything seems possible. That can make a difference. With this team, it has to.
"To have it happen like it did will certainly help our confidence," June Jones said. "And it's certainly better than the alternative, than losing."
Yes. Yes, it is. A loss -- especially against a team of SMU's caliber, a third-straight loss to a low-level team in the "new" WAC -- would have been a step backward, a one-way ticket to another year of 3-9. Not good. Not now. Not with expectations crashing and patience fading, not with fans hungry for another helping of 1999.
These players, this team, is not as big, not as good as it has been blown up -- by Jones, by us, by you -- to be. Not yet. We see that now. (I wrote the same thing two weeks ago after the Nevada game and people seemed to appreciate it. You write that every week, and ...)
They're creeping, inching forward breath-by-breath, bit-by-bit, and fans can only hope the Warriors take another step before they play another game. UH is still all potential and promise. They might get there. But they have to be able to beat teams like UTEP and Tulsa and Boise State first.
That's where UH is right now. Not a Top 20 team. Not quite a pipeline to the pros, not yet. It's in the WAC, and every game is still a struggle. At least on Saturday. At least today.
But they did it in Dallas. They saved the season, and that's all you can ask. From the brink, they blocked the punts, they made the plays, they took the steps.
"Hopefully we'll get progressively better so we can put four quarters together as we go down the stretch here," Jones said.
Maybe. They show us glimpses. Playmakers are emerging. Players are maturing. Slowly. This year, we are still watching a program grow. SMU was another step. We see that now.
The season was on the line, and UH came through. They had good reason to rejoice. The celebration was big. The win was bigger.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com