Warriors hope It was the first national ranking for Hawaii's football program in nearly 10 years, but June Jones appeared nonchalant about his team's appearance in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.
to stay ranked
They’ll get their chance by closing out
the season against tough competitionStar-Bulletin staff
Yesterday at his weekly news conference, Jones indicated that while the honor was long in coming, he will wait until the end of the season to get too excited.
"That's a goal that we set four years ago, that we want to get into the Top 20 eventually," Jones said. "And these final three games will decide if we're going to end up there or not. But we put ourselves in position to at least be considered, so that's positive."
Jones' team will have ample opportunity to end the regular season ranked, and climb those five notches, with an upcoming slate of Cincinnati, Alabama and San Diego State.
The Warriors got their first taste of national rankings since the final poll of the 1992 season, checking in this week at No. 25, thanks to voting by coaches from across the country.
Jones was asked if the recognition were more meaningful coming from his colleagues rather than the Associated Press poll of writers and broadcasters, in which UH is still unranked.
"I really don't pay too much attention to all that, but any Top 20 is awesome, so that's positive for the kids and positive for our school," Jones said. "You set goals, just like we set a goal we wanted after the Boise State loss. We wanted to get to the last three (games) 8-2, and we did that now, and so that's positive for everybody."
Still, Jones is unsure whether Top 25 rankings will be a big boost to recruiting. Perhaps, he said. But he thinks that his high-powered offense is a big ingredient toward drawing players.
It's probably not the ranking itself that will be a factor, Jones said, but what the ranking represents.
"I think just the winning," he said. "This will be our third winning season out of four -- and that probably more than anything has the influence on (recruiting). And in particular the local kids, which is the most important thing for me."
What a finish: Jones took great satisfaction in his defense's contribution to Saturday's 33-28 win at Rice.
Hawaii's last stand, culminating with Houston Ala's stop on fourth down with 31 seconds left, was a dream scenario, Jones said.
"Yeah, I can't think of a better way to win the game than to have the defense make some plays to win," Jones said.
"And we made plays throughout the game. We made enough plays, we stopped them, we made them punt."
Here come the Bearcats: Jones raved about Saturday's opponent, Cincinnati:
"I think physically, they're the best athletic team we played this year, including Boise," Jones said. "They probably have more studs than Boise. Defensively, they got maybe one of the best corners in the league, they got a great rush guy, a linebacker. They have, offensively, some tremendous weapons. The Ohio State game, I don't know if you guys watched that, but there were a couple catches in that game that were unbelievable from their receivers."
Jones predicts that "whoever has the ball last," will probably win this week's game.
Michigan State official: UH and Michigan State have now signed a contract to meet three times, starting in 2004.
"Being able to capture a competitive team in the Big Ten conference is a major statement for the University of Hawaii and our football program," UH athletic director Herman Frazier said.
The Spartans will play at UH in 2004, host Hawaii in 2005, and return to the islands in 2007.
"We're finding that we're going to have to go one (away) and two (at home)," Jones said. "We used to be able to just get those teams to come here. But because we're getting more competitive, we have to do a little different scheduling. So Herman did a good job of both of those (Michigan State and Alabama.)"
Players of the week: Boise State quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie, Fresno State defensive back Cameron Worrell and Southern Methodist return man Cody Cardwell were named WAC offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week, respectively.
Dinwiddie passed for 399 yards and four touchdowns as the Broncos clinched a share of a WAC title in a 36-10 win over Louisiana Tech. Worrell returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown as Fresno State beat Nevada 38-30. Cardwell's 66-yard punt return for a score with 1:22 left gave SMU a 42-35 win at UTEP. His 169 total punt return yards also set SMU and Sun Bowl records.
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