Security will be increased for Saturday's sold-out football game between Hawaii and Alabama in the wake of last Saturday's brawl after the UH-Cincinnati game, Aloha Stadium manager Eddie Hayashi said yesterday. Stadium beefs up security
By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.com"We just want to make sure nothing like what happened last week happens this week," Hayashi said.
Dozens of players from both teams fought and fans threw plastic bottles and other items at Cincinnati players after UH won a hard-fought 20-19 game.
Around 30 security personnel will be added to the usual complement of 100 police and security guards.
Also, Hayashi said in a news release that alcohol sales will be stopped earlier than the end of the third quarter if deemed necessary.
On Monday, UH athletic director Herman Frazier said he will work with the stadium to ensure a safe environment. Frazier also said he would be contacting Alabama coach Dennis Franchione to address any concerns the Crimson Tide -- who will be accompanied by 6,000 fans -- might have.
Franchione, who brought his Texas Christian teams to Hawaii, said his team will be "prepared for anything," but that he doesn't expect any problems.
"They're good football fans. They get into the game," Franchione said in his weekly news conference. "But I have never seen that side of it, so we don't want to throw one incident into a bigger case than it already is."
Hayashi said yesterday that the game is sold out. It's the first sellout at the 50,000-seat stadium since the Brigham Young game last Dec. 8.
Nate's story: Former UH safety Nate Jackson's plight and the effort to raise money to defray the medical expenses for his heart surgery is the subject of a feature on ESPN.com that will appear on the Web site tonight.
The Friends of Nate Jackson bank account is over $50,000 after a major effort Saturday at Aloha Stadium, spokeswoman Toni Floerke-Politsch said yesterday.
Jackson has had a fever since his heart operation last Thursday, but "he's out of ICU and he was sitting up all day," Floerke-Politsch said yesterday.
Pulling for the underdog: At least one UH football player is rooting for undersized Waimea against St. Louis in a state high school semifinal Friday.
"Hey, how about those little guys," said 6-foot, 310-pound junior defensive tackle Kealii Aguiar, a former Menehunes standout.
Has seen the elephant: UH assistant coach Tyson Helton's first start at quarterback for Houston was against Alabama in 1997 at Legion Field. Alabama won 42-17.
"I had some great experiences at Houston, but my most memorable was at Alabama in front of about 90,000 fans dressed in red and white," Helton said.
Alabama offensive coordinator Les Koenning was the Houston offensive coordinator in Helton's senior year, 1999.
What tradition?: Hawaii coach June Jones did the respectful coach-speak thing about the upcoming opponent yesterday for the TV cameras.
"They're the best team we've played this year obviously. They're physically one of the best teams in the country. They've got players at every position, they've got depth, they're well coached. It will be quite a challenge," Jones said of the 14th-ranked Crimson Tide.
But he couldn't resist taking a little shot when asked what he associates most with the words "Alabama football."
"The dogtrack in Montgomery," he said.
Bowl bit: Four teams from Conference USA -- which is supposed to provide Hawaii's opponent in the Dec. 25 Hawaii Bowl -- have qualified for postseason play. They are Texas Christian, Louisville, Southern Mississippi and Tulane.
CBS Sportsline.com projects Southern Miss for the Hawaii Bowl. But C-USA has five bowl tie-ins and there is no guarantee that Cincinnati (5-6), East Carolina (4-6) or Alabama-Birmingham (5-6) will qualify.
That means a team from another conference, such as the Pac-10, which has seven bowl-qualified teams, could end up in the game.
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