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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Don’t start worrying
about UH just yetET your hand off the panic button. This season isn't over yet.
Oh, you don't need to worry about this Hawaii football team. Not really. UH will bounce back for the stretch run. That's the pattern. Hawaii will put itself into just big enough a hole to invite doubt, then finish strong enough that June Jones can tell you he told you so.
No, those WAC games will hit and the run-and-shoot will click, and there will be a winning season again, even after this Southern California beat-down.
Even if the hangover hangs over for another week.
Don't worry about the USC score. That's not what Hawaii has to recover from. USC probably is that good, really is that much better than UH, the same way that Oklahoma really is that much better than Fresno State. The way a top-5 team really is that much better than even the best boys from the Western Athletic Conference, circa early 2000s.
The thing to worry about, if you're worrying, if you're scoring at home, is that it is now two out of the last three games (that darn Hawaii Bowl again) in which UH has somehow found itself taking a quarter or two off.
Oh, sure, USC should have won anyway, perhaps even by the same margin. But it shouldn't have looked like that, shouldn't have felt this way. The image of USC receiver Mike Williams running free on his way to the end zone, defenders falling and flailing in his wake, should not still be burned on the brain.
This team needs to get tougher.
UH didn't just get out-budgeted and out-Heismaned and out-historied out there, you know.
WE FELT THAT stiff arm from an ocean away. The big guy needs to see more of that football. It's been years since West Keliikipi has played. Let him make up for lost time.
And the offensive line didn't look bad, not at all (though the "club" move that end kept working against right tackle Brandon Eaton was a thing of brutal beauty).
Hey, there was hope.
But now, after being holed up for a week for Training Camp II, is the time to show toughness. Hawaii should win tomorrow in Vegas. I don't care what happened in Wisconsin. I don't care what happened at USC. If UH is a good team this is where it makes a stand.
And if not? Well, then UH will come home 1-2 with its proverbial back against the proverbial wall. The doubters will doubt, and Jones will eat it up. We've seen this before.
And then comes the WAC season (last week alone, SMU lost to Baylor, Rice to Duke). Here comes the run. We're still waiting to see what kind of team this is. But we know enough not to worry. Not here, not now.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
