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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Hurtin’ Hawaii
has heavy task
on trip to Boise
IF you can even comprehend the possibility, it seems that Hawaii's injury situation may be even worse than it seemed Saturday night.Of course, that's no surprise, in retrospect. When asked after the game if he was all bus' up, Britton Komine shrugged it off: "Nah."
But then he admitted that Sunday is when it all comes crashing home.
That's when you wake up and feel it. That's when all the owies hurt.
So then Mondays are when reality hits.
Yesterday, June Jones added Matt Manuma to the injury list. Mel Purcell might not play. T.J. Moe is out. It went on and on.
"We probably won't know for some until game time," Jones said. "If they can play without practicing, that's a plus."
That's not good. In fact, it's to the point now -- so many guys have been hurt -- where it would look like this even if UH did have depth (and didn't you think UH had depth?).
Now, here comes Boise. Or rather, worse, here goes Hawaii to Boise. It's tough enough facing those guys, forget doing it short-handed. Boise doesn't kid around. Boise will step on your throat.
That's what makes Boise State the class of this conference. It never lets down. It finishes.
As Dan Hawkins said, "Gandhi didn't take a knee."
Now, many of us had not previously thought of Gandhi in that way. But that says something about Hawkins. And now that he mentioned it, Gandhi was a finisher, too. He saw the job through.
Gandhi kept going until he won.
This is the team Hawaii is limping into town to face.
And now Jones is talking about taking some of these "doubtfuls" on the trip, even if at first it looks like they may not be able to play. Just hoping that somehow, some way, some of them will wake up on game day and be ready to go. And if not?
"We'll play short," Jones said.
Yikes.
UH is already short.
But if guys are making that trip, you would think they are going to play. There are three days between then and now, and nobody is going to wake up in the team hotel and then say they can't go. Football players just don't do that.
The question is what they have left and how long they have it.
Abraham Elimimian is already running on more heart than hamstring.
There may be, as the Christmas carols call it, wind and weather in Boise on Friday night. It's one thing for a Hawaii player to be cold, quite another to be injured and cold. How many of these hurts will freeze up as the mercury drops?
You wonder how far down the depth chart UH can actually reach. You wonder the effect of traveling with a short roster when UH is losing two or three players per game.
Jones is going with the underdog role.
"We're going in there with nothing to lose, and we're going up there to have fun and play loose," he said.
We'll see what that does against Boise State.
Maybe Friday is when reality hits.
Gandhi isn't taking a knee.