BYU is to college football as Tim Tebow is to college quarterbacks: polarizing sentiment exists for both, due, in part, to the wearing of religion on their sleeves.
Brigham Young had a very interesting schedule this year. One can understand the disdain for BYU from its two traditional opponents, Utah and Utah State. However, there was no love lost for the Cougars in either of its last two games, either. BYU finished up its regular season with a 13-3 loss at San Diego State. BYU tormented the Aztecs regularly in the WAC and Mountain West conferences (BYU leads the all-time series 28-8-1), then spurned San Diego State and others when BYU bolted in favor of independence early this decade. The Aztecs and other conference brethren took this as a slap in the face — all of which made San Diego State’s 13-3 triumph so much sweeter.
In last night’s Hawaii bowl, BYU faced another old adversary, Hawaii, for the 32nd time. Like San Diego State, the Rainbow Warriors were shunned by BYU, but at an earlier time. Before the WAC did its ill-fated expansion in the 1990’s, Hawaii and BYU were conference mates in the original WAC. When most of the original members rebelled at the unmanageable expansion to 16 teams, they reformed as the Mountain West. Except Hawaii, as well as UTEP, were not offered invites.
BYU also has a satellite campus on the islands. All of which added spice to last night’s tilt. The game was as confused and disjointed as a lot of the games played this year by Hawaii QB, Cole McDonald. Despite McDonald’s unmistakable arm talent, he also had a hand in the Rainbow Warriors leading the country in turnovers.
McDonald and the Rainbow Warriors were unstoppable in the first half. Mr. Dreadlocks threw for 300+ yards as Hawaii led 31-24 at halftime. In the 3rd quarter, Hawaii’s offense stalled as McDonald did not look the same. For about the umpteenth time this year, McDonald got the hook in favor of Chevan Cordeiro. After a brief faceplant by Cordeiro, McDonald reemerged but Hawaii’s offense did not.
Leading 34-31, BYU needed just one more first down to close out Hawaii. On 3rd and 2, instead of running behind an offensive line that had been highly effective all game, BYU opted for subtle. Subtle did not triumph. After punting the ball back to the Rainbow Warriors, McDonald threw 2 big passes to put Hawaii in front to stay, 38-34.
The Rainbow Warrior triumph was almost as jubilant for the islanders as their last victory over BYU, a 72-45 epic in 2001 behind QB Nick Rolovich (not so coincidentally now the head coach) in his last game as Hawaii QB. BYU brought its gaudy 12-0 record to the Islands as the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor was observed. Meanwhile, Hawaii was chafing that nobody thought the Rainbow Warriors bowl worthy despite their 8-3 mark.
One would have presumed that Rolovich’s 543 passing yards would have been the unquestioned highlight but that would be wrong due to exceptional circumstances. The game was absolutely unforgettable due to an NCAA-record performance in kick return yardage by Chad Owens. The frenzied crowd saw 200 return yards by Owens in the opening quarter due to 3 dazzling returns. All the scoring helped make the game so lengthy that ESPN had to pull the plug before completion in favor of other programming.
The Odyssey understands the notion that a lot of the bowls are insignificant exhibitions. For Rainbow Warrior fans, getting to their 10th win against a hated rival was anything but.