Aloha Oi Vey: Hawaii Escapes San Jose State With OT Win

At the beginning of this college football season, Hawaii was the trendy 'dark horse' pick to be 'this year's Boise State.' (See: Statue of Liberty Marriage Proposal Play that you all know by heart now.)

There was a lot of debate as to how similar Hawaii was to Texas Tech - how easy their nonconference schedule was, how easy their overall schedule was, whether Colt Brennan really was a great player or just a system QB (and a product of a great passing game and/or invisible running game). Perhaps those who were a bit skeptical were a bit correct after Hawaii barely beat lowly San Jose State 42-35 in overtime.

I don't usually write about a team like Hawaii individually, since they're unlikely to ever be a top 10 team, don't play in a TV-audience-friendly time zone, and don't really play anybody interesting besides Boise State and Fresno State. Last week Hawaii played a game against Utah State that was far more interesting than it should have been, and they continued such play this week.

The SJSU Spartans are not a particularly fabulous team. They started 0-3 by an average score of 39-3 against Arizona State, Kansas State, and Stanford while being outgained by a 3-to-1 margin. They followed with 500 yards of offense against a (now) 0-6 Utah State team, but still needed a last minute TD to win. Then came a good but not great win against I-AA UC-Davis, and lastly a nearly-blown three-touchdown lead against equally bad (1-5) Idaho.

Those signs, including statistics that indicate SDSU one-dimensional offense (62 rush yds per game) and no-dimensional defense (405 ypg) would tell you that Hawaii should romp all over this Spartan squad. Except the football powers had other ideas.

Things started as they should, with Hawaii quickly turning an INT into a short touchdown drive and an early 7-0 lead. Then Hawaii's offense began to sputter. They drove down to the SJSU 31 before stalling out and turning it over on downs, then on the first play after a missed FG by the Spartans, Brennan threw an interception. The Warriors then allowed a punt return touchdown and missed a field goal, heading into the half with only a 14-7 lead.

Article Author: Geeves

Geeves is mainly a critic of the sports and entertainment arena, recently shifting his time and resources away from his own middling blogs and into the Blogcritics realm at something resembling full time.

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