I made a homage, of sorts, to the Hawaii Rainbows, I mean, Warriors, earlier this season. Watching Hawaii football in the late hours of the night just meant the greatest Saturdays of the year could last just a little longer. I’ve always been a quiet Warrior fan, as a result.
Christmas Eve was a quiet day. No sports, save for the Hawaii Bowl, which appeared to be a dud early on as Hawaii was getting trounced by ACC (yes, this is a thing) opponent California.
In short, Hawaii mounts a furious comeback, gets into field goal position with a few seconds to spare, just in time to see their star quarterback go down with an injury. Out comes the backup, in what most assumed would be a running play to better the field position for game-tying field goal. Head Coach Timmy Chang (yes, THAT Timmy Chang) said to hell with it and decided to have the backup throw it into the endzone.
I’ll have to say it’s the first truly good bowl game I’ve watched this season. And it couldn’t have come at a better time, on a day dull and deplete with sports, and when anyone who is home alone at this time of year desperately needed a touch of entertainment.
Despite the transfers, the NIL, and the idiocy that is the CFP, college football still is the best sport out there.
Then, for icing on the cake, they had a big fight after time expired.
I hope Florida and Auburn lose their bowl games. Oh, wait…
That was fun to watch. Crazy and ballsy.
We have Christmas Eve at my brother in law’s house. He and I and my nephew watched it. I kind of get what you mean about Hawaii. There is something kind of cool about knowing that if you are up lte on a Saturday night in football season you can probably find Hawaii playing on TV if you don’t have anything else to do and don’t feel like going to bed.
There’s also something else that I have always had trouble putting my finger on about teams like Hawaii. I think what it is is they resonate with those of us who truly love college football. The fans of those teams are the only ones that care about those teams. They are rarely if ever innthe national discussion. The guys that play on those teams are mostly nameless and faceless to most of the college football watching world. But they are giving it all they’ve got and going through the practices just like college football players anywhere else. There’s something kind of reassuring about that. No matter how the suits screw up college football there are teams like Hawaii out there outside the spotlight that will always have a little of what makes college football special.
One of my favorite things the Senator used to do was when he would post the ND game schedule and Hawaii would have like an eleven thirty pm kickoff he would ask, “Who’s staying up for the Hawaii game?” It became something me and a good buddy of mine text each other, “I guess you’ll be staying up for the Hawaii game.” It’s always sad when college football winds down for the year. But thanks to this place it kind of never really goes out.
Mike, your second paragraph sums up college football for me. That’s why I watch these games and Tuesday night MACtion and all the “crappy” bowl games. I like seeing their (hundreds?) of fans and nameless players getting fired up for beating their rival. As we all know, college football is a regional sport and that is it’s charm. Trying to make it an NFL clone will eventually kill it.
I missed this game because I’d already watched all the other lesser bowl games and didn’t feel like subjecting my wife to one on Christmas eve. I did watch the extended highlights just before bed but it didn’t capture the complete craziness (though ESPN did include the fight in the highlights).
Yes sir. Wednesday night while my wife wrapped Christmas presents I sat here and watched Ohio and UNLV in the Scooter’s Coffee Bowl. My wife said, “Jeez you really do love college football.” Yep. Call me crazy but I like games like that. The fact that Dan Mullen was the only person involved that I had any clue about and the commentators were the the F team was kind of part of the charm. He’ll I had never even heard of Scooter’s Coffee and damn sure didn’t know they had a bowl.
I’ve never understood the complaint about “too many bowl games.” You mean more college football? Yes, please!
I fell asleep on the coach at halftime and missed the rest of the game. I enjoyed what I saw, though.
I wonder if there’s a mid-talent player out there who realizes that he’s not going to the NFL, and never going to break into his team’s starting lineup, so he says “F-it! I’m going to spend my last year living in Hawaii” and hits the portal.
Beats the crap out of living in Auburn. Mahalo.
You ain’t lyin.