Hawaii Warriors college football is a lot of like the feeling you get when your bus arrives right after you walk up to the stop- one of the underrated pleasures in life. The Warriors arrived a couple years ago, having a huge season under June Jones, but they’re still overlooked. And that’s a shame because the program is very solid and very fun to watch. Greg McMackin knows what he’s doing.
They were #1 in the nation in passing offense last year, and their exciting system takes guys you’ve never heard of, and and never will hear of again and turns them into NCAA college football record setting passers (Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan) come to mind. Last year the Warriors became just the second school in FBS history to have a 5,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard receivers and a 1,000 yard rusher.
By Paul M. Banks
2010 was: all in all not bad. The ugly loss “at home” in the bowl game to Tulsa leaves a negative aftertaste, especially since they surrendered 62 points. But don’t let that fool you- this defense wasn’t half bad: they led the the WAC in turnover margin (14th nationally) and led the nation in turnovers forced. The Warriors were sixth in the nation in total offense and third in scoring, averaging almost 40 points a game. Sure, much of that talent is gone, but there’s enough left to believe they can have another 10 win season.
BMOCs: LB Corey Paredes, the four strong defensive linemen whose names I don’t have to try and pronounce thank goodness, they’re diffcult enough to spell: Kaniela Tuipulotu, Vaughn Meatoga, Liko Satele, Paiapai Falemalu. WRs Royce Pollard, Billy Ray Stutzmann and Darius Bright. Slotback Miah Ostrowski, who is now the starting point guard on the school’s college basketball team. And of course, the star of the team QB Bryant Moniz
2011 will be fruitful if: the OL integrates it’s new pieces into the lineup effectively and exceeds expectations. If they can keep Moniz upright, he’ll pick opponents apart all day. With Boise St. now moved on up to a better conference, it’s up to the Warriors to usurp Nevada as the conferences best team
2011 will be awful if: the new safeties can’t get the job done, the Warriors aren’t able to effectively establish their running game, and the offense fails to gel with all the new players in starting roles.
Bottom Line: I really like what they did in changing their logo/colors a few years ago. I’m all for gay civil rights (I do live right in the neighborhood where the pride parade takes place today, and I’ve brought a lot of positive attention to LGBT causes in my writing) but their old logo basically looked like a Gay Games promotional flyer. The forest green H is more bad-ass looking and fitting for the program. On to the gridiron, look for the Warriors to have another fun-to-watch, shoot-out winning, passing, passing, and even more passing type of season.
And they’ll probably finish it off with a bowl win this time. Not a big time bowl, but a bowl nonetheless
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Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports You can follow him on Twitter