(no subject)
When you actually get all you've ever been asking for, you can't very well complain about it when it ends up being not quite perfect. Some people do and I'm guilty of it as well - but not this morning. All I wanted all autumn was a chance for Hawai'i to play on a big stage. Heck, I even felt NERVOUS about this hypothetical game, that was still an undefeated season away from being realized, way back in July. JULY! Yes, I have needed and yet not sought psychiatric attention on an almost constant basis for most of my recent memory. Well that game finally did happen and it... made me remember I can't bad-mouth it afterwards.
I didn't see a Georgia game this season but I knew what to expect, from its reputation and that of its conference. Georgia's from the SEC, which is such a good conference it makes me wonder why there's always this big debate over which one is the best. Fans who have rooting interest in the PAC-10 or the Big 12 or the Big East tend to put together elaborate arguments for why the conference that contains their favorite team is the best. My favorite school is not a member of any of those divisions though and as an outside, mostly-impartial observer, I've always understood that the ACC is good at basketball, the SEC is good at football, and I think the Big Ten has mostly excellent English departments.
And it isn't just that the SEC is good at football, they even seem to have a particular brand of football. In NFL terms, the college Southeast is sort of like the pro North; in their most classic configurations, the teams in those regions have wall-like defenses, wallflower quarterbacks and running-through-walls backs. The ability to throw the ball is seen as an unnecessary luxury, except for Tennessee and teams coached by Steve Spurrier. Really, the SEC is often where quarterbacks go to die, or sometimes to win the Heisman, join the NFL and then die.
Given how much of Hawaii's success derived from their quarterback, I suspected that this game wasn't likely to be pretty. The game was what it was though: a chance. Maybe it was a one-in-ten chance, at best, that would only be played but once; it was a chance nonetheless. After all the hype and attention, Hawai'i held up their end of the bargain and won 12 games. Winning the bowl game, while it would have been sweet, was not part of the deal. I even saw a hint of that fact while I was home for Christmas. It was there I realized just how big a deal this game was. When the possibility of winning a single sporting event is suddenly the biggest thing to happen to an entire state since, well, becoming a state, there is a really good chance that the team involved is a massive underdog. In other words, if the odds on a team are good, the opportunity probably happens more frequently than once-in-never.
In every other respect, the 2007 Hawai'i football season was spectacular. Undefeated. First-ever WAC championship. A decade's worth of drama and excitement, and its pre-season expectations gave me the opportunity to watch them more than a couple times by making them ESPN material. I can now hope that all the attention UH drew this year will attract new recruits and that the money the school got for the game can be used to find and sign those guys. We're going to need new players to replace the 24 seniors we're losing, and soon. Considering how much flak UH took for their weak schedule this year, that doesn't appear to be its biggest problem in 2008. No, having games at Florida, at Oregon State, at Boise State and against Washington State and Cincinnati are going to be the team's biggest problems next year. Still no complaints though; this year was definitely worth having to face that in the next.
I didn't see a Georgia game this season but I knew what to expect, from its reputation and that of its conference. Georgia's from the SEC, which is such a good conference it makes me wonder why there's always this big debate over which one is the best. Fans who have rooting interest in the PAC-10 or the Big 12 or the Big East tend to put together elaborate arguments for why the conference that contains their favorite team is the best. My favorite school is not a member of any of those divisions though and as an outside, mostly-impartial observer, I've always understood that the ACC is good at basketball, the SEC is good at football, and I think the Big Ten has mostly excellent English departments.
And it isn't just that the SEC is good at football, they even seem to have a particular brand of football. In NFL terms, the college Southeast is sort of like the pro North; in their most classic configurations, the teams in those regions have wall-like defenses, wallflower quarterbacks and running-through-walls backs. The ability to throw the ball is seen as an unnecessary luxury, except for Tennessee and teams coached by Steve Spurrier. Really, the SEC is often where quarterbacks go to die, or sometimes to win the Heisman, join the NFL and then die.
Given how much of Hawaii's success derived from their quarterback, I suspected that this game wasn't likely to be pretty. The game was what it was though: a chance. Maybe it was a one-in-ten chance, at best, that would only be played but once; it was a chance nonetheless. After all the hype and attention, Hawai'i held up their end of the bargain and won 12 games. Winning the bowl game, while it would have been sweet, was not part of the deal. I even saw a hint of that fact while I was home for Christmas. It was there I realized just how big a deal this game was. When the possibility of winning a single sporting event is suddenly the biggest thing to happen to an entire state since, well, becoming a state, there is a really good chance that the team involved is a massive underdog. In other words, if the odds on a team are good, the opportunity probably happens more frequently than once-in-never.
In every other respect, the 2007 Hawai'i football season was spectacular. Undefeated. First-ever WAC championship. A decade's worth of drama and excitement, and its pre-season expectations gave me the opportunity to watch them more than a couple times by making them ESPN material. I can now hope that all the attention UH drew this year will attract new recruits and that the money the school got for the game can be used to find and sign those guys. We're going to need new players to replace the 24 seniors we're losing, and soon. Considering how much flak UH took for their weak schedule this year, that doesn't appear to be its biggest problem in 2008. No, having games at Florida, at Oregon State, at Boise State and against Washington State and Cincinnati are going to be the team's biggest problems next year. Still no complaints though; this year was definitely worth having to face that in the next.