Hawaii Pleased to Make Prognosticators Look Bad

It was a simple pre-season football media conference. The usual--Western Athletic Conference coaches and a handful of players.

And then came the media poll, and Hawaii was picked eighth.

The WAC hasn’t been the same since.

On Saturday, the Rainbows (7-1, 5-1 in the WAC) arrive in San Diego in search of their first WAC title and Holiday Bowl bid. A victory against San Diego State will seal it up.

The Aztecs, of course, control their destiny, but they must defeat Hawaii on Saturday and Fresno State the following weekend.

But after stumbling two of the past three weeks, the Aztecs (4-3-1, 4-2) will be shut out of the bowl picture if they don’t qualify for the Holiday Bowl.

The Rainbows, even if they lose Saturday, are in line for a Aloha Bowl invitation. It’s a far cry from eighth place.

“The players took that as a challenge,” Hawaii Coach Bob Wagner said. “This senior class here had nine wins in 1988, nine in 1989 and seven in 1990.”

Then they slipped to 4-7-1 in 1991, a year of suspensions, injuries and academic casualties. Came time for 1992 and the Rainbows did some remembering.

“They believed they were a lot more like the 1989 and 1990 teams,” Wagner said.

So did their coach.

“We won nine, nine and seven games, and then we win four with a lot of documented problems in the program,” said Wagner, who has led Hawaii to a 41-26-2 record in nearly six seasons. “I didn’t expect to be in the top two or three, but I would have liked more respect than that.

“It’s like everybody forgot how many games we won our first few years.”

Last season, star running back Jamal Farmer was suspended for a time and star defensive back Bryan Addison was academically ineligible for the second consecutive season.

“The first year was his fault, the second year we misadvised him,” Wagner said.

And then there was the case of Terry Whitaker, Hawaii’s leading tackler in 1989, who was suspended last season after getting into a bar fight.

“That was another soap opera,” Wagner said. “I was testifying in a courtroom the Thursday before the Utah game. The president was going to let him play after seven games, then he changed his mind, so the kid got a restraining order.”

This season, the biggest order came when the seniors got together to fill out a T-shirt order. They had the number “8” printed on the front with a slash through it--eighth place, get it?--and, on the back, they had the word “Not” printed.

Then, most importantly, the Rainbows went out and played like a first-place team.

Running back Travis Sims has 1,060 yards rushing this season and is fourth in the nation at 132.3 yards per game. Quarterback Michael Carter, after getting banged up earlier in the season, is healthy again.

And the Hawaii spread-option offense is threatening to become the first team besides Air Force to lead the WAC in rushing since 1982. The Rainbows lead the WAC and are third nationally at 282.5 rushing yards per game.

“They play extremely well as a team,” SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said. “They’ve been hitting on all cylinders for about eight weeks.”

Now, suddenly, Hawaii finds itself in an unusual position.

“This is a big, big game for our program,” Wagner said. “We’re in a situation that if we find a way to win this week, we’re in the Holiday Bowl and guaranteed at least a share of the conference championship. That’s never happened here. Our team is excited.”

Besides, it already hasn’t been a bad year for the Rainbows.

“Mathematically, I don’t think we can finish eighth,” Wagner said. “So we’ve accomplished that goal.”

The Aztecs will either give redshirt freshman John McCartney his second start or sophomore Sam Williford his first in Saturday’s game. Both are expected to play quite a bit as the Aztecs continue to search for a replacement for strong safety Chris Johnson, who sliced a tendon in his left arm while moving a glass table Nov. 1.

Luginbill said practices this week will determine whether McCartney or Williford gets the nod. Although McCartney started against Wyoming, Luginbill said Hawaii’s spread-option scheme is a big change.

“Basically, the hardest part is avoiding the cut-block and keeping your feet,” Williford said. “Sometimes, you tend to look at the quarterback coming out instead of the guy blocking you. If you look at the quarterback, you’re going to get blocked.”

Williford is thrilled just to have the chance to play. This is a guy who, since late summer, has suffered a broken right hand, a broken left wrist, a strained knee ligament and a fibula bruise.

“I guess this is my year to get injuries,” Williford said. “They say everyone has one of those years.”

Aztec Notes

The Aztecs are expecting a crowd of about 50,000 to Saturday’s game. . . . There is a possibility that the SDSU-Fresno State game will be telecast by ABC next Saturday. The network is looking at either that or Brigham Young-Utah. Perhaps the Aztecs should hope for the latter--they’re 0-2-1 on ABC this season.