WAC Football & Basketball blog

The WAC has been the staple for the top non-BCS teams in the past few seasons, but it seems that the popular Athlon Sports does not see the WAC as a top-tier conference in 2008. Despite Boise State (2006) and Hawaii (2007) both having undefeated regular seasons in the past two years, the WAC is ranked #10 of 11 conferences for the 2008 football season by Athlon. Only the Sun Belt is rated lower than the Western Athletic Conference meaning the MAC (#9), Conference USA (#8) and the Mountain West (#7) are all above the WAC.

While Athlon Sports does not publish their magazine online for all to see, fans can find WAC team previews for the upcoming season in the 2008 college football preview from College Sports Fans.

Since the inception of the BCS system where computers and human biases combine to select the teams that play for a National Championship, just three teams outside of the 6 BCS conferences have played in BCS bowl games. Two of those teams have come in the past two years as WAC members Boise State crashed the party in 2006 followed by Hawaii in 2007. As the 2008 season is just around the corner, College Sports Fans has released their 2008 college football preview featuring season previews for all 9 WAC football teams. Hawaii comes off a perfect 12-0 regular season, but with their head coach bolting for SMU and their QB graduating, the 2008 Hawaii football preview takes a look at the 2008 Warrior football team. Boise State had yet another fantastic season going 10-2 before their upset loss to East Carolina in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and the 2008 Boise State football preview will review the 2008 Broncos. Fresno State is a team that continues to improve and the Bulldogs look to unseat Hawaii & Boise State in 2008 after an impressive 9-4 season. The 2008 Fresno State football preview takes a look at Pat Hill’s Bulldogs and the team they have returning in 2008. The remainder of the WAC will look to move to the top 1/3rd of the conference in 2008 and play in one of the various bowl games in 2008-2009, and all WAC previews can be found below.

To get you caught up on where things are now with the Hawaii program, here’s a quick recap.

The Warriors, who were going to lose their star QB and one of their three 1,000 yard receivers in the graduating Jason Rivers, lost the other two 1,000 yard receivers as well, as Davone Bess, then Ryan Grice-Mullen both decided to skip their senior seasons and enter the NFL Draft.

In the midst of it all, the man who led Hawaii’s move into prominence, decided that he’d had enough, and decided to take on another rebuilding project, as head coach June Jones resigned and took the head coaching position at SMU.

And, to top it off, after Jones’ resignation, athletic director Herman Frazier, was shown the door, as he was viewed as partly responsible for the lack of commitment and administrative issues that led to Jones’ disillusionment and decision to step down.

Things went from bad to tragic when red shirt freshman receiver Mitch Farney, who was planning to transfer to Weber State, died Tuesday night after collapsing during a pickup basketball game in Phoenix.

The New Year hasn’t been kind to the Hawaii football program, but there’s still 11 and a half months to go, so it can only go up from here.

Colt Brennan and the Warriors took a lot of hits in Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl.

In the past couple of days, the program has taken some pretty big hits off of the field.

On Friday, junior receiver Davone Bess, a three-year starter and Hawaii’s career leader in catches (293) and touchdowns (41), announced that he’ll be skipping his senior season and declaring for the NFL draft, after draft evaluators gave him a second-round grade.

Ryan Grice-Mullen, who will likely break Bess’ reception and touchdown marks next season, and along with those, surpass the other triplet, Jason Rivers, in career receiving yards, will not only have a new QB throwing it to him, with Brennan departing, but will have a new head coach as well.

June Jones, who built the Warriors’ program into a winner over the last several years, is resigning from his post due to a lack of commitment from the athletic department, and frustrations about how the athletic department was run, according to reports.

Jones took over at Hawaii following the 1998 season, when the Warriors went 0-12. He instantly turned the program around, as 1999 saw a 9-3 season, a tie for the WAC title, and a win in the Oahu Bowl.

In nine seasons, Jones went 75-41, led Hawaii to six bowls (four wins), and two WAC titles, including the Warriors’ first-ever outright conference title this season, when they went 12-1, were ranked in the top 10, and advanced to the Sugar Bowl, a 41-10 loss to Georgia in what turned out to be Jones’ last game with Hawaii.

His next destination appears to be SMU, as the school has reportedly offered him more than twice his salary at Hawaii to become their new head coach.

And, if his rebuilding job in Dallas is anywhere near as successful as it was on the island, SMU fans should be looking forward to the future.

As for Hawaii, well, if Jones did leave because of issues with the athletic department (turns out Colt Brennan wasn’t so wrong after all, eh?), then you know what they say…’you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.’

The Georgia defense just proved to be a little more than Hawaii could handle, as the Warriors saw their historic season come to a disappointing end in a 41-10 rout in the Sugar Bowl.

Hawaii inevitably got their 300+ yards passing, but it didn’t come until the end, when Georgia had the game well in hand, and Colt Brennan was on the sidelines, with backup Tyler Graunke in for the last several minutes after the Bulldogs had battered Brennan to the point of submission, sacking him eight times, with the last one by Geno Atkins early in the fourth signaling the end of Brennan’s night and collegiate career, as June Jones smartly sat him for the final 13 minutes with the result beyond doubt.

Hawaii turned the ball over six times, which is a record for a BCS game, surpassing the five by Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl and Miami in the ‘03 Fiesta Bowl.

Tonight was Hawaii’s chance to prove that they belonged on the national stage, but in the end, Georgia was the team that did the proving.

But, despite the way the night turned out, it was a great season for Hawaii, and for Brennan, who had a rough night against Georgia (22 of 38, 169 yards, 3 INT), but it was one of very few in the last few seasons.

Where does Hawaii go from here? Well, Graunke likely takes the reins for the 2008 season, and he and the Warriors will have quite the season-opening test, as they’ll be going to Gainesville to take on Heisman winner Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators at the Swamp.

Graunke shouldn’t be too fazed by the atmosphere, as he started at USC in 2005, and he’s also had three other starts in his career. Jason Rivers is done, but Graunke will have Ryan Grice-Mullen and Davone Bess to throw to, and he’s sure to have other reliable targets as well. Besides those guys, the Warriors will return several more key players on both sides of the ball, and they‘ll have an excellent chance to repeat as WAC champions.

So, this may just be the beginning for Hawaii, so even though they came out on the short end tonight, maybe things will go much, much better the next time, which could be in the not-so-distant future.

It’s been a disastrous night for Hawaii in New Orleans, as the Big Easy has been anything but to the Warriors, as Georgia is running away with the Sugar Bowl, up 31-3 late in the third quarter. Colt Brennan has been sacked seven times, with one leading to a fumble that was recovered by Georgia and returned for their latest touchdown, and he’s also been picked off three times, the last one coming moments ago after Hawaii had moved into Georgia territory.

Georgia has had their way on both sides of the ball, and Hawaii has helped them out with several mistakes (turnovers and penalties).

The Bulldogs just capitalized on Brennan’s third interception, scoring on Thomas Brown’s second touchdown run of the night to go up 38-3 with less than two minutes to go in the third.

The deficit may be too big for the Warriors to overcome now, but hopefully they’ll at least make the score respectable and put their best foot forward for the last 16+ minutes, so that they can go out with their heads held high. They got a big kick return into Georgia territory, so that’s a start.

The BCS is a exclusive party, but for the 2nd straight season a WAC team is crashing the party. The 12-0 Hawaii Warriors, the lone undefeated team in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A), will face the SEC’s Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl on January 1st. College Sports Fans has released their 2008 Sugar Bowl preview where they take an in-depth look at the Sugar Bowl match-up of Hawaii and Georgia and make their pick for the inner of this game.

Find Hawaii Warriors clothing & apparel online at DFN Sports sites.

The WAC dropped to 0-2 in the bowl season with Boise St.’s last-second 41-38 loss to East Carolina in Sunday’s Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

Ben Hartman’s 34-yard field goal on the last play of the game won it for East Carolina and capped off a dramatic final two minutes, when the Pirates appeared to have it all but sewn up, but wound up needing Hartman’s heroics.

Boise St.’s offense got off to a slow start, due in part to star running back Ian Johnson being limited by injury, and their only highlight of the first quarter-plus was Austin Smith’s 89-yard kickoff return that gave them a 7-3 lead, which would turn out to be their only lead of the night.

In the meantime, East Carolina produced fireworks upon fireworks in the first half, with their own Johnson having a big first half. Chris Johnson ran for a 68-yard touchdown to put the Pirates up 10-7 in the first quarter, and then in the second quarter had a 46-yard run to step up his own 18-yard touchdown reception, which put ECU up 24-7.

After the Broncos pulled within 24-14, a fumble by Ian Johnson late in the quarter resulted in another ECU touchdown and a 31-14 halftime lead.

But, the Broncos put that tough first half behind them and made a comeback in the final 30 minutes, giving themselves a chance at overtime.

The second half didn’t get off to a great start, as ECU picked up where they left off in the first half and scored on their opening drive to go up 38-14.

But, the Broncos made it 38-31 with seven minutes to go on D.J. Harper’s 1-yard touchdown run, and after forcing a three-and-out, marched down the field towards a potential tying score.

However, on 3rd and 9 from the Pirates’ 23, Titus Young fumbled on a reception, turning it over to the Pirates, and seemingly sealing the deal, with less than two minutes left on the clock.

But, on second down, Chris Johnson fumbled, and Marty Tadman returned it 48 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

But, the Broncos’ heroics from last season’s Fiesta Bowl weren’t going to be repeated.

Johnson atoned for his first fumble of the season by returning the kickoff 30 yards to the 39, and then, on 3rd and 8, Rob Kaas completed a 36-yard pass to Jamar Bryant to get ECU in position for the game-winning field goal, and Hartman connected to break Boise hearts.

Chris Johnson was named the game’s MVP, as a result of his 408 all-purpose yards (223 rushing, 32 receiving, 153 kickoff return) and two touchdowns.

Taylor Tharp threw for 266 yards and two touchdowns for the Broncos, who finished their season 10-3. East Carolina won their first bowl game since 2000, and finishes their season 8-5.

Instead of Nevada’s potent offense rolling over New Mexico, it was the other way around, as New Mexico QB Donovan Porterie threw for 355 yards and two touchdowns, and backup running back Paul Baker ran for 166 yards to lead New Mexico over Nevada 23-0 this afternoon in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.

While New Mexico’s huge offensive numbers were a key reason for their win, it was the effort of their defense in completely shutting down Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick and Luke Lippincott, the WAC’s leading rusher.

Kaepernick, one of the most efficient QBs in the country this season, was held to 13 of 31 passing for 137 yards, and ran for only 33 yards on 11 carries, while Lippincott was held to 28 yards on 10 carries.

Porterie’s big game was his first 300-yard performance since throwing for 327 yards in a 29-27 win over Arizona, but even bigger than his numbers was the contributions of Baker, who filled in more than admirably for Rodney Ferguson, who missed the bowl game due to being academically ineligible.

One bright spot for the Wolf Pack was blocking two John Sullivan field goals, as one of the most accurate kickers in the country had an up and down day, making three and missing three.

The long day started for Nevada when Porterie found leading receiver Marcus Smith for a 66-yard touchdown only three plays into the game.

The lead was extended to 14-0 late in the first quarter when Porterie threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Travis Brown, and went to 17-0 in the second quarter on Sullivan’s 53-yard field goal.

Sullivan added a 45-yarder later in the second to make it 20-0, and finished the scoring off in the second half with a 37-yard field goal.

Nevada’s best chances to score came in the second quarter, when the Wolf Pack had the ball inside the New Mexico 35, but Kaepernick was sacked on 3rd and 4, and then he came up a yard short on a 4th down run. Then, later in the quarter, the Wolf Pack drove inside the New Mexico 35 again, but a fumble handed the ball right back to the Lobos, and after that, Nevada couldn’t create anymore real opportunities to get on the scoreboard.

Not only was its New Mexico’s first bowl victory since 1961, but it was also the first time that Nevada has been shut out since 1980.

New Mexico finishes their season 9-4, while Nevada finishes 6-7, but with Kaepernick, Lippincott, and their two leading receivers returning next year, the Wolf Pack should find themselves in the postseason once again next season.

The New Mexico Bowl gets underway shortly, with 8-4 New Mexico going up against 6-6 Nevada. It’ll be interesting to see how New Mexico plays without star running back Rodney Ferguson, who won’t be playing today after being ruled academically ineligible this week.

It’s a signficant blow to New Mexico’s offense and puts a lot of pressure on the Lobos’ defense to slow down Colin Kaepernick and Luke Lippincott.

The game certainly favors Nevada if it gets into a shootout, but the Wolf Pack defense have their own task in handling New Mexico QB Donovan Porterie, who threw for 327 yards and 3 touchdowns in a win over Arizona earlier this season.

Tomorrow, Boise St. takes on East Carolina in the Hawaii Bowl, in a matchup of two of the nation’s top rushers, both named Johnson (Boise’s Ian, East Carolina’s Chris).