This game was worthy of a national audience

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Somebody in Bristol, Conn., should have some explaining to do this week.

Somewhere in the vastness that is ESPN, they should be asking, "How was it, again, that we didn't pick up that University of Hawai'i football game?"

For on a night when the Warriors hung a 52-30 loss on the Air Force Academy, the biggest loser was the national audience that wasn't.

Three weeks after ESPN had abruptly changed its mind and taken the UH-Air Force game off its board and out of prime time, the Warriors and Falcons turned loose the offense — 1,175 yards of it — in a performance that surely would have beaten its replacements, RPM 2Night and NHL 2 Night or whatever else ESPN2 was putting out in the projected Friday night time slot.

ESPN might never admit it, of course, but the game was, in short, the kind of wide-open display between offensive opposites that ESPN had envisioned back during the summer.

It was everything we all thought it would be and then some when ESPN first put the pressure on the Western Athletic Conference to get UH to consider a Friday kickoff.

But after UH finally came around when the WAC was ready to sign off on the deal, ESPN inexplicably passed on the game and its backup, Fresno State-San Jose, throwing it back into the hopper.

Whether it was a decision made for financial reasons, because of UH's perceived intransigence or something else — and all have been rumored — it was the viewers' loss.

And, ultimately perhaps the Warriors' loss in the long run as well.

If UH had a prayer of getting a foot into a bowl game, a performance like last night's would have made for a riveting advertisement. It would have displayed all the that UH is capable of bringing to a postseason matchup.

UH will get another national TV appearance Dec. 8 against Brigham Young but by then all the bowl slots that UH would have had any kind of a shot at will have long been filled.

Think this team couldn't light up somebody's scoreboard? Doubt UH could keep viewers in front of their television sets?

Ask the 38,387 at Aloha Stadium, many of whom stood at the end to salute win No. 8 against three losses, the latest chapter in the remarkable story that has become the 2001 Warriors.

They witnessed the amazing that has lately become the norm:

• Wide receiver Ashley Lelie on another record-breaking rampage, 285 yards and three touchdowns on nine catches.

• Quarterback Nick Rolovich parlaying a rare quick start into his second consecutive 500-yard plus night, 505 yards passing and five touchdowns.

• Return specialist Chad Owens on a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, the Warriors' first since 1992.

• A 545-yard rushing performance by Air Force.

All in all it made for quite a night. The only shame would be that it was deserving of a much wider audience.