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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, May 23, 2002

UH went for two, and won

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Tim Chang had yet to throw his first pass, Vince Manuwai his first block or Chris Brown level his first ball carrier and already head coach June Jones and the University of Hawai'i football team were winners twice over.

Last year it took the Warriors until the fourth game of the season to chalk up two victories. Yesterday, three months before the 2002 season opens, they already had two big ones to savor.

In the space of 15 minutes, Gov. Ben Cayetano announced the impending end of the Aloha Stadium turf war and the details of a Hawai'i Bowl agreement that will put the Warriors in a bowl game near them with as few as seven victories.

All in all not a bad day and it was only 10:30 a.m.

Not since Chad Owens returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown and then brought back a kickoff 100 yards for another score in the first quarter against Brigham Young in December, have the Warriors spent a more satisfying or productive few minutes.

Maybe that's why Jones, testing the bounce in the deep carpet of the Governor's Office, was smiling so widely.

Not for the foreseeable future will the Warriors be left home at bowl time with a 9-3 record the way they were last season or will the state be left without the national visibility of a college bowl game again. Nor will the Warriors' coaches have to explain to recruits why UH was calling it a season while a parade of 6-5 teams went to the postseason.

The governor also signalled his intention to have the controversial AstroTurf surface at Aloha Stadium replaced before the start of the upcoming season. In that, the Warriors' joy will be shared from here to NFL headquarters.

Of course, now that their wishes have been granted, the pressure is on the Warriors to deliver a seven-win season that will assure them a place in the inaugural bowl and the game a healthy start.

After all the work behind the scenes by athletic director Hugh Yoshida, Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson and ESPN Regional to fast-track a bowl game for this year, it would it be a major setback if the Warriors failed to deliver a bowl-eligible season.

With five road games — the most UH has encountered in its Division IA existence — and a lot of teams itching to even scores from this past season, the Warriors have their work cut out for them.

"It is definitely our hardest schedule," Jones acknowledged. "Everybody will be aiming for us. BYU and Fresno State, they aren't talking about anything else right now."

For one day, though, the Warriors could look ahead to the possibilities that yesterday's news offered.