Defensive backs dedicate win to former teammate Jackson
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
For Hawai'i players who had played with Nate Jackson, last night's 40-31 victory against San Jose State was somewhat bittersweet.
The Warriors secured a Christmas Day invitation to the ConAgra Food's Hawai'i Bowl, but more importantly got a win for their former teammate.
Jackson, who finished his football eligibility last season, was hospitalized on Oct. 24 at The Queen's Medical Center with a viral infection that will require heart surgery. Jackson, who played safety, was famous for his bone-breaking hits that drew oohs and ahs from the Aloha Stadium crowd.
"We didn't play how we'd like to play," UH defensive back Abraham Elimimian said. "We got three picks, but we played for Nate, basically."
The secondary dedicated the game to Jackson. They cut tape to form his monogram on their helmets.
As Elimimian said, the secondary had better days, but as teammate Hyrum Peters added, "a win is a win."
The Warriors allowed 287 passing yards and four touchdown passes. Quarterback Scott Rislov had TD passes of 20 and 15 yards to Kendrick Starling, as well as a 40-yarder to Charles Pauley and 90 yards to Juan Walden.
But UH got three interceptions, including one by cornerback Kelvin Millhouse. Linebackers Pisa Tinoisamoa and Chris Brown had one each. Brown's came off a deflection by defensive end Travis Laboy. Also Peters caused a fumble by running back Lamar Ferguson after a 19-yard gain that UH capitalized on later with a 28-yard TD pass from Tim Chang to Justin Colbert.
Peters said some of the players visited Jackson on Tuesday. The impact of the visit nearly brought tears to some of them.
"I know he was happy to see us," Peters said. "But looking at him, it made me want to cry. It was that bad. I could see it in the other guys' eyes that they wanted to cry too because he wasn't looking too good. We tried to lighten everything up, try to make everybody happy, but I knew Nate was in pain."
Although defensive back Sean Butts hasn't had a chance to visit Jackson yet, he is praying for him.
"We feel for Nate," Butts said. "It's a tragedy when you're good friends and players. I feel for him. I hope he gets better and makes it through surgery all right."
Peters said the defensive backs are close.
"All the DBs, every time we break out, we say 'DB love, DB love' ", Peters said. "We got so much love for each other, so we decided to dedicate this game to Nate Jackson and put the 'N.J.' on our helmets."
