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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, September 11, 2003

Good time for UH to open bag of tricks

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Less than one quarter into the first game of head coach June Jones' stay at the University of Hawai'i in 1999, we got a glimpse of his willingness to roll the dice with abandon.

On fourth-and-26 at the Hawai'i 32-yard line, running back Daniel Ho-Ching attempted a go-for-broke pass to linebacker Anthony Smith.

Never mind that it fell incomplete and Southern California scored five plays later, Jones' propensity to open the playbook wide, percentages be damned, at UH was established.

It is a sense of daring that has been often repeated, with mixed results.

So, you wonder if the UH equipment staff will be working overtime this week to pack the kitchen sink and all the other gadgets that Jones might want to have available to throw at the No. 4-ranked Trojans this time.

If there is a game that has the potential to bring out Jones' 30-something years of accumulated tricks, Saturday's meeting at the Coliseum would seem to be it. If there is a moment to reach well up his sleeve and try to pull out an ace, this figures to be it.

To beat USC straight up is asking a lot. There is a reason that UH is a 21-point underdog on the Las Vegas betting lines and it is that the Trojans have more size, speed and talent than most teams they play.

To have a chance, then, the Warriors are going to have to play without turnovers and, to borrow a word from Don King, employ some selective, well-timed "trickeration."

These days some well-placed sleight of hand doesn't have to be a mark of an underdog. Witness what Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops did Saturday. Clinging none too securely to a 13-10 lead at Alabama and backed into a fourth-and-11 situation at the Sooners' 31, Stoops called the fake punt.

Oklahoma got its first down, scored on the next play and went on to win the game, 20-13, a victory that keeps it in the national title hunt.

Stoops has done this before in big games, twice reaching into a bag of tricks in fact to beat Texas two years ago, 14-3. The inspiration for this one might even have come from having seen it from tape of Alabama's game with UH last year where the Warriors, albeit unsuccessfully, employed the fake punt against the Crimson Tide.

The ability to make the unconventional, controversial call is, in several minds, why Stoops is viewed as the best big-game coach in the business right now.

The willingness to take a chance can be what it takes to be successful. If you're going to dream, sometimes you also have to dare. And, if the coach of the No. 1 team in the country can roll the dice — and has before — the green light is on for everybody.

Especially this week.

Indeed, you can only wonder — as USC is undoubtedly doing about now — just what Jones might be concocting in the dark of the film room or on the practice field.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044