Posted on: Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Vandals know road perils well
| • | Hawai'i's offense hopes for revival |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
The horror tales they could tell you about the long and bumpy path traveled on the road this college football season.
The one-sided scores. The mounting injuries. The shrill, taunting crowds. The long plane rides home after losses.
The University of Hawai'i?
No, not exactly. We're talking about Idaho, the Warriors' opponent this week.
Anytime the Warriors want to bemoan their struggles this season in an 0-4 road record, they — or anybody else — need only look at Idaho's lot in life. Anytime they want to feel sorry for themselves, all they have to do is look at the schedule of 3-8 Idaho.
The Vandals play eight of their 12 games on the road this season, taking trips to five time zones. And two of their four "home" games, including homecoming, were actually across the state line at Pullman, Wash.
One involved playing hometown Washington State in Martin Stadium so Idaho could draw a sizeable ($200,000) paycheck and count the crowd toward the NCAA's 15,000 minimum attendance standard.
Talk about Vandalism, Idaho will have played 12 consecutive weeks — no open dates for R&R — when the final whistle concludes Saturday's game at Aloha Stadium. The injuries — UI is down to its fifth running back, who played tight end a week ago — underline the peril.
Idaho played its first five games of the season away from Moscow, Idaho, not seeing the friendly confines of the Kibbie Dome until Oct. 9. In reality, it was little more than a laundry stop because the Vandals finish their season with the fourth road appearance of their final five games.
"It isn't easy getting on another plane again," head coach Nick Holt said, "but at least this time we're going to Hawai'i."
It is, according to UI officials, a 21,300-mile Odyssey that, if joined together, would stretch 85 percent of the way around the world. "And, we didn't even leave the country," said Dee Menzies, UI associate athletic director.
"It is," Holt likes to say, "a unique schedule, that's for sure."
Some of it was necessitated by the unbalanced schedule in the Sun Belt Conference where, as departing members, the Vandals were sent out with just three home games. And some of it is a matter of financial survival, relying on the guarantees from playing at Washington State, Oregon, etc., to help balance the books.
Last week, at North Texas, the Vandals played their final game in the Sun Belt, saying good bye to trips to Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama and travel costs that eat up nearly half the football budget. "Travel to Hawai'i is expensive, but it is still cheaper than a lot of places we go," athletic director Rob Spear said.
"We're looking forward to the WAC and the improved travel," Holt said.
Who ever thought somebody would be joining the WAC to cut down on travel?
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
