Posted on: Saturday, October 30, 2004

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

BOISE, Idaho — In Atlanta, Ty Detmer can savor the fact that the NCAA career passing record he has held for 13 years is safe for at least another week.

Somewhere, former Purdue quarterback Mark Herrmann can exult in the knowledge that, after being burdened with it for 24 years, the NCAA career interception record is no longer his.

And, in Boise, the 29,591 who witnessed Boise State's 69-3 demolition of the University of Hawai'i last night had plenty to shout about.

Well, that about covers the bright side of anything that came out of a game that matched the 66-point margin of the worst road loss in UH history.

The only other time UH lost one this bad away from home was 66-0 at Wyoming in the 2-10 season of 1996. But that was like tripping over untied shoelaces compared to the face-first pratfall the Warriors took on Boise State's blue turf last night.

At least in 1996, the Warriors' embarrassment was limited to a handful of partisans in distant Laramie, Wyo., and a small home television audience with few expectations. This one, primed by the record chase, was for the whole country, or at least those with cable, to see.

And what they saw between the six turnovers (four on interceptions of Tim Chang), six punts, and a 38-0 blitz of a third quarter, was the widening gap between the Boise State and UH football programs.

For all the talk about records, the important ones are these: Boise State is justifiably 8-0 (5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) and UH is a deserved 3-4 (3-3).

It isn't Detmer the Warriors have to be concerned about catching, it is the Broncos someday. If it isn't too late, already.

Six years ago, in head coach June Jones' first year, UH beat Boise State, 34-19. Since Dan Hawkins has taken over, the Broncos have won all four meetings, and the margins have been 7, 27,17 and, now, 66 points.

For all the bold talk of the high-powered offense that was to get its payoff in eclipsing Detmer's record, the Warriors delivered but one field goal. For the first time in Jones' tenure, the Warriors couldn't muster so much as a touchdown.

Not since his first game, against Southern California in 1999, had UH been held without an offensive touchdown.

While a bandaged and battered defense tried to keep UH in the game early, the offense had a field goal, four punts (three of them on three-and-out situations) and a turnover in the first half.

Chang, who was not reinserted into the game for the final 54 seconds, left with 227 yards and four interceptions, 14 yards short of Detmer's record 15,031 yards.

But the Warriors have bigger problems than being forced to wait another week to break Detmer's record.

What they should concern themselves with now is trying to make up the staggering difference between where their program is, and where Boise State's has soared off to.

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