Under the heading of being careful about what you wish for, the University of Hawai'i football team now has Alabama right where it wants the Crimson Tide come the Sept. 2 season opener.

Which is to say in front of what will be a record, sellout crowd.

Crimson Tide officials said once individual game tickets went on sale this month, they were snapped up faster than you could say, well, Tuscaloosa.

Meaning all 92,138 seats in the soon-to-be-completed $54 million refurbishing and expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium are spoken for. The overwhelming majority of them by people who don't speak "katoosh" and won't be waving ti leaves. Even if they knew what they were.

To put it in perspective, it will be about 16,500 more fans — by the sum total of Warrior season ticket holders last season — than have ever seen UH play anywhere else.

When the game contract was signed two years ago this month, the intention was the Warriors would receive the kind of down-home football cultural experience afforded few in UH uniforms. The hope was they would be offered an up close and personal meeting with one of college football's storied programs in one of the more chicken-skin atmospheres to be imagined. Along with the much-needed $650,000 check, of course.

Now, as the Warriors prepare to open fall camp a week from today, they should know they'll be getting the whole nine yards.

The prospect of 90,000, mostly red-clad, fans screaming "Roll Tide!" — and leaving no doubt as to whom they'd like to roll over — has to be pretty powerful inspiration even more than a month before kickoff. That has to be worth a few more 220s run in the mid-day sun and the final bench presses gritted out in the weight room.

"It isn't going to be easy by any means walking in there," UH quarterback Colt Brennan said. "Walking in there is going to be nerve-wracking. I know their fans are going to really give it to us and be very enthusiastic.

"But, I mean, you have to be able to win big football games on the road in tough environments," Brennan said. "It is a great opportunity for us to walk in there and show what type of team we want to have and what type of talent we have. If we do it (down) there, then it is going to mean that much more, not only in the Western Athletic Conference, but across America. It will be tough but that's what this is all about."

Indeed, the Warriors have been to Idaho to play in front of 15,635 in what looked like a barn. They've been able to count the house of 8,000 and change rattling around in 88 percent empty Rice Stadium.

Said Brennan: "If we want to to build our program and move it forward, this is a great opportunity for us."

It is one, however huge, they have wished for.

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