On the betting lines, where we're told there could be a 40-point — or more — spread, it seems the University of Hawai'i football team is one of the last things Northern Colorado, a debuting I-AA member, needs in a season opener.

But that would be to ignore the impact of recent events. In a strange way — and few teams enter this season trying to put a more bizarre chapter behind them than UNC — the preparation for the game with the Warriors is actually good for the Bears. Especially now.

And the reasons have little to do with the money the game brings to the financially strapped UNC athletic program.

Mostly, there is an opportunity for the Bears to turn the corner on the tumultuous last 11 months by absorbing themselves in the considerable challenge that the Warriors will provide Sept. 1 at Aloha Stadium.

When backup punter Mitch Cozad plunged a knife into the kicking leg of the starter, Rafael Mendoza, in a darkened parking lot ambush outside Mendoza's apartment on Sept. 11, the 2006 season took a more troubling turn than even the eventual 1-10 record. The alleged plot to take the starting job by life-threatening force turned the lives of two punters upside down and sent teammates reeling.

Suddenly, the school 60 miles northeast of Denver found itself in a spotlight that had little to do with an ambitious plan to raise its athletic program from Division II to I-AA. The stabbing, which smacked of Tonya Harding gone grid and cast Mendoza as a Nancy Kerrigan-like victim, was but the most visible episode in what became a stream of altercations and NCAA run-ins.

The deep gash in Mendoza's leg and the headlines the case generated gave the Bears a notoriety nobody wanted even as their punter courageously played on in a season where he averaged 39.9 yards per punt, including a 75-yard boomer. It was a cloud that hovered over the spring as the trial loomed.

Not until a jury convicted Cozad of second-degree assault late last week, two days into fall camp, could the Bears really begin to talk about nearing closure. Mostly, they have talked privately. Aside from a couple of statements about "putting this incident behind us" and moving forward in preparation for the 2007 season by head coach Scott Downing, they have said little. Downing won't talk about anything other than football and Mendoza is refusing interviews.

But if mum has been the word out of Greeley, there should be little doubt where the Bears are directing their focus. Or that the challenge is welcomed.

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