Ask not what the University of Hawai'i football team can do just for itself this week, but what it can also do for Boise State head coach Chris Petersen.

Normally the Warriors don't usually go out of their way to help visiting coaches, especially ones that are something of a rival, having beaten UH two out of the past three years, but we think you'll agree this is a special case.

The 44-year-old Petersen is, by most accounts, a solid guy with an incandescent future. Not to mention the blue smurf turf on Bronco Stadium wasn't his idea.

Las Vegas oddsmakers have installed his undefeated (6-0) Broncos as 24-point favorites over UH (2-4) Saturday — the second widest spread against the Warriors at Aloha Stadium for a conference game in 30 years — and a lot of people are suggesting that should be just the start of a points-a-plenty beatdown. They are encouraging him to hang a bushel or two, if he can.

In fact, much of the talk with Petersen on yesterday's conference call dealt with his philosophy of putting up points for Boise State's Bowl Championship Series hopes.

So far Petersen has been saying all the right — and predictable — things about "just trying to win the game" no matter " ... if it is by one point or 10 points, so be it."

Nor has he shown a penchant for pouring, which some view as precisely the problem this season in the Broncos trying to hold, much less advance, their position in the BCS rankings.

The last two games out, the Broncos only beat UC Davis, a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division IAA) opponent, 34-16, and had to hold on to defeat Tulsa, 28-21.

With Boise's abuser-friendly schedule, convincing wins become a necessity if the Broncos have designs on being the first non-automatic conference representative to achieve a BCS championship game breakthrough. But their biggest fear is — or sure should be — getting leapfrogged down the stretch by Texas Christian for the single at-large BCS berth for non-automatic conferences.

As commendable as Petersen's philosophy is, you never know what could happen under the pressure of pursuing BCS history. As principled a coach as Petersen appears, who can say what temptation might drive him to? After all, his predecessor, Dan Hawkins famously noted, " ... Gandhi didn't take a knee, Martin Luther King didn't take a knee, Thomas Edison didn't take a knee, and I sure as hell am not going to take a knee."

So the hope this week is that the Warriors will give Boise State everything it can handle. Not only for their own sake, of course, but so that a fine, upstanding coach won't be tempted to step to the dark side.