The Hawaii Rainbows finally got some air time on national TV and the defense laid an egg. The Rainbows barely beat a mediocre San Jose State team 42-35 in overtime. Quarterback Colt Brennan and their trio of uber talented receivers had to bale out their porous defense, scoring two fourth quarter touchdowns. That is nothing new for the Hawaii defense, who gave up 44 points to Louisiana Tech and 37 points to Utah State. Friday night (Oct 12) the Rainbow defense gave up 35 points to San Jose State. Not to throw everything on the defense for the San Jose State fiasco, Colt Brennan's four interceptions put his defense in a bad spot a few times.
So Are the Hawaii Rainbows, at an undefeated 7-0, a legitimate legitimate BCS Championship team? Absolutely not, they just don't have the defense. Does anyone think if they played in the SEC they would even be a .500 team? Probably not.
Hold your horses all you Hawaii Rainbow fans before you click away in disgust. I am not here to bash the Hawaii Rainbows, I am just trying to be realistic. I actually love the Rainbows, I have given them significant coverage in the past, I wrote a glowing article last year about running back Nate Ilaoa and more recently, I wrote an interesting article on the King of Honolulu, June Jones.
I am rooting for the Rainbows, I love an under dog, the run and shoot offense is fun to watch and I am a huge fan of record setting Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan. Unlike a lot of draftniks, I think he has excellent NFL Potential. I am highly impressed with his quick release, accuracy and ability to move around in the pocket. He reminds me a lot of Tony Romo, with his gunslinger mentality. I would draft him in the later part of round one and be very patient with him, like Tony Romo, he (Brennan) will need a couple of years in the NFL to develop the mental part of his game, he throws way to many interceptions at this point, but make no mistake, Colt Brennan has all the physical skills to eventually develop into a pro bowl NFL quarterback.
During Friday nights game against San Jose State, Brennan, recovering from a sprained ankle, displayed some of that gunslinger mentality, making spectacular throw after throw at times and then throwing the ball up for grabs at other times, seemingly hot and cold. Bennan attempted a WAC record 75 passes, completing 44 for 545 yards 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He came through when he had to however, throwing the winning touchdown pass in overtime to WR Ryan Grice-Mullen from 8 yards out in front of 20,473 frenzied San Jose State fans on a muddy, wet field to win the game in over time 42-35. This, after he rallied back from a 14-point deficit in the final 4 minutes of the fourth quarter. It was the first time this season the Rainbows failed to score at least 45 points.
"Coach (Jones) was telling me, 'If you can come back from this, it will define you as a quarterback.' " Brennan said afterward. I love the King of Honolulu, June Jones, but he is borderline arrogant, after the game he blamed his teams difficulties on the wet, sloppy conditions of the field, saying something to the affect that if the conditions wouldn't have been so bad they would have scored 60 more (points). C'mon June, do you really want to score 104 points against San Jose State? Is that what you think people want to see to select you for a BCS championship game? Nope, you need a better defense and a tougher schedule if you want real nationwide respect.
Hawaii is off to it's best start since 1981 and despite my earlier comments, they do have an outside shot at a BCS game. Mark your calender for November 16th, the Rainbows play at Nevada in another Friday night nationally televised game on ESPN and then on November 23 they have a huge game against last years Cinderella team Boise State, and then on December 1st they play a tough Washington team, both of the later games are at Hawaii and they will need to destroy all three of those teams by huge margins to have an outside chance.
So Are the Hawaii Rainbows, at an undefeated 7-0, a legitimate legitimate BCS Championship team? Absolutely not, they just don't have the defense. Does anyone think if they played in the SEC they would even be a .500 team? Probably not.
Hold your horses all you Hawaii Rainbow fans before you click away in disgust. I am not here to bash the Hawaii Rainbows, I am just trying to be realistic. I actually love the Rainbows, I have given them significant coverage in the past, I wrote a glowing article last year about running back Nate Ilaoa and more recently, I wrote an interesting article on the King of Honolulu, June Jones.
I am rooting for the Rainbows, I love an under dog, the run and shoot offense is fun to watch and I am a huge fan of record setting Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan. Unlike a lot of draftniks, I think he has excellent NFL Potential. I am highly impressed with his quick release, accuracy and ability to move around in the pocket. He reminds me a lot of Tony Romo, with his gunslinger mentality. I would draft him in the later part of round one and be very patient with him, like Tony Romo, he (Brennan) will need a couple of years in the NFL to develop the mental part of his game, he throws way to many interceptions at this point, but make no mistake, Colt Brennan has all the physical skills to eventually develop into a pro bowl NFL quarterback.
During Friday nights game against San Jose State, Brennan, recovering from a sprained ankle, displayed some of that gunslinger mentality, making spectacular throw after throw at times and then throwing the ball up for grabs at other times, seemingly hot and cold. Bennan attempted a WAC record 75 passes, completing 44 for 545 yards 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He came through when he had to however, throwing the winning touchdown pass in overtime to WR Ryan Grice-Mullen from 8 yards out in front of 20,473 frenzied San Jose State fans on a muddy, wet field to win the game in over time 42-35. This, after he rallied back from a 14-point deficit in the final 4 minutes of the fourth quarter. It was the first time this season the Rainbows failed to score at least 45 points.
"Coach (Jones) was telling me, 'If you can come back from this, it will define you as a quarterback.' " Brennan said afterward. I love the King of Honolulu, June Jones, but he is borderline arrogant, after the game he blamed his teams difficulties on the wet, sloppy conditions of the field, saying something to the affect that if the conditions wouldn't have been so bad they would have scored 60 more (points). C'mon June, do you really want to score 104 points against San Jose State? Is that what you think people want to see to select you for a BCS championship game? Nope, you need a better defense and a tougher schedule if you want real nationwide respect.
Hawaii is off to it's best start since 1981 and despite my earlier comments, they do have an outside shot at a BCS game. Mark your calender for November 16th, the Rainbows play at Nevada in another Friday night nationally televised game on ESPN and then on November 23 they have a huge game against last years Cinderella team Boise State, and then on December 1st they play a tough Washington team, both of the later games are at Hawaii and they will need to destroy all three of those teams by huge margins to have an outside chance.
5 comments:
I agree,I love our warriors (they haven't been called rainbow warriors after JJ decreed them the warriors) but I'm not sold on the DCoordinator and they don't have the same talent they had on the offense or defensive line.
P.S JJ is well known for his outrageous hyperboles/ mental derangement, but that had to be his worst I've heard... and on national tv.
P.P.S. Please! don't call 'em the rainbows!
I think the Bows offense is good enough to score at-will on anyone in the country, including any team from the SEC, but you're right, its the Bows defense that really holds this team back from getting national respect, given their relatively weak schedule. From hereon out, they need to blow everyone out to have any chance of getting a BCS bid.
JJ did apologize for that outrageous statement, about scoring 60+ points, albeit on local radio. He claims he meant what Colt and the boys are capable of, and not to demean Coach Tomey's Spartans (who, BTW, was a mentor of JJ, when Coach Tomey was head coach at UH).
And yes, please refer to UH as the Warriors!
Aloha, Dave
Thanks for all your comments, Hawaii football fans are so pationate. I like Rainbow Warriors better, it is much more original than just Warriors. Yea JJ is funny man.
funny, we are in the bcs now... too bad defense has been the defining theme of UH this season
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