hawaii

[Ed-S: Probably going to bump this feature all year unless I forget to.]

Well, that’s one way to start a season.

Best:  Roman Reign’d In

In my preseason preview, I cautioned that this column’s length is going to be much more dependent on the quality of the game compared to earlier seasons; life finds a way of limiting the number of hours you can dedicate matching animated gifs to a sporting event involving kids dangerously close to half your age or more.

While the acquitted themselves admirably against Cal to start the year, the Rainbow Warriors were basically what everyone thought they were.  Hawaii has a senior QB with a career completion percentage a shade under 50%, a 19:24 TD:INT ratio, and no real mobility.  They don’t really have much of a running game if the defense has any ability to hold up even momentarily at the point of attack, and if the guy throwing the ball doesn’t have good numbers, you gotta believe the guys trying to catch those balls aren’t particularly good either.  Their defense last year was nestled between North Texas and Oregon St. in FEI, and that was with a couple of guys on the defensive line who were either injured or kicked off the team for this game.  I balked at the 44-point spread for the sole reason that I assumed Hawaii would pick up a couple of meaningless points at the end of a blowout to “only” lose by 40. 

That’s what would have happened under Carr.  It’s what would have happened under Hoke.  It wouldn’t have happened under RR simply because the defense would have given up some points along the way.  It was about winning with “class”, about beating an inferior opponent soundly but not excessively.  You showed up for the body bag games because you had to be part of the equation, the vengeful god smiting the peasants giving you tribute.  That’s how Michigan did it for years, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

But Harbaugh ain’t wired like that.  Now, he’s not a Steve Spurrier at Florida or an Urban Meyer at OSU, who took any opportunity to run the score up even if it meant going for 2 on your first two scores of the game.  But as was his mantra at Stanford, he wants his teams with win with character, but also with cruelty.  Harbaugh will put in his backups when appropriate and won’t necessarily “pick” on an opponent, but as we saw in the Citrus Bowl in which Jake Rudock was throwing bombs well into the 4th quarter of that game, he isn’t going to shrink his playbook or go on “cruise control”.  He isn’t wired that way, to relent or show mercy in the patronizing way some other coaches do, and he (rightly) assumes that as long as there is time on the clock you play football.

[hit THE JUMP for complaining that a 98-yard touchdown drive should have gone better and stuff]