It is with full-circle appropriateness that Hawaii needs to beat Brigham Young on Saturday to qualify for the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl.

That bowl’s creation was rooted in a football meeting between UH and BYU 10 years ago at Aloha Stadium.

The Warriors won in a rout, 72-45, to finish the 2001 regular season with a 9-3 record. With no tie-in to a bowl, the Warriors were left without a postseason invitation. The outcry sparked UH, the Western Athletic Conference and ESPN to create the Hawaii Bowl the following year, with a special stipulation the Warriors would qualify if they attained a winning regular season.

To the 2001 Warriors, the goal was respect, not trail-blazing.

“We knew that would be our last game together,” said Nick Rolovich, who was UH’s starting quarterback. “That was all the motivation we needed.”

BYU entered that December game 12-0, with a reservation in the Liberty Bowl.

“At the time, we were 8-3, and we didn’t have a bowl game to go to,” said Craig Stutzmann, a UH slotback. “We wanted to play the game as if it were a bowl game.”

Six days before the game, head coach June Jones set the tone, hammering the importance of playing well on national television.

On the eve of the game, each senior addressed the team.

“We grew up in Hawaii despising BYU,” said Stutzmann, a Saint Louis School graduate. “(Jones) couldn’t have set the stage any better. We were playing the biggest rival in front of a sold-out crowd.”

After completing pregame warm-ups, the Warriors jogged to the locker room.

“Usually, the crowd doesn’t fill up until the first quarter,” Stutzmann recalled. “Everyone is usually sitting in the parking lot. At the end of warm-ups, the place was three-quarters full.”

Chad Owens returned the opening kick 64 yards, leading to Channon Harris’ touchdown catch.

It was the first of Rolovich’s eight scoring passes that afternoon.

The defense forced seven turnovers, including six lost fumbles, and Owens scored on a punt return and a 100-yard kickoff return.

During wideout Ashley Lelie’s 80-yard scoring play, he appeared to chat with a referee and conduct a mini-reunion.

“My high school coach (Thor Salanoa) went to BYU, so he was on the BYU sideline,” said Lelie, a Radford High graduate. “As I ran by, I saw him.”

Late in the third quarter, Stutzmann told linebacker Matt Wright and trainer Brian Wong he would do an unforgettable celebration if he scored a touchdown. Stutzmann caught a 5-yard scoring pass, then punted the ball into the crowd. Stutzmann was ejected, and then summoned by Jones.

“I went over to him,” Stutzmann recalled, “and he embraced me and said: ‘Stutz, that was the coolest thing. Congrats. Great career.’ “

As the game wound down, UH students made it clear the outcome should lead to one specific reward: cable TV in the dorm rooms.

“For us to go out like that, in the way we performed, having a bowl game after that would have cheapened the feeling,” Stutzmann said. “To finish off against BYU, in front of a sold-out crowd on national TV, it doesn’t get any better than that.”