With a new coaching staff and a promising start to recruiting, these are heady, hopeful days for University of Hawaii football.
Want to savor that good feeling a little longer?
Then don’t look too closely at the 2012 schedule for a while.
At least not in the context of what the Warriors played this past season and what awaits them in ’12.
Because according to an NCAA report, UH played the softest schedule among all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in 2011, when it went 6-7. The NCAA ranked the Warriors 120th out of 120 schools for “toughness” of schedule.
UH’s FBS opposition, according to the NCAA, had a collective .353 winning percentage, and it was the first time in 14 years the Warriors did not play at least one nationally ranked team.
Or, as somebody told new head coach Norm Chow recently, “Hey, you should have come a year earlier.”
Instead, the Warriors encounter what projects out as potentially their second-toughest schedule in a decade, if you go by opponents’ 2011 records and barring any late changes.
UH’s FBS foes for ’12 were a combined 54-60, and three of them — Southern California (10-2), Brigham Young (10-3) and Boise State (12-1) — have the potential to be ranked by the time they tee it up with the Warriors.
Already, in fact, UH’s season-opening opponent, USC, is forecast to start no lower than No. 5 in the major polls. And its quarterback, Matt Barkley, is among the early Heisman Trophy favorites.
With USC and BYU on the road in the first month, and the jump to the Mountain West Conference from the Western Athletic Conference, things become significantly more challenging for the Warriors, who install new offensive and defensive systems while filling some major holes.
Can you say p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e? And, more importantly, practice it?
Asked recently if he had scrutinized the Warriors’ schedule, Chow said, “All I know is we open with USC, have six road games and they are frightening. I know we play Boise State at home. That I know.”
The Warriors should find out by the end of this month the particulars of their first MWC schedule, though they already know where they will go on the road (Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State) and who they will have at home (Boise State, Nevada, New Mexico and Nevada-Las Vegas).
And there is the slimmest of possibilities they still might be able to add an additional nonconference contest as a 13th game, though time is running short.
For the moment, Chow says, “I’m worried more about our team,” which is the smart way he has to approach it. “Then, we’ll look forward to the challenge of every team on our schedule,” Chow added. “We’re aware of the huge task.”
So, hold onto that giddiness while you can and prepare to start working up some patience. The challenges ahead will intrude soon enough.
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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
