More people ask the question each week as the losses pile up for the 2012 University of Hawaii football team.
No, not the one about when Norm Chow will replace the quarterback. And yes, there might be a shifting of the head coach’s stance on that front after backup Jeremy Higgins at times moved the Warriors effectively against a mixed bag of Boise State starters and backups in the second half of UH’s 49-14 loss Saturday.
We’re talking bigger picture: Is this edition worse than the 1998 team, the one that went 0-12?
Well, going strictly by wins and losses, that’s easy. No. The Warriors are 1-8, with that 54-2 win against Lamar, an FCS school. It seems like that game was played 14 years ago, but it couldn’t be since that was when Fred vonAppen’s team failed to win any games at all. (FYI, Lamar is now 4-7.)
The ’98 Rainbows didn’t have a Lamar to beat up on; the closest thing was independent Arkansas State, which beat UH 20-0 on the way to a 4-8 record.
Hawaii did have to deal with 24th-ranked Arizona (Dick Tomey’s team) to start the season and 15th-ranked Michigan (Tom Brady’s team) to end it. They lost those 27-6 and 48-17.
This year’s big-name opponents? USC hasn’t lived up to its preseason No. 1 ranking and Boise State, now 8-2, is rebuilding.
They scored 12.6 points-per-game and allowed 35.2 in 1998. If you count just the FBS opponents, this year’s team averages 15.3 points and yields 48.5. So you could say vonAppen’s team was better defensively and this one better offensively, or that a team that usually loses by around 23 points is better than one that loses by 33.
You could take the enlightened (or copping out) approach and say none of those numbers matter because college football is different than it was a decade-and-a-half ago. HERE ARE some reasons this team is a shade better: 1. Hope >> That was vonAppen’s third year as coach, 1998, and it represented rock bottom after 2-9 and 3-10 the previous seasons. June Jones turned things around in 1999, but the Rainbows had lost hope in ’98. Many will disagree with me on this because they don’t think Chow is a worthy head coach, but when you talk to the players on this team you don’t get the impression they’ve given up at all. Maybe it’s because so many of them are so young. Maybe there’s something to build around.
2. Mike Edwards >> He can play cornerback in any league, and his third 100-yard kickoff return of the season Saturday was one of the best I’ve ever seen.
3. Lack of off-field drama >> There were the three DUIs last summer, which Chow dealt with. And you believe him when he said he will handle "severely" the throwing of a punch at a Boise State player Saturday. Other than that, time will tell, but he has this team under control. In the years leading up to the 0-12 season, there was an accidental drowning death of a player on an outing with vonAppen. And there were two bizarre incidents involving players in the stadium seats: one wandered into the stands during a game and another fought with someone seated near him.
Current linebackers coach Tony Tuioti played on the 1998 team.
"As a coach it’s tougher because you can’t physically go there and do it for them. As much as you preach it, it comes to a point that the guys have to take ownership and make the plays themselves," he said after Saturday’s game. "As a coach you’re not able to cross the line."
The players? Higgins shrugged when asked if he knew anything about the 1998 UH football team.
"I was 6 years old," he said. "My first memories are of Nate Jackson hitting people."
Jackson was on that ’98 team, a 148-pound freshman. Three years later, he made the biggest play of the year, sacking Fresno State’s David Carr, for a UH team that finished 9-3.
"At our banquet in ’98, there was a saying," Tuioti recalled. "’Before there’s a rainbow, there must be rain.’ "
