Warriors’ opinions strong on playing in bowl

University of Hawaii slotback Dylan Collie said it is “disgusting” for a player to skip his football team’s bowl game to focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.

Running backs Christian McCaffrey of Stanford, Leonard Fournette of LSU and Shock Linwood of Baylor indicated they would not play in their bowl games.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” Collie said. “That’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Guys want to leave their team that they’ve been with, that have brought them to that point? If you’re just going to bounce on them because, you know, you get an extra week of preparing for the draft, I think that’s selfish.”

UH safety Damien Packer said: “You come in with your team, why wouldn’t you want to go out with your team?”

The NCAA views a bowl game as an extension of the regular season. Since 2002, the NCAA has counted bowl statistics as part of season totals.

Collie’s two older brothers were standout receivers at Brigham Young. Austin Collie played in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots.

“Love it,” Dylan Collie said of the Rainbow Warriors’ berth in Saturday’s Hawaii Bowl, their first postseason game since 2010. “I grew up going to bowl games my entire life. It was always an expectation in our house. To be able to get back, and to kind of start a trend and bring back the bowl-game mentality here to this school, is important.”

After the Warriors received their Hawaii Bowl invitation, coach Nick Rolovich emailed each player, asking if they had any reservations about playing in the game. Every Warrior pledged his allegiance to playing in the Hawaii Bowl.

“It’s an honor to be in a bowl,” Packer said. “To just pass that up, it’s crazy.”

Packer indicated that players who skip a bowl will eventually regret it.

“There are the memories you’ll have forever, the brotherhood you’ll have forever,” Packer said. “You might as well enjoy it and not take it for granted. Just be grateful to have the brotherhood.”

Collie wondered if the timing played a factor.

“If the Heisman hadn’t been chosen then (on Dec. 10), they would have played,” Collie said.

Collie added: “I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done, if you’re going to leave your team like that, that’s disgusting, actually.”

The Warriors checked into the Moana Surfrider on Tuesday afternoon. They also began receiving their bowl gifts from the school and the bowl. The gifts are valued at up to $925 per player — $375 from UH and $550 from the Hawaii Bowl.