Host Hawaii is a 141⁄2 point underdog Saturday against UCLA. So, if you’re a Warriors fan, maybe you’re in the market for some good omens.
Sorry, I don’t have a whole lot of those for you, but here’s one: The Bruins have lost their past three road openers. But those were in 2020 (48-42 at Colorado), 2019 (24-14 at Cincinnati) and 2016 (31-24 at Texas A&M).
In more recent history, UCLA has won its past three openers — all at home. Those include a 44-10 blowout of UH in 2021. Then, while the Bruins started the next two seasons also at the Rose Bowl with wins against Coastal Carolina and Bowling Green, the Warriors lost a home-and-home series with Vanderbilt.
But the most recent win-loss history favors UH. That, however, is only if you look at it on the surface. Hawaii broke its season-opener losing streak of three games 35-14 against Delaware State four days ago. UCLA did not win; it couldn’t, since like the vast majority of major college football teams, the Bruins didn’t play on Week Zero.
On paper, UH’s outcome looks good … but that would be a very small slip of paper, one where just the score and nothing else could fit, including the name of the opposing team.
Although the Warriors did come together strong late, scoring the final 21 points, taken in its entirety it was a big challenge to the “a win is a win” philosophy.
No, not all wins are created equally. This one was against an opponent that won one game last year, and that by its status as an FCS program is allowed just 63 scholarship athletes compared to 85 for UH and other FBS schools. (By the way, can we please go back to calling them Division I-AA and I-A — or anything that makes more sense? Whatever meaning Football Championship Subdivision and Football Bowl Subdivision had was lost 10 years ago when the higher level finally admitted the lower level was doing it right and started playoffs to determine its champion, too.)
Of course, Hawaii’s result is still better than what would have likely happened if the originally scheduled opponent, Oregon, hadn’t pulled out of the game it agreed to play before anyone knew it would be at a 15,000-seat stadium.
Last week’s date with the Ducks was originally rescheduled, tentatively, for Aug. 28, 2032. Two weeks ago, that game and another scheduled for 2031 in Eugene, were canceled. At least UH got paid, reportedly receiving $1 million.
The Ducks beat the Warriors 55-10 last year, at Oregon, with Bo Nix at quarterback. If they had played last week, Hawaii would have been a 40-point underdog against Oregon instead of a 40-point favorite against Delaware State. And Nix’s successor, Central Florida and Oklahoma transfer Dillon Gabriel, the son of UH legend Garrett Gabriel, could have gotten his Heisman Trophy campaign off to a nice start in his home state.
Discounting a miraculous upset of Oregon, isn’t the way things stand now better for Warriors fans? Of course they are. It’s been four years since Hawaii was 1-0.
So, we know UCLA is somewhere between Delaware State and Oregon. That doesn’t narrow things down much, but since they’ve played a game, the Warriors have a way better idea of what they need to address than their opponents do.
UH doesn’t have all of the answers after one win, punching down against an opponent from a lower weight class. But UCLA — even though it’s favored by two TDs — won’t even know what all of its questions are before kickoff Saturday.
