The Hawaii football team faces a win-or-offseason situation when it plays Brigham Young this afternoon at Aloha Stadium.

At 6-6, the Warriors need a winning regular season to qualify for the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl.

"If we lose, we’re done," UH middle linebacker Corey Paredes said. "I know the guys don’t want to have it end now. We have to do what we have to do. We have to be perfect."

David Graves, who will make his second consecutive start as the Warriors’ quarterback, said the first meeting against BYU since 2002 is "a special game. It’s championship football."

For more than two decades, BYU was UH’s biggest rival. It was particularly heated on Oahu’s North Shore, where BYU has a campus.

"It really is bragging rights — not only for the university and the state, but from the community where I’m from," said UH safety Richard Torres, who grew up in Kahuku, a 5-minute drive from BYUH.

This past week, the Warriors asked to watch videos of past UH-BYU games. Several former players and coaches addressed the Warriors.

"I’m going to do everything in my power to help us win and get to the next game," Graves said. "I don’t want it to be over. I can’t imagine not practicing next week. We have to execute. We need to win this game."

The Cougars, meanwhile, are 8-3 and have accepted a berth in the Dec. 30 Armed Forces Bowl.

They are in their first season as an independent, having seceded from the Mountain West Conference in July. The Warriors are leaving the Western Athletic Conference next summer to join the MWC. The Cougars are experiencing the independent route that UH once considered. All of BYU’s home games are televised on an ESPN channel.

"We went to places we normally wouldn’t go to," BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy said of games against Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., and Texas at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium.

"It was amazing," Van Noy said of the Dallas game. "It looked like we were playing a video game. The football was so small in that huge stadium."

But piecing together a schedule also meant playing six WAC schools this season. The Cougars used to be members of the WAC before breaking away in 1999. And now the Cougars have come full circle.

"This is a very big game," BYU quarterback Jake Heaps said. "It used to be played all of the time. We’re very excited to regain that rivalry."