Court Sense

All but one game of Hawaii’s football history against Rice took place during a six-year stretch as Western Athletic Conference opponents between 1999 and 2004. It’s been a sticky series for UH. Houston-based Rice leads the series 5-2 (it took four of six of the WAC meetings), including 2-1 at Hawaii. Today we’re focusing on the 2001 meeting at Aloha Stadium, the most closely contested of the bunch. The Owls won, 27-24, in an emotionally charged game that took place […]

A 2-0 record, when many thought the Hawaii football team would be 0-2, has drawn attention and expectations in equal measure. As mentioned earlier this week, the Rainbow Warriors received some votes in the top 25 polls. Heading into Saturday’s home game against Rice (1-1), UH players are suddenly having to manage the shift in team perception from the exterior — but, according to two with prominent roles, not much has changed on the interior. UH is favored by 17.5 points, […]

Hawaii and today’s opponent, Navy, don’t have the deepest history. UH leads the head-to-head series 2-1. But one of those three meetings — the first — possessed plenty of significance beyond the Maryland-based service academy’s ties with the islands’ strong military presence. UH, under first-year coach June Jones, was in the process of putting together what was then the biggest turnaround season in NCAA football history. This meeting with the Midshipmen at Aloha Stadium on Nov. 20, 1999, came after the Rainbow […]

Cole McDonald’s sublime debut as Hawaii football starting quarterback had a way of sucking the oxygen out of the room, whether you were at the 5,000-foot altitude of Fort Collins or in your living room at sea level on Oahu. And yet, receiver Cedric Byrd, making his UH debut out of Long Beach City College, had plenty of room to breathe. Byrd caught 11 balls for 181 yards — including a 55-yard touchdown pass — in UH’s 43-34 stunner at […]