For years the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors have been one of the worst teams in Division I college football. Last year they won one single game (their last). So when I saw that my beloved University of Washington Huskies' first game was against Hawaii, I thought it would be a nice warm up game for the Huskies and new coach Chris Petersen.
Petersen came from Boise State and during his tenure there had many undefeated seasons. He had an overall record as a head coach of 93–12. Admittedly, Boise State was in a weak conference, the Mountain West (which Hawaii was usually the doormat team of). It would have been interesting to see what Boise State could have done in, oh, the PAC-12. One clue was that Petersen's bowl record was only 5 wins out of 7 games.
So all of us Husky fans had high hopes for Petersen after Steve Sarkisian bailed to go coach at USC. The Huskies even started the season ranked, albeit ranked #25, for the first time in many years.
But last night's game was ugly and showed that the Huskies and Petersen have a long ways to go if they want to become an elite team again. The Rainbow Warriors received the opening kickoff and marched down the field almost as if the Husky defense didn't exist, getting a touchdown. In short order the score was 0-10 with Hawaii on top.
The one great play but the Huskies led to one of their touchdowns, a 91-yard pass on the first play after getting the ball back on downs. The Huskies managed to get another touchdown before the end of the half and Hawaii missed a field goal making the score 14-10 at the half.
But the second half became a defensive grind with both teams having many 3-and-out series. Hawaii did manage to make two more field goals bringing the score to 14-13. There were no turnovers and no spectacular plays, just fundamental football. Washington managed to run out the clock and barely win the game.
Not an auspicious start to the Petersen era and not the beginning many Husky fans were looking forward to.
Next week we play Eastern Washington, an arguably better team than Hawaii. While Hawaii is one of the worst teams in Division I, Eastern Washington is one of the best teams in Division II. There's going to have to be a lot of work by Petersen and the Huskies to get ready for that home game.
And the new poll comes out Tuesday and we'll see if the Huskies drop out of the top 25 due to their lackluster performance. The game started at 10:30 P.M. EDT so maybe a lot of people didn't see it and will only look at the win. Even though it was only by one point.
So all of us Husky fans had high hopes for Petersen after Steve Sarkisian bailed to go coach at USC. The Huskies even started the season ranked, albeit ranked #25, for the first time in many years.
But last night's game was ugly and showed that the Huskies and Petersen have a long ways to go if they want to become an elite team again. The Rainbow Warriors received the opening kickoff and marched down the field almost as if the Husky defense didn't exist, getting a touchdown. In short order the score was 0-10 with Hawaii on top.
The one great play but the Huskies led to one of their touchdowns, a 91-yard pass on the first play after getting the ball back on downs. The Huskies managed to get another touchdown before the end of the half and Hawaii missed a field goal making the score 14-10 at the half.
But the second half became a defensive grind with both teams having many 3-and-out series. Hawaii did manage to make two more field goals bringing the score to 14-13. There were no turnovers and no spectacular plays, just fundamental football. Washington managed to run out the clock and barely win the game.
Not an auspicious start to the Petersen era and not the beginning many Husky fans were looking forward to.
Next week we play Eastern Washington, an arguably better team than Hawaii. While Hawaii is one of the worst teams in Division I, Eastern Washington is one of the best teams in Division II. There's going to have to be a lot of work by Petersen and the Huskies to get ready for that home game.
And the new poll comes out Tuesday and we'll see if the Huskies drop out of the top 25 due to their lackluster performance. The game started at 10:30 P.M. EDT so maybe a lot of people didn't see it and will only look at the win. Even though it was only by one point.
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