Black and white. That’s the kind of football game that was played in New Orleans. The University of Hawaii football Warriors, the white, were utterly destroyed by the University of Georgia Bulldogs, the black.
The uniforms were black and white and so was the score, a 41-10 one-sided drubbing that put an end to Hawaii’s dream of a perfect season and national recognition. Black and white.
The difference between the Bulldogs defensive front four and the Warriors offensive front five was also black and white. All too often the Warrior linemen chased Bulldog linemen who were busy chasing quarterback Colt Brennan. Hawaii’s offensive line was truly offensive, though mostly defensive, and looked like chubby, sloth-toed middle schoolers trying to show the world they belonged when it was obvious to all the world that they didn’t.
It’s black and white. Hawaii’s football team and football program do not belong in the that elite group of perennial winners from major conferences; SEC, Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, big whatever. Georgia’s tough-as-nails brand of football pounded the Warriors at every turn, every position, every moment of a game that went four hours longer than necessary.
Black and white. Georgia’s defensive and offensive teams were mostly black. Their cheerleader squad and band members were mostly white. That sends a message to prospective players. If you’re black, you have a shot at playing football at Georgia. If you’re a white football player, well, there’s always reverse affirmative action on your side.
On the other hand, Hawaii’s rag-tag racially diverse Warriors displayed their ‘ohana’ for all the world to see, even if the world didn’t care and didn’t understand and it didn’t matter. Georgia’s football machine ran through Hawaii’s tattered and worn spirit time and again and again. The expressions of despair by Hawaii’s worn down linemen as they stood over a crippled and humbled Colt Brennan time and again and again will forever be remembered as momentary glory forever lost.
Black and white. Georgia’s football team, starting with head coach Mark Richt and ending with his players taunting and jawing Hawaii’s crushed Warriors, displayed an unholy absence of class, a lack of sportsmanlike behavior fully epitomized with a slew of personal penalties and a desire to run up the score of a game already won. Compare June Jones’ and the Warriors taking a knee at the end of the Boise State game when they could easily have taken another seven points.
Black and white. Colt Brennan’s season of glory came to an end, and his worst performance ever as a Warrior will cost him millions of dollars as he heads into the NFL draft. They need quarterbacks in the NFL and Colt will get an opportunity. Hopefully he’ll forget January 1, 2008 as nothing more than a bad ending to a good dream, a bad ending which tarnished the shine he needs at contract time.
Black and white. Coach June Jones’ magic has limits and so does the University of Hawaii’s budget. If you want to play in the big time, you have to pay big time. UH wants the former, but won’t pay for the latter. Jones has leverage to get UH to ante up for better facilities, bigger budget. If they don’t, and I suspect they won’t, say goodbye to June Jones and the dream of national prominence. It was fun while it lasted, but the end wasn’t pretty. When Jones goes, and I’m confident he will leave UH, expect Athletic Director Herman Frazier to become the scapegoat and exit as well.
After all, it was, is, and will be black and white.
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