What a heavenly season for football fans

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Friday - September 07, 2007

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What a difference a couple of decades make. Remember when we got one or maybe two college football games on a Saturday? Opening day last week offered two television games at 6am. Your choice of Colorado – Colorado St. or East Carolina-Virginia Tech. Then at 9:30 it was Nevada-Nebraska, Georgia Tech-Notre Dame, UCLA-Stanford, or Washington St-Wisconsin. At noon, on to Baylor-TCU, then 12:45 brought Oklahoma St – Georgia. If you hadn’t had enough, then 1:45 saw Kansa St-Auburn, 2 p.m. Tennessee-California, and 4:15 allowed you to watch Southern California-Idaho. Not to mention a slew of pay-per-view games, ending with Northern Colorado- Hawaii. And this week it only gets better, with the NFL on top.

Yes, Hawaii badly outclassed UNC, as expected. But Colt Brennan’s numbers were still remarkable. 34 of 40, six TD’s and 416 yards. In a half! That’s a completion rate of 85 per cent. Hawaii’s offense was so smooth in the first half that its hard to imagine even a much better defense slowing them down. They’ll get a better test this Saturday in Ruston, where the Bulldogs will try to get physical with the Warriors. New head coach Derek Dooley has made it clear he wants to run the football and he’s got a big offensive line to make holes for Patrick Jackson. People close to the UH program are saying the defense is what could make the Warriors something special. If they can keep Louisiana Tech from moving the ball on the ground, then look out. The Bulldogs cannot hope to compete with Hawaii in the passing game.

You had to feel good for LB Brad Kalilimoku. After getting the start in place of the injured Blaze Soares, Kalilimoku’s return to his former position was a smashing success with a team- leading nine tackles. Hawaii has excellent depth at LB.

Special teams were, well, special. With both a punt and a kick-off return for touchdowns, UH may be significantly improved in this area; certainly they’re more athletic.

One of the more amazing stories of this major league baseball season has to be the no-hitter thrown by Red Sox rookie Clay Buchholz last Saturday night. The 23-year-old was making his second major league start and was in the minors on Friday. Minnesota’s young right-hander, 25- year-old Scott Baker came within an inning of a perfect game on Friday before finishing with a one hit masterpiece in beating Kansas City 5 - 0. It seems like may of the great outings are being turned in by very young pitchers, which made it especially entertaining to catch aging veterans Tom Glavine and John Smoltz duel it out in Atlanta. Should be some good races down the stretch.