Let's be clear:I do not hate Hawai'i, as some Anonymous Cowards have commented.
Personally, I like Hawai'i.
After watching the Sugar Bowl and reading various articles both before and after the game, I would have to say the Warriors ought to be proud of their fans and their team (once again, with the exception of Keenan Jones).
To travel that far and spend that much money for a football game is proof enough to me that the Warriors belong—and once they can prove themselves able to compete with the big boys again, they should be afforded the opportunity without any "Well they got blown out by Georgia" BS.
I don't have a problem with Colt Brennan. I think he's made the best of a self-created bad situation, and I hope his draft stock wasn't hurt too much by the meltdown of his offensive line in the Sugar Bowl.
I did have a HUGE problem with the Fox broadcast of the game. The broadcast was extremely biased and poorly researched (they get paid to do it, I don't), and the camera work left a lot to be desired.
I've already discussed in a previous article Thom Brennamen and his "Gator" call.
I've already discussed the pregame human-interest story which I thought should have just stuck to football, or maybe picked a player who had a real tragedy happen to him—not someone who created his own problems.
I've already discussed the bias in calling UGA classless for still playing hard while saying Hawai'i was gutty for doing the same.
Then there was the matter of fundamental coverage breakdowns.
During the game, Marcus Howard had a tremendous sack of Brennan near the goal line, and the ball came loose. The officials ruled Howard had recovered for a UGA touchdown.But everyone in my apartment saw a Hawai'i player come out with the ball.
Fox didn't show any decent replays, and the announcers accepted the officials' ruling without showing another angle. It was a very halfhearted effort from the broadcast team.
I never saw Howard come up with the ball, and no matter how many times I replayed it on my DVR, I couldn't find an image of him gathering it in. Fox failed in the replay department, as many people have already noted.
Now let's go a little further.
At one point in the game, I believe it was the second quarter, one of the famed Hawai'i dreadheads took a massive hit on a pass play and lay motionless on the turf. Everyone in my apartment went silent, pale. I remember uttering the phrase "Oh, God" a number of times.
What did the Fox broadcast crew do?
Cut to commercial.
Normally, that would be fine, IF THEY HAD SEGUED WITH SOMETHING, ANYTHING. But Fox did not segue—they just went to commercial, without a word from the broadcast crew.
There was no, "We hope he is all right, we will go to break now and try to find out more." There was nothing. There was silence.
Commercials mattered more to Fox than saying a sympathetic line for a fallen kid.
Imagine if you were that player's mother, brother, aunt, or uncle who could not get to New Orleans for the game and was watching on television. Fox not only failed the casual viewer. They not only failed the schools. Fox failed the people who really mattered in that situation—the family and friends of the player who was down.
Luckily, when Fox returned the player was moving around, but imagine how scary those couple of minutes would have been for a family member.
So, before you bash me as a Hawai'i hater, Anonymous Coward, why don't you actually read the article for its purpose. I was bashing announcers, and particularly Fox.
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6 months ago
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-510700092610586855&q=colt+brennan&total=462&start=0&num=10&so=1&type=search&plindex=7
Here is the fumble recovery but I don't think my man Colt was in a condition to want it back.
As for the Howard hit I read an article from his post game interview where he said "I saw that I had a straight shot at him so I wanted to put it up uder his chin". If I were interviewing Howard I would have asked him "were you intentionally trying to injure the QB?
Myself I find that to be of the same mentality of Keenan Jones going for the head of a defenseless receiver's head. The video of the hit from the front showing Colt's neck extending at least three inches from the blow was removed from google within a few hours.
6 months ago
Yeah, that was a pretty bad hit by Howard and I had not heard the comment he had made before. That comment is definitely unnecessary by Howard and perhaps someone should talk to him that he could still make a really good play without injuring another player.
With Keenan Jones, it was not so much the hit, which was really bad, it was what he did immediately after the hit, strutting up and down the sideline like he won a prize. I wonder if he even cared he hurt another person AND he cost his team 15 yards when the game was still scoreless. I also have a huge problem with anyone that hits a woman as Keenan Jones supposedly did.
6 months ago
It is not an indecent comment. Thats what all defenders want to do to the quarterback and its what coaches tell kids to do. Your not actually thinking about punching a guy in the chin, when you form tackle you go low and drive up. I doubt if Colt Brennan would be offended if he heard the comment.
6 months ago
No, its not indecent, but its also not necessary, is it?
from 6 months ago
So should players not be allowed to say, "I had a free shot, I wanted him to feel it", or "I wanted him to know I was there", or "I wanted him to what what would happen if he came across the middle again". Football is a violent game, the idea on defense is to hit someone as hard as you can, and the players on offense know this. Unless you say "I want to see him leave on a stretcher", or something along those lines, so what?
6 months ago
Marcus Howard's touchdown was legitimate. He landed on the ball, possessed it, and the Hawaii defender stripped it out from underneath Howard's body. I agree that FOX was extremely weak in showing more than a few angles and I don't recall seeing any slow-mo (that would have eaten in to their commercial time, I'm sure...), but he did briefly possess the ball in the endzone. It's a bang-bang play, but it holds true according to the rules the same as if a running back briefly breaks the plane of the endzone.
As for Keenan Jones. His hit was the most egregious infraction of any hit (Ryan Pugh of Auburn's chop-block against Kentucky notwithstanding) I've seen during Bowl Season. He purposefully tried to injure Georgia's Mickey Henderson (who was out the rest of the game with a concussions) by leading with his helmet. Jones should have been ejected on the spot. Any player who deliberately tries to injure another should not only be ejected, but banned for a sizable amount of games.
To me, FOX's broadcast was almost a "guinea-pig" type of thing. They don't regularly do college football, so they need a dress rehearsal to tweak things. Too bad it happened during the Sugar Bowl. The whole "Gator" thing was inexcusable. Were the producers in the live-truck asleep on that? Couldn't they have said something in Brennaman's ear, like, "Hey Thom. You just called the Bulldogs the "Gators." You might want to do a quick mea culpa retraction on that one buddy. But wait until after this TV timeout......"
6 months ago
the recovery was obvious in the endzone, because it doesnt matter who comes up with the ball, in the endzone all you have to do is control the ball for a nano second, which howard clearly did, it was a good call by the ref on the field.
6 months ago
The problem with FOX is that they only do bowl games, they do not really have a sturdy stable of college football gurus. Brenneman is a baseball guy. He should stick that.
6 months ago
the game was completely rigged. the pac 10 officials were horrible. why didn't they use non-bcs refs? am i the only one that saw all the late hits on colt brennan, all the offsides on the georgia defense, and all those penalties favoring georgia? and you're right -- where the heck were the replays? the one replay they showed on the challenge that was reversed only showed the receiver's backside. from what i saw (and that's not much), he caught the ball. oh well... in the end, the bcs people got what they wanted.
t
6 months ago
hawaii has class no doubt. kinda wine and cheese crowd. i've never seen fans so happy while getting drilled by 4 touchdowns.
6 months ago
who is the only college football team in history to win their last 6 games and go down in the polls?
6 months ago
who is the only college football team in history to lose 2 of their last 4 games giving up 104 pts to unranked opponents at home and move up 5 spots in the polls?
6 months ago
John, you got me stumped on that one! Who was that?
from 6 months ago
2007 georgia bulldogs
2007 lsu tigers
6 months ago
Stop making excuses. The game wasn't rigged. Hawaii didn't live up to the billing. The hits on Brennan weren't late and they weren't continually offsides. If you've watched any big conference game in the past you'll notice that the big boys are quick and they hit each other hard. You can't say the same about the WAC; especially Hawaii's pretty boy offense. The pretty boys just got hit in the mouth and you're not used to seeing it. You should get used to it if you hope to contend for national titles in the future. For now, Hawaii needs to get bigger, faster, and stronger.
6 months ago
I was at the game and I am a Georgia fan. First, let me say that traveling to the game from Las Vegas I was very impressed by the contingent of Hawai'i fans making the trek from the islands. They were all very supportive of their team and for good reason. True, they were no match for the 'Dawgs so people should stop complaining about a call here or a call there - it was obvious Georgia was the better team and deserved to win. That said I am not happy with some of the Georgia fans taunting the Hawai'i fans after Georgia jumped out to big lead. The Hawai'i fans were just thrilled to be in the Sugar Bowl and very few of them left in the 4th quarter despite the game being out of reach. So to the Hawai'i fans - congrats on a great season. And thanks to the 'Dawgs and CMR for such a great season! Looking forward to 2008.
6 months ago
I am a die hard Hawaii fan and went to the Sugar Bowl. I wouldnt say that there were bad calls but like any game you are going to have one side feel like they got the short end of every call and that is what it seemed like to me. The replays were the big thing for me. They never seemed to show the Hawaii plays on the monitor. Every time UGA made a big play I would look up at the monitor and see the replay. Every time UH made a big play (granted there werent many) I would look up and rarely was the replay shown. Then the challenges are another story. It seemed that when the challenge was in UGAs favor the decision was made quickly. Then the one the UGA coach challenged it seemed like forever for them to make the call like they were trying really hard to find an angle they could use to overturn the completion. I mean that replay delay was rediculously long.
The one thing I did not like was the fact that everything seemed set up for UGA with UH being treated like they werent even there. And it all started with each teams entry onto the field. UGA and its band was allowed to pretty much occupy the entire field for the entry of the team straight down the middle while UH was left a little corner for them to barely get to their sideline. IMHO everything about the game and the environment was completely for UGA and against UH. I understand that the UGA fans outnumbered UH and that was a big part of the environment but the things like the entry to the field and stuff should have been equal. To me the close calls are always going to be argued by one side or another but the way UH was treated in terms of taking the field and stuff was just wrong.
6 months ago
THe size of the bands might have had something to do with that. And believe you me, Hawaii got more than there share of media love before and during that football game. If you saw the pre-game you'd thought Hawaii was playing Hawaii.
5 months ago
football is not a freaking womens sport. when you have a clean shot at a quarterback, you take it. he hit him under the chin, and thats why the fumble came loose. football is war. next time howard should just hug brennan and take him down. for god sakes. this is ridiculous.
and the wide reciever who got knocked out? He was shown walking off the field perfectly fine later.
Howard clearly recovered that ball, but people jumped on him after he recovered, so it was hard to see where the ball was. you blame the camera man for that, not FOX. this is ridiculous.
HARD hits are what make college football. If you dont hit a player hard, then you probably suck. so dont complain when your team quarterback gets rocked from a hit that was a little too hard.
5 months ago
are you kidding me? dont even call this a game. everything was set up for georgia because you guys were completely outgunned. Hawaii was not even in the same ball park as UGA
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