Bowl-O-Rama: Hawaii Bowl Edition

Background Info & History

Man, does that place look nice or what? If you had to pick a bowl game to attend without your team playing, you're nuts if you choose against the Hawaii Bowl. That's a pic of a Sheraton Hotel on Maui, I think.

The history of this game goes back a long ways in terms of bowl longevity. There have been bowl games in the past on the islands like such as the former double-header of the Oahu and the Aloha Bowl. In 2002, the actual Hawaii Bowl came about sponsored by ConAgra Foods. Of the five Hawaii Bowls played, Hawaii has appeared in four of them. Hawaii is 3-1 in the Hawaii Bowl with their only loss coming to Tulane. They were able to beat Houston accompanied with their fiasco at the end, owned UAB in 2004, and handled Arizona State in 2006. For the 2005 season, the Nevada/UCF game was one of the best bowl games I've ever seen. A lot of offense and the UCF kicker missed an extra point in overtime.

Boise State Storyline

Boise State's act in 2006 was a tough one to follow up. Expectations were high and even though Hawaii was the obvious favorite to make the BCS, Boise State was another contender.

The Bronco's winning streak was snapped against the Washington Huskies on the road. The Husky defense didn't allow Boise State to do too much, but the Broncos were basically the better team as the game progressed.

Even though Boise State lost, they never dwelled on the fact that they were likely out of the BCS picture. Wyoming gave them a battle, but the Bronco defense was excellent.

Southern Miss gave them their best shot, but it was to no avail. The Smurf Turf magic had worked again!

Until Boise ran into the buzzsaw that was Hawaii on The Islands, this team was playing at an extremely high level.

ECU Storyline

The Pirates of ECU had some offensive skill players to replace. They got the job done, especially with their offensive line.

The Pirates began the year playing a motivated Virginia Tech team. ECU was pretty admirable defensively, but other than that, they never really had a shot to win that game.

ECU then had a gut-wrenching win against the Tar Heels of North Carolina with a 34-31 final. The next two games included losses to Southern Miss and West Virginia.

Arguably, the biggest win of the season was against Houston when this somewhat young team decided against throwing the towel in. The following week, the C-USA champions were destroyed in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 56-30.

ECU finished the year on a hot streak. They suffered a WTF loss to Marshall, 26-7, but other than that, they handled UAB, Memphis, and Tulane. Anybody who thinks this team will get steamrolled by Boise State might have another thing coming.

Match ups of the Game

Boise State WRs vs. ECU DBs-ECU has struggled mightily at defending the pass this year. The Pirate secondary ranks 115th in the nation. Boise State is 23rd in passing offense. They should be able to pick apart ECU's secondary, but if the Pirates can clamp down and actually play some pass D, this could be a game. Another item of interest, WR Jeremy Childs has been suspended by Boise State.

ECU Running Game vs. Boise State Run Defense-ECU is decent at running the football, but they're going to be coming at the front four for Boise with Chris Johnson. Johnson can pound the rock and he's a big-time NFL prospect. It'll be interesting to see how the 25th ranked run defense will handle Johnson.

Keep an Eye on...

Jamar Bryant. Bryant is the most athletic of ECU's WRs and he has a knack for hauling in some big passes.

The ECU QB situation is one that is usually in flux. This is by design though, both Rob Kass and Patrick Pinckney split time. With the loss of Aundre Allison, Bryant has emerged as the top weapon for the Pirates' passing offense.

The sophomore will have to step up if Chris Johnson can't find enough running lanes against that difficult Boise State defensive front.




Taylor Tharp. Tharp has been surprisingly efficient. There hasn't been as much of a drop off, at least in production, with Tharp under center instead of Jared Zabransky.

As previously mentioned, ECU can't stop the pass at all. Tharp will have to make the right reads (which may not be that hard) against this secondary in order to take advantage of ECU's most glaring weakness.

And, Tharp will need some help from his other receivers due to the loss of Childs. Without Jeremy Childs, Tharp will need to look for some other targets to make plays in this offense.

Must-See-Ometer

The 2007 Hawaii Bowl reads a 5 out of 10 on the Must-See-Ometer. Obviously, the name brand of Boise State with their magical run last season adds some flavor for the Hawaii Bowl. But most people think ECU stands no chance. If you've been paying attention to the ESPN Bottomline lately, it reads that 98% of voters picked Boise State which was the most confident of any game.

But I wouldn't sleep on this ECU team. The Pirates can score even though their offense doesn't look that powerful on paper. The reason is they are an excellent kickoff return team and they know how to force turnovers. ECU ranks 6th in the country and this often sets them up with good field position. They'll come at Boise State with all they have.

If you're looking for fan excitement though to get jazzed up, this might not be your game. There shouldn't be too many fans for either side but ECU has been giving away their tickets to the Armed Forces which is a very nice thing to do.

Prediction

Boise State should roll through this game. I believe ECU will give Boise a stiff challenge, but the issue with ECU is the defense. I'm afraid that the Broncos will be able to score at will in this game. Taylor Tharp should be able to sit back in the pocket and just dissect the ECU secondary. The Pirates will score, maybe even pass the 30 point mark, but Boise has the ability to go 50 and beyond. Boise State wins, 54-31 (31 confidence points).

Recap

Dammit, are you kidding me? Man, alive. As much as I want to be objective and be happy for ECU, I just blew my freaking office pool! Well, I basically blew the friggin' thing. I had 31 on Boise..........DAMN.

Anyway, I'll try to cool off a little bit and analyze. Boise State deserved to lose this game. That's for sure. I don't know of any team that can play as shitty of a half as they did in the first that deserves to win any football game. They couldn't stop Chris Johnson at all.

I was extremely impressed with Johnson and I'm trying to wonder where all of that athleticism went against Marshall and North Carolina State. I'm still trying to figure that one out. But they were the more focused of the two teams. Boise State clamped down and played defense in the second half.

BUT, there's one thing that caught my attention: "Forced"? FORCED? Phhsst, what a joke. He tapped the receiver and then he want out of bounds. It's not like he got shoved or anything. I thought the refs blew the call on that one. I hate this "not reviewable" crap. I e-mailed Matt Zemek a little while ago and asked him if he thought every play, even penalties, should be challenged. He mentioned in, I think, a 5 Thoughts segment over at CFN that there shouldn't be rules as to what is reviewable and what isn't. There's no reason why that shouldn't be reviewable, but it just isn't. I want an explanation. Why should it be against the rules to see if a player did or didn't get shoved out of bounds? Why? It makes no sense.

One hefty and loud "Argh!" for ECU winning this game. Damn :)