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Things couldn’t have been better for University of Hawaii football before the 2008 Sugar Bowl, and things got bad quickly thereafter. Read more

Things couldn’t have been better for University of Hawaii football before the 2008 Sugar Bowl, and things got bad quickly thereafter.

Hawaii was the nation’s only unbeaten major college football team, and that’s what got it into a New Year’s Day bowl game for the first time. But the question was if the Warriors really belonged there. Were they a team of destiny, or merely lucky?

The UH football team won its 12th and final game of the 2007 calendar year on Dec. 1. Exactly one month later — 10 years ago Monday — the Warriors lost 41-10 to the University of Georgia’s Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl.

Hawaii made it to the kind of big-stage game never previously dreamed of — other than by coach June Jones.

In nine years, Jones had ingrained his pass-happy offense at Manoa. Record-setting quarterback Colt Brennan had just placed third in the Heisman Trophy voting, and at the end of the regular season UH was ranked 10th in the nation.

They certainly had star power.

But the Warriors played a weak regular-season schedule that included more lower-division teams (Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern) than ranked teams (just Boise State). And UH needed late heroics to win four games against teams that finished the season with combined records of 20-30.

“I remember the feeling every week being that we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to take care of business,” defensive tackle and team co-captain Mike Lafaele said in a recent interview. “We were 11-0 after we beat Boise State and won the WAC (Western Athletic Conference), but there was still one more game (against Washington). Every week was a challenge, we couldn’t really enjoy it that much.”

That game against the Huskies at a sold-out Aloha Stadium was symbolic of the season. UH trailed early but rallied to win 35-28 in the final minutes.

“When you look at the year before, three games where we fell just short, our senior year we were very determined to be 12-0 in those situations where we had to make a comeback,” Brennan, another co-captain, said in a phone interview this month from his home on the Big Island. “Doing it previously made it that much more incentive and ambition to have a comeback, whatever the case may be. (After) the first one, we knew we could do it again.”

When Hawaii fell back 21-0 in the first half, then-WAC Commissioner Karl Benson left the Aloha Stadium press box to make a phone call. He would’ve laughed at that point if you had told him that in 12 hours, on that same phone, he’d be fielding a tip that Hawaii would be heading to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

“Bill (Hancock, Bowl Championship Series president) gave me a little heads-up, saying, ‘I don’t think you have to worry,’ ” Benson said.

And the official announcement came that weekend: Hawaii to the Sugar Bowl. With that, Benson had landed back-to-back New Year’s Bowl appearances for WAC teams. Boise State had beaten Oklahoma in the previous season’s Fiesta Bowl, in a thrilling overtime game that ended with a successful trick play and a successful marriage proposal.

Now, Hawaii was the WAC’s new poster child.

PERFECT, UNTIL THE NEW YEAR

Hawaii went 12-0 in 2007, the only undefeated major college team, prior to its Sugar Bowl appearance: Hawaii went 12-0 in 2007, the only undefeated major college team, prior to its Sugar Bowl appearance: Sept. 1

Hawaii 63, Northern Colorado 6

Sept. 8 (In overtime)

Hawaii 45, Louisiana Tech 44

Sept 15

Hawaii 49, UNLV 14

Sept. 22

Hawaii 66, Charleston Southern 10

Sept. 28

Hawaii 48, Idaho 20

Oct. 6

Hawaii 52, Utah State 37

Oct. 12 (In overtime)

Hawaii 42, San Jose State 35

Oct. 27

Hawaii 50, New Mexico State 13

Nov. 10

Hawaii 37, Fresno State 30

Nov. 16

Hawaii 28, Nevada 26

Nov. 23

Hawaii 39, Boise State 27

Dec. 1

Hawaii 35, Washington 28

Jan. 1, 2008

Georgia 41, Hawaii 10

“It was stressful, but our team was built to win, and everything worked perfectly,” Lafaele said.

Perfection, as in 12-0.

In the coming weeks, fans made arrangements to get to New Orleans any way they could.

“Right after the Washington game, my good friend (Ivan Nakasone) and I said, ‘We’re going no matter where they go,’ ” said lifelong UH fan Shane Agno of McCully.

He was far from alone.

Warriors fans flooded Bourbon Street, especially Johnny White’s Pub & Grill, owned by ‘Iolani product Lyn Sapir. Fans complained the stores didn’t stock Hawaii souvenirs. They did — but they sold out fast.

“I was at New Orleans a year later, and a manager at Harrah’s joked that the Hawaii folks were still waiting outside to get in,” Benson said.

The demand for tickets surprised everyone, including UH athletic director Herman Frazier. Frazier returned 4,000 of UH’s allotment of 17,500 tickets.

That didn’t stop the fans who came from everywhere, not just Hawaii. They camped out at the team hotel for hours. The Warriors knew they were rock stars in the islands. This was another level.

“The hotel hosts the Sugar Bowl every year,” Lafaele said. “They were actually upset about it.”

The scene in New Orleans was what Jones envisioned when he took the UH coaching job, and enlisted sports agent Leigh Steinberg to help with branding.

“They came from all over, and came to New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl people said they had never seen anything like it,” Jones said in an interview this month. “It was a crazy, unbelievable time. That’s for sure.”

BUSTING THE BCS

Prior to the start of the College Football Playoff system after the 2014 season, eight teams from five schools in conferences without automatic qualifiers made it to lucrative Bowl Championship Series postseason games. Hawaii and Northern Illinois are the only ones that lost to automatic qualifiers. The upstart “BCS Busters” — schools in bold type — went 5-3 in these games. Prior to the start of the College Football Playoff system after the 2014 season, eight teams from five schools in conferences without automatic qualifiers made it to lucrative Bowl Championship Series postseason games. Hawaii and Northern Illinois are the only ones that lost to automatic qualifiers. The upstart “BCS Busters” — schools in bold type — went 5-3 in these games. 2005 Fiesta Bowl

Utah 35, Pitt 7

2007 Fiesta Bowl

Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42

2008 Sugar Bowl

Georgia 41, Hawaii 10

2009 Sugar Bowl

Utah 31, Alabama 17

2010 Fiesta Bowl

Boise State 17, TCU 10

2011 Rose Bowl

TCU 21, Wisconsin 19

2013 Orange Bowl

Florida State 31, Northern Illinois 10 Note: Teams not from automatic qualifying conferences in bold (both Boise State and TCU were not from automatic qualifiers). All games were played on Jan. 1 of year listed. Utah (Pac-12) and TCU (Big 12) are now members of Power Five conferences, with much easier access to the four-team College Football Playoff system than their previous conference, the Mountain West. Hawaii, which was in the Western Athletic Conference when it went to the Sugar Bowl, is now a Mountain West member for football.

But on the field, things fell apart quickly.

People forget it actually started out well: Freshman Malcolm Lane returned the opening kickoff 36 yards to nearly midfield.

The offense, though, was out of sync on the first drive with two false-start penalties, at least partly due to noise inside the Superdome.

Linebacker Marcus Howard got to Brennan three times for sacks, scored on a fumble and tipped a pass that led to an interception. Brennan was intercepted three times and sacked eight. For at least the second time that season, he suffered concussion symptoms.

Meanwhile, Georgia was steady and efficient on offense, with quarterback Matthew Stafford mostly giving the ball to Knowshon Moreno and Thomas Brown.

It was obvious which team had arrived more ready to play, and the bluebloods from the Southeastern Conference program, used to events like this, led 24-3 at halftime. Was UGA simply better prepared, or simply more talented?

“Taking all that time off (between games) was kind of hard. But I think I was ready to go, I think a bunch of guys were ready to go,” Lafaele said. “We settled down. We’d been in that situation before, where we come back and win games.

“But going into the fourth quarter, that’s when it kind of got out of hand.”

Georgia led 38-3 heading into the last period, when backup quarterback Tyler Graunke replaced a battered Brennan and Ryan Grice- Mullen scored UH’s only touchdown on a pass from Graunke.

“Until the very end, coaches kept coaching and players kept playing,” said Brian Kajiyama, who was a UH graduate assistant and is now a professor at Manoa. “Halftime was somber, but no one gave up hope.”

But this was one comeback that wasn’t going to happen.

And it would be the last game for Jones as UH’s coach. When the team plane landed in Hawaii, he told the players he was leaving for a job at Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs offered $2 million a year, more than twice Jones’ salary at UH.

Frantic efforts to get Jones to remain at Manoa failed. Frazier was fired Jan. 8.

Frazier did not return emails and phone calls to his office at Syracuse, where he is senior deputy athletics director.

Some might say Brennan never recovered from the Sugar Bowl; his post-UH life has included a brief career as an NFL backup, a serious car accident and, in a separate case, a DUI.

“I’m actually kind of trying to figure it out now, and I have an ambition to be a charter-boat fishing captain,” said Brennan, who says legal issues are behind him. “I feel like I’m still trying to get things right. It’s been tough. But I’m getting better. That’s the good news, definitely going in the direction of getting better.”

Jones spent 2016 coaching quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa at Kapolei High School. He applied for the UH job when Nick Rolovich was hired to replace Norm Chow after the 2015 season. Jones is now head coach of the Hamilton Tiger- Cats of the Canadian Football League and a fundraiser for Saint Louis School.

If that game had been more competitive, would Jones have stayed?

“I think I had made the decision already,” Jones told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser earlier this month. “So many needs that were not met (for UH football to improve). I had given up so much money, I knew I would only have one chance to take care of my family. And I didn’t want Hawaii to have to pay that money. I also knew there were enough good players coming back that they’d be OK.”

It’s easy to point at Jan. 1, 2008, as the highest peak, and also the biggest turning point for University of Hawaii football.

But without a Jan. 17, 2007, announcement there likely would’ve been no Jan. 1, 2008, in New Orleans. No Sugar Bowl, no BCS millions for the WAC and UH.

That was when Brennan said he’d return for his senior season, instead of making himself available for the NFL Draft when his stock was highest.

“I just remember looking at guys like Davone (Bess), and Ryan (Grice-Mullen) and John Estes. I felt like if I left, I wouldn’t be living up to what I came to Hawaii to do,” Brennan said. “There’s nothing I regret. When I came back my senior year, we delivered.”

Like most close to the UH football team, Jones prefers to reflect on the 12 wins without a loss in 2007 leading up to Jan. 1, 2008.

“I don’t have any regrets,” he said. “I just wish we would’ve won the last game.”