HONOLULU — They played like they had been snubbed, like they had something to prove.
No, not the BYU Cougars. The Hawaii Warriors.
Hawaii, which is not going to a bowl game, ended its season and No. 9 BYU's previously undefeated season in resounding fashion, 72-45, at Aloha Stadium Saturday. Those 72 points were the most ever scored by the Warriors (9-3), and the most ever given up by the Cougars (12-1).
"This was their bowl game and they came out and pulled out all the stops," said BYU center Jason Scukanec. "We were having a Cinderella season and I guess it strikes midnight for every Cinderella. If it was easy to go 13-0, everybody would be doing it."
"I don't want to make any excuses," said Gary Crowton, who lost his first game as BYU's coach. "I just want to give Hawaii a lot of credit."
So much for the Cougars' fight against the Bowl Championship Series, which eliminated them from consideration earlier in the week. BYU will go to the Liberty Bowl. And like it.
"It's never fun to lose, especially when you're going for a perfect year in the last game of the season," said running back Ned Stearns. "We kind of thought we were going to run over them, I think that's what happened. We got a little complacent."
The cause of the Cougars' demise? They surrendered two special teams touchdowns and seven turnovers. BYU fumbled nine times and lost six of them.
"It was one of those games," said Cougar wide receiver Reno Mahe, "where everything went wrong."
From the outset, it was clear this wouldn't be BYU's day. Hawaii's Chad Owens returned the opening kickoff 64 yards, and the Warriors scored two plays later on a touchdown pass. Before you could say Mele Kalikimaka, it was 7-0 Hawaii, and just 23 seconds had gone off the clock.
Owens stung the Cougars again moments later when he returned a punt 74 yards for another touchdown. The 5-foot-8 freshman followed that up with a 100-yard kickoff return for a TD. On the day, he broke an NCAA record for most combined kickoff and punt return yards in a game, with 342.
BYU special teams coach Barry Lamb offered a simple explanation for Owens' success. "They blocked us," he said. "We made some adjustments after the first quarter."
But by then, it might have been too late. The Warriors never let up.
"We gave them 21 points right off the bat, before we had a chance to get going," Crowton said. "From there, we were always behind. Our guys fought in the second half — we just got behind too far."
Hawaii quarterback Nick Rolovich threw for 543 yards and eight touchdowns, and wide receiver Ashley Lelie caught eight passes for 262 yards.
"Their offense was totally different from what we've faced before," said freshman safety Aaron Francisco, a native of Laie, Hawaii. "They pass the ball 90 percent of the time and we hadn't played a team like that before. It was a challenge for our secondary."
To add injury to insult, several Cougars were hurting afterward. Mahe injured his right knee (torn meniscus), though he continued playing. Quarterback Brandon Doman, who lost his first game as a starter, injured his ribs (possibly broken) early in the first quarter. He stayed in the game until the third quarter, when he was replaced by senior backup Charlie Peterson, who also was forced from the game after he absorbed a hard hit. Todd Mortensen spelled him.
Late in the first half, it appeared BYU was getting ready to stage one of its trademark comebacks. Trailing 31-10, Doman drove the Cougars to the Hawaii 6-yard line with six seconds remaining. He scrambled out of the pocket and as he lunged for the end zone, he was drilled by a Warrior defender. The ball popped out of his hand and BYU's Rod Wilkerson wound up recovering it, but time had run out. Had Doman scored, the Cougars would have been within two touchdowns.
Instead, the Warriors dug the Cougars' hole a little deeper when they scored on their first possession of the second half following another Doman fumble.
Crowton was impressed with Hawaii. "I think it's a travesty these guys aren't going to a bowl game," he said.
"This game, I felt all year while we were moving toward it, would be bigger than a bowl game for us because it's the only game being played right now on national television," said Hawaii coach June Jones. "This is probably the most viewed game this school has ever had and to play like this and to do what we did helped us immensely."
But the game was so lopsided that ESPN2 stopped broadcasting the game sometime in the second half. BYU had won the previous six times against Hawaii, but the Warriors exacted a measure of revenge in a big way.
"They flat-out whipped our butts," Scukanec said.
The Cougars will meet Louisville in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 31 in Memphis.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com