HONOLULU — They’ve won games they probably should have lost, lost games they probably should have won, played well enough to earn their popular coach a contract extension and put themselves into position to surpass last year’s win total by making it to a bowl game in what many consider to be paradise.
Several BYU Cougars are already calling this a successful football season, but one last hurdle remains — at least in the minds of most of their fans and media members who cover the team — for that sentiment to be believable. As slight favorites and the designated home team in Tuesday’s Hawaii Bowl at Aloha Stadium against a team that calls the place home, the Cougars (7-5) have to beat the 9-5 Rainbow Warriors to truly feel good about the 2019 campaign.
Or so the feeling goes.
Kickoff is at 6 p.m. MST — 3 p.m. here in the Islands — and the game will be televised nationally to a Christmas Eve audience with no other options for live sporting event viewing. One of the oddities viewers might notice is that the Cougars will be wearing their royal blue home jerseys, the Warriors one of their traditional road uniforms.
Also, BYU will take over the home locker rooms, while UH will see what the visitors’ locker rooms are like because the representative from the Mountain West is always the designated visiting team in this bowl.
“We’re the only game on,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said last week. “Everybody will be watching,”
That might be a stretch, but what is readily apparent is that plenty is at stake for the Cougars, especially after they used up a lot of goodwill they piled up in those wins over Boise State, Utah State and Liberty with a deflating loss the last time they played, 13-3 to San Diego State on Nov. 30.
“I feel like just comparing last year’s record (7-6) to this year, we have to win this game and that will be an improvement from last year, and that will make it a successful season for us,” said senior receiver Micah Simon at a Monday morning news conference a few steps away from the famed Waikiki Beach.
Senior defensive back Dayan Ghanwoloku said “just going to a bowl game is a successful season,” but added the Cougars won’t be satisfied with that accomplishment, their third bowl trip in Sitake’s four seasons.
“To put a pinpoint on it, a win is a big part of it,” Ghanwoloku said. “We came here to win. It is not just a vacation or to mess around. It is a real game.”
And a real challenge, likely far more difficult than last year’s 49-18 rout of Western Michigan, which had just a few fans in the stands in Boise. Hawaii’s players, and fans, have been salivating for another shot at the hated Cougars since they learned BYU was spending part of the holidays on their home turf.
“Before we even accepted the invitation, and the news came out that BYU had accepted the invitation, I had family that was already talking about BYU vs. Hawaii, BYU vs. Hawaii,” said Warriors running back Dayton Furuta, from nearby Mililani. “The crowd is behind us.”
Two years ago, when BYU ended its miserable 4-9 season with a 30-20 win at Aloha to deny the Warriors a bowl bid, the crowd was evenly split, maybe slightly in BYU’s favor. Furuta said there has “been a push” to make sure there is a true home-crowd advantage Tuesday.
“I don’t know exactly where the (hatred) for BYU comes from,” he said. “I guess it is just two big fanbases on one little island.”
The Warriors won’t just be motivated to end their five-game losing skid to BYU; They also want to get to 10 wins in their 15th game of the season, ninth at home.
“I don’t think you can do what these (players have done) and not call it a successful season,” said UH coach Nick Rolovich, the Warriors’ quarterback the last time they beat BYU, 72-45 in 2001. “They have attained a goal. They have the opportunity to play on Christmas Eve. I think it is an extremely successful season for both programs and these kids really deserve it.”
Sitake sidestepped a question about what is at stake for BYU in relation to calling it a successful season or not, but Simon and Ghanwoloku both said the coach has been stressing the importance of winning bowl games — perhaps a product of his tutelage under Utah coach Kyle Whittingham — since he replaced Bronco Mendenhall in 2016.
“I feel the same that Dayan does in that going to a bowl game is a great accomplishment,” Simon said. “But like Kalani has been saying ever since we got here, and even before we got here during our preparation — it is all about winning the game, and that’s what we are … out here to do.”
Simon recounted a story in the news conference about how his ride-share driver in Hawaii a few days ago got him up to speed on the rivalry, which burned hot through 2002, then wasn’t renewed until 2011. The teams won’t meet again until Hawaii visits in 2024 and BYU returns to Aloha in 2025 — unless they get invited to the same bowl.
“We know Hawaii is going to be fired up and is going to play their game and air it out on us,” Ghanwoloku said. “You could feel the intensity at the little luau thing (Saturday night). Everyone is having fun, but our minds are still set on the game. Just because we are in Hawaii doesn’t mean we aren’t focused on the game.”
And all that is at stake for the “home” team — thousands of miles away from home.
BYU’s five-game winning streak over Hawaii
* Sept. 6, 2002, in Provo — BYU 35, Hawaii 32
• Dec. 3, 2011, in Hawaii — BYU 41, Hawaii 20
• Spet. 28, 2012, in Provo — BYU 47, Hawaii 0
• Nov. 25, 2017, in Hawaii — BYU 30, Hawaii 20
• Oct. 13, 2018, in Provo — BYU 49, Hawaii 23