I Hate San Jose State

This weekend I’m bachin it (as in bachelor) since Jess is up at Idaho for homecoming. I ordered a pizza and plopped down on the couch after a rather crazy week at work to watch a little football and relax.

To begin, I wasn’t all that interested in the San Jose State vs Hawaii game on TV. But, since it was the only football on for the evening I flipped around the dial, stopping occasionally on the game. Hawaii jumped out to a 14 point lead early in the game, and since I can’t stand watching Hawaii, I figured that game was done.

I kept checking back to the game and saw that San Jose was only down 7 at half time. Third quarter they score again to tie it up. Hmmm… Sorta interesting. Well, it starts to get real interesting as SJSU scores 2 more times to go up 14. Ok, now I’m getting interested and stop flipping and start watching.

Basically what happened, is San Jose conned me into rooting for them. See, I think Hawaii is the most overrated team in the nation. If they actually played someone this year who was worth a damn, they would get schooled. ESPN even posted this graphic during the game… “Hawaii strength of schedule rank – 119”. How many teams are there in 1A football? Yup, 119. They have played TWO 1AA teams this season. The four 1A teams they’ve played, heading into this weekend have a combined 4 wins. Pathetic.

Watching this game last night one thing stands out. Neither of these teams can run the ball. I mean, they were horrible. The field was sloppy and muddy, which is the perfect type of game to keep the ball on the ground and pound it out. Well, Hawaii ran 26 times for 56 yards and SJSU ran 25 times for 42 yards. That was ugly as hell.

As the game is winding down in the 4th, SJSU was still up 14. Hawaii couldn’t do much of anything and looked demoralized. Hawaii gets the ball back on their own 3 with 6 minutes left. At this point, I’m fully rooting for San Jose. Yelling at the television when they screw up. And on that particular drive, there was a lot of yelling. The defense committed TWO 15 yard personal fouls giving Hawaii an extra 30 yards. That is the last thing you want to do against Hawaii’s offense.

Of course, Hawaii scores to pull within 7. San Jose gets the ball back with under 4 minutes to play. After a great return out the their own 40 yard line, all they have to do is kill the clock. Keep the ball on the ground and pound it. Oh wait, they can’t run a lick. They run 2 plays and get the clock below 3 minutes and then fumble which Hawaii recovers. Now, I’m pissed at myself for getting sucked in. I still hope SJ can stop them since Brennan has not looked good in this game (4 interceptions).

Well, Hawaii scores to tie it up with just 30 seconds left (with the 25 second game clock, logically, had SJ ran one more play before giving the ball away, Hawaii probably runs out of time). I didn’t even bother to watch overtime. I knew what was going to happen.

I had a thought when this was all over. This must be what it’s like to root for a crappy team. I mean, Boise State had some lean years in the 90’s, but that was a long time ago. We’re working on 5 straight conference titles (and seven of the last eight). That is the difference. I have a confidence that they will come through when the chips are down. Even when they don’t (Washington game), they have earned a LOT of of credit in my mind over the past 7 or 8 seasons. I think subconsciously, I must have projected that confidence onto San Jose and was burned by it because they just aren’t any good.

Quite frankly, although the game wasn’t totally pathetic, neither team deserved to win it.

There was one positive side effect of this game for me. I honestly think that Boise State will not have much of a problem with Hawaii when they meet. I don’t even care that it’s on the islands. Hawaii will not have played a team that is even CLOSE to Boise State in terms of quality. Our defense is down right scary right now.  I think the Warriors are in for a surprise with what team shows up November 23rd. Boise State certainly isn’t the same team that lost at Washington.  Our strengths, quality running game and stout defense, are the exact ingredients in the recipe on how to handle Hawaii.

Watch out WAC. If Hawaii is supposedly the class of the conference, I’m smelling number 6.