Sweet like sugar: University of Hawaii heads to New Orleans

text size

Dec. 30, 2007
By Ceri Mobley, PGATOUR.com Associate Site Producer

In a surprise turn for what was a very surprising year in college football, the University of Hawaii's outstanding, undefeated 2007 record earned the school a spot in one of the elite New Year's Day football games -- the Allstate Sugar Bowl, where UH will face the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

UH's Rainbow Warriors will be going up against one of the SEC's best football programs; Mark Richt's men went 10-2 in 2007 with their most satisfying, if not most important, victory coming over National Champions, the Florida Gators. So here are five things to know about the University of Hawaii's program before you settle down to watch the Rainbows take on the Bulldogs in the grand old city of New Orleans.

BY THE NUMBERS

1	Only 45 of UH's 99-man roster come from the Aloha State. The rest of the team comprises players from other countries and all over the United States, including players from as far south as Texas and as far east as North Carolina. And look out for Rick Taylor, a 5-foot-9-inch wide receiver hailing from the home of the PGA TOUR -- Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He's a freshman from Nease High School, which also produced '07 Heisman Trophy winner and Florida Gator, Tim Tebow.
2	Only one Rainbow Warrior will be playing against his home state in the Sugar Bowl, and that's Spencer Smith, a 5-foot-11-inch defensive back from Marietta, Ga. The 195-pound freshman earned Cobb County Defensive Back of the year and MVP honors while in high school, and, coincidentally, is originally from Florida also.
3	The University of Hawaii received an extra 1,500 tickets from the Allstate Sugar Bowl to try to tackle the ticket shortage for UH fans brought on by the school's decision earlier in the season not to accept all of the 17,500 tickets it was given. Worried that the football program would not be able to sell all of its allotted tickets, 4,000 of them went to the open-armed University of Georgia.
4	If you're a football fan, you know who Mark Richt is, but how much do you know about June Jones? The UH coach has been to six bowl games, was voted National Football Coach of the year in 1999 by CNN and Sports Illustrated, has been the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times and is the winningest coach in UH history since the school joined the NCAA.
5	Everyone loves an underdog, and though Hawaii has the better record of the two Sugar Bowl teams, the consensus seems to be that Georgia is the better team. Hawaii has 100 years of football history to Georgia's 222, a 50,000-seat stadium to Georgia's 92,000 and here's how their big names stack up against each other:

Hawaii vs. Georgia -- all things football:

How do Hawaii's star players stack up against Georgia's?

UH Rushing, Kealoha Pilares	UGA Rushing, Knowshon Moreno	UH Passing, Colt Brennan	UGA Passing, Matthew Stafford	UH Receiving, Davone Bess	UGA Receiving, Sean Bailey
61 attempts	239 attempts	375 completions	180 completions	101 catches	37 catches
362 yards	1,273 yards	4,174 yards	2,348 yards	1,213 yards	597 yards
3 touchdowns	12 touchdowns	38 touchdowns	18 touchdowns	12 touchdowns	4 touchdowns
36.2 yards per game	106.1 yards per game	14 interceptions	9 interceptions	101.1 yards per game	49.8 yards per game
5.9 yards per attempt	5.3 yards per attempt	472 attempts	325 attempts	12 yards per attempt	16.1 yards per attempt