You might not have seen it, but Hawaii played dirty

The Sports Corner By Eddie Hughes

Lucky for Hawaii, most people probably didn’t even see the classless decision made by the Warriors Saturday night in Honolulu.

Fresno State fell to 3-4 on the season with a 55-28 loss at Hawaii, but the Warriors should never have scored that last meaningless touchdown on a fake punt.

What was the point? Hawaii proved to be the better team that night with a 48-28 lead late in the game. There was no need for another touchdown. There was nothing more to show. Fresno State’s defense couldn’t slow the fast-moving Warriors and that was that.

Good thing for Hawaii that most people didn’t see the game—not even in Fresno. The telecast on KFRE-59 turned out to be a black screen with contorted sound for much of the game with an on-screen message saying the station was experiencing satellite trouble.

Apparently Hawaii coach June Jones didn’t think a 20-point lead with 4 minutes and 38 seconds left was large enough.

Jones decided Hawaii should fake a punt on fourth-and-three from the Bulldogs’ 43-yard line.

So that’s what Hawaii did—and it led to another touchdown. A cheap, 43-yard touchdown against a Bulldogs team that had no thought of defending a fake in that situation. No one imagined that a fake would be coming. After all, who would be so classless to call such a play?

It’s like seeing someone fall and break their arm and then walking over to that person to step on it.

It’s like Terrell Owens scoring a touchdown and running to the home team’s midfield logo to spike the ball.

There’s no need. It’s unnecessary. Jones should know better. He’s not some inexperienced first-year coach with a heated relationship with Fresno State’s Pat Hill. In fact, reports leading up to Saturday’s game said the two coaches shared a friendship. That’s even harder to comprehend.

My friends don’t even run up the score on me when we’re playing college football on PlayStation 2. So I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do it in a real game either.

But this was a real game. It was a Western Athletic Conference game between two rival teams that do a great job of promoting their conference hanging with the big-boys of college football and playing respectably.

Not running up the score. That’s negative publicity.

It makes one wonder what Hill will do if the roles are reversed next season at Bulldog Stadium.

Hawaii should feel fortunate to avoid the embarrassment of lacking class because most people on the mainland will never know the play took place.

But Pat Hill will know. And he probably won’t forget.