WAC Teleconference Highlights

About playing Georgia, JJ said:
"They’re by far the best team we’ve played since I’ve been here in nine years. They’ve got a lot of great athletes, a lot of team speed and we’ll have to play a perfect game to hang with them. But our kids are excited about going. We’ve had good practices so far and I’m sure that we’ll show up and be respectable." (ABH)

About the BCS payout helping UH, JJ said:
"I think that more than the BCS money, because we have a lot of needs – not just in football, but in the athletic department – I think the season we’ve had has brought attention to the legislators and the people in town that understand how we’ve gotten this thing done and made it visible that we need more help from downtown, and I think that’s taking place. I think the actual check itself will obviously be of help, but at the same time we have big needs. The $4.2 million will probably do some of the things that we need repaired more than anything." (ABH)

About how they might spend the BCS money, JJ said:
"For example, we have new football offices that were halfway built three years ago and they’ve never been completed because they ran out of money. Hopefully the money will go to that and those type of things will be improved. Like I said, we have a lot of things that need to be done and I’m sure this will start the ball rolling anyway." (ABH)

About UH's running game, JJ said:
"We throw the ball, catch it and then we run after the catch. That’s probably our running game. We have had games, normally our fullback gets somewhere between 15 to 23 touches a game. Some games it just depends on how teams are playing us, the yardage becomes better. I think if you eliminate the negative yards from quarterback sacks and those type of things, I would say our running backs are averaging close to 7 or 8 yards a carry, so we get done what we need to get done." (ABH)

About the interest in Hawaii on the Sugar Bowl, JJ said:
"It is quite an effort. This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal for this whole state. I’ve said this forever, this isn’t really the University of Hawaii, this is the state’s team. We probably have 500 to 1,000 student tickets for every one of our games. It’s basically the cab drivers, the maids, the working guys, the firemen, policemen that come support our team. It’s the only game in town. There is no pro sport here. And the other thing that happens is there’s a tremendous amount of transplanted Hawaiians on mainland U.S. When we went to Louisiana Tech, when we went to Reno, when we went to San Jose, we probably had 20, 25,000 people at the stadium. They’re coming from everywhere to identify back with Hawaii, basically. I would say that if, everything said and done, if there was 50,000 tickets, we would have 50,000 people there." (ABH)

About UH's improved defense, BSU coach Chris Petersen said:
"They’ve really made some great strides on defense. They play very hard, they’re well-coached, they’re aggressive, they really attack you. I think Hawaii’s always scored a lot of points and I think they’ve probably taken more strides on the defensive side of the ball than anywhere else. They lead the nation in scoring, so they do about as well as they can do there, but that’s where they make it tough. Their defense has tightened up and you’ve got to score with them. So when the defense is playing well and playing their game, they’re tough to beat." (ABH)

About UH playing in the BCS, Petersen said:
"I think it’s good for college football because as we all know, on any given day, strange things happen in college football and I think that’s the beauty of it. I think people appreciate and like it when the so-called underdog wins every now and again. It’s healthy for the whole process." (ABH)

About how the BCS money helped BSU, Petersen said:
"I’m sitting here staring at a $38 million pressbox that’s going up outside my window here. We had that in the works and the plans were going, but that certainly helped get that project completed. There’s no question about that. Those BCS games are good for our conference and certainly good for the team that plays in them." (ABH)

About other ways that the BCS appearance is helpful, Petersen said:
"I think it just gives your university so much more exposure. There’s gonna be a lot of eyes on you and if Hawaii goes over there and represents themselves like they can, a lot of people will be very impressed with what they’ve got going on there." (ABH)

Asked if UH feels pressure to play well like BSU did last year, Petersen said:
"I hope they don’t feel pressure because then I don’t think they’ll play their best. I’m hoping they’ll go over there and relax and really play the way they’re capable of playing. If they can do that, they’re gonna represent their state and the WAC very well." (ABH)

Asked if he had any advice to JJ, Petersen said:
Coach Jones has been on many more big stages than I have, so he doesn’t need my help on that." (ABH)

About the upcoming bowls, Karl Benson said:
"I think that as we go into the 2007 bowl season now, the energy that those two coaches certainly are expressing and the fact that Hawaii has followed up what Boise State did a year ago, there was buzz in early September and there’s buzz now here in mid-December about WAC football. It’s something we were anticipating, hoping that we’d get in this position again. I think we are and now we think we’re in a situation where there’s an expectation that the WAC will once again perform in bowl season." (ABH)

About the value of the BCS payday to a small school, Benson said:
"The team that plays does get a significant windfall. The other schools probably a half-a-million-dollar windfall. Some schools, that’s helped them either balance their budget or they’ve spread it around to some special project. I think more important than the revenue and more important than the money, I think that the credibility, the long-term effect that it has on a Boise State and now a Hawaii and the trickle-down effect that it has on our other member institutions, you can’t buy the exposure that the WAC has received the last two years, and that goes for all of our programs. Not to minimize the financial piece, but I think the credibility and the exposure may be just as valuable." (ABH)

About how to decide what to do with the money, Benson said:
"The decisions that an institution will have to make in terms of how to invest the money and do they invest it back into football entirely, do they spread it around to some of their other sports as June mentioned? The University of Hawaii has other problems and other issues besides within their football program. So on one hand, an athletic director gets handed off the big paycheck, but there are pretty tough decisions as to how to spend it wisely. You look at what Boise State has done in terms of rewarding Chris Petersen. They took from that money last year and put it right into his salary and his coaches’ salaries. To be able to build a program from within that coaching staff is important. If recruiting budgets can be increased and enhanced, then generally speaking, that pays a dividend." (ABH)

About what UH does for the WAC by playing in a BCS game, Fresno State coach Pat Hill said:
"I think it’s great. We’re always competing against the Pac-10 out here in recruiting and it’s difficult for us to recruit. But if you look at the last six years, there’s only one school from that league that’s gone to a BCS game, and we’ve had two from our league go. And in 2001, we got as high as eighth in the nation eight games into the season and we lost a game where we had a chance to go in 2001. So I think non-BCS schools have a great chance of going. You’ve gotta go undefeated just like Hawaii did, Boise did, Utah did. Our choice of scheduling is a little bit different in that we’re gonna play a different non-league schedule every year – like next year, we open up with UCLA and Wisconsin and Kansas State. So if you can go through the season undefeated and play that type of non-league schedule, the rest will take care of itself. I think our chances are just as good as anybody. I think people are starting to see there’s a lot of good football teams in this country. If you take the name off the helmet or off the jersey and just let ‘em play football, I think a lot of people would understand that." (ABH)