MARCO GARCIA / IMAGN IMAGES San Jose State Spartans running back Floyd Chalk IV (0) gets away from South Florida Bulls defensive lineman Rico Watson III (34) during the first quarter at Clarence Athletic Complex TC Ching.
MARCO GARCIA / IMAGN IMAGES San Jose State Spartans running back Floyd Chalk IV (0) gets away from South Florida Bulls defensive lineman Rico Watson III (34) during the first quarter at Clarence Athletic Complex TC Ching.
If you wanted to watch a live football game on Christmas Eve, you only had one choice on Tuesday.
For 4 1/2 hours, the University of Hawaii’s Ching Complex was the center of the sports universe.
“The only game in town, and by city we mean the entire sports world. Just one game in progress and that was it,” said ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stephen Nelson.
Fortunately, there was plenty of drama. And a perfect December afternoon in Hawaii, complete with a rainbow, must have attracted at least a few visits to Expedia.
This game had everything except the hosts. The UH football team failed to win enough games to qualify for a bowl game for the fourth year in a row.
This made San Jose State the de facto home team, due to its Hawaii connections on the coaching staffs of four former Warriors, including head coach Ken Niumatalolo and assistants Craig and Billy Ray Stutzmann and John Estes. Additionally, San Jose State is a Mountain West team, just like the Warriors.
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South Florida was a relatively random and anonymous opponent. And the Bulls didn’t travel nearly 4,700 miles for a vacation.
The Bulls won 41-39 in a five-overtime battle that was almost as exciting as when Hawaii beat Houston 54-48 in three overtimes in 2003. There was less tension between the opponents than in that second overtime, however. annual Hawaii edition. Bowl 21 years ago that included a fight before Christmas.
But there was plenty of intensity and focus in the first bowl game with five overtimes.
“They went to work when we needed them to,” Bulls coach Alex Gorshen said. “And I respect Coach Niumatalolo so much, how in the first year (at San Jose State) they won big games.”
I couldn’t help but think throughout the game that if Spartans star wide receiver Nick Nash hadn’t retired to prepare for the NFL, the Spartans would have won by starting.
But Niumatalolo blamed the outcome on a lost fumble and an interception.
“You have to take care of the ball,” the former UH quarterback and Navy head coach said. “But give (South Florida) credit.”
The Spartans racked up 441 yards on offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann’s spread, shredding offense, a modified version of the run and shoot he played in as a receiver at Saint Louis and UH at the turn of the millennium.
Although Nash was missed on Tuesday, Matthew Coleman stepped up with 12 receptions for 119 yards and a touchdown. He also kept the Spartans alive in overtime, calling interference and then catching a pass in the end zone that sent the game to a fourth overtime.
San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget looked awkward and inexperienced when he took over as the starter midseason. He wasn’t perfect against the Bulls, but he showed a lot of savvy and resilience.
Bowl games are mostly fun for journalists, with one notable exception. We’re usually asked to choose an MVP for the game. This is fine, except that we’re usually tasked with submitting our choices several minutes before the end of the game. This is one of the reasons I voted for the late Willie K as MVP of the 2018 Hawaii Bowl for his chicken-skin rendition of the national anthem. The other reason was that he deserved it.
Of course, it’s impossible to pick the MVP of a five-overtime game four minutes before the intermission ends.
Our votes were split between five or six guys. Late in the fourth quarter, I still liked San Jose State’s Noah McNeal-Franklin for his two game-clinching defensive plays.
The unlikely winner? South Florida kicker John Cannon’s 41-yard field goal with two seconds left in regulation hit an upright but sailed past the goal post. Strange things happen in bowl games.
The substitute local team lost, but the one sporting event on Christmas Eve was still worth watching. Now, today, you can binge on all those NBA and NFL games in between opening your other gifts.
