Southern Miss non conference opponents

[expony18]

I was about to say that Hawaii's weaker schedule was often the result of top programs wanting no part of Hawaii once they began to play well. didn't UT and USC back out of games and I want to say a Big 10 team like Michigan or was it Michigan St?

Lots of schools are willing to play Hawaii at HOME. Nobody with real aspirations these days want any part of Hawaii at Hawaii.

Hawaii was slated to play AT Michigan, and offered to play AT USC...

[smaniac38]

I was about to say that Hawaii's weaker schedule was often the result of top programs wanting no part of Hawaii once they began to play well. didn't UT and USC back out of games and I want to say a Big 10 team like Michigan or was it Michigan St?

Lots of schools are willing to play Hawaii at HOME. Nobody with real aspirations these days want any part of Hawaii at Hawaii.

Hawaii was slated to play AT Michigan, and offered to play AT USC...

they probably didnt want to run the risk of losing to a team that had a "soft schedule"

[J.T.supporta]

I was about to say that Hawaii's weaker schedule was often the result of top programs wanting no part of Hawaii once they began to play well. didn't UT and USC back out of games and I want to say a Big 10 team like Michigan or was it Michigan St?

Lots of schools are willing to play Hawaii at HOME. Nobody with real aspirations these days want any part of Hawaii at Hawaii.

Hawaii was slated to play AT Michigan, and offered to play AT USC...

they probably didnt want to run the risk of losing to a team that had a "soft schedule"

I bet Michigan might have fared different if they had kept Hawaii instead of swapping them out for App State.

[SMU Football Blog]

FYI, we play EIGHT bowl teams next year.

[expony18]

FYI, we play EIGHT bowl teams next year.

[Garret]

I was about to say that Hawaii's weaker schedule was often the result of top programs wanting no part of Hawaii once they began to play well. didn't UT and USC back out of games and I want to say a Big 10 team like Michigan or was it Michigan St?

Lots of schools are willing to play Hawaii at HOME. Nobody with real aspirations these days want any part of Hawaii at Hawaii.

Hawaii was slated to play AT Michigan, and offered to play AT USC...

UT did break their contract with Hawaii, and unfortunately I do not think there was a penalty clause so Hawaii didn't even get paid off for it. Shameful scheduling by the Longhorns...Hawaii had gotten too good for their tastes, so they bailed on the game.

SMU will be wise to schedule well ahead now (and it seems they have done that), because when the team gets better it will be harder to schedule some of the bigger-name teams. I saw with Hawaii how it was easier to get the Big 12/Big 10 teams to schedule Hawaii when they were bad and how they wanted nothing with Hawaii after JJ got the team rolling.

The AD last year for Hawaii actually was offered games at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Louisvile, and North Carolina State (all of those offers were revealed publicly), but he turned ALL of them down because he wanted either USC or Michigan to fill the schedule. Michigan turned down the game for App State (oops!). USC actually did NOT have an opening...Hawaii's AD was trying to get USC to break their contract with Idaho (another WAC team) and play Hawaii then. But trying to get both USC and Idaho to agree to that AND get Idaho a replacement game was too hard. I wish that the now-fired AD had picked Texas Tech for last season, as that would have been a fun shoot-out and Hawaii had the team to handle a Texas Tech-level school (but not a Georgia-level school).

The other games for Hawaii were set--D-IAA team, at UNLV (lots of Hawaii fans live or travel to Vegas and it is a natural road game, we sell out that stadium), and Washington at home. Because the AD couldn't get USC or Michigan and foolishly didn't want JJ's help in scheduling (Advertiser reporter mentioned JJ had a Big 12 team lined up), Hawaii ended up filling their schedule with a second D-IAA team.

[expony18]

I was about to say that Hawaii's weaker schedule was often the result of top programs wanting no part of Hawaii once they began to play well. didn't UT and USC back out of games and I want to say a Big 10 team like Michigan or was it Michigan St?

Lots of schools are willing to play Hawaii at HOME. Nobody with real aspirations these days want any part of Hawaii at Hawaii.

Hawaii was slated to play AT Michigan, and offered to play AT USC...

UT did break their contract with Hawaii, and unfortunately I do not think there was a penalty clause so Hawaii didn't even get paid off for it. Shameful scheduling by the Longhorns...Hawaii had gotten too good for their tastes, so they bailed on the game.

SMU will be wise to schedule well ahead now (and it seems they have done that), because when the team gets better it will be harder to schedule some of the bigger-name teams. I saw with Hawaii how it was easier to get the Big 12/Big 10 teams to schedule Hawaii when they were bad and how they wanted nothing with Hawaii after JJ got the team rolling.

The AD last year for Hawaii actually was offered games at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Louisvile, and North Carolina State (all of those offers were revealed publicly), but he turned ALL of them down because he wanted either USC or Michigan to fill the schedule. Michigan turned down the game for App State (oops!). USC actually did NOT have an opening...Hawaii's AD was trying to get USC to break their contract with Idaho (another WAC team) and play Hawaii then. But trying to get both USC and Idaho to agree to that AND get Idaho a replacement game was too hard. I wish that the now-fired AD had picked Texas Tech for last season, as that would have been a fun shoot-out and Hawaii had the team to handle a Texas Tech-level school (but not a Georgia-level school).

The other games for Hawaii were set--D-IAA team, at UNLV (lots of Hawaii fans live or travel to Vegas and it is a natural road game, we sell out that stadium), and Washington at home. Because the AD couldn't get USC or Michigan and foolishly didn't want JJ's help in scheduling (Advertiser reporter mentioned JJ had a Big 12 team lined up), Hawaii ended up filling their schedule with a second D-IAA team.

just a little clarification... when i said offered, i meant Hawai'i was willing to go to USC and play. sorry for any confusion

[Garret]

just a little clarification... when i said offered, i meant Hawai'i was willing to go to USC and play. sorry for any confusion

You were correct that Hawaii was offering to play at USC. Unfortunately, USC already had a game scheduled against Idaho on that day and Hawaii had to convince everyone concerned to get Idaho to play someone else.

[SMUtrojanFAN]

For the record, USC wanted out of that Idaho game as well, but Idaho would not agree. The game was initially scheduled when Nick Holt was head coach at UI. But when Nick returned to SC to be the DC in 07, USC wanted to cancel the game with Idaho.

Believe it or not, SC schedules a pretty decent slate year in and year out. USC has never scheduled a I-AA (thank God) and the non-BCS teams are limited. I know SC would've played Hawaii (with June Jones) since they played in LA in 03 (won 61-32) and in HI in 05 (won 63-17).

[Garret]

For the record, USC wanted out of that Idaho game as well, but Idaho would not agree. The game was initially scheduled when Nick Holt was head coach at UI. But when Nick returned to SC to be the DC in 07, USC wanted to cancel the game with Idaho.

Believe it or not, SC schedules a pretty decent slate year in and year out. USC has never scheduled a I-AA (thank God) and the non-BCS teams are limited. I know SC would've played Hawaii (with June Jones) since they played in LA in 03 (won 61-32) and in HI in 05 (won 63-17).

A game in 2007 vs USC would have been interesting because Hawaii was much better and USC wasn't as good as in 2005. You are correct that USC wasn't the holdup...Idaho didn't want to switch and it was hard to find a team that had an opening at that late date. Michigan turned down Hawaii's request to take Idaho--App State ended up being scheduled on their open date. Funny thing is App State is better than Idaho and Michigan probably would have beaten Idaho.

To make this SMU-related, the 2005 game saw Hawaii start Tyler Graunke at QB, with Colt Brennan getting playing time also and doing better than Graunke. Colt eventually took over the starting job, with the QB battle over by the 3rd game. SMU fans should *not* assume that the QB who starts the first game of the season will start every game.

The other thing to note is that Hawaii always played USC early in the season, when they struggled to get rolling even against lesser teams than USC. From watching the games (confirmed by numerous player statements to the press), it takes the offense awhile to get going. I expect SMU's offense *and* defense to look a lot better after the midpoint of the season than they do in their first few games.

[SMU Football Blog]

FYI, we play EIGHT bowl teams next year.

1. TCU
2. Texas Tech
3. Navy
4. So. Miss
5. UCF
6. Memphis
7. Tulsa
8. Houston