Hawaii VS Oregon State

The Beavers have traveled to Hawaii 7 times, winning 4 of the games.  Corvallis will welcome the Warriors (formerly Rainbows) for the first time.  I was at Aloha stadium in 2006 when the Beavers won 35-32.  I will be in Corvallis on September 13th for the 2008 of Beavers and Warriors.

UH lost its top 4 receivers and of course, Colt Brennan.  Not to mention, June Jones has left Honolulu to coach SMU.  UH's QB situation is similar to OS's in that no clear cut starter has emerged.  Tyler Graunke has been on the team behind Colt for three years and has seen a decent amount of playing time.  He will probably get the nod.  He is not a deadly accurate as Colt, but can move in and out of the pocket very well. 

UH will be an interesting team to watch this year.  No one in the islands is exactly clear if the June Jones Run 'n Shoot spread attack has left with him.  New coach Greg McMackin has said that the O will look a little different.  They are supposed to run the ball more this year and install a more balanced attack.  UH has solid RBs in Daniel Libre and Leon Wright-Jackson.  Their best RB (in my opinion) Kealoha Pilares has been moved to slot to help fill the absence of 2007's WRs.

UH boast 3 tough LBs.  Soloman Elimimian, Blaze Soares and Adam Leonard will hit you into next week. 

The Beavers should be favored by a TD or so.  I think the speed of the OS skill players may be the difference in this game.  UH's D is getting better, but I do not think it is ready to handle the Beaver skill players.  The Beaver D should be able to dominate this game.  If Al Afalava is allowed to play ( a Hawaii native), he should have a huge game. 

The Beavers will need to play smart, efficient football in this game because UH is known to score quickly and in bunches.  I can't wait to get to Reser. 

If we were playing UH last year I would have this game higher on my list.  But, I still think it is a good game to have as Hawaii will be under sideways glance type of watch to see how they do with so much talent and a coach leaving.  They will be trying to gun for us, as I'm sure they remember that loss to us at their house back in 06.  I'm thinking that we will have to utilize the shorter patterns quite a bit in these early games to establish our QB/Reciever package with the untested O-line.  With 3 good LBs this could play a bit of havoc with that game. 

If we can get the long ball to work a few times then we will take this pretty easy.  If we battle this one out in the trenches then it will take some quick outs and pretty good running for our new RB. 

Should be an interesting game.