The University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors are in Sydney to play the University of California Golden Bears in the Sydney Cup at ANZ Stadium on Saturday 27th of August and this game is not an exhibition. The contest will mark the first college football game to ever be played in Sydney and the first in Australia since games in Melbourne in 1985 and 1987.
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The rain that played havoc with training schedules on Thursday was gone, giving way to a sunny, cool morning at Olympic Park where Hawaii held their final session in the shadow of the stadium that was the centerpiece of the 2000 Olympics.
The game is set to start at midday Saturday, which will be 10 p.m. Friday on the east coast of the USA, 7 p.m.in California and 4 in the afternoon for the Hawaii home fans in the mid-Pacific. The game will kick off at 10 p.m. ET, but that’s a noon kick in Australia. Organizers two weeks ago said they were expecting a crowd in excess of 65,000, but on Friday an event official said only 45,000 had been sold. It is the first game of Gridiron involving major U.S. teams on Australian soil since the NFL’s Bronco’s and Chargers played a pre-season game here in 1999.
THE COACHES: Sonny Dykes is the man from Cal. The Oregon Duck have plenty of hype and still some questions entering the season, but the California Golden Bears will begin the process of answering on Friday evening.
Well, we do not cover Hawaii hoops as they are in the Big West, but one has to imagine the Warriors will take any victory they have over Cal and let them know at every turn possible. Former Rainbow Warriors quarterback Nick Rolovich is the new head coach for Hawaii and will try to improve on the team’s 3-10 record from last season, including 0-8 in its Mountain West conference.
Hawaii was given a chance to practice at the University of New South Wales but because it was about an hour away toward the city and into busy traffic, chose to cancel their practice session and did a walk-through later in the day in preparation for Saturday’s game. “We asked the family it if was OK, and they felt it would be a nice tribute”. Cal lost Jared Goff to the Rams with the No. 1 overall pick and replacing that talent with Davis Webb who is new to the program are huge shoes to fill. Webb played in 23 games during his time in Lubbock, starting 14 games and throwing for better than 5,550 yards and 46 touchdowns. Webb returns the favor: This “is what a championship culture looks like, and that is what coach Dykes is developing here”. Joined by Brian Smith (offensive coordinator/RB), Craig Stuzmann (QB) and Abe Elimimian (secondary), UH boasts four former players on its full-time coaching staff Only three other schools – BYU (9), Air Force (7), and Boise State (5) – have more alumni on their staff.
After an impressive showing at training camp, freshman receivers Melquise Stovall and Demetris Robertson certainly appear to be the highlights of the Cal offense, and they will likely be able to take advantage of the Rainbow Warriors’ defense to make their first impact on NCAA football.
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THE INTERNATIONALS: First-year running back Genta Ito is from Inabe, Japan and moved to Hawaii after attending Santa Monica College in California for two years.
