Hawaii, which boasts Sydney native DE Max Hendrie on its roster, is also 6-4 ATS in its last 10 games as an underdog of 17 or more points.
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“I don’t see a reason why we can not get to that level”, he said. Hawaii, on the other hand, has to play at MI just a week later.
American college football sides California Golden Bears and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors have settled into the practice grind ahead of their season-opening clash at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.
Because Australia doesn’t have much of a football culture to speak of, none of Cal’s potential practice fields had goalposts.
Muhammad has 1,246 yards and nine touchdowns on 209 rushes for his career. Expect the game to be close for the first quarter and in to the second but eventually the difference will show and Cal will run away with the victory.
“California loses several star wide receivers, but the biggest offensive question mark will be at quarterback”. (Kickoff is Saturday at noon in Sydney.).
This game should have some attraction for Utah fans, who wonder what Cal quarterback Davis Webb will look like in his debut as a graduate transfer from Texas Tech.
The Warriors return running back Paul Harris, who rushed for 1,143 yards last season, fifth-year senior quarterback Ikaika Woolsey and their top three receivers.
Hawaii will bring along Nick Rolovich, who passed for 4,176 yards at Hawaii but who stopped doing it in 2001 and now serves as its 37-year-old head coach, aiming to fix a program that went 3-10 in 2015, 0-8 in the Mountain West Conference. Well, here are three reasons. A Rainbow Warriors spokesman said just before the game began that safety Daniel Lewis Jr., linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams and tight end Metuisela Unga were not with the team Saturday.
“I wish he did”, Dykes said. The 100-plus players and coach Sonny Dykes, who were greeted by cheerleaders as they walked off the plane, missed the remainder of Sunday when they crossed the International Date Line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Without him leading the ground attack, Hawaii could get off to a slow start.
On special teams Hawaii has the rare combination of punter/place kicker in senior Rigoberto Sanchez.
The rest of the college football slate kicks off Thursday with Vanderbilt and SC squaring off in the first big ESPN game of the week.
This went beyond all the numbers and beyond some rust being shaken off and some players still trying to prove themselves to the coaches. He completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 4,719 yards and 43 touchdowns in 2015 (yards and TDs were Pac-12 records) and was a three-year starter.
The Bears are not being picked by many to represent the Pac-12 North Division, but they have a number of notable home games against quality opponents to prove themselves worthy: vs. Texas (9/17), vs. Utah (10/1), vs. OR (10/21), vs. Stanford (11/5) and vs. Washington (11/19).
Point spread: The Golden Bears opened as 23-point favorites, according to sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark. Not Hawaii’s way on Saturday. The Golden Bears will head home and get some rest as they don’t play next weekend, but travel south to face San Diego State on September 11. After a bye week, they’ll play the Aztecs at San Diego on September 10.
As for Cal, the Golden Bears are coming off their first bowl season since 2011, and bowl win since 2008.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors’ players Marcus Kemp, left, Steven Lakalaka and Makan Kema-Kaleiwahia enjoy the sites around Sydney. The Wolverines beat Hawaii 48-17 in 1998 in the only previous regular-season game between the teams.
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The Bears were approached about the trip 18 months ago by a representative of an Australian sports marketing agency, which hoped to stage the first college football game ever in Sydney and the first in Australia since Brigham Young played Colorado State in Melbourne in 1987.
