Not since 1999 has American Football been played on Aussie soil, but that all changed as the University of California’s Golden Bears took on University of Hawaii’s Ranibow Warriors at the ANZ Stadium. Cal is not expected to do well this season after losing a lot of players on offense and defense, but Dykes believes the Bears could open a few eyes.
Advertisement
The two teams have been in Australia all week in preparation for the game with Hawaii flying home only to turn around and at MI in the Wolverines’ season opener at the Big House next Saturday.
And Webb is ready to dazzle the world.
“As soon as Davis showed up at Cal, we just had a connection”, Hansen said. “It’s on global TV”.
Hawaii running back Diocemy Saint Juste made his triumphant return after missing all of previous year with this Barry Sanders-esque 53-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 14. At Texas Tech, he split time as a starter as a freshman (with future Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield), was the starter in 2014 before suffering a season-ending ankle injury and was a reserve in 2015 before transferring. Hansen, who caught 19 passes last season, rolled up 14 receptions for 160 yards and two touchdowns to help Cal roll up 630 offensive yards.
The Golden Bears’ turnaround off the field has been arguably even more impressive as evidenced by a single-season Academic Progress Rate (APR) score of 997 in the most recent data released by the NCAA on April 20, 2016.
A tangible reason the offense will be better is that the running game that features a few good running backs and it starts with Paul Harris who was one of eight Mountain West running backs who had 1,132 yards and he is not even listed as the starter as Diocemy Saint Juste is listed as co-starter after sitting out a year ago. Former Quarterback Nick Rolovich takes over and brings in an interesting worldwide talent to the program.
Hawaii has a new head coach in Nick Rolovich who returns to his alma mater with his first head coaching gig. He’s like many other Australian Rules players who have earned spots on college teams and in the National Football League, mostly as punters.
There are more major tests coming on the mainland, including the September 3 visit to MI. Hawaii has a strong slate of running backs, so he’s unlikely to get a start on Saturday but could feature on the special teams. Rolovich, whose atypical coaching approach has been lauded by the team, wants his players to breathe in the moment.
“This is a dream come true”, Rolovich said.
Advertisement
Sonny Dykes, an architect of high-powered passing offenses, opens his fourth season as Bears coach.
