First Look At Hawaii Bowl As Hawaii Hosts Rival BYU
Former WAC foes meet again on the islands.
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Get to know the bowl game.
It’s bowl season for the Bows. Hawaii will get the honor of staying home to play in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl. After a loss in the Mountain West Championship game, the Rainbow Warriors will look to finish their season on a high note, as the BYU Cougars come to town. This game is technically a neutral site game, although it is being played at Aloha Stadium. BYU is listed as the home team, and opens up as a two-point favorite.
The Rainbow Warriors were expected to be here, but not in the fashion they did it. The Bows finished out the regular season at 9-4, winning the West division of the Mountain West. They went into Boise Saturday and put up a fight against the #19 Broncos, but it wasn’t good enough as they lost 31-10.
Nick Rolovich’s first season at the helm went very well. In a possible retooling year for the Warriors, they found a way to go 9-5, winning the West. Led by senior quarterback, Cole McDonald, the pass game for Hawaii was one of the top in the country. The Bows averaged 326 yards per game in the air, the sixth most in the country. Four different Hawaii receivers had over 800 receiving yards this season.
BYU comes in looking a little different. The Cougars have a 7-5 record, with wins over Tennessee and USC. The Cougars are 1-1 against Mountain West opponents, they gave Boise State their only loss of the season so far.
Zach Wilson is the starting quarterback for the Cougars. He has thrown for 2,108 yards, but only having played in eight games due to injury, and there are some small murmurs of BYU going back to either Gunner Romney for part of the game.
Their tight end, Matt Bushman, is the leading receiver for BYU. He has 41 receptions for 597 yards, breaking the 100 yard mark in the game against Boise State.
Their head coach is Kalani Sitake. This is his fourth season at the helm of the BYU football program. He has led the team to a winning record in three of the four seasons he’s been with the Cougars, this year being the third. Sitake looks to defend his currently undefeated bowl record at 2-0.
This game is the only game on the docket for Christmas Eve, December 24th. These two teams go at it on ESPN at 8 p.m. eastern time, 3 p.m. locally in Hawaii.
