Hawaii picked to win WAC

SAN JOSE – It’s not surprising, considering the defection of Dennis Erickson and the house cleaning his replacement Robb Akey had to do, that the coaches and media both predicted Idaho would finish last in the upcoming Western Athletic Conference football season.

“We’ve got nowhere to go but up, so that can’t be too bad,” Akey said on Monday. “I hope our guys use that for a little bit of motivation.”

What may surprise the casual observer is that Hawaii was picked ahead of Boise State at the top of the rankings. The Broncos were the talk of football last season when they went 12-0 and then captured everyone’s attention in one of the most exciting bowl games ever, a 43-42 overtime win over Oklahoma.

Of course Hawaii wasn’t too shabby last year with an 11-3 record, including a 41-24 drubbing of Arizona State, Erickson’s new team by the way, in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

Considering the Warriors lost 41-34 in Boise early last year, it’s not a stretch to think they could come out on top this season, especially with record-breaking Heisman Trophy candidate Colt Brennan back at quarterback after thinking about going to the NFL early.

But, of course, both coaches told the media at the WAC Football Preview that preseason polls were meaningless.

“Expectations are that way when you win, and having Colt back fosters that,” Hawaii coach June Jones said. “I don’t put too much into preseason polls but it’s nice to have the publicity.”

Boise State counters with its own Heisman candidate, running back Ian Johnson.

“I think the team that’s favored should be favored,” Broncos coach Chris Petersen said. “I don’t disagree with that, but preseason polls mean nothing.”

The polls were basically identical with Utah State barely edging the Vandals at the bottom, which has Akey hoping his first team takes on an “us against the world” mentality.

“I think there is a little bit of that,” he said. “They’ve been through a lot and there have been a little bit of distractions in addition to the coaching change.

“The senior class, in my meetings with them after spring practice, they have a bond. Hopefully we can build off that.”

Chip off the old block

One of the new faces in the WAC is Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley, the son of legendary Georgia coach and athletic director Vince Dooley.

Derek Dooley said he grew up as Vince Dooley’s kid so he walked on to play at Virginia so he could use his first name. Then he went to law school at Georgia and was a practicing attorney for about a year and a half before deciding football was his calling.

“I won a couple of cases,” he said, “and I got my (butt) kicked a couple of times, kind of like in football.”

Though at 39 he’s the sixth-youngest Division I head coach, Dooley has an impressive resume. He spent five years at Louisiana State and then followed Tigers coach Nick Saban to the Miami Dolphins for the past two seasons.

Dooley’s special teams coach is Eric Russell, a 1991 Idaho graduate, who spent the past 13 seasons at North Texas. The St. Marie’s graduate played at Spokane Falls and Idaho and started his career as a graduate assistant with the Vandals.

Looking ahead

After his introductory comments, Petersen asked, “Who’s got a non-Fiesta Bowl question?”

The Broncos’ heart-stopping, instant-classic win over the Sooners earned Boise State and the WAC unprecedented attention but 19 senior lettermen are gone, including 13 who were invited to NFL camps, and last year is history.

“It’s time to move on,” Petersen said.

His concerns are settling on one of five quarterbacks to replace Jared Zabransky and defensive tackles.

Jones has a few less holes to fill at Hawaii with 15 starters returning, but there is one major change, defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville is now the head coach at Portland State.

“I don’t think it has affected the team as much as it has affected me,” Jones said. “I don’t have as much fun in meetings. We had a ball, Jerry and I, for two years.”

Glanville was replaced by Greg McMackin, a veteran coach who was at Idaho from 1976-78. He was out of football last year after spending three years on Erickson’s staff with the San Francisco 49ers. He also was on Erickson’s Seattle Seahawks’ staff from 1995-98 and then went to Hawaii in 1999, Jones’ first season, before moving on.

Another position Jones has to fill is running back. One of the candidates is Leon Jackson, who signed with Nebraska out of Pasco High School. According to Jones, Jackson, a three-time State 4A 100-meter champion, left the Cornhuskers because he wanted to be a running back and not a defensive back.