Thrilling end to thrilling season

With its 38-34 victory over BYU in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl, the University of Hawaii football team finished an excellent season the way it started it — with an exciting victory over a brand-name opponent.

As it was in UH’s Week Zero victory over Arizona, there was plenty of offense, and a clutch defensive play to close it out. This time it was Khoury Bethley’s interception with 25 seconds left. In the win back in August over the Wildcats, Pumba Williams and Kalen Hicks made a tackle at the Hawaii 1 as time ran out to preserve a 45-38 win.

Hawaii finished 10-5, its best record since 10-4 in 2010, when head coach Nick Rolovich was offensive coordinator of a Warriors team that won a share of the WAC championship.

It’s hard to believe some fans were calling for Rolovich’s firing after midseason losses to Air Force and Fresno State. Now, the UH administration will likely have to fend off overtures from other programs with deep pockets who will want to hire him.

Ready for the pros?

Hawaii quarterback Cole McDonald has a year of college eligibility remaining. If he wants to go pro, his performance Tuesday did nothing to hurt his stock. In fact, leading a winning drive with less than two minutes left likely helped it.

Of course, there are many other factors. But in the final game of his fourth-year junior season, he completed 28 of 46 passes for 493 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.

He has been among the nation’s leaders in several offensive categories in his two seasons as a starter. He has NFL tools, including size, arm strength and sprinter’s speed. There are questions, however, about consistency.

Midway through the season, McDonald said at the time it was his full intention to return to UH for his senior season. In Tuesday’s postgame press conference he amended that: “I will need to talk it over with my family (and) pray about it, and ask for guidance from my mentors and past coaches. It’s probably one of the most important decisions of my life. I really can’t tell you what I’m going to do because I don’t know.”

When asked if he thinks McDonald is ready for pro football, BYU coach Kalani Sitake said he was impressed.

“I think he made some really tough throws in some really tight windows. He threaded the needle three times when they needed it. I think he’s a big-time player. He’s got the size and the arm strength.”

If McDonald were to leave, UH has a capable replacement ready in Chevan Cordeiro, who passed for 907 yards, 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions this season, and has led Hawaii to several victories in the past two seasons as a sometime-starter and sometime-late-game replacement for McDonald.

Three grand

JoJo Ward (1,134), Cedric Byrd II (1,097) and Jared Smart (1,129) finished the 15-game season with more than 1,000 yards receiving, and Jason-Matthew Sharsh came close with 913. They are all seniors except for Smart, a junior.

But that doesn’t mean the cupboard is bare.

Freshman Nick Mardner caught just two passes for 62 yards, but they both came on the game-winning drive. For the season, he caught five passes for 169 yards.

“Like you said, he’s a secret weapon,” said McDonald, and then of the 24-yard touchdown hook-up for the final score with 1:17 left. “Big-time play. You can’t ask for anything more from a receiver in that situation. A great route and a great play.”

Sitake said the Cougars were “aware of” Mardner. “We were aware of all of them. Whenever your top receivers have that many catches, it’s not like the other guys can’t contribute.”