Other than the flight and the venue, San Diego State coach Rocky Long doesn’t see much similarity in the Aztecs’ two trips to Hawaii this season.
Long estimated the Aztecs spent about 24 hours on Oahu when they visited in October for a Mountain West Conference game against Hawaii. They returned this past weekend in advance of the Hawaii Bowl and this time Long isn’t shielding the team from the peripheral elements of an island stay as the players take in the bowl-week festivities.
“When you come here and eat pregame meal and go to the game and leave right away, you don’t even know you’re in Hawaii, and that was on purpose,” Long said Monday at the Hawaii Bowl’s kickoff press conference at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
“I didn’t want them to get the flavor of Hawaii, because I’ve been here and I’ve recruited here and I knew how nice it was and I wanted them to be in game mode. So a bowl game is completely different. We came with a different attitude. Now, I hope they have the same attitude before game and play with the same level that they’ve played up to now. But it’s a completely different experience.”
SDSU’s 28-14 win over UH on Oct. 10, powered by running back Donnel Pumphrey’s three touchdowns, was the second victory in what now stands as a nine-game winning streak and the MWC champion Aztecs (10-3) make their second appearance at Aloha Stadium of the season on Thursday against Cincinnati (7-5) of the American Athletic Conference in the 14th Hawaii Bowl.
Cincinnati last visited Hawaii at the end of the 2008 season when the Bearcats, then led by current Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, rallied to a 29-24 win over UH. Now under the guidance of Tommy Tuberville, the Bearcats are relishing the change of scenery in the program’s ninth bowl appearance in the last decade.
“I think it’s much easier to focus when you’ve got this beautiful weather,” Cincinnati receiver Shaq Washington said during the beachside press conference. “Back home in Cincinnati its pretty cold, a lot of snow. It’s a little harder to focus there.”
Tuberville last coached at Aloha Stadium representing Auburn in the Hula Bowl following the 2005 season. His third season at Cincinnati has been an often undulating ride and the Bearcats are looking to win back-to-back games for the second time this season after going 4-4 in the AAC East.
“To run off that many wins you obviously have a very good football team that’s very consistent,” Tuberville said of SDSU, “just the opposite of us. We’ve got a good team but we haven’t been very consistent all year long and we’re excited about having one more opportunity to play and see if we can improve and become a better team.”
Cincinnati closed the regular season with a 19-16 win over East Carolina on Nov. 28. San Diego State last played on Dec. 5 when the Aztecs defeated Air Force 27-24 in the MWC championship game.
Both teams are expected to start redshirt freshmen at quarterback, both of whom were backups most of the season. Hayden Moore is slated to start for Cincinnati in place of Gunner Kiel, who did not make the trip due to personal reasons. Christian Chapman started for SDSU in the MWC championship game after senior Maxwell Smith suffered a torn ACL in the Aztecs’ regular-season finale against Nevada.
Smith remains hopeful he’ll participate in Thursday’s game to end his college career. He transferred to San Diego State this season after graduating from Kentucky and SDSU’s sixth straight bowl appearance will be his first.
“A lot of younger guys might not understand what bowl games mean, but it means everything to me,” said Smith, who threw for 1,529 yards and 13 touchdowns this season. “Because you don’t get to go and you see all these people getting bowl gifts and going to places like Hawaii, and you can’t take it for granted.”
Turf Talk
One familiar element for Cincinnati will be the playing surface at Aloha Stadium, which became the center of controversy when the U.S. Women’s soccer team canceled its scheduled match on Dec. 6.
“We’re practicing there … and it’s exactly like the turf that we have on our field back at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati and a lot of the fields we play on,” Tuberville said of the UBU Speed Series surface. “There’s obviously some things on there that every artificial turf is going to have. You’re going to have a few seams, but it’s in good shape. It’s a fast track and I think it’ll show that during the game.”
Long said when SDSU played at Aloha Stadium in October, “everything was fine so we don’t anticipate anything being bad.”
Hawaii Bowl
San Diego State vs. Cincinnati
At Aloha Stadium
When: Thursday, 3 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: 1420-AM
