No bowl game for BYU, so Cougars looking at season finale at Hawaii as chance to springboard into 2018

Honolulu • Game after game in their season of misery and disappointment, the BYU Cougars have looked for that springboard opportunity — the performance that would reverse their course and get them playing like the team they were supposed to be.

They have ran out of opportunities. But there always is next year, so that’s what second-year coach Kalani Sitake’s crew is pointing to Saturday afternoon at Aloha Stadium in the regular-season finale against former Western Athletic Conference foe Hawaii. Kickoff is at 7 p.m MST, and the game will be televised by the CBS Sports Network.

“Hawaii is a great place to be,” offensive lineman Thomas Shoaf said. “I think the most important thing to springboard us into next season is a win. To go into the offseason with a win is the most important thing.”

Hawaii (3-8) is in a similar situation but one the Warriors are far more familiar with than BYU, which won’t be going to a bowl game for the first time since 2004. As is usually the case whenever these teams meet, Hawaii is treating it like its Super Bowl.

A victory over the worst Cougars team in a half century would save their own subpar season, they’ve said.

Whatever works.

“They hate BYU,” said BYU defensive lineman Handsome Tanielu, who grew up in Waianae, a small town on the west side of Oahu.

Tanielu told a story about how a kid wore a BYU shirt to a Hawaii camp when he was a freshman in high school and the Hawaii coaches made him take off the shirt and go shirtless the entire practice.

“Plus, [former Cougar defender] Kyle Van Noy whupped ’em real hard the last time we met,” Tanielu said.

BYU did crush Hawaii 47-0 in their last meeting (2012), which also was Taysom Hill’s first start at quarterback. The Cougars are 21-8 all-time against the Warriors.

Will the 30th meeting be any different? There is ample reason to believe so. The Cougars are coming off a 16-10 loss to UMass and will be starting a freshman quarterback, Joe Critchlow, who struggled mightily against an assortment of blitz packages last week.

“They are going to play hard. They will watch, I am sure, UMass film,” BYU offensive coordinator Ty Detmer said. “They are a pressure type of defense anyway. A little different type of front than we have seen. We got to be sharp and correct some of the mistakes that we had last week and be ready to handle pressure. They get excited for us, and it will be a great atmosphere.”

Whether the Cougars will be excited to play after arriving in Hawaii on Wednesday and spending Thanksgiving in the Islands is another question entirely. They are insisting they are on a business trip and not on vacation, but the Cougars haven’t been able to deliver on promises that they will get the season turned around.

“Ending a season on a positive note is a better way than to finish off the season with a loss,” tight end Matt Bushman said. “I mean, after UNLV the energy we felt was so good. Everyone was so happy, so positive. So if we can go out and win in that manner and be positive, everyone is going to be better off.

“Since we are not going to a bowl game, we are going to have workouts next Monday. It is not like we have time off. We are going to get into workouts and conditioning just to get ready for next season. So if we can go out with a win, we are going to be positive and it is going to be so much better.”