Last week we noticed how the local cable company in Hawaii was going all-out to provide HD service to customers in time for the Sugar Bowl. The saga continues…

Unfortunately for the cable company and especially for subscribers, cable service went out for 170,000 customers statewide during the second quarter.  Service was restored almost immediately for most, but several thousand households waited up to an hour into halftime for the problem to be fixed.

Cable operators are blaming vandals looking for valuable copper wiring.  We suspect a merciful Hawaii fan who had seen enough.

If it’s not Zook’s recruits, it’s his own top 1% of the top 1%: 

Well, for those guys who just put in their time and didn’t make any real contributions, it’s time for you to go. It won’t be hard to say goodbye to some of those guys who just went through the motions. Now for those kids who actually bought into the program, and who made some sacrifices and contributions — you know, like Bubba Caldwell….he’s a graduate of UF and had a great career — you’ll really miss those guys. But just because you’re a senior doesn’t mean you have any value.

We kind of felt like we had some answers early on and it took us awhile to figure out that we don’t,” he said. “Some young guys that we were counting on to play were not living up to the standards that we expect and I’m hoping that changes.

“Coach Carr made the comment after the game,” Meyer said, “that ‘One day you’re going to retire and your players are going to play as hard for you as they did for me today.’ ”  After such inspiring words from Meyer about his own troops, who could doubt Carr’s prediction?

Hawaii offensive line coach Dennis McKnight:

We didn’t block them. We didn’t execute. They’re no faster than guys we’ve played. Everybody has speed. We just didn’t do our job. We didn’t protect early. We didn’t play good at all on the offensive line. It’s that simple. We’re not trying to sugar coat it.

The standout quarterback who showed plenty of guts in the face of that pressure disagreed:

It was the hardest, fastest team I’ve ever seen.

Dennis Roland, Sr., father of former Bulldog offensive lineman Dennis Roland, passed away yesterday after a fight with cancer. Roland had coached at two schools in Gwinnett County, most recently Central Gwinnett, and had an impact on the communities in which he worked and lived.

It wasn’t a great night for the conventional wisdom. I’d like to claim that I saw all of this coming, but of course I can’t and won’t. I probably thought most of these points myself. Instead, here is a healthy dose of hindsight as we look at some of the widely-accepted pregame analysis leading up to the Sugar Bowl.

Quick passes from the run-and-shoot offense neutralize pressure.

When Colt Brennan spoke with Tim Tebow about the Georgia defense, hopefully Tebow was able to offer his unique perspective on taking a sack from the Bulldogs. Brennan’s quick instincts and strong arm might have saved him from eating through a straw for a few months. Georgia’s pressure on Brennan was relentless, and their eight sacks only begin to tell the story of the harassment. The pressure also affected Brennan’s famed accuracy, and Georgia’s defensive backs made Brennan pay for forced passes. "We wanted to make Colt throw it faster than he wanted to," explained Mark Richt after the game, and the Bulldog defense executed that plan to perfection.

Georgia will run, run, run and control the time of possession to keep Brennan off the field.

Can you believe that Hawaii won the meaningless time of possession battle? Georgia’s running game was adequate but nowhere near spectacular. Knowshon Moreno and Thomas Brown didn’t run roughshod through the defense, and the Dawgs were generally ineffective at salting the game away on the ground in the final quarter. Moreno and Brown were able to find some early holes, and Moreno added two early touchdowns.

In a game in which the Georgia running game was expected to be showcased, the Bulldogs were held below their season average with 169 total rushing yards. Thomas Brown’s game-high 71 yards on 19 carries led the way, and an injured Knowshon Moreno didn’t break ten carries (though he sure made his few carries count). After some long gains in Georgia’s final few games of the regular season, the Bulldogs had no carries for over 20 yards in the Sugar Bowl.

You just have to accept that Brennan will get his.

Many people, myself included, had already penciled in 3-400 yards passing and around 28 points for the potent Hawaii offense. The big question would be Georgia’s ability to clamp down in the red zone and keep Brennan from turning his prodigious yardage into enough points to win.

We badly underestimated the Georgia defense. Brennan had just 169 yards passing. His replacement Tyler Graunke did most of the damage with 142 yards and one touchdown through the air in just one quarter.

Georgia, snubbed by the BCS, would lack motivation.

This one had been shot out of the water several weeks ago, but some still focused on the buildup to the game and its importance to Hawaii. You couldn’t be certain until the game started, but both the Georgia crowd and team were ready from the opening kickoff. Any disappointment about the national title game was taken out on the opponent.

To be fair, not all of the analysis missed the mark. One point in particular nailed it.

Limiting Hawaii’s yardage after catch is critical to controlling their offense.

This key to the game was dead-on. Georgia did a masterful job at preventing Hawaii’s short passes from turning into big plays. FOX’s stat tracker showed only one broken tackle for most of the night. When Georgia was able to get the Warriors into long-yardage situations on second and third down (which was often), Hawaii found it very difficult to get the large gains they needed to move the chains. This stat, combined with Georgia’s effective pressure, probably was the story of the game.

Boise State indeed.  Instead of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl analogue that FOX and others seemed to want so desperately, Hawaii took us back to Boise State’s 2005 trip to Athens – a game in which Jared Zabransky was reduced to a thumb-sucking mass of jelly by halftime.  This time, the victim was Hawaii’s Colt Brennan; he was pounded into ineffectiveness and left the game around the beginning of the fourth quarter.  Instead of a display of offense for the ages, Hawaii and Brennan gave us a different sort of record-setting performance:  a BCS-record six turnovers and a 41-10 Georgia win.

The totality of the win was obvious by the end of the third quarter as Thom Brennaman and Charles Davies made fools of themselves excusing Hawaii’s play and criticizing Mark Richt for trying to score against a team known for prodigious comebacks en route to their 12-0 regular season.  That just skims the surface of a disappointing broadcast, but we’ll leave that to others for now.  I would though like to thank FOX for introducing the post-kickoff commercial to the college game.  That element of pro coverage was sorely missing on the other networks.

Looking back, the game set up like a typical 3-14 first round NCAA Tournament game.  If the underdog gets a few breaks early and hung around, maybe the favorite tightens up a bit and you get the upset.  Georgia took control of the game from the opening drive, and there would be no comeback or tense finish.  As Musberger cooed about a Rose Bowl “as it was meant to be”, the nation got treated to its third BCS mismatch of the day – yes, including Missouri who, when it comes to the subject of proving who belonged, showed infinitely more than Georgia’s opponent.

I’m proud of Georgia, the coaches, and the seniors for drawing on the lessons of 2005 and ensuring that West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl win was the exception and not the rule.  Great job guys, and hopefully the lopsided win is the springboard to leaving no doubt in 2008.