TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — With collective wide-eyed, open-mouthed awe, like tourists gazing up at one of the wonders of the world, the University of Hawai'i football team yesterday stepped off its buses and into Bryant-Denny Stadium.

And no wonder. In the world of college football, the home of 24th-ranked Alabama is a temple of nobility and renown.

In time, the Warriors, who arrived with a lights-flashing police escort, would limber up and run through drills in preparation for today's season opener. But first there were superlatives to be expressed and souvenir pictures to be taken.

By team rules, players were not allowed to talk with reporters, but the words "wow" and "awesome" were plentiful as players asked reporters and other observers to take shots of them and used cell- phones to send photos back to family and friends.

"This is a taste of the big time," UH coach June Jones said as the Warriors filed into the 92,138-seat stadium, newly expanded at a cost of $50 million. Its grand re-opening today makes it the fifth largest on-campus arena in the nation.

Even with the expansion, Alabama athletic director Mal Moore called today's game "the hardest ticket" to get in his memory.

It will be the largest crowd to see a sporting event in the state of Alabama and the biggest throng UH has ever played before by nearly 20,000 — a taste of history the Warriors savored as they admired the home field of legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant and a place where former college and NFL greats Joe Namath and Ken Stabler played. Even UH defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville, a 20-year veteran of the NFL, took time out to pose up against the south-end goal posts a la Bryant and reflect on the aura of the place.

LOOKING FOR AN UPSET

If yesterday was about discovery, today is about the Warriors trying to make a place in school history with what would be UH's first road upset of a nationally ranked football opponent.

"A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," UH quarterback Colt Brennan called it. "A chance to pull off the biggest win our school has ever had," defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis said.

UH's 6-0 victory in Nebraska in 1955 and 10-7 triumph at Washington in 1973 rate as the most-celebrated road victories for a school that has traditionally had trouble winning across the ocean.

Neither Las Vegas oddsmakers nor the folks in Alabama give the Warriors much chance of winning this contest between haves and have-nots, 4,370 miles from home.

Tradition (Alabama has 12 national championships to UH's two Western Athletic Conference titles) and resources (Alabama reports football income of $42.9 million to UH's $5.1 million) underline the disparate states of the adversaries.

UH is a 17-point underdog on the betting lines, and one of the topics of discussion on talk-radio here is how long Alabama's starting quarterback, John Parker Wilson, might stay in the game if the Tide rolls to a big lead.

"Alabamans tend to think their speciality, college football, is their own province," said Rich Megraw, an Alabama professor of American Studies. "Whenever kids from Alabama and kids from Hawai'i get on the same football field, we have serious expectations."

LOOKING FOR REVENGE

That those expectations were not met in 2003, when UH sprung a 37-29 upset over the NCAA-probation-battered Tide at Aloha Stadium, has added fuel to the rematch.

"Incredibly, Alabama lost to Hawai'i in 2003 on the island. It won't happen this time around on the Mainland ... Alabama 28-9," a Mobile (Ala.) Register prediction has put it.

UH will get a $650,000 check, nearly double its next largest appearance fee to date, for today's game. But the opportunity to play storied Alabama in its backyard and maybe, just maybe, ring in the first upset of the 2006 season? "That's priceless," Brennan said.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.