SEASON OPENER | HAWAI'I AT FLORIDA
Saturday's matchup one and only
| Alexander edges ahead |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
Take a good look at the University of Florida football team Saturday because there's a chance the University of Hawai'i may never play the Gators again.
Especially if UF head coach Urban Meyer has a say.
Meyer said he loves the idea of the Warriors as a season-opening opponent in The Swamp but said you won't catch him in Hawai'i unless it is on vacation.
"(There's) no chance the University of Florida will ever go to Hawai'i and play... as long as I'm here," Meyer said yesterday.
Saturday's nonconference game is the first meeting between the two. UF has played in Hawai'i before, in the Aloha Bowl, but never against UH and Meyer said he intends to keep it that way.
"I'll go visit Hawai'i and take a look around out there and hang around out there but we won't play out there," Meyer said.
Asked why, Meyer said, "because there is no reason for us to. We don't recruit Hawai'i."
Meyer said, "To be honest with you, we have a challenging enough schedule. I know what they are like over there on that island. I know what those fans are like, too."
UF has not played a non-conference regular season game outside Florida since 1991.
UH is not excited about returning to the Eastern time zone, either. Both UH athletic director Jim Donovan and head coach Greg McMackin say they are not in favor of making any more East Coast time zone road trips except in an extraordinary case. "It just doesn't make sense for us," Donovan said.
The Florida game was put together by his predecessor, Herman Frazier.
Meyer agreed to the game in 2005 and said it made a suitable opener for the Gators. "I (did) it for a lot of reasons. I want to make sure our guys have a good first game. I think any time you schedule a team like Hawai'i in the first game it makes your off-season that much more productive and focused because when you have a smaller school team — you can't say (Division) I-AA after what Appalachian State did (to Michigan in 2007) — but ... our focus has been much greater because of who we are playing in this first game and what Hawai'i did last year ... the way we speak about them."
Meyer, who was formerly head coach at Utah said, "I know Hawai'i very well. I've played over there several times. I want to say at least four times. I've played Hawai'i off the island a few times. I've coached Polynesian players. I've watched them (the Warriors) play."
This, apparently, will be his last chance in person.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.