In college football, there are season openers, home openers, primetime affairs, road slugfests, trap games and every single thing in between throughout the course of fall.
Later, when the calendar turns from autumn to winter lovely things known as conference championships and bowl games gladly wet our palates during the holidays as we wait patiently to crown the next champions of college football.
At times, these descriptors overlap — a primetime affair could be a Super Bowl for the home team, but a trap for the road party trying to avoid a letdown in the hunt for a title.
It's not often Ohio State has to play the underdog card, but 2014 provided plenty of opportunities after a Week 2 setback against Virginia Tech last September. The Buckeyes have a chance to avenge that loss in their season opener this year, albeit in a primetime affair in Blacksburg, Va., on Labor Day night. Overlapping, overlapping, overlapping.
When the Buckeyes return home a mere five days later, though, they welcome a group of Rainbow Warriors to Ohio Stadium for the first time ever.
The University of Hawaii first fielded a football team — at that time, known as "The Fighting Deans" — in 1909, two years after the institution was established.
Due to obvious travel restrictions, Hawaii didn't take on a collegiate opponent until some 15 years later, with its first victory over another accredited school coming in 1922 against Pomona College.
The 1920s are known as The Wonder Years of Hawaii football according to the school's athletic website. More of it's history can be found here, but since joining the Mountain West in 2012, the Rainbow Warriors are just 8-29 on the gridiron under Norm Chow.
Needless to say, the days of Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan are long gone.
When Ohio State takes its home field for the second time — the first was at the Spring Game — as the first ever college football national champions in the playoff era, the Buckeyes will undoubtedly be double digit favorites against Hawaii.
The Rainbow Warriors are set to be led by USC castoff Max Wittek at quarterback, who left Los Angeles in August 2014 after losing his job to Cody Kessler early in the 2013 season. He sat out last season due to transfer rules, and is now Norm Chow's hope to help turn the program around.
Max Wittek via Ric Tapia/Icon Sportswire.
Wittek beat out Ikaika Woolsey this spring for the job. The latter threw for 2,538 yards, 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in place of Ohio State transfer Taylor Graham (remember him?), who broke his foot in the team's win over Wyoming last season. It was Graham's first start.
The Rainbow Warriors had two guys run for more than 600 yards last season — Steven Lakalaka and Joey Iosefa — each at a 4.1 yards per carry clip. Iosefa tallied eight rushing touchdowns, the most on the team.
Four players finished with three receiving touchdowns on the season to tie for the team lead. Marcus Kemp led the team with 797 receiving yards, while Quinton Pedroza led it with 59 receptions.
Paltry numbers surround the Hawaii offense, mainly due to a lack of stability at quarterback. Hawaii's 20.9 points per game was second worst in the Mountain West, ahead of only San Jose State, a team it beat 13-0.
When it came to total offense, the Rainbow Warriors were dead last in the league with a 364.4 yards per game average in 2014. Again, paltry.
Hawaii also finished tied for ninth in the conference in turnover margin with a forgetful -7. To compare, Ohio State was third in the Big Ten at +7.
Chow's praying that Wittek works out for his offense, one he coordinated at USC and was instrumental in the Trojans winning the 2004 BCS National Championship — which has since been vacated.
A momentous thing to demand of anyone, sure, but Chow's more than 40 years as an assistant at both the collegiate and professional level prior to taking over in Honolulu hasn't yielded much success.
The program needs a facelift after a 4-9 season that included four losses by eight points or less.
Regardless who Urban Meyer names as his starting quarterback — or even if he decides to use more than one of The Magnificent Three — it is foolish to think anyone but Stephen Collier will be handing the ball off to Bri'onte Dunn and Warren Ball by the time the fourth quarter rolls around Sept. 12.
Dunn and Ball should at least tally one touchdown apiece, and if Collier is allowed to throw the ball, hitting Jeff Greene, Noah Brown, Marcus Baugh or any other younger offensive playmakers seems likely as long as he can show an improvement from the Spring Game.
Ohio State's second team offense is talented enough compete and produce against Hawaii's first team defense, a declaration made because of how much depth the Buckeyes possess compared to the lack of talent available for the Rainbow Warriors.
Oh, and by the way, Hawaii's old athletic director Ben Jay went back on an original decision two years ago to have the men's sports teams of the school be called the Rainbow Warriors once again.
Former football coach June Jones requested they just be called the Warriors, which Jay granted, but then he went back on his word because the fans like Rainbow Warriors better. Makes you think.
Jay resigned last December amid a lack of wins and monetary production. He was replaced by David Matlin in March.
So while this game will be exciting for Ohio State fans because it's the home opener, don't expect Meyer or anyone else to allow the team to fall subject to an overlap with it being a trap game.
After all, it'll feel like kickoff is at 9:30 a.m. for the Rainbow Warriors.
