But this was not the usual year for the Cougars, who wrapped up their first losing season since 2004 with a dominating 30-20 win over Hawaii Saturday night in front of a rain-soaked crowd of 19,256 at Aloha Stadium.
The plan now is to immediately get to work to make sure the bowl drought remains at just one year, coach Kalani Sitake said after the Cougars essentially put some lipstick on the pig that was the 2017 campaign by racking up 451 yards and holding an also-hapless UH team to 286 yards.
“We will start right away and get in on Monday and get working, because we don’t have a bowl game to prep for so we will try to utilize as much time as we can from now until finals,” Sitake said.