All week in leading up to the Sugar Bowl, University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones maintained, "we have to play like we belong."

Unfortunately, as a 41-10 lambasting by Georgia on Tuesday illustrated, the Warriors didn't belong.

Not on the same field with the Bulldogs on that night and not with the upper crust crowd with which they aspire to hang.

It is instructive that the two losses — Oregon State and Georgia — that bookended what had, for a time, been the nation's longest winning streak at 13 games over two seasons came against nationally-ranked, Bowl Championship Series conference teams. The Bulldogs sacked quarterback Colt Brennan eight times. The Beavers did it six times, the two most punishing nights he has endured.

It should be food for thought, too, as UH administrators begin making some decisions about the future. And, there is plenty to decide in the upcoming weeks from Jones' contract renewal to how the spoils from the BCS appearance money gets divided up.

Those decisions and others like them will go a long way toward deciding not only if the Warriors someday get another crack at college football's brass ring but also if they will be any more prepared to handle it if it does come.

The differences between UH and Georgia, not only on the field but in everything that goes into it, are vast. Realistically, it is hard to imagine UH ever totally surmounting the divide to where they can play the Bulldogs on a level field. There is just too much money, too much tradition and too much geography between them.

But it doesn't mean that progress can't be made and efforts shouldn't be attempted. If UH is going to pledge itself to an undertaking of this magnitude it needs to be committed. It needs to begin sooner rather than later. On the more immediate — and pressing — horizon is keeping ahead of Boise State and Fresno State.

Boise State has invested approximately $1.7 million of its BCS check in facilities upgrades. Broncos' coach Chris Petersen said he is reminded of the commitment every time he looks out his office window and sees the construction on Bronco Stadium.

Up until this season, UH's biggest football success came with the 1992 Holiday Bowl appearance. UH won that one. But while it made for a memorable triumph and inspired the imaginations of UH about the future, it also inspired a false sense of the future. There was never a suitable commitment available to follow it up, much as then-head coach Bob Wagner tried to educate folks.

The feeling was UH had gotten that far without increasing commitments, so why the urgency? The problem was the rest of the Western Athletic Conference took up the challenge and UH fell behind, eventually sadly so. Three years later Wagner was gone and not long afterward UH was 0-12.

Tuesday night, Georgia gave the Warriors both a thumping and an education about what it takes to "belong." The question now is: Where does UH go from here and how does the administration see the Warriors getting there?

When asked about his soon-to-expire contract immediately after the Sugar Bowl debacle, Jones said, "I'm going to take some time off and then think about those things."

Sounds like a good idea for some other folks at UH, too.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.

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