After a long offseason, everyone was excited for college football’s Week 1. Hawaii opened its season with a 41-18 win over Western Carolina. At one point, defensive lineman Viane Moala blocked a field goal, and assistant coach Sean Duggan got a bit overzealous in the celebration.
Duggan, a second-year assistant, leapt up to chest bump Moala, who is listed at 6 feet 7 inches and 270 pounds, and went flying like a rag doll.
Head coach Nick Rolovich, who’s known for his wacky sense of humor, joked about the chest-bump-gone-wrong on his weekly TV show:
“I’ve never seen anything like it. You advise against chest bumping a 6’7”, 300 pound Tongan. That’s just — as a new haole (non-native Hawaiian) guy on the island, that’s just not something you make a habit of. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but he’ll get through it.
“He’ll never forget it. And I’ll never let him forget it. I don’t care if I’m as gray as gray can be. He’ll hear it from me.”
Duggan will be in a sling for a while with a broken wrist and dislocated shoulder, but that’s not stopping him from coaching this week against UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
