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HONOLULU -- Boise State left the swim trunks home.I dont think its about going to the beach, its not about those things and thats one of the things about going to Hawaii and playing, coach Bryan Harsin said Thursday about the No. 24 Broncos trip to face Hawaii on Saturday night.I think if we start looking ahead at, `Hey, were traveling to Hawaii, thats a problem. Were going to play Hawaii and theyre a very good team.The Broncos (8-1, 4-1 Mountain West) got off to a 7-0 start before losing at Wyoming, 30-28. They bounced back with a 45-31 victory over San Jose State last Friday night behind a pair of 100-yard rushers in Jeremy McNichols (158 yards, two touchdowns) and Alex Mattison (100, one touchdown).McNichols, a 5-foot-9, 207-pound junior, has eclipsed the 100-yard mark in seven games this season, including his last four games. He set career-highs in carries (40), rushing yards (217) and all-purpose yards (264) in a 28-23 win over Colorado State a month ago.McNichols ranks fourth nationally with 1,216 rushing yards and leads all FBS players with 20 touchdowns this season. Since the start of last season, he has scored 46 touchdowns, more than any other player. McNichols, who has scored a touchdown in 21 consecutive games, is on the watch lists for both the Maxwell and Doak Walker awards.As good as the Broncos have been running the ball, they can just as well air it out with sophomore quarterback Brett Rypien, who leads the Mountain West in passing yards (2,578), touchdowns (18) and total offense (282.4 yards per game).Rypien, last years Mountain West Freshman of the Year and a First Team all-conference pick, is already sixth on Boise States passing yardage list (5,931) and eighth in touchdown passes (38). His favorite target has been senior receiver Thomas Sperbeck, who has 57 catches for 909 yards and seven touchdowns this season. Sperbeck became the schools career leader in receiving yards (3,238) when he passed Titus Young against BYU on Oct. 20 this season.Theyre a strong team, Hawaii defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa said. Again, theyre another team that runs the football, but along with that theyve got some good receivers and their quarterback is a drop-back, pro-style quarterback that can throw the ball also.The Rainbow Warriors (4-6, 3-3) are coming off their worst loss of the season, a 55-0 drubbing at San Diego State. It was their worst loss since losing by the same score at Boise State last season.Hawaii first-year coach Nick Rolovich said facing the Broncos who have won the last five meetings and 11 of the 14 overall against the Rainbow Warriors will serve as a gut check.We have to respond because that was as poor or a performance at San Diego State that we could have drawn up, so weve got a lot of bounce back that we need to do this week, Rolovich said. (San Diego State and Boise State) are the guys that we have to aspire to be like if we want to compete in this conference consistently, so we got a first-hand look and weve obviously got a long way to go, but were looking forward to the challenge that Boise is going to bring.Hawaiis last win in the series came in 2007, when it went on to a Sugar Bowl appearance. All three of its wins against Boise State have come in Honolulu.We have to understand what were getting into, Harsin said. They played in some big games this year, too. They played Michigan, they played Cal, so theyll be ready to play and we have to certainly be focused and ready to play because if not, every single week in college football, if you dont show up with the right focus, I dont care how good you are, youre going to be in a battle and you could get beat.Dallas Stars Gear . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Dallas Stars Shirts . -- Ohio States Urban Meyer has never had any issue acclimating to the biggest stages in college football. https://www.cheapstarsonline.com/ .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. Stars Jerseys China . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. Fake Stars Jerseys . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void.Middlesex sat down, as most sports teams do, at the start of the season. They discussed cricket, of course they did. But they also picked through how they wanted to be viewed, and how they were going to go about their business in 2016 and beyond. The results were written down, and pinned to the home dressing room wall at Lords. The All Blacks call it the no dickheads policy. At Lords, it is the Middlesex DNA.Team spirit is a tenuous and fragile notion, but the Middlesex DNA can be tangible and visible. It defines director of cricket Angus Frasers recruitment - based as much on personality as playing prowess - and has ensured it is an easy team to come in to, with a series of youngsters slipping in seamlessly as injuries and international call-ups are juggled.It is the Middlesex DNA that makes them riotous celebrators of each others successes; wickets taken, centuries scored, matches won (each greeted with a trip to the Lords Tavern). Thus the team has no social divide, as batsmen mix with bowlers, the newest signing with the oldest lag. It is no coincidence; there is science to their chemistry. Everyone is mates, whether youre 22 or 36, Nick Gubbins, a batsman at the bottom end of that spectrum, says. We want to work hard for each other, and for the next man in to see that everyone is united.By the time they left The Oval after the final day of their fifth game of the season was washed out for a fifth draw, Middlesexs belief that they could win the title - written into the Middlesex DNA - was being tested. The batsman had been scoring runs, and the bowlers taking wickets, yet they were winless and exasperated. There was mitigation: two of those five draws had come on the deadest of Lords pitches - and a sixth would follow there a week later, against Somerset, by which point they had lost 618 overs to bad weather. That Lords pitch would become such a problem that when they drew again there against Lancashire, captain James Franklin said that they would officially complain to their landlords, the MCC.That game at The Oval was Gubbins 22nd first-class match, and he crossed the Thames more frustrated than most. The baby of a seasoned side, he had looked a class apart in coasting to 91, before a leading edge popped to mid-off. Still without a ton, three of his eight half-centuries had ended in the nineties, and it was becoming a problem. At The Oval, he had bottled a gimme, and he knew it. Toby Roland-Jones, one of the teams japesters-in-chief and a centurion himself, took to gently ribbing Gubbins; hands up, he would joke, if youve scored a ton.Gubbins is playing his 30th first-class game this week. He now has three centuries, including an unbeaten double. He was the first man to 999 Championship runs this season, has passed 50 nine times and averages more than 60. The first of the three tons, in that draw against Somerset, was watched in secret by his nervous parents and Gubbins admits he may have shed a tear. A weight had been lifted.I had been lying in bed wondering, he says. Once I got there, I cant describe the feeling, and since then I havent worried about hundreds. I probably got into a selfish mindset, as our psychologist would call it, thinking about the hundred not the team, whereas now its all about the team. What can I do for them? Can I get us off to a good start? My outlooks changed.Middlesex have mirrored Gubbins newfound appetite for conversion, winning four of their last six to top the table. There have been remarkable victories at Scarborough (all three of Yorkshires losses since the start of 2014, each as extraordinary as the last, have come to Middlesex) and Taunton. They even won at Lords, in three days against Durham.Others have helped to build on last seasons seccond place.dddddddddddd. John Simpson, the pugnacious, punchy wicketkeeper, has taken his all-round excellence to a new level, just like Roland-Jones, part of a revolving door seam attack (the win at Taunton came without Tim Murtagh, Roland-Jones or Steven Finn). Ollie Rayners offbreaks, meanwhile, have brought 35 wickets and a new contract. Rayners role was once merely to keep the over rate down, as well as provide a few runs and bucket hands at second slip. Now, though, liberated by the captaincy of Adam Voges and Franklin, he is, put simply, trying to get batsmen out. Pitches have been more helpful, but Rayner has helped himself, too; it has been conspicuous that he has spent the summer chatting to opposition spinners about how they go about their shared craft.But it is Gubbins, with more than 900 of his Championship runs in coming in the first innings, who has helped to decisively shape games.This is quite a contrast. Before, he was the original wide-eyed junior pro, known as much for playing the fool as hitting the ball. In 2015, he tripped celebrating a catch during a T20 at Lords; at a pre-season photoshoot he again went viral as Murtagh tricked him into imitating DJ Bravos Champion dance. Both incidents - as well as a cheery disposition and a tongue-out smile when he bats - have made him an easy target for a sledge. His glut of runs has spoken for itself, though. Throughout, he has been brutal on either side of the wicket to anything short, driven elegantly down the ground, and had sound judgement outside off. While he is constantly compared - for a shared school, county, role in the side and left-handedness - to Andrew Strauss (with whom he chats occasionally), it was a chance pre-season conversation with Alastair Cook, and constant dialogue with his team-mates Nick Compton and Sam Robson, that inspired his breakout year.Compos a massive help, he says. We live close by, and we go for coffee and just chat batting. We set targets together before the season, and he helped hone my process at the crease, and how Im building my innings. I set myself a modest amount to reach, and then I build from there. Robbo, too. The way he started the season was massive for me, because it gave me time to just work out my game. I also chatted to Cook. He said how he doesnt have a huge number of shots, but when the ball is in his area, he punishes bowlers. That made me really consider my strengths, then work hard on them.Unsurprisingly, the ECBs lead batting coach Graham Thorpe has been in touch and, while he plans to spend his winter playing for Subiaco in Perth (where work with Justin Langer has already been lined up), it seems likely he will tour with England Lions; a full international tour would be premature, even if those close to him are convinced the Strauss connection will eventually go one step further. Perhaps the most important thing is that Ive just learnt from experience to stay level and in the moment, he says. Ive had a good year, but that doesnt guarantee a good end to it, or a good one next year. That said its definitely nice to talk about something Ive achieved, not the silly stuff.Gubbins believes it is the Middlesex DNA that has underpinned their unbeaten run to the top of Division One. With three games to go, including a potential decider against this great Yorkshire side (another team with a distinct identity) at Lords, Middlesex are in position to win the Championship for the first time in 23 years. In the 17 years before that, they had won it six times. A barren run, they feel, that needs ending; now that really would be achieving something. ' ' '