Wyoming has real six-shooters, and lots of them, as both football teams prepare for their Western Athletic Conference opener.
Prohibitive favorites, the Cowboys have size, strength and speed, while the Rainbows have little of each. Last year, Wyoming rubbed out Hawaii, 52-6, and there's little reason to doubt that it won't happen again.
"We're a struggling young football team that intermittently resembles the Marx brothers," UH coach Fred vonAppen said in a conference call earlier this week. "Every game is an adventure for us. This is a veritable Rubik's cube over here."
VonAppen complicated matters by holding an impromptu staff meeting with UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida on Wednesday. Everyone aired their complaints, but no settlement was reached.
"This is not something you like to have happen on your first road trip, but it did," vonAppen said. "The things discussed weren't new, but they needed to be addressed again.
"We're kidding ourselves if we think we can live at our existing level. We're going to have trouble getting out of last place for a while until we can get back into the recruiting loop in a competitive fashion."
Being competitive tomorrow is the current challenge at hand. Hawaii will try to formation Wyoming to death on defense and run the veer option on offense well enough to open up the playbook of the West Coast offense.
For that to happen, UH freshman quarterback Josh Skinner will have to outduel senior counterpart Josh Wallwork, or it could be a long afternoon.
Skinner has remained calm this week in practice since being named the starter over the injured Glenn Freitas. But deep down inside, he has to be as nervous as two teenagers on their first date.
"We've got a freshman quarterback who has never started a game before," UH offensive coordinator Guy Benjamin said. "And he's behind an offensive line that isn't experienced in pass protecting.
"We also dropped a lot of passes last weekend and we weren't able to run the ball effectively, both option and conventional. So I'd say we're all pretty nervous because we're facing a football team that can score a lot of points."
The key to the Cowboys' offense is wide receiver Marcus Harris, who is being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate this week. Not bad timing considering his past performances against Hawaii.
Harris' first reception was against the Rainbows. In last year's rout, he pulled down eight for 156 yards. So you can expect Wyoming head coach Joe Tiller to call his number early and often.
"There's been a lot more interest piqued in the last few days than there was before the season started," Tiller said of Harris' Heisman hopes. "I don't know if it's made a difference. Time will tell."
The Rainbows also have to concern themselves with receiver David Saraf, who has 17 receptions for 236 yards and one touchdown, and running back Len Sexton.
Sexton has 31 carries for 109 yards and one score in Wyoming's first two games. He also has six receptions for 40 yards.
Wallwork is the man who makes this all go. He is second in the nation in total offense with 885 yards. He has thrown seven touchdown passes as well.
If for some reason Hawaii keeps it close, Wyoming has a definite edge in the kicking game. Corey Wedel is among the nation's premier place-kickers and punter Aron Langley also is outstanding.
Langley is averaging 45.9 yards a kick, while Wedel is 8 for 8 in field goals and 5 for 5 in extra points. It was Wedel's field goal in overtime last Saturday that gave Wyoming a 41-38 victory over Iowa State. The Cowboys also won a close one in their season opener with Idaho.
"I think any time you can do that as a football team it helps your confidence collectively and certainly individually for the players that make the big plays," Tiller said. "But a win is a win is a win, so certainly the fact that we were able to win the football games is more significant than the fact of how they were won."
You won't get any argument from vonAppen, who lost his opener in a close one with Boston College. The ill effects of that game helped bring down the Rainbows even further in last Saturday's defeat to Ohio.
"Who knows how those two games will affect us this weekend," vonAppen said. "Hopefully, it will let us know that we're not a good football team and we need to work to improve. I think we can get better, but even if we do, it will still be very difficult to defeat a team of Wyoming's caliber."
The facts
Who: Hawaii 0-2, 0-0) vs. Wyoming (2-0, 0-0)