"I'm sitting here almost choking on my food," Lindsey said, then he let out a hearty laugh. "I'm watching these guys score 51 points on Oklahoma. If that doesn't scare you, nothing will."
Once again, the Aztecs are among the nation's leaders in several offensive categories. Billy Blanton is the top-rated quarterback, Az Hakim is the country's leading receiver in yards per game and Peter Holt is the nation's top field-goal kicker.
San Diego State also has the fifth-best passing offense (353.3 yards a game), sixth-best scoring offense (42.7 points) and 10th-best total offense (469) in the nation.
"That quarterback and the size of their offensive line is scary, let me tell you," Lindsey said. "All we can do is try to manage them. You can't stop them.
"If we load up to stop the run, that leaves our guys matched up one-on-one in the secondary. They have too much speed for us. If we try to stop the pass, then they'll just pound us inside with the running game.
"They can beat you any number of ways by trying to formation you to death. They'll have two backs, one back, no backs. They'll have two tight ends, one tight end, no tight end. And they'll have two receivers, three receivers and four receivers."
Lindsey can only hope San Diego State's timing is off after being sidelined for three weeks. Since beating Oklahoma on Sept. 21, the Aztecs have had a bye and had their scheduled Western Athletic Conference opener with Air Force moved to the end of the season.
By the time Hawaii and San Diego State kick it off Friday at Jack Murphy Stadium, the Aztecs will be 20 days between games.
"You would hope the timing of their running game would be a little off," Lindsey said. "You can keep the timing of your passing game in practice.
"But one of the first things to go when you're off for an extended period of time is the timing between the offensive line and the backs. If I were them, I'd try to build a big lead against us in the first half and work on the running game in the second."
Lindsey can only hope the Rainbows run well enough to keep his defense off the field. Even though the Aztecs scored 51 to beat Oklahoma, they also yielded 31 points in that game.
In fact, the 2-1 Aztecs are ranked 13th in the league and 105th nationally in total defense, yielding an average of 468.3 yards a game. But if that inspires UH offensive coordinator Guy Benjamin, he didn't show it yesterday before practice.
"What they do on paper doesn't interest me as much as what they do on the field," Benjamin said.
"It's up to me to call what I feel are the right plays against their defense and for our offense to execute those plays. We've faced a similar defense to this one at Fresno State and Wyoming."
The 4-3 alignment is much like Colorado State's as well, giving Benjamin the opportunity to work on plays that should have some success against the Aztecs.
"It all comes down to execution," Benjamin said. "I don't think it's fair to compare our offensive improvement from week to week because the teams we play are different in talent levels.
"It's too easy to say we did well against Boise State because we won and poorly against Fresno State because we were shut out. Our success depends not only on our own execution, but the caliber of defense we face."
Benjamin believes San Diego State's talent level is similar to Fresno State's. He also feels Craigus Thompson - San Diego State's leading tackler with 34 - is the best linebacker Hawaii has seen this season.
"Much like their offense, they have some very talented players on defense," Benjamin said. "Thompson is a fine athlete and (cornerback) Ricky Parker is probably the best defensive player in the league.
"So you're talking about a formidable challenge. We can't match them point for point, but we can try to manage the game the best we can in order to give us the best opportunity to win."
Teams: Hawaii Rainbows at San DiegoState.
When: Friday, 4 p.m. HST, Jack Murphy Stadium
Weekend update: San Diego State was idle last week.
Behind the scenes:Air Force and San Diego State were scheduled to play on Saturday night, but the game was preempted because of the St. Louis-San Diego baseball playoff game at Jack Murphy Stadium. The AFA-SDSU game was rescheduled for Thanksgiving day, a decision which left Aztecs coach Ted Tollner steaming because his team will have only five days to prepare for that game.