Red zone is dead zone
for Rainbows’ offense
Game stats below
By Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinLAS VEGAS -- University of Hawaii offensive coordinator Wally English keeps seeing red whenever the Rainbows get inside their opponent's 20-yard line. Known as the red zone, the Rainbows have struggled mightily there the last two games. Hawaii drove inside the 5-yard line on two of its first three possessions against Nevada-Las Vegas Saturday night and came away with a lost fumble at the 1 by Quincy Jacobs and a 19-yard-field goal by Eric Hannum.
''There's no question that hurt us in the course of the game and has continued to hurt us the last two weekends,'' English said. ''But we're dealing with a very fragile thing here that I don't want to see destroyed.
''We've spent the last five months trying to rebuild a program that has fallen on hard times. The kids have worked hard to believe in each other and themselves. But we've lost some of our confidence, starting in the second half against Wyoming and we've got to get it back.''
At the start of the third quarter, Hawaii trailed Wyoming, 21-0. Twice the Rainbows drove inside the Cowboys' 10-yard-line only to be kicked out of the red zone like Russia once treated bad communists. The Rainbows had to settle for field goals of 38 and 30 yards by Hannum, instead of touchdowns that would have put them right back in the game.
Things weren't always so bad. In their two victories over Minnesota and Cal State-Northridge, Hawaii had seven possessions inside the 20. The Rainbows scored touchdowns on four of those and a field goal on another.
After Saturday's 25-15 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas, Hawaii has 13 possessions inside the 20 and has come away with six touchdowns and four field goals. It's not bad, but not good enough.
''You really want to score every time you get inside the 20 and you want most of those to be touchdowns,'' English said. ''We did score two touchdowns Saturday night, but it was a case of too little, too late.
''I don't mind people saying bad things about me in situations like this, but I don't think it's fair to criticize the players. They're just responding to the situations we put them in. We, as coaches, should be held accountable when things go wrong.''
With that said, Hawaii will continue to work on execution this week. The Rainbows did an excellent job of limiting their penalties. After being flagged 15 times in the 35-6 loss to Wyoming, they were flagged once for 11 yards against UNLV.
''Sometimes, positive things like that get lost in a disappointing defeat,'' UH head coach Fred vonAppen said.
''But we did a much better job of eliminating our procedure and false-start penalties. We weren't called for holding and we didn't commit all the personal fouls. So, that was good for our offense.
''Obviously, things might have been different had we done a better job in the first quarter when we had it on the shadow of their goal line. But we didn't. It's as simple as that. We've got to get better and in a hurry.''
The loss of Tim Carey to a sprained shoulder puts pressure on sophomore quarterback Josh Skinner to run English's offense. English would prefer to go with the experienced Dan Robinson, but it doesn't appear that will happen because of his bad shinsplints.
''The more experience you have running this style of offense, the better you will perform in a game,'' English said. ''I thought Josh came in and did a good job. He got us into the red zone and we eventually scored, but the outcome had already been decided.''
As important as teaching them his Xs and Os in the coming few days, English knows the Rainbows need a confidence boost more than anything. They need to strike early and often as they almost did against the Rebels. If not, the journey to Colorado State will be similar to the one at UNLV -- long.
''We've got to continue to work to get better,'' vonAppen said. ''If we stick 14 points on the board against UNLV before the people found their seats, we might have created a better situation for us.
"As I've said, we've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.''
Individual statistics
Rushing
Car Yards Avg TD Long Charles Tharp 27 175 6.5 0 31 Calvin Mims 16 124 7.8 0 21 Quincy Jacobs 45 120 2.7 2 15 Josh Skinner 3 9 3.0 1 13 Morrie Roe 5 8 1.6 0 6 Anthony Diieso 4 7 1.8 0 5 Avion Weaver 5 2 0.4 0 2 Lonn Kalama 1 -2 -2.0 0 0 Robert Kemfort 2 -3 -1.5 0 4 Eleu Kane 2 -10 5.0 0 5 Tim Carey 41 -115 -2.8 1 18
Att Comp Yards Int TD Dan Robinson 4 2 30 0 0 Tim Carey 112 68 730 5 2 Josh Skinner 12 6 54 1 0 Charles Tharp 1 0 0 0 0
Rec Yards Avg TD Long Lonn Kalama 15 134 8.9 0 23 Charles Tharp 11 113 10.3 1 26 Calvin Mims 9 125 13.9 0 58 Johnny Macon 8 93 11.6 0 24 Eleu Kane 8 82 10.3 0 17 Wesley Morris 6 92 15.3 0 30 Gary Ellison 5 66 13.2 1 22 John Kirby 5 58 11.6 0 21 Robert Kemfort 2 23 11.5 0 18 Morrie Roe 2 8 4.0 0 12 Quincy Jacobs 2 8 4.0 0 4 Ryan Battin 2 7 3.5 0 8 Anthony Diieso 1 5 5.0 0 5
TD 1xp 2xp FG Pts Eric Hannum 0 6 0 6 24 Quincy Jacobs 2 0 0 0 12 Sam Collins 1 0 0 0 6 Gary Ellison 1 0 0 0 6 Charles Tharp 1 0 0 0 6 Josh Skinner 1 0 0 0 6 Chris Shinnick 1 0 0 0 6 Tim Carey 1 0 0 0 6
No. Yards Avg Blk Long Chad Shrout 27 1,268 47.0 0 62 Tim Carey 4 123 30.8 0 37
No. Yards Avg TD Long Eddie Klaneski 13 101 7.8 0 32
No. Yards Avg TD Long Eleu Kane 1 46 46.0 0 46 Charles Tharp 7 170 24.3 0 35 Quincy Jacobs 1 19 19.0 0 19 Robert Kemfort 3 52 17.3 0 23 Team 1 5 5.0 0 5
No. Yards Avg TD Long Eddie Klaneski 2 0 0.0 0 0 Joaquin Avila 1 8 8.0 0 8 Al Hunter 1 1 1.0 0 1 Ron Wood 1 8 8.0 0 8 Chris Shinnick 1 0 0.0 0 0
No. Yards Avg TD Eddie Klaneski 1 78 78.0 0 Sam Collins 1 32 32.0 1 Chris Shinnick 1 2 2.0 1
Una Ast Total Loss Sack Doug Rosevold 20 18 38 5 1 Chris Shinnick 22 15 37 0 0 Eddie Klaneski 13 10 23 0 0 K. Cobb-Adams 12 4 16 1 4 Kekoa Kilcoyne 10 5 15 0 0 Al Hunter 14 1 15 0 0 Ben Bright 9 4 13 1 2 Brian Chapman 9 4 13 2 1 Bob Pigott 7 4 11 1 2 Matt Paul 9 2 11 0 1 Sam Collins 6 4 10 0 1 Ellie Kapihe 5 4 9 2 0 Matt Elam 7 2 9 2 2 Joaquin Avila 7 1 8 0 0 Mark Jenkins 3 5 8 1 0 Punahou Aina 3 4 7 2 1 C. Bobbitt 5 2 7 0 0 D. Williams 4 3 7 0 0 Tony Tuioti 1 5 6 0 0 Rinda Brooks 4 2 6 1 0 Miles Garner 2 3 5 0 0 Blase Austin 5 0 5 0 0 S. Gonzales 3 1 4 1 0 B. Santamaria 3 1 4 0 0 R. Robinson 4 0 4 0 0 Ron Wood 2 2 4 1 0 Larry Slade 1 1 2 0 0 A. Diieso 2 0 2 0 0 Tim Carey 1 1 2 0 0 Olen Rosehill 0 1 1 0 0 Kaulana Noa 1 0 1 0 0 Mark Mollner 1 0 1 0 0 Quincy Jacobs 0 1 1 0 0
Team statistics
UH OPPFirst downs 67 75 Rush 24 32 Pass 38 34 Penalty 5 9Rushing
Attempts 151 153 Net yards 315 494 Yards per game 78.8 123.5Passing
Comp-att-inter 76-129-6 70-142-6 Net yards 814 878 Yards per game 203.5 219.5Total offense
Plays-yards 280-1,129 295-1,372 Yards per game 282.3 343.0 Points scor-avg 72-18.0 84-21.0Punts
Number 31 28 Yards 1,391 1,169 Average 44.9 41.8Fumbles
Number-lost 4-1 14-7Penalties
Number-yards 26-233 27-241Sacks made
Number-yards lost 15-81 20-149Conversions
Third down 16-65 22-65 Conversion percentage .246 .338 Fourth down 1-3 3-5 Conversion percentage .333 .600Time of possession
Average per game 29:57 30:04
Notebook
UH Rainbow Warrior
Football Schedulehttp://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
