RAINBOW football coach Fred vonAppen said he felt like Custer at Little Big Horn after his team's Rocky Mountain Horror Show at Colorado State. It’s simple, ’Bows
have to play betterUnfortunately, the Rainbows will have to circle the wagons again Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.
This time, the University of Hawaii will be playing Fresno State, also 2-3 for the season. But there the similarities end. The Bulldogs are getting better each week, while the 'Bows are sinking fast with no rescue line within reach.
Pat Hill said that his Bulldogs put it together in all phases of the game in their stunning victory over Utah. Against Colorado State, the Rainbows did just the opposite. "We played poorly in every facet of the game," vonAppen said.
He hopes that what happened last week at Fort Collins was an anomaly.
"We played awful. Generally we play hard and not well. We didn't play hard at all, which was uncharacteristic for us. We had a lot of our best players who didn't play well," vonAppen said.
With three straight losses, the Rainbows are going through a lot of soul-searching. But maybe more than that, they should concentrate on blocking and tackling.
CSU coach Sonny Lubick came up to vonAppen after the game and apologized: "We didn't mean to run up the score like that."
"Hell, neither did I," vonAppen replied.
Lubick isn't the one who should have apologized. It should have been the 'Bows -- to their fans -- for playing like Bozos last week.
Colorado State ran back two punts practically untouched for touchdowns, leading vonAppen to remark that in his 35 years of coaching, he had never been any place where that had ever happened before.
THAT segues perfectly into an ominous statistic going into the game against Fresno State.
In the last four years, the Bulldogs have returned three punts for touchdowns -- all against the Rainbows -- including two by Brian Roberson in 1995 and '96. The good news is that Roberson's gone. Also, that the Bulldogs have yet to run one back this year. Then again, they haven't played the Rainbows yet.
Perhaps more worrisome than punt coverage for the 'Bows will be the efforts of their offensive line to protect Josh Skinner, the only quarterback they've got.
It's scary because the Rainbows have already given up 27 sacks in five games and they're playing a team that just recorded a school-record 12 sacks against Utah last week.
The final troubling stat reflects the Rainbows' biggest problem this season -- their inability to convert on third-down situations. They're last in the WAC, converting just 19 of 81 chances.
Numerous first-and-15 starts because of procedure penalties have obviously contributed to the inability to convert on third down. The 'Bows have been third-and-too-long too often this season.
STILL, they've got a chance to right the season, which is third and seven games to go. The fans aren't expecting miracles. But they want the Rainbows to be competitive.
Not that it will get any easier after Fresno State. The beleaguered 'Bows face Brigham Young, San Diego State and Air Force the following three weeks -- a stretch of the schedule that vonAppen termed "Murderers Row." And that was before vonAppen thought he had some weapons, especially in quarterback Tim Carey, to do battle.
"We've got to come to grips with our situation," vonAppen said. "We've got to get it together and start controlling our behavior if we're going to do much against Fresno State."
Or any of the remaining opponents for that matter.