Associated Press
Hawaii tight end Lonn Kalama drags a BYU defender
along during a 16-yard reception during Saturday's
17-3 loss to the Cougars.
Rainbows look to
break Aztecs’ spell
Hawaii hasn't defeated
By Paul Arnett
San Diego State since 1989
Star-BulletinIn the Western Athletic Conference, San Diego State is the perfect metaphor for the recent frustrations felt by the University of Hawaii. Not since Garrett Gabriel was the quarterback, Bob Wagner was the head coach and the spread option was the offense of choice have the Rainbows defeated the Aztecs.
Most of this class' fifth-year seniors were barely teen-agers on that October night in 1989 when the Rainbows won, 31-24, at Aloha Stadium. Second-year head coach Fred vonAppen was the defensive coordinator at Stanford under current Minnesota Vikings head coach Dennis Green. Don Lindsey was in his final year as the defensive coordinator at Alabama, and Wally English was in Europe with the old World League.
Yesterday, the threesome spent the afternoon watching footage of the only nonexpansion WAC football team the Rainbows have failed to defeat this decade. BYU, Utah, Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas-El Paso and Fresno State have lost to Hawaii since the Rainbows last beat San Diego State. Hawaii gets another shot at the Aztecs Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Aloha Stadium.
"To me, this is the most important league game on the schedule," defensive back Eddie Klaneski said after Hawaii's 17-3 loss at BYU Saturday afternoon. "BYU is probably our biggest rival, but this game means a lot.
"We're past the stage of moral victories,"Klaneski added. "I believe we have a chance to win every game left on our schedule if we can just figure out how to put it all together as a team. It would be great if we could come together this weekend and beat a team that's owned us the last few years."
Owned is the appropriate word. Even the year the Rainbows won a share of the WAC title and knocked off Illinois in the Holiday Bowl, they were drilled by the Aztecs, 52-28, at Jack Murphy Stadium. In the current seven-game losing streak, the Aztecs have won by an average score of 47-20.
Associated Press
BYU's Byron Frisch lands on Hawaii wide receiver
Eleu Kane, causing a fumble on the reverse play in the fourth
quarter. BYU recovered the ball.
San Diego State is 2-5 for the season and 1-2 in the WAC after a 20-17 overtime win at home Saturday night against UNLV. The Aztecs are 47-39-1 since 1990, but they come up big against Hawaii."I can't speak for what happened before I came here, but last year, we just didn't match up with them at all," vonAppen said. "They had a good running back, a stable of speedy receivers and a quarterback who delivered the football.
"They've struggled a little bit this year as their record would indicate. But any time you play Wisconsin, Washington, Air Force and Arizona on the road, you're going to struggle. They have a good team and will be all we can handle this weekend."
For Hawaii to stay competitive, the Rainbows must score more. On Saturday, Hawaii didn't score a touchdown for the third time in seven games. The Rainbows lost all three of those league games -- to Wyoming, Colorado State and BYU.
San Diego State can be as frightening as those teams. The Aztecs' top weapon is senior wide receiver Az-zahir Hakim, who has 36 receptions for 555 yards and five touchdowns. He leads the WAC in kickoff returns with a 26.2-yard average and is second in all-purpose yardage, averaging 141.4 a game.
"He's one of the most dangerous players in our league," Lindsey said. "He needs only a crack in the defense to take it all the way. You have to be aware of him wherever he is on the football field."
Jonas Lewis is the leading rusher for the Aztecs with 347 yards. Spencer Brinton and Mike Smith shared quarterback duties against UNLV because Kevin McKechnie is out with an injury.
That could be good news for Hawaii's defense. The Rainbows did a solid job at BYU, limiting the Cougars' high-powered passing attack to 89 yards. The Cougars had 242 total yards and didn't score in the second half.
"For the most part, we were competitive on defense," vonAppen said. "They converted some key third-down plays on the ground, but if you can hold BYU to 17 points, you should have a chance to win.
"We stunk offensively. You can't win if you don't score touchdowns. And it's difficult to score touchdowns when you only have seven first downs for the entire game. We have to do a better job offensively if we want to win any more games. It's as simple as that."
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