By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
University of Hawaii punt returner Eddie Klaneski is
dragged down by his face mask by San Diego State’s
Tim Sulick (43) while SDSU’s Richard Ashely (39) and
Aazaar Abdul-Rahim (23) converge Saturday
night at Aloha Stadium.
UH still doesn’t have
scoring touch down
Hawaii again fails to score TD
By Paul Arnett
in 10-3 loss to San Diego State
Star-BulletinThese days, the magical Scottish village of Brigadoon comes around about as often as a University of Hawaii touchdown. But unlike the old Gene Kelly movie depicting a place that appears every 100 years, the offense's disappearing act isn't music to UH head coach Fred vonAppen's ears.
"I heard the fans booing us at halftime and I didn't blame them," vonAppen said yesterday after watching film of Hawaii's frustrating 10-3 loss to San Diego State Saturday night. "We were not aesthetically pleasing, but fortunately for us, neither was San Diego State. I thought both teams played better in the second half, but we can't score touchdowns when we need to.
"What worries me even more is I don't know if we can get any more production out of Charles Tharp at running back and Josh Skinner at quarterback. So, who do we turn to to score points?"
Freshman fullback Avion Weaver could be part of the solution. He came in for an injured Calvin Mims with five minutes left in the first quarter and took part in Hawaii's only scoring drive.
Weaver ran for 7 yards on a third-and-three play that kept the drive alive and threw several big blocks to clear a path for Tharp, who thanked him by accounting for 30 yards on the drive that ended with Eric Hannum's 25-yard field goal.
"What I like about Avion is he has a little wrinkle you don't always see in fullbacks, and he's a good lead blocker for Charles," vonAppen said. "I thought Calvin struggled. He looked slow."
The Rainbows also got some help up front from backup center Sione Tafuna, who shifted to guard, and from Vincent Street. The junior college transfer spelled left tackle Adrian Klemm, who was slowed by an ankle sprain.
"Even with those guys in there, we're still struggling up front," vonAppen said. "We have a bad combination right now. First, we can't get a first down in obvious short-yardage situations.
"We also have a hard time making first downs in third-and-long situations because our receivers can't break anything deep. Those two things make it difficult to sustain drives or develop any real offensive consistency."
Hawaii also found itself in second-and-long situations far too often. It seemed that on every potential scoring drive, the Rainbows had a penalty set them back or would lose chunks of yardage on first down.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Tailback Charles Tharp encounters San Diego State's
Mac Cleary, left, and, Rico Curtis Saturday. Tharp was one of
few bright spots for the Hawaii offense.
Ten times Hawaii had second and 10 or more yards to go for a first. It's a disadvantage the Rainbows can't overcome."If anything disrupts a drive, we're through," vonAppen said. "It gives me ambivalent feelings. I'm as annoyed as hell because we don't do some things better.
"But on the other hand, we've improved. Last year, BYU and San Diego State scored 101 points against us. This year, they only had 27. But the bottom line is, we lost to both of those teams again."
Hawaii also didn't score a touchdown in either game to run its string of touchdown-less quarters to nine. The Rainbows haven't found the end zone in three of the four games Skinner has started since Tim Carey went down with a shoulder injury five weeks ago at Nevada-Las Vegas.
"Number 16 (Skinner's jersey number) is doing the best he can do," vonAppen said. "And I think we're going to have to reach the point of reality that we have four games left and No. 16 is probably the guy who takes us the rest of the way.
"We might be able to rotate Carey in after the bye week in our final three games (with San Jose State, Northeast Louisiana and Notre Dame), but Tim wasn't exactly Sammy Baugh when he was playing. He's missed all this time and is going to be rusty.
"He had a tendency to hold the ball too long, then run. And if he does that again, he's only one hard knock away on that shoulder from being hurt again."
After this week's Air Force game, vonAppen might bring in Carey during certain situations, and UH offensive coordinator Wally English might design two game plans the final three weeks -- one for Skinner and one for Carey.
"But right now, we're not too worried about that because we have to focus on Air Force," vonAppen said. "Our offense has to find a way into the end zone because our defense is doing about all it can do. We're also really banged up on that side of the ball."
The defense limited the high-powered San Diego State passing offense to 173 yards, with 76 of those coming on two plays that led to the Aztecs' 10 points.
"I thought our defense made plays when it had to and our offense did the same," San Diego State head coach Ted Tollner said. "But give Hawaii credit. I told Fred his team has drastically improved over last year. It takes time to put your plan in place. I think if the coaches on this staff are given a chance, they can get this thing going in the right direction."
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