Monday, September 13, 1999
Beating Boise State
would send Hawaii
into WAC play on a
two-game winning streakBrooks had perfect timing By Paul Arnett
Back to Division I-A foe
UH Football Notebook
1999 season preview
Star-BulletinThe first half of the parlay is in. Now comes the hard part.
When June Jones said, "I do" to the proposal of taking over as the head football coach for the University of Hawaii, he knew the honeymoon would occur during these two games on the schedule.
Lose to either Division I-AA Eastern Illinois or Western Athletic Conference wannabe Boise State and the marriage would be off to a rocky start.
"It was great to get a win and I'm happy for the players to get this losing streak over with, but we still have a long way to go," Jones said yesterday. "After watching the tape, I saw some things in all phases of the game that we must improve on.
"If we play like we did Saturday night this weekend, we'll get beat. We're still giving up too many yards on defense and not making proper reads on offense - although we did make some big plays, which is something we didn't do in the USC game."
What Jones would like to do is parlay last Saturday's hard-fought 31-27 win over Eastern Illinois into a streak of a different color.Seal the deal this Saturday night against the Big West Broncos and the Rainbows travel to Southern Methodist University to open the conference campaign with a two-game winning streak, and a renewed belief in themselves.
Build on this confidence and there's no telling how far the Rainbows might go in a conference that has only four wins in two weekends.
"This is the beginning of the new Rainbows," a confident Dan Robinson said after setting a team record for passing yards with 452. His four touchdown strikes - two to junior college standout Attrice Brooks - gave Hawaii its first win in nearly two years.
"What you saw tonight was only the beginning," said fifth-year senior safety Daniel Ho-Ching, echoing Robinson's sentiment. He finished with eight tackles and recovered a fumble, this, despite dislocating the same shoulder he injured last spring. "This is the end of an old streak and the beginning of another."
Jones certainly hopes so. But for that to happen, the Rainbows need to polish some rough spots, especially on defense and in certain areas of special teams.
Against a stronger opponent, losing a pair of fumbles on kickoffs, coupled with costly penalties, will make a tough turnaround even more difficult.The defense also is struggling. It's one thing to give up 529 yards to nationally ranked Southern California, but quite another to yield 497 to Eastern Illinois.
The Panthers did a good job against a less than healthy defensive front. Defensive ends Joe Correia (broken hand) and Mike Iosua (stingers in his neck) didn't play a lot. And defensive tackle Tony Tuioti continues to struggle with a bad back.
If the offensive line wasn't opening holes for Jabarey McDavid and Wayne Brown - who rushed for a combined 174 yards and a touchdown - they were protecting quarterback Anthony Buich long enough for him to complete 23 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns.
Perhaps the biggest play of the night was when tight end Seth Willingham went down with a knee injury. He exploited the UH schemes by catching six passes for 90 yards, often on plays that moved the sticks.
But when it counted, the Rainbows rose to the occasion, stopping the Panthers twice on crucial fourth-down plays late in the game.
"We stopped them when we needed to," said Jeff Ulbrich, who was tied for the lead in tackles with nine. He also had one sack. "There are areas we need to work on. But we'll get there. Right now, we're going to enjoy this win a couple of days and come back next week to get ready for Boise State."
UH defensive coordinator Greg McMackin likes that attitude, but he knows it's going to be a bit tougher this time around. After opening with a loss at UCLA, Boise State is coming off a 35-27 victory this past weekend over Southern Utah.
"First of all, it's just good to get a win and see all these guys happy," McMackin said. "They deserve it. They have worked really hard and there were a lot of tears on the sidelines at the end.
"I'm proud they made the plays when they had to. We let their quarterback get away too many times and let him make some big plays against us. But we'll keep working on it and try to get better each week. We did let them convert only four third downs out of 15, forced a fumble and an interception, and held them on both fourth down plays. These are good things to build on for Boise State."
These days, the Broncos are an inspired unit. They are not only upset at being passed over this past spring by the WAC, but Boise State is also still recovering from the death of freshman defensive tackle Paul Reyna.
He died last month from a head injury that occurred in the first scrimmage of fall practice. Reyna suffered a torn blood vessel between his brain and skull, and the bleeding developed into a blood clot. The team has dedicated its season to him.
"We know they will be a challenge for a lot of different reasons," Jones said. "But right now, we have to concentrate on getting better. This win is a good start, but I don't think anybody wants to stop here."
Brooks’ big play
By Paul Arnett
came at perfect time
Star-BulletinHawaii quarterback Dan Robinson entered the huddle and took one look at Attrice Brooks before telling him to go long.
There was a little more than two minutes left in the half, the Rainbows were down 10-3 and in desperate need of a big play.
"Dan came in and told me, 'Hey Brooks,' we need this," the lanky receiver from San Francisco City College said. "I'm just going to lay it out. You just run as fast as you can. I just took off."
Brooks caught the pass in full stride, broke a tackle and then outraced everyone to the end zone for his first touchdown of his Division I career.
"How long was it?" Brooks asked. "Eighty yards. Woooeee."
The big play also marked the first offensive touchdown for the Rainbows under the direction of new head coach June Jones, who never thought he would need 87:44 to score his first six points.
"That was a big play when we needed it most," Jones said. "We're expecting good things from Attrice. He showed that he can catch in traffic and run well in the open field."
Brooks finished with two receptions for 94 yards. Both catches were for touchdowns for the 6-foot-4, 197-pound wideout.
"This is what the West Coast offense is designed for," said Brooks, who must have forgotten that Jones uses the run-and-shoot. "It's just passing all the way down the field. There's no way anyone can stop it.
"We're going to get to rolling. You're going to see a lot of guys stepping up week in and week out. We have some talented receivers. We're about to start something here - it's called winning."
Back to Division I-A foe
By Paul Arnett
as UH plays Boise State
Star-BulletinThe first two games for Boise State and the University of Hawaii are remarkably similar.
Like the Rainbows, the Broncos opened with a Pac-10 powerhouse, then backed it down a little bit with a Division I-AA opponent.
UCLA knocked off Boise State, 38-7, in its opener, but the Broncos came back to beat Southern Utah, 35-27, last weekend to even their mark at 1-1.
Boise State proved to be the first victim for former head coach Fred vonAppen in 1996. June Jones would like nothing better than to get his first Division I win against the Broncos this weekend.
University of Hawaii Football
1999 season previewConference standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA Fresno State 1 1 0 .500 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Hawaii 1 1 0 .500 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Tulsa 1 1 0 .500 0 0 0 .000 0 0 UTEP 1 1 0 .500 0 0 0 .000 0 0 TCU 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Rice 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 San Jose St. 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 SMU 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0Last week's results
Michigan 37, Rice 3
Oklahoma St. 46, Tulsa 9
Northwestern 17, TCU 7
Colorado 63, San Jose St. 35
Oregon 47, UTEP 28
Tulane 53, SMU 19
Oregon St. 46, Fresno St. 23
Hawaii 31, Eastern Illinois 27
Coming up saturday
UTEP at Kansas St., 8:10 a.m.
Rice at Texas, 1 p.m.
Tulsa at Texas A&M, 2:30 p.m.
St. Mary's at San Jose St., 3 p.m.
Fresno St. at UCLA, 4 p.m.
Boise St. at Hawaii, 6:05 p.m.
Season statistics
Team
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 36 89 Rushing 11 25 Passing 22 25 Penalty 3 6 RUSHING YARDAGE 116 492 Yards gained rushing 188 536 Yards lost rushing 72 44 Rushing Attempts 44 104 Average Per Rush. 2.6 4.7 Average Per Game 58.0 246.0 TDs Rushing 0 7 PASSING YARDAGE 646 534 Att-Comp-Int. 87-45-3 64-42-2 Average Per Pass 7.4 8.3 Average Per Catch 14.4 12.7 Average Per Game 323.0 267.0 TDs Passing 4 3 TOTAL OFFENSE 762 1026 Total Plays 131 168 Average Per Play 5.8 6.1 Average Per Game 381.0 513.0 KICK RETURNS No. -Yards 16-238 7-93 PUNT RETURNS No. -Yards 2-16 6-25 INT RETURNS No. -Yards 2-21 3-11 FUMBLES-LOST 10-6 6-2 PENALTIES-YARDS 23-197 20-153 PUNTS-AVG 10-44.1 7-35.7 TIME OF POSS. 25:30 34:29 3RD-DOWN CONV. 5/23 13/29 4TH-DOWN CONV. 0/3 0/3Rushing
Att. Yds. TD Long Thompson 18 88 0 18 Weaver 11 63 0 10 Stutzmann 1 4 0 4 Robinson 12 -11 0 10 Harrison 2 -28 0 0Passing
Att. Com. Int. Yds. TD Robinson 79 40 3 601 4 Harrison 7 5 0 45 0 Ho-Ching 1 0 0 0 0Receiving
No. Yds. TD Long Stutzmann 12 117 1 19 Carter 11 257 1 62 Brooks 4 107 2 80 Harris 4 34 0 24 Weaver 3 32 0 13 Thompson 3 31 0 19 Lelie 3 29 0 26 Gray 2 13 0 11 Sims 1 11 0 11 Colbert 1 8 0 8 de Laura 1 7 0 7Punting
No. Yds. Avg. Long Shrout 10 441 44.1 60Tackles
UT AT TT Ulbrich 3 23 26 A. Smith 3 14 17 Le Jay 5 10 15 Espiau 5 9 14 Ho-Ching 4 10 14 Y. Warren 3 8 11 Elam 1 9 10 Kemfort 3 7 10 Austin 5 4 9 Tucker 3 6 9 Iosua 1 7 8 D. Miller 1 6 7 Paul 1 6 7 Tuioti 2 4 6 C. Brown 1 3 4 Fuga 0 4 4 Campbell 0 3 3 Correia 0 3 3 Dietschy 0 3 3 Garnier 1 2 3 Lelie 1 1 2 Morgan 0 2 2 Avila 0 1 1 Garner 0 1 1 Jackson 1 0 1 Liana 1 0 1 Owen 1 0 1 Sims 0 1 1 Williams 1 0 1
