Monday, September 20, 1999
’Bows out
to end that
‘other’ streak
Hawaii hasn't won a conference
game on the road since 1992UH Football Notebook By Paul Arnett
NFL Islanders
Star-BulletinOK, so Coach. What about that streak? How do you approach it?
"What streak?" University of Hawaii head coach June Jones replied yesterday afternoon.
Oh, c'mon Coach. That's a good one. You know. The one that stretches across half the millennium. The one that's 24 games long. That one.
"Oh," Jones replies, then half chuckles to himself. "I thought you were talking about ours."
You have to love a coach who confuses his own modest two-game winning streak with a losing mark that dates back to an October afternoon in 1992. That day, Hawaii rolled over Texas-El Paso, 41-21, and hasn't won a conference road encounter since.
The Rainbows will have the opportunity to snap that nasty losing streak this weekend at Southern Methodist in the Cotton Bowl. It will be the first conference game for both teams.
Along the way of this 24-game exercise in futility, Hawaii has lost at San Diego State four times, Brigham Young, Wyoming and Fresno State on three occasions, UTEP, Nevada-Las Vegas, Colorado State, New Mexico and Utah two times, and Air Force once.
Jones hasn't been involved in any of those losses and only associate head coach George Lumpkin was around for that victory nearly seven years ago at the Sun Bowl.Most of the current Rainbows were barely teen-agers at the time Hawaii won that day en route to its greatest season ever. The Rainbows closed out the 1992 campaign with four consecutive victories, including a Holiday Bowl win over Illinois.
"We're not really going to dwell on it because everybody knows about it," Jones said. "My goal is to get our first conference victory. It just happens to be on the road."
The last road win of any kind occurred the final weekend of September in 1995 against UNLV. Fifth-year senior Daniel Ho-Ching is the only current Rainbow to play in that nonconference game.
It was a bittersweet victory for him. The following week he was diagnosed with cancer. It took him two years of treatment before he got back on the field.
"This losing streak is the worst of all because it goes back so long," Ho-Ching said. "I remember that win in Las Vegas (15 road games ago). I can't believe we haven't won one since. But we're going to change all that this weekend."
As well as it felt to win their second game in a row last Saturday night,_ something the Rainbows haven't done since opening 1997 with consecutive victories over Minnesota and Cal State Northridge, _ SMU was already on the minds of many of the players.
"That streak is at the back of all of our minds, especially the fifth-year seniors," center Dustin Owen said. "It's time to end that thing because we're all sick and tired of talking about it. This is a changed ballclub. We showed that tonight."
The rally against Boise State that resulted in a 34-19 victory over the Broncos helped the Rainbows achieve their goal of going 2-1 in the nonconference phase of the schedule.
"We weren't sure which two wins we were going to get, but we wanted to go to Dallas 2-1," Jones said. "We're going to go up a day earlier (Wednesday) and see if we can get accustomed to the (five-hour) time change."
One thing working against Hawaii is SMU had a week off to prepare for Jones' run-and-shoot attack. The Mustangs, plagued by injuries in their offensive front, played poorly in their two losses to Arkansas and Tulane.
A year ago, they came to Hawaii and got well after losing four in a row to open the 1998 season. The Mustangs blanked the Rainbows, 28-0, and went on to finish the last half of the season strong. SMU head coach Mike Cavan is hoping for a similar jump-start this weekend at home.
"Having a week off to regroup and prepare for us can't hurt them," Jones said. "But I'm not sure it's that big of an advantage. Maybe they get to work an extra couple of days against us.
"I think it's tough having a bye after opening the season with two losses. But they were against pretty good competition. They have an outstanding running back (Rodnick Phillips) and some solid people on defense.
"This isn't going to be an easy game for us by any means. Until we can prove we can win on the road by actually doing it, we can't take anything for granted."
Hawaii hasn't won three in a row since the end of the 1992 season. But considering how poorly SMU has played the first two weeks of the season, old streaks being replaced with new ones is certainly a possibility.
"I think this team has an entirely different attitude," fifth-year senior offensive tackle Adrian Klemm said. "Our offense is only going to get better each week. SMU had better watch out because we're coming to play hard and hopefully get a win."
Those may be fighting words, but you get the feeling most everyone on the team believes them more and more each day.
"It's been a long time since this team won away from Aloha Stadium," senior quarterback Dan Robinson said. "But you saw us tonight. Down by 12 at the half and then rally to win going away. That wouldn't have happened last year. Now it's time to start believing in ourselves on the road. And we can do that with a victory this Saturday afternoon."
’Bows show up
By Paul Arnett
in national stats
Star-BulletinIt has been a long time since Hawaii had anyone in the top 50 of any offensive statistical category, but all that changed yesterday when the NCAA released its first individual and team numbers for Division I football.
Not only did the Rainbows have six players land seven individual spots, but the team is in the top 50 of three major categories as well.
"It's good for our morale and shows us how we match up with teams across the country," UH head coach June Jones said yesterday upon hearing the news.
The three team categories are punt returns, net punting and passing offense. The Rainbows are rated 16th nationally in passing, with 302.3 yards a game.
Hawaii is tied for 16th in net punting (40.4 yards per kick) and 18th in punt returns with a 13-yard average. The two men most responsible for the solid punt numbers are return man Jamal Garland and punter Chad Shrout.
Shrout is ranked 18th in the country, averaging 43.94 yards a kick. Garland is rated 21st nationally, averaging 13 yards a return. He is No. 46 in kickoff returns with a 22.25 average.
"We have made some improvements in our kicking game," Jones said. "Chad is having an outstanding season and our coverage guys are also getting the job done."
Quarterback Dan Robinson is rated 17th nationally in total offense, averaging 278.6 yards a game. Slotback Craig Stutzmann is tied for 16th nationally, averaging seven catches a game.
"I understand the routes and the reads well," said Stutzmann. "I think Dan believes he and I are usually on the same page."
Fellow receiver Dwight Carter also finds himself among the national leaders. Carter comes in at No. 28 in receiving yards a game. He is averaging 95.33.
"It took me awhile to get involved in the game, but once I did, I thought I helped us get the win," said Carter, who caught a 5-yard scoring strike from Robinson.
Cornerback Quincy LeJay is the only representative for the defense. He is tied for No. 18 in the nation in interceptions, averaging .67 a game. He is the only player nationally to return two interceptions for touchdowns.
The first occurred against USC. The second return for a score was early in the first quarter of Hawaii's 34-19 win over Boise State last Saturday night. The 54-yard return gave Hawaii a 7-0 advantage.
"The play was kind of similar to the one he took back against the Trojans," UH secondary coach Rich Miano said. "He was kind of sitting back in coverage and it allowed him to break cleanly on the ball."
Conference standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA Hawaii 2 1 0 .667 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Fresno State 1 2 0 .333 0 0 0 .000 0 0 San Jose St. 1 2 0 .333 0 0 0 .000 0 0 UTEP 1 2 0 .333 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Tulsa 1 2 0 .333 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Rice 0 3 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 SMU 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 TCU 0 2 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0
Last week's results
Hawaii 34, Boise St. 19
Kansas St. 40, UTEP 7
Texas 18, Rice 13
Texas A&M 62, Tulsa 13
San Jose St. 38, St. Mary's 3
UCLA 35, Fresno St. 21
Coming up Saturday
Hawaii at SMU, 9 a.m.
Fresno St. at Nevada, 10:05 a.m.
TCU at Arkansas St., 1 p.m.
Navy at Rice, 2 p.m.
Tulsa at San Jose St., 3 p.m.
New Mexico St. at UTEP, 3:05 p.m.
Season statistics
Team
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 53 73 Rushing 16 32 Passing 33 33 Penalty 4 8 RUSHING YARDAGE 190 575 Yards gained rushing 298 655 Yards lost rushing 108 80 Rushing Attempts 74 152 Average Per Rush. 2.6 3.8 Average Per Game 63.3 191.7 TDs Rushing 2 8 PASSING YARDAGE 907 751 Att-Comp-Int. 126-65-5 96-61-3 Average Per Pass 7.2 7.8 Average Per Catch 14.0 12.3 Average Per Game 302.3 250.3 TDs Passing 6 5 TOTAL OFFENSE 1097 1326 Total Plays 200 248 Average Per Play 5.5 5.3 Average Per Game 365.7 442.0 KICK RETURNS No. -Yards 19-320 13-205 PUNT RETURNS No. -Yards 8-104 10-61 INT RETURNS No. -Yards 3-75 5-30 FUMBLES-LOST 9-6 5-2 PENALTIES-YARDS 32-283 26-194 PUNTS-AVG 17-43.9 14-39.4 TIME OF POSS. 25:08 34:52 3RD-DOWN CONV. 12/39 19/49 4TH-DOWN CONV. 1/5 1/6Rushing
Att. Yds. TD Long Thompson 23 132 0 38 Weaver 22 101 1 10 Stutzmann 3 10 0 4 Skinner 1 1 0 1 Robinson 23 -26 1 12 Harrison 2 -28 0 0Passing
Att. Com. Int. Yds. TD Robinson 118 60 5 862 6 Harrison 7 5 0 45 0 Ho-Ching 1 0 0 0 0Receiving
No. Yds. TD Long Stutzmann 21 194 2 26 Carter 15 286 2 62 Lelie 6 63 0 26 Brooks 4 107 2 80 Weaver 4 61 0 29 Harris 4 34 0 24 Pinkney 3 92 0 43 Thompson 3 31 0 19 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 17 747 43.9 60Tackles
UT AT TT Ulbrich 8 35 43 Le Jay 6 19 25 Y. Warren 6 15 21 A. Smith 3 15 18 Espiau 5 11 16 Kemfort 3 12 15 Tucker 4 11 15 Ho-Ching 4 10 14 Paul 1 12 13 Austin 5 7 12 Tuioti 2 9 11 Elam 1 9 10 Iosua 1 7 8 Jackson 1 7 8 D. Miller 1 6 7 Garner 0 5 5 C. Brown 1 3 4 Withy-Allen 0 4 4 Campbell 0 3 3 Dietschy 0 3 3 Fuga 0 3 3 Garnier 1 2 3 Avila 0 2 2 Espinoza 0 2 2 Lelie 1 1 2 Morgan 0 2 2 Sims 0 2 2 Armstrong 0 1 1 Correia 0 1 1 Fenderson 0 1 1 Jackson 1 0 1 Liana 1 0 1 Owen 1 0 1 Robinson 0 1 1 Shrout 0 1 1 Williams 1 0 1
