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Monday, October 23, 2000
It isn't the kind of blend conducive to winning football games -- run-and-shoot be damned. There’s no ‘run’ in
run-and-shoot
Warrior Statistics
By Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii can't run on offense and can't stop the run on defense. And any coach will tell you that's a recipe for disaster. Case in point: Saturday's 38-13 loss to Rice University.
The Warriors ran the football nine times and gained 10 yards. The Owls rushed it 69 times for 315 yards. No matter what UH defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa mixes up each week to stop the run, teams do something to get around it.
For a week, Lempa and his crew worked on the pitch plays of Rice's option attack. In their mind, the Owls were most dangerous when quarterbacks Corey Evans or Jeremy Hurd had the ball on the edge. Good thinking, because those two were the leading rushers, finishing with a combined 139 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns.
But while Hawaii's defense was trying to tame the perimeter, the Warriors forgot to stop plays between the tackles. Rice ran its halfbacks like the father of the wishbone, Emory Bellard, designed it.
If Evans didn't turn his back on the Hawaii defense to hand off to runners making a living up the gut, Hurd did. Lempa tried to counter these moves with some of his own, but no defense is designed to spend 40 minutes on the field every game.
The result was Rice cutting Hawaii apart with a methodical option attack that left the Warriors offense on the sidelines talking among themselves.
"We spent the entire week preparing for their outside game and they just made a living up the middle," strong safety Jacob Espiau said. "We thought we were moving at full speed when we saw it in practice. But the real thing is a whole lot quicker. They executed their offense to perfection. We were always a half-step slow."
Hawaii's offense did little to help out. If freshman quarterback Timmy Chang wasn't ending five of 11 drives with interceptions, then the old standbys of dropped passes and penalties showed up to do in most of the rest. Several times Hawaii had chances to keep things close, but missed opportunities are becoming the staple of the playbook.
Slotback Channon Harris was benched because he can no longer catch a football. Robert Grant made his first appearance since the Don Lindsey era because the top three running backs are sidelined with a variety of ailments. If you can't run, you can't win. And the Warriors rush the football like the JV playing the varsity.
The result was pass, pass, pass and that can only lead to trouble against a defensive unit that doesn't have to worry about anything else. The Warriors are so close to being last in the nation in rushing, you wonder how anyone could be below them.
Coming into the game, Rice was equally pitiful passing. But how did the Owls score their first touchdown? Through the air. A running team doesn't have to excel to be proficient in passing. Just good enough to keep the other team honest.
"When you're stacked in there to stop the run, the passing game can hurt you," Lempa said. "They came out and hit a big pass play against us early, so, that's always in the back of your mind. They were very effective in the running game. You have to pick your poison. And every time we did, they figured out another way to kill us. Each week, it's getting tougher for our guys to take."
Conference standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA Texas-El Paso 6 2 0 .750 5 0 0 1.000 186 77 Texas Christian 6 0 0 1.000 3 0 0 1.000 99 34 San Jose St. 5 3 0 .625 3 1 0 .750 143 103 Fresno St. 3 3 0 .500 2 1 0 .667 98 68 Tulsa 3 5 0 .375 2 2 0 .500 57 87 Rice 2 5 0 .286 1 3 0 .250 94 92 Hawaii 1 5 0 .167 1 4 0 .200 85 157 Nevada 1 6 0 .143 0 3 0 .000 61 148 Southern Methodist 1 6 0 .143 0 3 0 .000 45 102 Last week's results
Rice 38, Hawaii 13
San Jose State 49, Nevada 30
Texas Christian 17, Tulsa 3
Texas-El Paso 23, Fresno State 13Coming up Saturday
San Jose State at Hawaii
Nevada at Southern Methodist
Rice at Texas Christian
Tulsa at Fresno State
Season statistics
Team
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 105 121 Rushing 17 71 Passing 81 36 Penalty 7 14 RUSHING YARDAGE 315 1268 Yards gained rushing 440 1393 Yards lost rushing 125 125 Rushing Attempts 105 323 Average Per Rush 3.0 3.9 Average Per Game 52.5 211.3 TD’s Rushing 3 14 PASSING YARDAGE 1698 926 Att-Comp-Int 289-140-12 134-72-3 Average Per Pass 5.9 6.9 Average Per Catch 12.1 12.9 Average Per Game 283.0 154.3 TDs Passing 9 7 TOTAL OFFENSE 2013 2194 Total Plays 394 457 Average Per Play 5.1 4.8 Average Per Game 335.5 365.7 KICK RETURNS No.-Yards 28-502 17-328 PUNT RETURNS No.-Yards 19-198 13-123 INT RETURNS No.-Yards 3-38 12-138 FUMBLES-LOST 15-7 12-6 PENALTIES-YARDS 67-490 45-342 PUNTS-AVG 36-37.3 29-39.4 TIME OF POSS. 23:31 36:29 3RD DOWN CONV. 25/86 42/100 4TH DOWN CONV. 7/16 4/8
Rushing
Att. Yds. TD Long Fenderson 31 173 1 25 Weaver 30 116 1 15 Thompson 21 90 0 18 Rolovich 6 14 0 18 Grant 2 2 0 4 Tinoisamoa 1 0 0 0 Stutzmann 1 -2 0 0 Team 2 -3 0 0 Harris 1 -11 0 0 Berryman 1 -11 0 0 Liana 1 -26 0 0 Chang 8 -27 1 1
Passing
Att. Comp. Int. Yds. TD Chang 204 106 10 1250 7 Rolovich 85 34 2 448 2
Receiving
No. Yds. TD Long Lelie 33 474 5 51 Colbert 27 385 1 74 Stutzmann 19 248 2 47 Harris 17 245 1 58 Fenderson 15 47 0 13 Weaver 13 122 0 18 Welch 9 85 0 16 deLaura 5 66 0 26 Thompson 1 17 0 17 Grant 1 9 0 9
Punting
No. Yds. Avg. Long Berryman 22 795 36.1 65 McBriar 14 547 39.1 63
Tackles
UT AT TT Espiau 46 20 66 Brooks 40 16 56 Kemfort 26 24 50 Jackson 27 19 46 Armstrong 23 11 34 Tinoisamoa 27 6 33 Smith 15 13 28 Brown 22 4 26 Fuga 20 5 25 Iosua 12 11 23 Correa 13 7 20 Garner 12 8 20 Tucker 18 1 19 Peters 9 7 16 Sims 11 5 16 Liana 9 2 11 Miller 7 3 10 Dietschy 9 0 9 Ala 6 2 8 Alapa 4 2 6 Clowers 3 2 5 Samuseva 2 3 5 Avila 2 2 4 Correia 1 2 3 Fenderson 3 0 3 Williams 3 0 3 Berryman 2 0 2 Butts 1 1 2 Campbell 2 0 2 deLaura 2 0 2 Gilmore 1 1 2 Grant 2 0 2 Kauka 0 1 1 Riccardi 1 0 1 Thompson 1 0 1 Welch 1 0 1
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
