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Warriors have
their work cut out

Hawaii has two weeks to work
on lessons learned after falling
to 0-2 with a loss to Rice

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The way June Jones sees it, the Hawaii football team's fundamental flaws early this season have been exactly that -- the fundamentals.

The Warriors returned home on Sunday following a disappointing loss to Rice in which missed passes, missed tackles and missed opportunities added up to a head-scratching 41-29 defeat.

Jones pointed to "catching the football and tackling" as the keys to turning the Warriors' fortunes around following losses to Florida Atlantic and Rice.

"Even if we don't tackle in two games and just catch the football we're 2-0," the UH head coach said. "We just have to keep working at it. It's frustrating, but we can improve in a lot of things.

"I watch the film and I see a lot of good stuff going on and we didn't win. A couple of bounces either way in either game and we're 2-0."

Instead, the Warriors are 0-2 heading into their second bye week of the young season. This will be the team's last break for a while as UH plays 10 straight weeks starting with a Western Athletic Conference game against Tulsa (0-3) Oct. 2 at Aloha Stadium.

Although they don't have a game on Saturday, the Warriors have a full week of practice planned to address the lessons learned over the first two games and rub away the sting of losing their WAC opener.

"I hope that they're down, they should be feeling that way," Jones said. "If they don't then we've got the wrong guys. They'll feel even more down after they watch this tape. So it's our job to get them pumped back up to go play again and win."

Hawaii racked up 363 passing yards against the Owls, but had several dropped passes at various points. Defensively, the Warriors gave up 523 total yards, 405 on the ground, to Rice's spread-option offense. Hawaii ranks 109th in the nation in total defense after surrendering 968 total yards in its two losses.

"Two weeks in a row we weren't physical enough, didn't play aggressively enough defensively," Jones said. "We played hard but we're not tackling and we're not laying leather."

The Warriors rarely have full-contact tackling sessions in fall camp and during the season, a practice Jones defended yesterday.

"If you line up and you lose three starters on defense because you're trying to find out how tough everybody is ... you've dug yourself a hole before you play the first game," he said.

"Unless you're so deep at Nebraska or USC where the third or fourth guy is just as good as your starter, then it doesn't really affect you. But when you're at the schools like Rice, Hawaii, SMU, schools that don't have the depth and the number of players, then you'd better address it. I'm not going to change how I am about it right now."

Even with Rice piling up yards offensively, UH held a lead in the fourth quarter and had a chance to steal away with a key conference road win. Jones pointed to two fourth-quarter sequences -- when UH settled for a field goal following a Rice turnover and let another fumble squirt away on the drive that resulted in the Owls' go-ahead score -- as pivotal moments in the game.

"We certainly had our chances to win," he said. "It's frustrating to be 0-2, but it's a great place to be because when you get it turned around it's better this way. That's how I feel about it.

"Football is a game of bounces and inches and we have not created our own positive bounces right now."

Bouncing back: After playing sparingly on offense in the opener, UH receiver Ross Dickerson came off the bench to catch six passes for 64 yards and a touchdown against Rice. But he, along with other Hawaii receivers, struggled to hang on to passes in the game.

Jones is hoping the adversity will ultimately strengthen the sophomore's resolve.

"Ross has made plays every time we put him in scrimmages and games, so it was his opportunity to shine. Unfortunately he didn't do it the way he wanted to," Jones said. "But it wasn't those plays that defeated us. ... When the going gets tough, guys suck it up and move on and it'll make him a better player down the road just fighting through this."

Resting up: Although Jones prefers byes later in the season when injuries tend to mount, he doesn't mind having a week for the players to heal following the Rice game.

Linebackers Ikaika Curnan and Tanuvasa Moe left Houston with elbow injuries. Center Derek Faavi had a sprained foot and Lui Fuga aggravated a sprained knee against the Owls.

"(The bye) comes at a good time because of the injuries," Jones said. "We're pretty beat up, we have probably two or three of our guys who wouldn't be able to play this week. So from that standpoint it's good timing."

Weekly honors: Rice fullback Ed Bailey's 234-yard outing against Hawaii earned him Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Bailey averaged 6.3 yards on his 37 carries against the Warriors and scored a touchdown in the first quarter. His yardage total was the highest in coach Ken Hatfield's 11 years at Rice.

"Our offensive line I thought did an outstanding job of blocking," Hatfield said in yesterday's WAC coaches teleconference. "We knew Hawaii had a lot of defensive stars they were trying to replace this year, but our offensive line did a real fine job opening up some holes for Ed Bailey, who had a lot of great second-effort runs and just had a great day."

Nevada linebacker Jeremy Engstrom was the Defensive Player of the Week and Texas-El Paso punter Bryce Benekos claimed the special teams award. Hawaii's nominees were quarterback Tim Chang and linebacker Chad Kapanui.

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Hawaii statistics

TEAM STATISTICS

	HAWAII	OPP
FIRST DOWN	41	54
Rushing	6	33
Passing	30	20
Penalty	5	1
RUSHING YARDAGE	34	552
Yards gained rushing	83	592
Yards lost rushing	49	40
Rushing attempts	23	103
Average per rush	1.5	5.4
Average per game	17.0	276.0
Touchdowns rushing	3	6
PASSING YARDAGE	665	416
Att-Comp-Int	117-72-0	58-34-3
Average per pass	5.7	7.2
Average per catch	9.2	12.2
Average per game	332.5	208.0
Touchdowns passing	5	4
TOTAL OFFENSE	699	968
Total plays	140	161
Average per play	5.0	6.0
Average per game	349.5	484.0
KICK RETURNS: No-Yds	11-249	7-196
PUNT RETURNS: No-Yds	2-21	7-92
INT. RETURNS: No-Yds	3-0	0-0
FUMBLES-LOST	1-0	6-2
PENALTIES-YARDS	10-90	20-182
PUNTS-AVG	12-38.1	5-39.2
TIME OF POSSESSION/GAME	27:09	32:51
3RD-DOWN CONVERSIONS	11/29	21/33
4TH-DOWN CONVERSIONS	2/4	2/2

Rushing
	G	Att	Net	Avg	TD	Long
Brewster	2	12	57	4.8	3	12
Bass	1	2	5	2.5	0	3
Chang	2	9	-28	-3.1	0	9
Total	2	23	34	1.5	3	12
Passing
	G	Att	Comp	Int	Yds	TD	Long
Chang	2	116	72	0	665	5	31
Team	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Total	2	117	72	0	665	5	31
Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Owens	2	23	180	7.8	2	28
Brewster	2	13	85	6.5	1	31
Rivers	2	9	92	10.2	0	23
Dickerson	2	8	78	9.8	1	31
Welch	2	6	52	8.7	0	17
Komine	2	5	102	20.4	0	30
Sample	1	4	50	12.5	0	24
Poumele	1	4	26	6.5	1	7
Total	2	72	665	9.2	5	31
Total Offense
	G	Plays	Rush	Pass	Tot	Avg
Chang	2	125	-28	665	637	318.5
Brewster	2	12	57	0	57	28.5
Bass	1	2	5	0	5	5.0
Total	2	140	34	665	699	349.5
Scoring
	TD	FG	1XP	2XP	Tot
Brewster	4	0	0	0	24
Owens	2	0	0	0	12
Ayat	0	1	6	0	9
Poumele	1	0	0	0	6
Dickerson	1	0	0	0	6
Chang	0	0	0	0	0
Total	8	1	6	0	57
Punting
	No.	Yds	Avg	Long
Milne	12	457	38.1	49
Total	12	457	38.1	49
Punt Returns
	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Owens	2	21	10.5	0	12
Total	2	21	10.5	0	12
Kick Returns
	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Dickerson	9	216	24.0	0	40
Kapanui	1	5	5.0	0	5
Owens	1	28	28.0	0	28
Total	11	249	22.6	0	40
Interceptions
	No.	Yds	Avg	Td	Long
Elimimian	2	0	0.0	0	0
Peters	1	0	0.0	0	0
Total	3	0	0.0	0	0
Tackles
	G	UT	AT	Tot
Moe	2	13	5	18
Broadway	2	11	4	15
Peters	2	8	6	14
Curnan	2	8	6	14
Kapanui	2	10	3	13
Total	2	123	44	167