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Warriors brace for
WAC’s best back

Chang’s record pass may come
in a record shootout

Tim Chang will get his moment, but Ryan Moats could steal the night.

Key matchup LaTech running back Ryan Moats vs. Hawaii quarterback Tim Chang They won't be on the field at the same time, but the offensive star who has the better game will probably lead his team to a victory. The only thing that has stopped Moats this year is his own sprained ankle. He's had two weeks to rest and rehab. Chang needs to bounce back from a terrible game at Boise. Before that zero-TD, four-interception effort, Chang had 15 TD passes and three picks in the season's first six games.

Hawaii fans finally get their wish this evening at Aloha Stadium when UH (3-4, 3-3) hosts Louisiana Tech (4-4, 3-1) in a Western Athletic Conference football game. Unfortunately for them, they will see an explosive running attack. According to UH coach June Jones, Moats is "a studlier Barry Sanders."

Jones knows of what he speaks, having coached Sanders for the Detroit Lions, and having watched Moats slice through his team for 267 yards last year at Ruston, La., -- a game the Warriors won 44-41. In that one, Moats destroyed a defense that included two NFL Draft picks and a third all-conference first-teamer. It makes you wonder what the nation's sixth-leading rusher might do tonight against the 117th-ranked defense against the run, an injury-riddled unit that lost 69-3 at Boise State last week.

Moats has a good chance of taking control of the game, but Chang will own the stadium, at least early on.

Chang is 14 yards away from breaking the NCAA career passing record of 15,031 yards held by Ty Detmer. At the first break in the action after the record-breaking play tonight, a congratulatory message from the former Brigham Young star to Chang will be shown on the stadium's Jumbotron screen -- a gracious act by Detmer, considering he was on the wrong side of a 59-28 whipping by UH at the same site, the day he won the Heisman Trophy in 1990. Those who were there will never forget the mocking Heisman pose by UH's Jeff Sydner.

Many question the magnitude of Chang's pending achievement, since the yardage hasn't always led to touchdowns or victories for Hawaii.

Jones -- who predicted two years ago Chang could set the mark -- said it is very significant, especially for football in Hawaii.

"It'll stand forever and it'll be a great thing for a local kid to have achieved in his state," Jones said.

Chang was the subject of much national attention before last week's game, when it was thought he would break the mark on ESPN. Now he just wants to get it done with so he can put all his focus on trying to salvage a season gone awry.

He said a team meeting helped the Warriors put the Boise debacle behind them. UH can still qualify for a third straight Hawaii Bowl with four wins in its last five games, but Chang knows things have to change right now.

Assuming Chang and his receivers bounce back tonight, this could be a shootout. LaTech's pass defense (238.9 per game) is nearly as porous as Hawaii's run stopping (251).

"Sometimes you think that, and then it's 7-0," said Jones, who saw that happen when UH beat San Jose State 13-10 last season. "You just never know. They've got a real nice offense with a great running back. We're going to have to obviously stop him to win the game. Hopefully, we'll be able to do that."

They may have to without six players from the starting defense, and Moats isn't the only concern.

"They have a pretty good tight end (Aaron Capps)," said Landon Kafentzis, who will start his first game at safety for UH. "They do a really good job of getting him open with play-action passes. The receivers are very fast on film. Obviously, Ryan Moats right now is our greatest concern. He's a great running back. We have our hands full, but we'll be ready."

The Bulldogs will have no excuse not to be. The distance from Ruston to Halawa is the longest of any conference-affiliated teams in the nation, but LaTech had a bye week to prepare.

"Some teams don't play well after a week off. But I think we were tired physically and mentally. I know it helped me," Bulldogs coach Jack Bicknell said.

LaTech is certainly battle-tested. The Bulldogs survived losses to Miami, Tennessee and Auburn. And they were the ones who burst Fresno State's BCS bubble. Like the Warriors, they still have bowl hopes -- they can even win the WAC, although that would mean winning out here, at home against Tulsa and at Boise State and Rice. A much more doable three-out-of-four means bowl eligibility.

"I brought it up for the first time (last week)," Bicknell said. "This is a huge game. It's there for us. After we lost to UTEP, the team was down. But we're right there. Let's not get too depressed."

That has been a motto for the Warriors, too, whose sad state of affairs included coming home to a flooded locker room last week. And the trainers' room continued to overflow, too, with wounded Warriors. Starting right guard Uriah Moenoa joined the list with a sprained hamstring at Boise, and his team-best 47-game playing streak is at risk tonight.

"When someone gets injured, it feels like a part of your family goes down," starting safety Leonard Peters said. "Not to make excuses, but it's kind of hard to play with a lot of people hurt. I'm just fortunate that I didn't get any injuries this year.

"The other side of it is it makes you want to play more when you see your friends, your brothers, playing with injuries. People like Kila (Kamakawiwo'ole, starting defensive end out with an appendectomy), he doesn't have to be here, he just had surgery. He should be home with his kids. But this means so much to him, as it does to a lot of people on this field."

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Probable starters

Louisiana Tech Offense
QB	13	Matt Kubik	6-3	209	Jr.
RB	20	Ryan Moats	5-9	209	Jr.
TE	84	Aaron Capps	6-6	262	Sr.
LT	68	Lester Brown	6-5	305	Sr.
LG	64	Aaron Lips	6-5	317	Jr.
C	56	Marcus Stewart	6-3	300	Jr.
RG	78	Marcus Lindsey	6-4	305	Jr.
RT	72	Adrian Gonzalez	6-5	328	Sr.
WR	7	Jonathan Holland	6-0	186	So.
WR	22	Julius Cosby	6-1	205	Sr.
WR	88	Tramissian Davis	6-0	177	Sr.
Defense
DE	99	Jemelle Cage	6-1	290	Sr.
NT	96	Chris Van Hoy	6-4	314	Sr.
DT	45	Travon Brown	6-2	260	Sr.
LB	42	Byron Santiago	6-2	222	Sr.
LB	34	Barry Robertson	6-3	240	Jr.
or	52	T.J. Jackson	6-0	244	Sr.
LB	47	John Nash	6-0	245	Sr.
LB	8	Jeremy Hamilton	5-11	218	Jr.
S	27	Lee Johnson	6-2	215	Sr.
S	21	Michael Johnson	5-10	195	Sr.
CB	1	Corey Brazil	5-8	190	Sr.
CB	25	Tramon Williams	6-0	180	Jr.
Specialists
PK	48	Danny Horwedel	6-2	185	Fr.
KO	81	Brad Oestericher	5-11	178	Fr.
P	41	Matt Butler	6-3	215	Fr.
PR	1	Corey Brazil	5-8	190	Sr.
KR	82	Eric Newman	6-0	185	Sr.
Snap	60	Matt Graham	5-10	244	Jr.
Hold	13	Matt Kubik	6-2	204	So.
Hawaii Offense
X	84	Jason Rivers	6-1	189	So.
H	2	Chad Owens	5-9	177	Sr.
LT	70	Tala Esera	6-3	291	So.
LG	64	Samson Satele	6-2	278	So.
C	59	Derek Fa'avi	6-0	271	Jr.
RG	69	Uriah Moenoa	6-2	336	Sr.
or	67	Phil Kauffman	6-1	286	Sr.
RT	66	Brandon Eaton	6-2	291	Jr.
or	74	Jeremy Inferrera	6-2	284	So.
Y	38	Gerald Welch	5-7	216	Sr.
Z	9	Britton Komine	5-10	188	Sr.
QB	14	Tim Chang	6-1	196	Sr.
RB	6	Michael Brewster	5-5	185	Sr.
Defense
LE	98	Mel Purcell	6-4	266	Jr.
LT	99	Lui Fuga	6-1	294	Sr.
RT	91	Matt Faga	6-2	324	Sr.
RE	90	Tony Akpan	6-6	274	Jr.
SLB	5	Chad Kapanui	6-0	226	Sr.
MLB	5	Ikaika Curnan	5-10	221	Jr.
or	55	Watson Ho'ohuli	5-11	222	Sr.
WLB	45	Tanuvasa Moe	5-11	210	Jr.
or	50	Lincoln Manutai	6-0	228	Sr.
CB	37	Abraham Elimimian	5-10	185	Sr.
S	42	Leonard Peters	6-1	184	Jr.
S	8	Landon Kafentzis	6-0	194	Jr.
CB	24	Kenny Patton	6-0	187	So.
Specialists
P	25	Kurt Milne	6-0	196	So.
K	47	Justin Ayat	6-0	201	Sr.
Snap	61	Bryce Runge	5-11	236	Jr.
PR	2	Chad Owens	5-9	177	Sr.
KR	21	Jason Ferguson	5-5	157	Fr.
Hold	25	Kurt Milne	6-0	196	So.

Schedules

Louisiana Tech (4-4, 3-1)
Sept. 6	Nevada	W, 38-21
Sept. 11	Louisiana-Lafayette	W, 24-20
Sept. 18	at Miami	L, 48-0
Sept. 25	at Tennessee	L, 42-17
Oct. 2	Fresno State	W, 28-21
Oct. 9	at Auburn	L, 52-7
Oct. 16	at Southern Methodist	W, 41-10
Oct. 23	at Texas-El Paso	L, 44-27
Tonight	at Hawaii
Nov. 13	Tulsa
Nov. 20	at Boise State
Nov. 27	at Rice
Hawaii (3-4, 3-3)
Sept. 4	Florida Atlantic	L, 35-28 (OT)
Sept. 18	at Rice	L, 41-29
Oct. 2	Tulsa	W, 44-16
Oct. 9	Nevada	W, 48-26
Oct. 16	at Texas-El Paso	L, 51-20
Oct. 23	San Jose State	W, 46-28
Oct. 29	at Boise State	L, 69-3
Tonight	Louisiana Tech
Nov. 12	at Fresno State
Nov. 20	Idaho
Nov. 27	Northwestern
Dec. 4	Michigan State

Statistical comparison

LT	Category	UH
22.8	Scoring	31.1
182.6	Rushing	95.9
191.8	Passing	330.1
374.4	Total Offense	426.0
17.6	First Downs	21.4
8.9	FD Rushing	5.3
6.9	FD Passing	14.9
1.9	FD Penalty	1.3
32.2	Points Allowed	38.0
162.5	Rushing Allowed	251.0
238.9	Passing Allowed	236.0
401.4	Total Offense Allowed	454.7
	(above stats are per-game averages)
9-72	Interceptions -- Yards	11-50
39.8	Punting	39.3
53-424	Penalties	44-378
21-12	Fumbles-lost	13-4
29:05	Ave. Time of Possession	27:31
31-112	Third Down Conversion	38-95
3-7	Fourth Down Conversion	4-11

Key players

Rushing	A	Yards	Avg	TD
Ryan Moats, LT	182	1,213	6.7	13
Fredd Franklin, LT	28	119	4.2	0
Michael Brewster, UH	59	396	6.7	5
West Keli'ikipi, UH	30	159	5.3	3
Passing	A	C	I	Y	TD
Matt Kubik, LT	150	79	8	1,213	4
Donald Allen47	25	1	299	1
Tim Chang, UH335	192	7	2,204	15
Kainoa Akina, UH	18	7	3	840
Receiving	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Jonathan Holland, LT	16	365	22.8	1
Tramissian Davis, LT	15	345	23.0	1
Chad Owens, UH	53	570	10.8	6
Britton Komine, UH	32	520	16.2	2
Tackles	S	A	Tot	FL/S
Byron Santiago, LT	20	30	50	3.5/1
Lee Johnson, LT	24	24	48	0/0
Jeremy Hamilton, LT	19	24	43	3/1.5
Barry Robertson, LT	15	26	41	5/2.5
Corey Brazil, LT	17	23	40	3.5/1.5
Leonard Peters, UH	36	29	65	4.5/0
Tanuvasa Moe, UH	23	21	44	6/2
Chad Kapanui, UH	18	21	39	3/1
Mel Purcell, UH	25	14	39	10.5/4
Abraham Elimimian, UH	28	9	37	.5/.5

WAC standings

	Conference			Overall
	W	L	Pct	W	L	Pct	Str
Boise State	5	0	1.000	8	0	1.000	W19
UTEP	4	1	.800	6	2	.750	W5
Louisiana Tech	3	1	.750	4	4	.500	L1
Nevada	2	2	.500	4	4	.500	W2
Hawaii	3	3	.500	3	4	.429	L1
Rice	2	3	.400	3	5	.375	L3
Fresno State	1	3	.250	4	3	.571	W1
San Jose State	1	3	.250	2	5	.286	L3
Tulsa	1	3	.250	2	6	.250	L4
SMU	1	4	.200	1	7	.125	L4

Today's games
Fresno State at Rice
Tulsa at SMU
San Jose State at Nevada
Louisiana Tech at Hawaii