Friday, September 4, 1998
’Cats dog ’Bows
Arizona returns the opening
By Paul Arnett
kickoff for a TD, then pulls away
in the second half
Star-BulletinIf you were late getting off work, or a little slow throwing water on the hibachi, you missed the University of Hawaii's secret play.
It's called give up a touchdown as quickly as possible and see what happens. Arizona's Chris Mc-Alister certainly didn't debate it.
He took the opening kickoff near his own goal line and crossed Hawaii's 16 seconds later without so much as a scratch.
Last year, Hawaii yielded a touchdown on the opening play against Notre Dame, giving the Fighting Irish a false sense of security that almost cost them the game.
But Wildcats head coach Dick Tomey made sure his team saw that movie a few thousand times to avoid any unhappy endings.
Granted, Hawaii kept it close for a while. But as the Rainbows discovered in 1997, you can't make mental mistakes against a superior opponent and expect to win.The No. 24-ranked Wildcats capitalized on miscues early and often enough to leave Honolulu this morning with a 27-6 victory. It wasn't always pretty or particularly entertaining, but Tomey will take it just the same.
"This game worried me because I knew Hawaii would play a tough, very physical football game," Tomey said. "They did. But so did we. And in the end, we found a way to win."
The only time the game was in doubt was early in the second quarter. Junior quarterback Dan Robinson replaced an ineffective Josh Skinner to give Hawaii a brief respite.
He tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Mt. San Antonio (Calif.) College transfer Dwight Carter. But the emotional lift provided by that play was staggered a bit by Eric Hannum's missed PAT, then knocked flat by Arizona quarterback Keith Smith.
Smith replaced Ortege Jenkins and promptly led the Wildcats on a crisp seven-play, 78-yard scoring drive that ended with the junior quarterback finding Jeremy McDaniel on a 17-yard touchdown pass. It not only gave Arizona a 14-6 lead, but the knowledge of how to best exploit an overmatched UH secondary.
"A lot was said about our front seven, but we knew the secondary was still untested waters," UH defensive coordinator Tom Williams said. Smith proved that time and again by completing 17 of 22 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns."They came in with maximum protection and picked on our corners with those short, quick routes," Williams said. "We didn't come up and take it away from them. We also had some mental breakdowns back there that cost us, but I believe they're very correctable."
One was certainly avoidable, had defensive back Quincy LeJay just called a timeout. The Rainbows' were caught in a defensive switch that Smith picked up on right away.
He had two receivers flanked left on the third-down play from the Rainbows' 7 with only LeJay guarding them. Smith tossed it to Dennis Northcutt, who waited for McDaniel to throw the clearing block and waltzed into the end zone to give Arizona a comfortable 21-6 advantage.
"What upset me was we recognized we were in a wrong coverage, but didn't have the presence to call a timeout," Williams said. "But this is the first game. You're going to make mistakes."
The Wildcats certainly made their fair share. Northcutt dropped three passes in the first half, Arizona twice failed to convert on fourth down, running back Leon Callen lost a fumble and the Wildcats let the clock expire just before the half, costing them a field-goal attempt.
"They gave us some chances and we just didn't convert on enough of them," UH head coach Fred vonAppen said. "It's disappointing, particularly our play in the kicking game."The Rainbows worked hard on that phase of the game throughout fall camp. They didn't allow any blocked punts, but Shrout averaged only 36.2 yards on 12 kicks, 10 yards off last year's average.
To make matters worse, Hawaii's net punting was a woeful 30.3 yards. That constantly resulted in poor field position for the Rainbows.
"We compounded matters by not having enough offense to get us out of the hole," UH offensive coordinator Don Lindsey said. "I felt badly for Tom because I knew exactly how he felt. We left the defense on the field too long.
"We didn't have any sustained drives. We weren't able to run effectively. We didn't pass protect. We dropped some passes and we missed some guys when they were wide open. Did I leave anything out?"
Robinson completed only 8 of 17 passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. Charles Tharp carried the ball 12 times for 47 yards and Carter had five catches for 65 yards. And those were the highlights for an offense that managed a meager 176 total yards.
"I believe we're going to get better once the offensive line has a chance to play together," Robinson said. "They played their guts out against a top-25 team. We're not there, but don't count us out just yet."
SPECIAL: 1998 UH FOOTBALL PREVIEW ISSUE
Game Statistics
Arizona 7 7 7 6--27 Hawaii 0 6 0 0--6First QuarterAriz--McAlister 100 kickoff return (McDonald kick), 14:44.
Second Quarter
Haw--Carter 25 pass from Robinson (kick failed), 12:13.
Ariz--McDaniel 17 pass from Smith (McDonald kick), 10:55.
Third Quarter
Ariz--Northcutt 7 pass from Smith (McDonald kick), 1:40.
Fourth Quarter
Ariz--Eafon 5 run (kick failed), 9:04.
A--38,745 (distributed), 33,804.
Individual statistics
Arizona
Rushing
Car Yards Avg. TD Long Kelvin Eason 16 54 3.4 1 11 Leon Callen 11 38 3.5 0 13 Keith Smith 5 24 4.8 0 9 Chris McCalister 1 12 12.5 0 12 Paul Shields 1 4 4.0 0 4 Dennis Northcutt 1 2 2.0 0 2 George Jenkins 2 -1 -0.5 0 2 Totals 37 133 3.6 1 13Hawaii
Car Yards Avg. TD Long Charles Tharp 12 47 3.9 0 16 Avion Weaver 8 27 3.4 0 7 Calvin Mims 3 12 4.0 0 5 Dan Robinson 10 10 1.0 0 8 Anthony Diieso 1 4 4.0 0 4 Bronson Liana 2 2 1.0 0 1 Jauron Pigg 1 -1 -1.0 0 -1 Josh Skinner 3 -8 -2.7 0 2 Totals 40 93 2.3 0 16Arizona
Att Comp Yards Int TD Keith Smith 22 17 218 0 2 Ortege Jenkins 11 3 19 0 0 Totals 33 20 237 0 2Hawaii
Att Comp Yards Int TD Dan Robinson 17 8 83 0 1 Josh Skinner 3 0 0 0 0 Totals 20 8 83 0 1Arizona
Rec Yards TD Long Dennis Northcutt 8 91 1 37 Jeremy McDaniel 6 90 1 36 Brad Brennan 2 15 0 12 Brandon Manumaleuna 2 11 0 7 Mike Lucky 1 25 0 25 Brandon Nash 1 5 0 5 Totals 20 237 2 376Hawaii
Rec Yards TD Long Dwight Carter 5 65 1 25 Wesley Morris 3 18 0 9 Totals 8 83 1 25Arizona
No. Yards Avg. Long Ryan Springston 5 208 41.6 50 Totals 5 208 41.6 50Hawaii
No. Yards Avg. Long Chad Shrout 12 434 36.2 49 Totals 12 434 36.2 49Arizona
Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Dennis Northcutt 7 70 29 0 0 0 Chris McAlister 0 0 0 1 100 100 Totals 7 70 29 1 100 100Hawaii
Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Dwight Carter 0 0 0 3 64 23 Daniel Ho-Ching 1 11 11 0 0 0 Totals 1 11 11 3 64 23Arizona
Una Ast Total Loss Sack Rafell Jones 10 1 11 0 0 Joseph Tafoya 5 0 5 2 2 Scooter Sprotte 2 3 5 1 0 Kelvin Hunter 3 1 4 0 0 DaShon Polk 3 1 4 1 0 Leland Gayles 3 0 3 0 0 LaChaux Rich 3 0 3 0 0 Daniel Greer 3 0 3 1 1 Adrian Koch 3 0 3 0 0 Robert Bonillas 3 0 3 1 0 Marcus Bell 2 1 3 0 0 Eli Wnek 2 1 3 1 1 Dolphin Tillman 2 0 2 0 0 A.J. Brown 1 1 2 0 0 Idris Haroon 1 1 2 0 0 Keoni Fraser 1 0 1 0 0 Anthony Thomas 1 0 1 0 0 J.J. Joppru 1 0 1 0 0 D.J. Vasquez 1 0 1 1 0Hawaii
Una Ast Total Loss Sack Donnell Williams 4 2 6 0 0 Daniel Ho-Ching 2 0 2 0 0 Phil Austin 1 1 2 2 0 Rinda Brooks 5 0 5 0 0 Yaphet Warren 1 0 1 1 0 Quincy LeJay 9 0 9 0 0 Anthony Smith 3 2 5 0 0 James Polk 4 0 4 0 0 Jeff Ulbrich 5 0 5 0 0 Matt Paul 3 3 6 0 0 Kamuela Cobb-Adams 5 4 9 3 0 Joaquin Avila 2 2 4 0 0 Stephen Gonzales 3 3 6 0 0 Matt Elam 1 0 1 0 0 Miles Garner 2 1 3 1 0 Ben Bright 3 1 4 1 1 Mark Mollner 1 1 2 1 0 Tony Tuioti 2 2 4 0 0 Jose[h Correia 2 0 2 2 0 Chad Shrout 1 0 1 0 0 Houdini Jackson 1 0 1 0 0Team statistics
Ariz UHFirst downs
Total 19 10 Rush 9 4 Pass 9 6 Penalty 1 0Rushing
Attempts 37 40 Net yards 133 93Passing
Completions 33 20 Attempts 20 8 Interceptions 0 0 Net yards 237 83Total offense
Plays 70 60 Yards 370 176Punts
Number 5 12 Yards 208 434 Average 41.6 36.2Punt returns
Number 7 1 Yards 70 11Kickoff returns
Number 1 3 Yards 100 64Fumbles
Number 2 2 Lost 1 0Penalties
Number 2 5 Yards 10 35Sacks made
Number-yards lost 4-19 1-3Conversions
Third down 4-13 2-16 Fourth down 0-2 1-1Time of possession
Average per game 27:30 32:30SPECIAL: 1998 UH FOOTBALL PREVIEW ISSUE
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