Monday, September 21, 1998
By Douglas C. Pizac, Special to the Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Bronson Liana, right, consoles
teammate Lonnie Williams on Saturday.
Roadblocks galore
Despite a third-quarter
Star-Bulletin Staff
lead against the Utes on
Saturday, history was against
a Rainbow comebackThe last time the University of Hawaii led in the second half of a league road game, Rainbow head coach Fred vonAppen was the defensive coordinator at Stanford, Tom Williams was his assistant and Don Lindsey was the defensive coordinator at Southern Cal.
That's the kind of negative history the Rainbows' brain trust was trying to overcome after Hawaii took a 21-20 lead over Utah with 4:41 left in the third quarter of Saturday's Western Athletic Conference opener.
Not a player or coach for the current Rainbows was on the field that October night in 1994 when Hawaii let a second-half lead slip away en route to a 30-24 loss at Texas-El Paso.
With Saturday's 30-21 loss at Utah, the Rainbows have dropped 12 consecutive road games and haven't won a conference opener since beating the Air Force Academy in 1992.
They have lost nine consecutive road games following a bye and have lost 21 consecutive WAC road games.
Associated Press
Hawaii's Eleu Kane pulls in a pass against
Utah's Andre Dyson in the final minute
of Saturday's game.
What a club:
no joy, no luckHawaii must put aside its
By Paul Arnett
loss to Utah and get ready
for Arkansas State
Star-BulletinIt's getting to the point where every day is Friday the 13th for Fred vonAppen.
He has become the sort of person who can't pull out of the driveway without making sure the iron is up, the windows are down, the stove is off and the lights are on when nobody's home.
You can't really blame the University of Hawaii head coach for feeling a little unlucky. These days, there are so many things happening in and around his program, he isn't sure if he's circling the airport or flying standby.
''I'm sitting in the San Francisco Airport Friday night with 60 players waiting six hours to get to Salt Lake City and I'm wondering what else can go wrong,'' vonAppen said of the long layover prior to Saturday's game in Utah.
''You get to the point of looking up and saying, 'OK, you win pal. I've had enough.' But you can't do that. You have to pick up the pieces and move on. No matter how tired or down we are for losing like we did, we've still got to turn this thing around and get ready for another game this weekend.''
The Rainbows return to the nonconference phase of a schedule that's about as consistent as Hawaii's kicking game. First, it was nationally ranked Arizona on a Thursday night, then it was Utah on the road 16 days later, now it's Arkansas State at home.
In the old days, the Rainbows would spoil the Indians' Waikiki vacation and send them back to where they came from, pictures included. But now, Arkansas State wears a Division I mask similar to that of Northeast Louisiana.
After playing at LSU nine days ago, the Arkansas State players might mistake this week's Aloha Stadium crowd for a Friday night high school game in a small town in the Midwest.
The Indians also are coming off a 28-24 victory over Southwest Missouri State. They will look across the line of scrimmage at the Rainbows and see no player resembling LSU running back Kevin Faulk.
They will approach this game as an opportunity to travel far, battle through the ever-present distractions and win one on the road. Northeast Louisiana did it, in overtime no less. And that kind of carefree attitude spells trouble if the Rainbows linger too long on last Saturday's 30-21 loss to the Utes.
"We've got to put this one behind us and get ready quick,'' tough-minded inside linebacker Stephen Gonzales said. ''We wanted so bad to put an end to all of those losing streaks. We had our chances. But we couldn't find a way to win.''
VonAppen knows it's not only bad luck holding back the Rainbows. They brought a lot of it upon themselves by falling behind 20-0 at the half on three Utah scoring drives that added up to 124 yards.
Hawaii made another late run, but two dropped passes in the end zone, three badly missed field goals and an inability to cover the middle screen kept the Rainbows from winning their first game of the season.
Utah also played a critical role in Hawaii's comeback. Usually when a team fumbles on a first-and-goal from the 1 and then watches as the other team returns it 97 yards for a touchdown, there's some room for self-doubt.
Kamuela Cobb-Adams' return of Utah quarterback Jonathan Crosswhite's mishandle snap from center was the longest since former UH cornerback Robert Lan snatched a ball out of midair and took it back 91 yards for a score. But unlike Saturday's loss, Lan's huge play resulted in a 19-14 win over Air Force nearly 10 years ago.
''My run doesn't really mean anything because we didn't win,'' Cobb-Adams said. ''It got us back in the game, but we couldn't finish it. And that hurts.''
The unbeaten Utes hurt badly for about four minutes in the third quarter. It resulted in Hawaii scoring 21 unanswered points to take a rare second-half lead on the road. But in the end, the missed opportunities outweighed the big plays.
''We showed considerable improvement from our first game,'' UH offensive coordinator Don Lindsey said. ''In some ways, more than I expected. But what we didn't do was convert on third down. And they did.''
The proof is in the numbers. Hawaii converted on only 3 of 17 third downs. Utah was 10 of 18.
''You can't have numbers like those and win a close ballgame, especially on the road,'' vonAppen said. ''Until we win one of these to give us some belief in ourselves, we are going to continue to struggle.''
You won't get any argument from Lindsey. Yes, the Rainbows managed a gaudy 280 yards through the air, but that's because they couldn't run on offense and couldn't hide some problems on defense.
''We had only 63 yards on the ground, which led us to fail miserably on short-yardage situations,'' Lindsey said. ''If we can't make a first down with only 1 yard to go, then we've got problems all the passing in the world won't cure.''
One of Don Lindsey's goals entering the 1998 season was to make sure his University of Hawaii offensive unit didn't make him sick by coughing up the football. No turnovers
No, the first-year coordinator didn't have his players sleep with the ball every night after practice, and no, he didn't have the jerseys bathed in glue.
But what he did beginning last spring was preach loud and long to protect the ball if you were a running back, and not to throw any foolish passes if you were a quarterback.
The message got through. Hawaii hasn't committed a turnover in its first two games and has forced five on defense to produce a turnover margin of plus 2.50, good enough for a fourth-place tie nationally with Tennessee.
"That's something for these guys to be proud of because protecting the football is one of the most important things you can do on offense," said Lindsey, who inherited a unit that committed 31 turnovers last year.
"You don't want to put your defense in a bad position. We did that too many times last year. To have a good turnover margin, you must also create turnovers, and our guys have done that."
Last year's defensive unit produced 21 turnovers. The Rainbows still wound up with a minus -.91 turnover margin. They were No. 96 nationally.
Lindsey knew he was in trouble Saturday morning while watching Utah head coach Ron McBride's television show. Something smells
"Somebody asked him what we ran on offense," Lindsey said, "and one of his responses was how we ran the option out of a three-wide set.
"He skunked us. We've never run the option in a game out of that formation. We worked on it during the bye week. Somebody spied on us last week because they knew it was coming as soon as we lined up in that formation."
UH head coach Fred vonAppen went one better.
"I like Ron, but he definitely skunked us," vonAppen said. "We've also been working on a fake punt the past couple of weeks. But as soon as we lined up in that formation, they started yelling, 'Watch out for the fake.'
"I don't want to use that as an excuse, but it comes back to where we practice and how we have no privacy when we work out. I don't see anybody playing baseball on Les' (Murakami) field or softball on Bob's (Coolen) field.
"But everybody can come and go as they please on ours. That field is in the worst shape it has been since we've been here and we can't possibly police it because there's no fence around it."
UH quarterback Dan Robinson is ranked No. 36 in the nation in pass efficiency with a rating of 122.6. By comparison, Tulane's Shaun King is first with a 189.2 rating. Inside the numbers
Cornerback Quincy LeJay is also tied for No. 38 in the country in interceptions. He has one in two games for a .50 average.
By Paul Arnett
Pacific Division
W L Pct. W L Pct. Utah 1 0 1.000 3 0 1.000 New Mexico 0 0 -- 2 1 .667 Brigham Young 0 0 -- 1 2 .333 San Jose State 0 0 -- 1 2 .333 Fresno State 0 0 -- 0 2 .000 San Diego State 0 0 -- 0 2 .000 Texas-El Paso 0 0 -- 0 2 .000 Hawaii 0 1 .000 0 2 .000Mountain Division
W L Pct. W L Pct. Air Force 2 0 1.000 3 0 1.000 Rice 1 0 1.000 1 2 .333 Tulsa 0 0 -- 2 0 1.000 Texas Christian 0 0 -- 1 1 .500 Wyoming 0 0 -- 1 1 .500 Colorado State 0 1 .000 2 2 .500 Southern Methodist 0 1 .000 0 3 .000 Nevada-Las Vegas 0 1 .000 0 3 .000Last week's games
Thursday's game
Air Force 30, Colorado State 27
Saturday's games
Georgia 16, Wyoming 9Wisconsin 52, Nevada-Las Vegas 7
Washington 20, Brigham Young 10
Oregon 58, San Jose State 3
Arkansas 44, Southern Methodist 17
TexasTech 34, Fresno State 28
Northwestern 23, Rice 14
New Mexico State 28, New Mexico 27
Utah 30, Hawaii 21
This week's games
Thursday's game
Arizona at San Diego State, 2 p.m.
Saturday's games
Tulsa at West Virginia, 6 a.m.Murray State at Brigham Young, 7 a.m.
Mississippi at Southern Methodist, 9 a.m.
Louisiana Tech at Wyoming, 9 a.m.
Nevada-Las Vegas at Colorado St., 9:30 a.m.
Air Force at Texas Christian, 1 p.m.
Rice at Texas, 1 p.m.
Boise State at Utah, 3 p.m.
Texas-El Paso at New Mexico State, 3 p.m.
New Mexico at San Jose State, 3 p.m.
Nevada at Fresno State, 4 p.m.
Arkansas State at Hawaii, 6 p.m.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing
Car Yards Avg. TD Long Charles Tharp 28 102 3.5 0 16 Avion Weaver 14 48 3.5 0 7 Calvin Mims 4 15 3.8 0 5 Anthony Diieso 1 4 4.0 0 4 Bronson Liana 2 2 1.0 0 1 Dan Robinson 10 -3 -0.2 0 8 Jauron Pigg 1 -1 -1.0 0 -1 Josh Skinner 4 -12 -3.0 0 2Att Comp Yards Int TD Dan Robinson 49 23 363 0 2 Josh Skinner 7 0 0 0 0Rec Yards TD Long Dwight Carter 8 154 2 69 Wesley Morris 8 55 0 13 Eleu Kane 3 111 0 55 Davey deLaura 2 48 0 39 Charles Tharp 2 -5 0 0No. Yards Avg. Long Chad Shrout 18 643 35.7 49Returns Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Dwight Carter 4 23 14 3 64 23 Daniel Ho-Ching 1 11 11 0 0 0 Wesley Morris 0 0 0 2 45 26 Eleu Kane 0 0 0 2 42 21 Robert Kemfort 0 0 0 1 3 3TEAM STATISTICS
Opp UH First downs 40 21 Rush 18 7 Pass 18 14 Penalty 4 0 Rushing Attempts 85 71 Net yards 321 156 Passing Completions 37 23 Attempts 61 56 Interceptions 1 0 Net yards 492 363 Total offense Plays 146 127 Yards 813 519 Punts Number 10 18 Yards 456 643 Average 45.6 35.7 Punt returns Number 9 5 Yards 108 34 Kickoff returns Number 5 8 Yards 191 154 Fumbles Number 6 2 Lost 4 0 Penalties Number 14 11 Yards 78 86 Sacks made Number 7 3 Yards lost 41 20 Conversions Third down 14-31 5-33 Fourth down 0-2 3-4 Time of possession Average per game 31:16 28:45
