Monday, September 6, 1999
’Bows know
they have a long
way to go
Coach June Jones says he won't
let one setback keep UH from
becoming a competitive team againEligibility questions hampered Rainbows
Eastern Illinois, anyone?
Rainbow Notebook By Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinPerhaps Paul Hackett, who was the best man at Fred and Thea vonAppen's wedding, was paying back Hawaii for firing one of his closer friends.
Maybe the Southern California head coach didn't appreciate the Rainbows for trying to hire away his defensive coordinator, Bill Young.
It's even possible the second-year man for the Trojans was exacting a measure of revenge on the Western Athletic Conference after Texas Christian upset the men of Troy at last year's Sun Bowl.
Whatever the reason, USC turned June Jones' Rainbow debut into one of the most embarrassing moments in UH history, leaving behind a mess Jones and his staff will have to clean up before this Saturday's game with Division I-AA Eastern Illinois.
As bad as Hawaii's 62-7 loss to USC was before a sellout crowd that endured two-hour traffic delays to see the eventual debacle, it didn't do much to damper the spirit of Jones. He took the loss in stride."I'm just trying to look at the big picture,'' Jones said yesterday after watching the film. "I'm not going to let one setback keep me from doing what I know can be done here, and that's field a competitive football team.''
Hawaii was hardly competitive in its loss to USC. From the opening whistle to the final gun 212 minutes later, the Trojans dominated every phase of the game.
Granted, UH defensive coordinator Greg McMackin's defense scored a touchdown as it is designed to do. But the offense never got any closer to the end zone than the Trojans' 25-yard line. It marked the first time in Jones' career that his run-and-shoot offense failed to score.
"It's never happened,'' Jones said. "Not at any level.''
The Rainbows are hopeful that will change this weekend against the Panthers of the Ohio Valley Conference. It is the first time Hawaii has played a Division I-AA school since the Rainbows knocked off Cal State Northridge in 1997.
The challenge for Jones will be wiping away the tears and shocked expressions off the faces of the Rainbows, who believed they could at least hang with the Trojans. They were up and so was the crowd.
But all that changed quickly. Plagued by bad passes, dropped footballs, inadequate blocking, spotty tackling, indecisive play in the secondary and an inordinate amount of penalties, Hawaii looked strikingly similar to the team that lost its last 18 games under the direction of vonAppen.
It was the worst opening-day defeat in school history and the most lopsided home loss since Ron Dayne and Wisconsin ran Hawaii off the field, 59-10, to close out the 1996 season.
"We're not going to do anything rash,'' Jones said. "There won't be any major lineup changes. We're going to play with the guys we think can help us right away. And we're going to continue to make improvements.
"I thought Jeff Ulbrich had a great game. He was all over the field. I thought our secondary played too soft, but we'll get there. Obviously, we have a long way to go in all phases of the game. USC is an outstanding football team. I believe they're a top 10 program in the making.''Jones is hopeful the Rainbows are ready for an opponent such as Eastern Illinois. Three years ago, Hawaii lost a heartbreaker in their opener with Boston College (24-21) and then came back the next week to lose to lowly Ohio University (21-10).
UH took today off. The Rainbows will return tomorrow morning in search of their first victory in 20 games.
"I don't think it will be a problem getting guys mentally prepared,'' Jones said. "When you've lost 19 games in a row, you can't be overconfident about anybody, including Eastern Illinois.''
Defensively, the Rainbows will be looking to do a better job of pressuring the passer. Sophomore quarterback Carson Palmer said the only time he was touched was when he congratulated his fellow teammates on the sidelines.
Such was not the case for UH quarterbacks Dan Robinson and Mike Harrison. They were sacked seven times and knocked around countless others. Hawaii receivers dropped eight passes and the Rainbows managed a paltry 27 yards on the ground.
"We will do better,'' Robinson promised. "We just came up against a real good opponent in our first game of the season.''
McMackin echoed those sentiments.
"I watched the film and came away with a couple of good things to build on,'' McMackin said. "First, we pursued the football well. And second, our guys went hard until the last play.
"There are areas we need to improve. We knew going in that USC had the best college offense I've ever seen. And they showed it. I know the guys are down and so are our fans. But tell them to stay with us because we're going to be a better football team each and every week.''
Late eligibility
By Paul Arnett
questions hampered
Rainbows
Star-BulletinLate last week, Hawaii head coach June Jones wasn't sure how many players would be suiting up for Saturday's game with Southern California.
He learned on Thursday that as many as a dozen players weren't eligible because they hadn't declared their majors in time. The matter was cleared up, but if it hadn't been caught, it could have proved costly.
"The situation has been taken care of," Jones said. "We're good to go the rest of the season. We think everybody is fine."
Unfortunately for Jones, place-kicker Jake Huggins still has to wait to see if he is academically sound for the coming season. Huggins transferred to UH from Washington State in the spring.
Freshman linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa also didn't suit up for the USC game because of NCAA clearinghouse problems.
"We're still waiting to see if his core credits will be approved," Jones said of Tinoisamoa, who spent part of his senior season in a juvenile detention center but passed the SAT.
"But until he is cleared by the NCAA, he can practice with us, but can't play in any games."
Hawaii once again will try to end its losing streak, which has reached 19, but instead of playing a Top 25 team next Saturday, it's a Division I-AA opponent, Eastern Illinois. Eastern Illinois
might be just what
Rainbows needLast Thursday, Eastern Illinois lost its opener to Central Michigan, 33-17, gaining only 80 yards on the ground and 261 overall.
J.R. Taylor ran 5 yards for Eastern's Illinois' first score, then threw a 27-yard TD pass to Rahsaan Smith that cut the deficit to 26-14.
Eastern's Anthony Buich was 11-of-26 for 122 yards, but was sacked seven times.
Central Michigan limited Eastern to just 3-of-14 on third-down conversions.
Conference standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA Fresno State 1 0 0 1.000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Tulsa 1 0 0 1.000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 UTEP 1 0 0 1.000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 TCU 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Hawaii 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 Rice 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 San Jose St. 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0 SMU 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 .000 0 0Last week's results
USC 62, Hawaii 7
Tulsa 45, Southwest Missouri State 21
Louisiana State 29, San Jose State 21
Houston 28, Rice 3
Arkansas 25, SMU 0
UTEP 13, New Mexico 10
Fresno State 34, Portland State 6
Arizona 35, TCU 31
Coming up Saturday
Rice at Michigan, 6:10 a.m.
Tulsa at Oklahoma State, 6:30 a.m.
TCU at Northwestern, 7:10 a.m.
San Jose State at Colorado, 9:30 a.m.
UTEP at Oregon, 10 a.m.
SMU at Tulane, 11 a.m.
Fresno State at Oregon State, 12:30 p.m.
Eastern Illinois at Hawaii, 6:05 p.m.
Season statistics
Team
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 16 29 Rushing 7 13 Passing 7 12 Penalty 2 4 RUSHING YARDAGE 27 279 Yards gained rushing 89 298 Yards lost rushing 62 19 Rushing Attempts 22 60 Average Per Rush. 1.2 4.7 Average Per Game 27.0 279.0 TDs Rushing 0 6 PASSING YARDAGE 194 250 Att-Comp-Int. 47-21-1 26-19-1 Average Per Pass 4.1 9.6 Average Per Catch 9.2 13.2 Average Per Game 194.0 250.0 TDs Passing 0 1 TOTAL OFFENSE 221 529 Total Plays 69 86 Average Per Play 3.2 6.2 Average Per Game 221.0 529.0 KICK RETURNS No. -Yards 9-141 2-16 PUNT RETURNS No. -Yards 0-0 4-26 INT RETURNS No. -Yards 1-21 1--6 FUMBLES-LOST 7-4 2-1 PENALTIES-YARDS 11-88 13-105 PUNTS-AVG 6-42.5 2-35.5 TIME OF POSS. 26:42 33:18 3RD-DOWN CONV. 1/13 9/14 4TH-DOWN CONV. 0/3 0/1Rushing
Att. Yds. TD Long Thompson 7 55 0 18 Weaver 6 27 0 7 Robinson 7 -21 0 7 Harrison 2 -28 0 -Passing
Att. Com. Int. Yds. TD Robinson 39 16 1 149 0 Ho-Ching 1 0 0 0 0 Harrison 7 5 0 45 0Receiving
No. Yds. TD Long Sturtzmann 5 55 0 19 Thompson 3 31 9 19 Carter 2 37 0 36 Gray 2 13 0 11 Brooks 2 13 0 9 Lelie 2 3 0 5 Weaver 1 13 0 13 Sims 1 11 0 11 Colbert 1 8 0 8 de Laura 1 7 0 7 Harris 1 3 0 3Punting
No. Yds. Avg. Long Shrout 6 255 42.5 49Tackles
IT AT ST TT Ulbrich 13 4 0 17 A. Smith 6 6 0 12 D. Miller 2 4 0 6 Ho-Ching 3 2 1 6 Le Jay 4 2 0 6 Paul 3 3 0 6 Y. Warren 4 1 0 5 Espiau 4 1 0 5 Austin 2 2 0 4 Iosua 2 2 0 4 Fuga 4 0 0 4 Tucker 4 0 0 4 Campbell 3 0 0 3 Kemfort 1 1 1 3 Elam 2 1 0 3 C. Brown 2 1 0 3 Dietschy 3 0 0 3 Correia 2 0 0 2 Garnier 1 0 0 1 Avila 0 1 0 1 Garner 0 1 0 1 Tuioti 1 0 0 1 Morgan 1 0 0 1 Lelie 1 0 0 1
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