Monday, October 18, 1999
THIS WEEK | NOTEBOOK | CONFERENCE STANDINGS | STATISTICS
Rested Rainbows
ready to hit
the road
Hawaii had an extra week
By Paul Arnett
to prepare for its big WAC
road game at Tulsa
Star-BulletinThe Hawaii defensive linemen broke from the huddle with an emphatic, "Rainbows," as quarterback Matt Paul led his troops to the line of scrimmage.
Out wide to his left, four of his fellow big boys lined up in an I-formation, reminiscent to what former UH offensive coordinator Paul Johnson liked to run out of the spread option attack. He called it the stack.
On this Friday afternoon at Cooke Field, the defensive linemen called it money in their impromptu touch football game with the offensive linemen as the final practice of the week drew to a close.
Paul took the imaginary snap from center, dropped back into the pocket and watched as the four linemen scattered to the winds, leaving UH head coach June Jones laughing out loud.
"I might like to add that formation to our playbook," Jones said, then smiled. "This is the kind of thing we wanted to do this week to get the guys to relax and enjoy having a week off," Jones said. "We're off to a good start, winning four games. But to maintain this level, we have to come out and play hard throughout the second half of the season."
The Rainbows resume their improbable run for a Western Athletic Conference championship with a critical league game against sagging Tulsa University.Prior to this season, this Saturday's road game would be written off as a loss. After all, Hawaii wasn't exactly a road warrior. The Rainbows hadn't won a game outside Aloha Stadium since knocking off Nevada-Las Vegas in 1995.
But thanks to the 20-0 victory in the Cotton Bowl against Southern Methodist a month ago, the Rainbows have a whole new attitude about going on the road.
"This is a very important game for us if we want to reach some of our goals," UH quarterback Dan Robinson said Friday. "To stay in the WAC race we have to get a win. It won't be easy. But at least we know we can win a road game if we play well."
For the third straight season, Tulsa has lost five consecutive games, including this past weekend's shellacking at Texas Christian. Still, Jones isn't taking anything for granted.
"They've struggled a little bit, but look what happened last Thursday in Dallas," Jones said. "SMU hadn't won a game this year and they beat one of the better teams in our league. So, you never know."
Having a bye week hasn't helped the Rainbows as of late. This decade, Hawaii is 6-11 after having the week off. But so far this season, the Rainbows have bucked most of the negative trends.
"I think the rest will do us some good, especially considering we have a tough road trip ahead of us," Jones said. "This is a critical game for us to see if we're continuing to improve."
Hawaii will need to if it entertains any thoughts of making a postseason run. The Rainbows need only win three of their remaining six to qualify for the Christmas Day doubleheader. Given the surprising play of the Rainbows, that would seem to be within reach.But among those six opponents are some of the better teams the Rainbows will face this season, including conference foes TCU, Fresno State and San Jose State. Hawaii closes out the 1999 campaign with home games against the Naval Academy and Washington State.
"To be honest with you, we're not thinking about any of that stuff right now," Jones said. "Our only concern is Tulsa, who played Rice closer than we did. We've got to do a better job of executing on offense or we're going to struggle like we did at times in our (38-19) loss to Rice."
One reason Jones took a lighter approach to the bye week was so the players could forget about the disappointing defeat to the first-place Owls. There were no organized practices, something that will change this week.
"We'll get back to our normal routine on Monday," Jones said. "We needed some time to get healthy and I think we did that. We had a lot of guys nicked up, so the lack of contact was good for them."
This will be Hawaii's first road trip to Tulsa, Okla., since the Rainbows lost there, 58-0, in 1951. Hawaii won the only other meeting between the two, 38-9, in 1992. This is the second of three road games for the Rainbows this season.
THIS WEEK
Tulsa struggles with
and against runNEXT GAME at tulsa. oct. 23, 10:05 a.m. hst
Star-Bulletin wire servicesTulsa tried to shut down LaDainian Tomlinson, the nation's leading rusher, with little success last Saturday.
Tomlinson upped his rushing total to 1,060 yards in six games, with 178 yards and four touchdowns against the Golden Hurricane in the Horned Frog's 56-17 rout of Tulsa.
Tulsa's running game, which was the WAC's worst entering Saturday's game, struggled again. The Golden Hurricane was limited to 103 rushing yards on 44 carries.
"I really thought we would rebound and respond to the negative situation at the end of the first half," Tulsa head coach Dave Rader said. "We're just not making big plays."
There were three key moves made by the Hawaii coaching staff that helped the Rainbows get off to their best start in seven seasons. RAINBOW NOTEBOOK
Making right moves
The first one was moving Robert Kemfort to outside linebacker. The second choice was shifting Channon Harris from defensive back to wideout. And the third? Well, how about starting Matt Paul at defensive end.
"All three of those moves have really helped put this team together," UH head coach June Jones said. "Robert has played well at outside linebacker and Matt has stepped in and done very well at defensive end."
At the halfway point of the 1999 campaign, Paul has 33 tackles, fifth-best on the team. That's not bad for a guy who didn't start until the third game of the season. Paul also has two sacks, one pass breakup and one forced fumble.
Kemfort also has left his mark. The former receiver-running back recovered from an ankle injury early on to be sixth on the team in tackles with 31.
And Harris, well, the slotback has certainly caught on in the UH offense. He is third on the team in receptions behind Dwight Carter and Craig Stutzmann with 28 catches for 444 yards and two touchdowns. On the downside, he has had numerous drops.
"Overall, Channon has come in and done a good job," Jones said. "He just needs to focus a little more out there and he'll be fine."
Injury update
The one good thing about the bye is the injury list isn't quite as long as it was the week before.Jones said he expects to have everyone back into the lineup, save safety Jacob Espiau, whose hamstring pull could keep him sidelined for another month.
The two people back from the bench are slotback Davey deLaura (hamstring) and safety Daniel Ho-Ching (shoulder). Ho-Ching played as an upback on the punt team in the lopsided loss last weekend to Rice, but has now been cleared for full contact.
"Another guy we're not sure about is Joe Correia," Jones said of the defensive end. He reinjured his knee in the Rice game, but could be back for the road trip to Tulsa, Okla., this week.
Charter flight
The second leg of Hawaii's 4,000-mile journey to Tulsa will be handled by a charter flight out of Los Angeles."Southwest Airlines is going to provide the jet," Jones said. "And to be honest with you, the cost is about the same as flying commercial."
It will be the first charter flight for Jones' regime. The Rainbows took a nonstop commercial flight to Dallas on Delta for the SMU game and will fly commercial to San Francisco for the matchup at San Jose State on Nov. 6.
Time change
The Hawaii-Tulsa game was originally scheduled for 9 a.m. (HST) but has been moved to 10 a.m. to accommodate the Fox Network's regional broadcast.It will not be shown on the Fox Sports West affiliate that's on Oceanic Cable Channel 24 or KFVE-TV (Channel 5). But for those who have GTE TV service, you can see the game on Channel 65.
By Paul Arnett, Star-Bulletin
CONFERENCE STANDINGS
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
SMU 24, Fresno State 14
Rice 49, San Jose State 7
TCU 56, Tulsa 17
Arizona 34, UTEP 21
COMING UP SATURDAY
TCU at Rice, 9 a.m.
Hawaii at Tulsa, 10 a.m.
UTEP at Fresno State, 11 a.m.
SMU at San Jose State, 3 p.m.
SEASON STATISTICS
TEAM
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 111 121 Rushing 28 62 Passing 78 47 Penalty 5 12 RUSHING YARDAGE 446 1094 Yards gained rushing 594 1289 Yards lost rushing 148 195 Rushing Attempts 133 304 Average Per Rush 3.4 3.6 Average Per Game 74.3 182.3 TDs Rushing 5 12 PASSING YARDAGE 2001 1018 Att-Comp-Int. 271-145-12 154-89-7 Average Per Pass 7.4 6.6 Average Per Catch 13.8 11.4 Average Per Game 333.5 169.7 TDs Passing 11 6 TOTAL OFFENSE 2447 2112 Total Plays 404 458 Average Per Play 6.1 4.6 Average Per Game 407.8 352.0KICK RETURNS
No. -Yards 23-419 28-480PUNT RETURNS
No. -Yards 19-189 17-107INT RETURNS
No. -Yards 7-93 12-92 FUMBLES-LOST 14-8 13-5 PENALTIES-YARDS 56-469 46-338 PUNTS-AVG 29-43.1 36-39.6 TIME OF POSS. 25:00 35:00 3RD-DOWN CONV. 27/80 34/95 4TH-DOWN CONV. 3/8 4/12RUSHING
Att. Yds. TD Long Weaver 46 234 2 20 Thompson 39 184 1 38 Fenderson 2 22 0 11 Stutzmann 4 19 0 9 Grant 4 15 0 13 Liana 1 5 0 5 Skinner 1 1 0 1 Garland 1 1 0 1 Harrison 6 -17 1 14 Robinson 29 -18 1 14PASSING
Att. Com. Int. Yds. TD Robinson 255 137 11 1910 11 Harrison 15 8 1 91 0 Ho-Ching 1 0 0 0 0RECEIVING
No. Yds. TD Long Carter 41 703 4 62 Stutzmann 30 273 3 26 Harris 28 444 2 48 Lelie 15 223 0 43 Thompson 9 69 0 19 Weaver 7 79 0 29 Brooks 5 116 2 80 Gray 3 31 0 18 Sims 2 57 0 46 Colbert 2 7 0 8 de Laura 1 7 0 7 Noa 1 -1 0 0 Robinson 1 -7 0 0PUNTING
No. Yds. Avg. Long Shrout 29 1251 43.1 60TACKLES
UT AT TT Ulbrich 25 59 84 D. Miller 19 25 44 Y. Warren 11 30 41 Le Jay 7 30 37 Paul 8 25 33 Kemfort 10 21 31 A. Smith 7 24 31 Tuioti 6 18 24 Austin 10 13 23 Tucker 7 13 20 Harrison 10 9 19 Correia 4 14 18 Espiau 5 11 16 Iosua 4 12 16 Elam 3 11 14 Ho-Ching 4 10 14 Sims 3 11 14 Avila 2 9 11 Fuga 1 9 10 Garnier 3 6 9 Garner 0 8 8 Jackson 1 7 8 C. Brown 3 3 6 Fenderson 2 3 5 Campbell 1 3 4 Espinoza 1 3 4 Morgan 0 4 4 Armstrong 0 3 3 Dietschy 0 3 3 Lelie 1 1 2 Jackson 1 0 1 Liana 1 0 1 Owen 1 0 1 Robinson 0 1 1 Shrout 0 1 1 Williams 1 0 1
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