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Monday, September 11, 2000
University of Hawaii defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa was worried from the start. His players were not. And that proved their undoing in Saturday night's 45-20 loss to Portland State. Players admit
Humbling hammering
to thinking Vikings
weren’t ‘that good’
Good week for byeBy Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinThe Vikings generated an eye-opening 431 yards in offense that included a 72-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jimmy Blanchard to wideout Terry Charles. Even more disturbing were the 196 yards and three rushing touchdowns Portland State managed in the win.
Senior running back Charles "Chip" Dunn carried the ball a workmanlike 39 times for 154 yards and two scores. After he softened things up, Amad Robinson came in and scored on a 26-yard run with 4:10 left in the game.
One of Lempa's goals coming in was to improve the numbers against the run. The coaches firmly believed that the front seven would dominate enough to keep the secondary from being exposed. It didn't turn out that way and it's cause for concern entering the Western Athletic Conference campaign at Texas-El Paso in two weeks.
"I'm disappointed with the score," Lempa said. "But I think our players gave great effort. They played hard. We made some first-game mistakes. Missed some tackles. That sort of thing. But that was a good football team."
Blanchard was particularly good at picking up Hawaii's blitz packages. If he saw the Warriors were loaded on one side of the field, he'd call a maximum protect audible and look for Charles locked up one-on-one with beleaguered UH cornerback Shawndel Tucker.
"He checked their offense away from where our defense was," Lempa said. "Sometimes when we blitzed, we didn't get home, and that left our corners in one-on-one situations and in a bind. I don't care who you are, you can't cover guys for three or four seconds."
The senior quarterback also used some nice misdirection plays, both pass and run, to keep the Warriors off-balance most of the night.
Granted, things started out well enough. The Vikings went three and out on their first four possessions, not picking up a first down until 23 seconds were left in the first quarter.
But two costly turnovers by the offense and a backbreaking nine play, 92-yard drive before the half turned the contest in a hurry.
"We didn't think they were a real good team," UH defensive end Chris Brown said, who finished with three tackles and one quarterback sack. "We knew that they were decent, but we didn't think they were that good. And we paid for it."
Senior middle linebacker Rinda Brooks, who led the team in tackles with 14, soundly agreed.
"I can't say that we weren't prepared," Brooks said. "But actions speak louder than words. Maybe we didn't take these guys seriously enough, but my hat's off to them, they got the win, we got the loss. It's the little things that count the most.
"We were beating ourselves on a lot of plays. We weren't running our blitzes right and we gave up a couple of big plays. And you can't do that and expect to win."
THIS WEEK
If there ever was a good weekend to have a bye, this is it. UH’s bye week
a good time to
forget upset lossBy Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinSome might say it would be better to have a game in six days in order to forget past transgressions in last Saturday's stunning 45-20 loss to Portland State.
But they could be wrong.
The coaches should have everyone's attention the next two weeks to try to correct all the mistakes committed on both sides of the football.
Do something similar at Texas-El Paso in 13 days and the rout will be on for the Miners.
The players and coaches were visibly upset with the performance vs. the Division I-AA Vikings. A pair of costly turnovers and numerous breakdowns on defense left the Warriors 0-1 and in need of some time to reflect.
Enter the bye week.
Hawaii head coach June Jones said practice would be the same over the next few days, no major changes in personnel, no drastic revisions with the game plans.
"Just better execution," Jones said. "That's what we have to do because we were outplayed and outcoached in nearly every phase. There were still enough positives to see we're moving in the right direction.
"But these next two weeks are important ones for us."
2000 UH Football Special
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu