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Monday, December 4, 2000
Frustrating The frustration of a season more reminiscent of a pair of his predecessors than last year's Miracle in Manoa had University of Hawaii head coach June Jones heading face down toward the Aloha Stadium locker room.
season ends
Heavy recruiting to begin
Fenderson named Warriors' MVP
By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin
After saying 23 emotional farewells to a senior class not as fortunate as last year's, Jones wasn't in the mood for idle chit-chat about a loss that too closely resembled the just completed campaign.
Turnovers on offense, an ineffective run defense and uneven special teams play that afforded Nevada-Las Vegas excellent field position in the critical second half, told a familiar story.
There was a touch of irony in the handshake between Jones and old friend John Robinson after the 34-32 loss allowed the Rebels their first postseason appearance since the 1994 Las Vegas Bowl.
Jones knows all too well the sweetness of taking a program in the doldrums and carrying it shoulder-high to the promised land of the postseason.
While he was happy for his old University of Oregon quarterbacks coach, it's not something he felt good about. In his mind, the Warriors had a better chance of going 9-3 than the all-too-real other way around.
"If I had one word to describe it," Jones said in the solitude of the UH locker room, "it would be frustration. It all comes down to making plays and limiting your mistakes, you know? We didn't quit. But we didn't win as much as I thought we would."So who's to blame for this swing in the wrong direction? Why was confidence running so high coming out of fall camp? And where do you go with a team that only gets younger from here?
Did the media create the hype that took on a life of its own? Or were the coaches too willing to believe that good fortune would continue to pay the Warriors a visit each weekend in the fall?
Part of the blame rests with the coaches. Another part falls on the pads of the players. And the rest is left up to the fates. Sometimes they're with you. Sometimes they're not.
Just ask wideout Ashley Lelie, who had a good enough season to be recognized as second-team All-WAC. But he would trade that all in for not slipping down on the 2-point conversion, effectively killing any chance of Hawaii sending the UNLV game into overtime.
"My first option was to throw the fade to Lelie," UH quarterback Tim Chang said, who became only the second true freshman to throw for 3,000 yards in a season. The first was University of Nevada's David Neill.
"Then I saw him slip down," the former St. Louis School star said. "That's kind of how this season went. It hurts because we were close so many times."But no cigar. Instead of enjoying another postseason party, the Warrior coaches must pound the pavement over the next few weeks and nail down a recruiting class as solid as the last one.
"We had a couple of junior college guys here tonight," Jones said. "We're probably going to sign one or two in the early period and see if we can get them in for spring."
Jones already has three former local prep standouts -- who transferred last summer from other Division I programs -- waiting in the wings. They are Travis Laboy from Utah State, Wayne Hunter of the University of California and Stanford wideout Tafiti Uso.
Hunter and Laboy should help add height and weight at the defensive ends. Too many teams were able to lean on the undersized Warriors this season, including UNLV.
The Rebels ran for 431 yards, the most against UH since Navy rushed for 451 a year ago. Last week, Hawaii loaded up for the run against Wisconsin. The Warriors didn't do it this week and it cost them dearly.
"They brought everybody (against Wisconsin) to stop the run," UNLV head coach Robinson said. "We thought they would do it against us, but they didn't."
UH defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa will hit the recruiting trails on Wednesday. He said the Warriors are looking for players at nearly every position on defense. Seven seniors started Saturday's game on the defensive side of the football.
"This was a tough season," Lempa lamented. "We're going to be better next year. We've got to show improvement in nearly every phase on defense. We didn't do a good enough job against the run and we didn't put enough pressure on the passer, which hurt us in the secondary. It's a team thing all the way around."
University of Hawaii running back James Fenderson was given the Alec Waterhouse Most Valuable Player award at last night's football banquet. Fenderson waited
patiently, then ran to
team MVP awardBy Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinThe senior from Long Beach, Calif. led the Warriors in rushing with 651 yards and seven touchdowns. Fenderson also caught 30 passes for 216 yards and one score.
"He is what our football team is all about," UH head coach June Jones said. "He waited for his opportunity and made the most of it."
The Ben Yee Most Inspirational Player Award landed on the shoulders of three players. They were defensive tackle Lui Fuga -- who played the entire season with a shoulder injury --safety Nate Jackson and offensive tackle Vince Manuwai. Jackson missed one game with a broken foot and Manuwai was out one game with a pulled hamstring.
Fuga was second among defensive linemen with 41 tackles. Jackson led the team in interceptions with seven, including six in the last four games. Manuwai started 11 games and was about 85 percent healthy for the season.
Fellow offensive lineman Kynan Forney was given the Warrior Club Award for offense. Safety Jacob Espiau won it for defense and Sean Butts was named for his special teams play.
Quarterback Shawn Withy-Allen was named the scholar-athlete for the second consecutive season. The junior has a 3.85 GPA in communications.
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Final conference standings
Overall Conference W L T PCT. W L T PCT. PF PA Texas Christian 10 1 0 .909 7 1 0 .875 293 89 Texas-El Paso 8 3 0 .727 7 1 0 .875 283 167 Fresno St. 7 4 0 .636 6 2 0 .750 235 144 San Jose St. 7 5 0 .583 5 3 0 .625 250 240 Tulsa 5 7 0 .417 4 4 0 .500 155 165 Rice 3 8 0 .273 2 6 0 .250 186 215 Hawaii 3 9 0 .250 2 6 0 .250 197 276 Southern Methodist 3 9 0 .250 2 6 0 .250 118 248 Nevada 2 10 0 .167 1 7 0 .125 144 317 Last week's results
Nevada-Las Vegas 34, Hawaii 32
Season statistics
TEAM
Hawaii Opp FIRST DOWNS 245 264 Rushing 50 145 Passing 173 96 Penalty 22 23 RUSHING YARDAGE 885 2529 Yards gained rushing 1096 2862 Yards lost rushing 211 333 Rushing Attempts 239 593 Average Per Rush 3.7 4.3 Average Per Game 73.8 210.9 TD’s Rushing 13 26 PASSING YARDAGE 3875 2333 Att-Comp-Int 609-309-23 331-184-12 Average Per Pass 6.4 7.0 Average Per Catch 12.5 12.7 Average Per Game 322.9 194.4 TDs Passing 25 18 TOTAL OFFENSE 4760 4862 Total Plays 848 924 Average Per Play 5.6 5.3 Average Per Game 396.7 405.2 KICK RETURNS No.-Yards 55-1066 47-948 PUNT RETURNS No.-Yards 30-294 20-149 INT RETURNS No.-Yards 12-90 23-487 FUMBLES-LOST 24-10 26-14 PENALTIES-YARDS 116-830 96-794 PUNTS-AVG 65-37.6 55-37.5 TIME OF POSS. 25:33 34:27 3RD DOWN CONV. 61/177 81/191 4TH DOWN CONV. 9/26 8/21
RUSHING
Att. Yds. TD Long Fenderson 113 651 7 38 Weaver 30 116 1 15 Thompson 31 102 0 18 Mitchell 11 79 2 26 Grant 10 23 1 9 Rolovich 8 21 0 18 Tinoisamoa 1 0 0 0 Stutzmann 2 -2 0 0 Team 7 -8 0 0 Harris 1 -11 0 0 Berryman 1 -11 0 0 Liana 1 -26 0 0 Chang 23 -49 2 6
RECEIVING
No. Yds. TD Long Lelie 74 1110 11 55 Colbert 63 795 3 74 Stutzmann 54 682 5 47 Harris 36 530 3 58 Fenderson 30 216 1 48 Weaver 13 122 0 18 Welch 11 101 0 16 deLaura 9 112 0 26 Thompson 8 59 1 17 Gossett 5 109 1 63 Grant 3 17 0 9 Mitchell 2 13 0 7 Sims 1 9 0 9
PASSING
Att. Comp. Int. Yds. TD Chang 469 245 19 3041 19 Rolovich 136 63 4 815 6 Gilbride 2 1 0 19 0 Kauka 2 0 0 0 0
PUNTING
No. Yds. Avg. Long McBriar 43 1647 38.3 65 Berryman 22 795 36.1 65
TACKLES
UT AT TT Espiau 79 47 126 Jackson 65 44 109 Brooks 78 28 106 Tinoisamoa 50 24 74 Kemfort 39 34 73 A.Smith 45 20 65 Armstrong 47 15 62 Peters 35 14 49 Brown 34 12 46 Tucker 38 6 44 Fuga 31 10 41 Miller 33 7 40 Correa 24 14 38 Sims 22 9 31 Garner 16 12 28 Iosua 13 11 24 Samuseva 13 11 24 Dietschy 17 5 22 Liana 11 9 20 Ala 10 4 14 Avila 8 3 11 Butts 4 5 9 Clowers 3 4 7 Alapa 4 2 6 Jackson 3 2 5 Williams 5 0 5 Mitchell 4 0 4 Correia 1 2 3 Fenderson 3 0 3 Gilmore 2 1 3 Grant 3 0 3 Huggins 3 0 3 Riccardi 3 0 3 Berryman 2 0 2 Campbell 2 0 2 deLaura 2 0 2 Manuwai 2 0 2 B.Smith 2 0 2 Ala 0 1 1 Bhonapha 1 0 1 Fuata 1 0 1 Kauka 0 1 1 Thompson 1 0 1 Welch 1 0 1 Wright 1 0 1
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