Sidelines
Everything felt right
against NevadaDID I say that this would be a tough game? That there's a chance the rest of Hawaii's season might not look so hot?
That was a typo.
Instead, we saw our first glimpse of the real run-and-shoot. We saw the St. Louis Timmy Chang. We saw a defense that didn't quite dominate, but with interceptions, takeaways, a touchdown, did everything it was designed to do.
We saw kick cover man Chad Kapanui have one of the great wedge busting days of all time.
With 13:46 left in the game, the Nevada team driver actually received an announcement over the stadium's public address system to start warming up the bus.
What took them so long?
This was too easy, 59-34. Hawaii didn't need to win an easy game. We already know what UH can do when everything is easy. Hawaii needed to win a hard one.
Instead, UH did something even better.
It did everything right. Against Nevada, everything worked.
And it looks like the race for a WAC title is on again.
There were 42 points in the first quarter, 52 for Hawaii at the half. Hawaii's first play from scrimmage was a touchdown, a 72-yard bomb, Britton Komine from Timmy Chang. Can Chang play this game? He can after all.
"I've been saying it," June Jones said. "He just hasn't played. He's rusty."
He doesn't look it. Not now. This was the breakout game everyone had been waiting to see. Hawaii's offense, at long last, found its groove, its spark.
"Everything just felt so right, with what we were doing," receiver Justin Colbert said.
"Offense got us so pumped up with what they were doing out there," linebacker Chris Brown said.
Hawaii's defense played like it. A week after the nightmare at Boise, Hawaii pounced. On its second snap, pressure served up a soft pass to safety Hyrum Peters.
Gone.
Touchdown.
And if it played straight up the rest of the way, the defense had already done its job.
"Everything went wrong early," Nevada coach Chris Tormey said.
But there was more. Four turnovers in all. What was working for Hawaii's defense? "A lot of disguising," said Abraham Elimimian, who stole a long ball and bounded into the arms of Coach Jones.
Jones groused about the final numbers after the game, but it didn't matter. Defensively, UH did to Nevada what has been done to Hawaii many times. The Wolf Pack stats looked good, but the numbers were meaningless. They were catch-up numbers. The bus was already warming up.
"If we lost this game," Elimimian said, "all chances of a WAC championship were gone."
The picture is a lot rosier now, after this performance. There was a lot of work, this week, to help Hawaii bounce back. "Our coaches did a lot of things this week, I'm not allowed to say what," Elimimian said. "I was told not to say."
Fine. The 11 herbs and spices stay secret. The bottom line is Hawaii did everything right, everything worked. Almost.
"I can remember we had 1,000 yards in one game offensively at Portland State," Jones said.
"So you can always do better."
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com