Warriors walking What's worse than taking on a wounded animal that still has its teeth?
into WAC’s madhouse
Hawaii has not won in front
Tulsa's video gear stolen
of Fresno's fans since 1973By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comWhen said wounded animal is defending its home turf.
Hawaii coach June Jones knows better than to look at Fresno State's 67-21 loss at Boise State last week and think of his team's Friday visit to Bulldog Stadium as a trip to the petting zoo.
After all, it's been less than three weeks since the Warriors themselves ventured to the Broncos' blue-hued field of nightmares, only to come out on the wrong end of a 58-31 flogging.
Fresno State is a disappointing 4-4 (2-1 Western Athletic Conference), but the Bulldogs are unbeaten in three home games this season and six in a row going back to 2001. The Bulldogs are 27-4 in home games (20-2 WAC) in six seasons under coach Pat Hill.
Hawaii (5-2, 4-1 WAC) hasn't won there since 1973.
UH has outscored its last two opponents, Nevada and Tulsa, 96-48. But Jones is wary as he begins preparing for FSU.
"We're going to need to play solid football. Pat Hill will probably choose to run and try to keep us off the field. They'll still pass, don't get me wrong. But I think their game plan will be run-oriented," Jones said yesterday at his weekly news conference. "So we have to prove we can hold consistently against the run. That will be a test this week. It's gap control, and I think scheme-wise we needed to make adjustments to get extra people in there. But the last four or five weeks it's been gap control."
Hawaii's defense played its best half of the year as the Warriors took a 23-0 lead into intermission last Saturday. But that was against Tulsa, a team that has now lost 17 in a row (the longest ongoing losing streak in the nation).
And UH was at home, where the team doesn't have to walk through a gauntlet of taunters to get to the field.
Jones said playing in hostile country is challenging, and can be fun.
"We've got to be able to prove we can do that. It will be similar to Boise. The crowd throws bottles at you and yells at you, might want to fight. All those kind of things. Which to me, I don't mind; in fact I kind of enjoy going into that atmosphere and winning," Jones said. "That's what I told the kids today. But if you don't know what you're walking into, then it's a shock. There's an 800-yard walk from the locker room and the fans are lined up. It's a 4-feet wide aisle and they're yelling, they're throwin' stuff. It's a good atmosphere. Some of it's pretty funny. They say stuff about me, they say stuff about everybody. You just hope it's not like real accurate."
Still, Jones doesn't want to expose his team to too much friendly Fresno fun. The team won't practice there, instead flying into Ontario, Calif., tomorrow. The Warriors will spend the night there, practice on Thursday and then arrive in Fresno the night before the game.
When UH played at Fresno two years ago, it practiced next to a fraternity house where the brothers had studied facts about the individual Warriors and yelled at them while the visitors tried to prepare for the game. That wasn't the only factor, but Fresno State pounded Hawaii 45-27.
When: Friday, 3:05 p.m. Hawaii vs. Fresno State
Where: Fresno, Calif.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 1420-AM.
UH Athletics
