UH after first win HOUSTON >> Hawaii senior guard Vince Manuwai had almost everything he needed. An extra sandwich, his compact-disc player, and a state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system were all at his fingertips.
vs. Rice on seniors’
last road trip
The Warriors have lost to
the Owls the past 3 seasonsBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comAll he lacked was some breathing room. For eight hours.
The seniors rode off into the sunrise as Warriors for the last time Wednesday night, as the team flew a direct commercial flight to get here for their final road game of the season. It was UH's only noncharter flight of the fall.
About midway through, Manuwai -- whose 6-foot-2, 309-pound body overflowed a coach aisle seat in a full row -- was asked if he would miss the travel.
He thought awhile before answering.
"Only the airline food," he said, and waited a beat before smiling and adding: "Can I still get my miles for all the trips I've made? I never did sign up for that."
Senior linebacker Chris Brown might have summed up the seniors' collective thoughts on travel the best.
"I enjoy staying with the guys," he said. "I don't like the trip itself, but I like the idea of being all together and going somewhere to do a job."
The Warriors have met the travel challenges of being the only college football team in the middle of the Pacific Ocean fairly well this year, winning two of their four road games. One of the victories was an upset of Fresno State, which ranks as one of UH's biggest wins ever.
If the Warriors win tomorrow, they become the first UH team with back-to-back winning seasons on the road since 1980 and 1981 -- and those teams played only three away games each year.
But the Hawaii Bowl-bound Warriors (7-2, 6-1 WAC) play a school they've never beaten anywhere in the Owls (4-6, 3-4), who conclude their season.
"We've had some moments on the road where we've played like champions, and we need to win this one," Hawaii coach June Jones said. "We have never beaten them. The school's 0-3 against them, and all of those games were ... with me."
It's the seniors' last chance to avenge being manhandled by a combined score of 103-56 the past three seasons. Last year's 27-24 loss at Aloha Stadium was the closest, but the most disappointing and damaging -- when the Owls came back from a 14-point deficit, it might have cost UH (which finished 9-3) a bowl bid, and quarterback Tim Chang was knocked out for the remaining nine games of the season with a wrist injury.
"I'm excited about this one because I want Rice," Brown said. "I'm working my butt off and trying to get the team pumped up."
The Warriors have had little trouble maintaining focus on the road. Even when they go to a big city like Houston, they don't get distracted by outside influences. Most of the seniors shrugged when asked if they had a favorite city to which they'd traveled for a game.
"We just watch movies, hang, walk around, kick it together at the hotel usually," Brown said. "I usually don't study, but I've got to on this road trip. It's good to read on the plane when you've got five, six hours to kill."
Senior running back Thero Mitchell -- a redshirting freshman on the 0-12 1998 team -- knows road victories (and wins, period) are precious, and that winning away from home can be a huge confidence-builder.
"It'll give us big momentum going into our last home stretch," Mitchell said. "Also, it's my last away game. I'd like to go out on a good note."
Short yardage: Former UH assistant Jim Cochrane was among a half-dozen NFL scouts at practice last night at the University of Houston. Cochrane works for the New York Jets. ... The first half-hour of practice was conducted without footballs because the van containing UH's equipment got lost on the way to the practice facility.
Who: Hawaii (7-2, 6-1 Western Athletic Conference) vs. Rice (4-6, 3-4) UH football
When: Tomorrow, 10 a.m. Hawaii time
TV: KFVE, live
Radio: 1420-AM, live
UH Athletics
