[ WARRIOR FOOTBALL ]

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Alabama coach Mike Shula, who held practice at Aloha Stadium on Thursday, says his team is over its loss to Auburn.

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Warriors look to
tame the beast

Hawaii knows what to expect
from today’s game against
tradition-heavy Alabama

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By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.com

"The earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses the elephants are coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity.

"It was the first time that I had seen it and the size of the entire eleven nearly knocked me cold, men that I had seen play last year looking like they had nearly doubled in size."

-- Everett Stupper, Atlanta Journal, Oct. 8, 1930

When people headed off on a new, dangerous adventure in the 1800s, they were said to be going to "see the elephant." We're not talking about a routine visit to the circus or zoo. The metaphor applied to those who risked their lives blazing trails westward during the Gold Rush, or getting their first taste of combat in the Civil War. The elephant symbolized exotic danger, something intimidating, an out of the ordinary human experience, something unknown and bigger than you ... something that could kill you.

UH vs. Alabama When: Today, 2:45 p.m. Where: Aloha Stadium TV: ESPN Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM Tickets: Available at Aloha Stadium, Stan Sheriff Center, UH Campus Center and Windward Community College's OCET Office. Or call 800-944-2697 or etickethawaii.com on the Internet.

The stakes weren't quite that high for the Hawaii football team on Nov. 30, 2002. But they were close, from the Warriors' perspective. That was the day UH saw the elephant, and lost 21-16 to Alabama.

Today, at 2:45 p.m. at Aloha Stadium, they get a second chance. And to a man, they feel they can beat the pachyderm this time.

The elephant became a symbol of the Alabama football team in 1930, when an Atlanta sportswriter described the Crimson Tide as "a typical (Coach Wallace) Wade machine, powerful, big, tough, fast, aggressive ..." -- or everything an elephant is, children's books notwithstanding.

Even with a 4-8 record this season, Alabama is a three-point favorite today on the road at Hawaii, which is 7-4 and hasn't lost a regular-season home game since the defeat by the Tide last year, a span of six games.

UH coach June Jones concedes Alabama is physically superior to his team.

"Being at home helps, but Alabama's a better football team than we are, athletically," Jones said. "They have size, speed, quickness."

But the Warriors have familiarity and stability -- and perhaps, motivation -- on their side now. This time, the Hawaii players don't care about the ghosts of 12 national championships, and they know they're playing a team that has had three different head coaches in less than one year.

"Oh yeah. I'll be honest. I was kind of intimidated -- not scared, but a little intimidated -- knowing they were such a big-time school," Hawaii receiver Chad Owens said. "But this year it's different, being that we played them last year and we played USC, and they were really tough on defense, they hit hard and did everything right on defense. Not as intimidated, but still, it's a big-time game against a great football team. Defensively they're probably one of the best in the country.

"Last year I didn't know what to expect. Now I know what to expect."

One thing Owens can anticipate is a lot of attention from Alabama's linebackers and defensive backs -- including DeMeco Ryans (124 tackles) and Roman Harper (108). Owens is second in the nation in receptions per game with 8.4 and fourth in receiving yards at 113.0.

UH defensive backs coach Rich Miano said the familiarity factor between the teams is a two-way street.

"Some of that awe factor goes away because we did play them last year. But at the same time they probably overlooked us a little bit last year and we played well. So it works both ways," Miano said. "We may not be in awe of them and they probably respect us a little more. That thing all balances out. I think we see Shaud Williams, these guys we see on TV, SEC, there's still an awe factor, but our guys look forward to playing this type of people."

Williams sliced up Hawaii's defense for 160 yards and a touchdown last year, and he has 1,262 rushing yards this season, earned against some of the best defenses in the nation. If UH is to pull off an upset today, a major key is stopping Williams, who runs behind an offensive line that averages nearly 6-foot-5 and exactly 300.2 pounds.

"We do what we do," said Hawaii defensive coordinator George Lumpkin, who doesn't plan anything exotic to slow Williams. "You have to make sure you break down and you make tackles. We've done a nice job of tackling the last few games. He's a great running back."

Williams is also a fine return man, but that role has been taken over by Brandon Brooks, a sophomore with 4.3 speed in the 40 who took the second-half kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown against Auburn last week. The Tide could have the edge in special teams, where Hawaii has had to limit junior kicker Justin Ayat, the second-leading scorer in program history, to kickoffs and long field goals because of an accuracy slump.

Brooks' return wasn't enough for the Tide to win the Iron Bowl, though, and Auburn won one of the biggest rivalry games in college football 28-23.

First-year Alabama coach Mike Shula said on Thursday his team had already shrugged off the loss the same way it did last year in time to get up for the Warriors.

"We've moved on. We have a 24-hour rule," Shula said. "We look at it the next day and hey, we're on to the next game."

The Tide had to use the 24-hour rule eight times this year, playing a murderous schedule that included close losses to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas. All but two of Alabama's opponents are bowl-eligible, and the Tide are the only team that has finished within one score (20-13) of the unbeaten, No. 1 Sooners this season.

"We've had such an emotional year with games like that," Shula said. "Our guys come to play every week and bounce back. We're trying to end up on a good note."

Still, Shula has made it clear that he'd rather be beginning work (spelled recruiting) on next season than coaching in what amounts to a faux bowl game. Interestingly, Alabama was also disappointed it wasn't playing in a bigger bowl game when Shula quarterbacked the Tide to a 24-3 Aloha Bowl victory against Southern California in 1985.

Sophomore quarterback Brodie Croyle sounds like he doesn't mind playing here, though.

"We just really want to get some momentum going into the offseason and we want to send the seniors out with a win," Croyle told the Associated Press. "Mostly for us younger guys it's more about momentum and trying to get things going in the right direction now as opposed to waiting until next year."

UH receiver and offensive captain Jeremiah Cockheran caught nine passes for 207 yards and a touchdown last year against Alabama. He looks forward to the Tide's best game today.

"They're up for every game. I don't expect them to have a let-down. They played very well against Tennessee and Auburn, and should've beat Oklahoma," Cockheran said. "They're thinking they don't want to lose to Hawaii. I think they'll be real up and ready to compete."

If players like junior defensive end Antwan Odom can get up for one more game, the Tide could roll. Odom was in on two of four sacks of UH quarterback Tim Chang last year.

Chang was intercepted four times in that game, and was picked three times against Army last week, despite leading UH's run-and-shoot offense to a program-record 741 yards of total offense in a 59-28 win. Jones said he plans to use backup quarterback Jason Whieldon (who completed 16 of 17 passes against the Black Knights) for 10 to 15 plays today.

The Warriors can't afford to misfire on two trick plays, like they did last year -- a fake punt deep on their own side of the field, and a tackle-eligible pass to wide-open Abu Ma'afala that was dropped.

Pisa Tinoisamoa isn't around to make 19 tackles this time, so Ikaika Curnan and others will have to pick up the slack against Williams.

If they do that, and if the offensive line (zero sacks last week) protects Chang and UH doesn't turn the ball over -- things they did not accomplish last year -- and intangibles like a big home crowd and motivation factor in, an upset could be in the making.

But if it's true that physical superiority eliminates all theory, Alabama wins.

It's one thing to have seen the elephant. It's altogether another to tame it.

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Probable starters

Alabama

Offense

LT	75	Atlas Herrion	6-4	300	Sr.
LG	78	Justin Smiley	6-4	301	Jr.
C	741	JB Closner	6-4	295	So.
RG	73	Dennis Alexander	6-6	352	Sr.
RT	51	Evan Mathis	6-5	294	Jr.
TE	93	Donald Clarke	6-6	260	Sr.
QB	12	Brodie Croyle	6-2	198	So.
H	21	Shaud Williams	5-9	189	Sr.
F	29	Tim Castille	5-11	231	Fr.
SE	3	Dre Fulgham	6-1	217	Sr.
FL	84	Triandos Luke	6-0	188	Sr.

Defense

DE	47	Mark Anderson	6-5	239	So.
DT	97	Anthony Bryant	6-3	345	Sr.
DT	99	Jeremy Clark	6-3	280	Fr.
DE	98	Antwan Odom	6-5	273	Jr.
WLB	35	DeMeco Ryans	6-1	213	So.
MLB	8	Freddie Roach	6-2	237	So.
SLB	6	Derrick Pope	6-0	223	Sr.
CB	9	Anthony Madison	5-9	171	Jr.
FS	20	Charles Jones	6-0	183	Sr.
CB	26	Charlie Peprah	5-11	195	So.

Specialists

PK	22	Brian Bostick	5-11	207	Jr.
P	24	Bo Freeland	6-4	257	Jr.
KO	43	Kyle Robinson	5-10	175	Sr.
Hold	3	Alex Fox	5-9	178	Jr.
Snap	50	Nick Ridings	6-0	246	Sr.
KR	4	Tyrone Prothro	5-10	176	Fr.
PR	5	Brandon Brooks	5-5	165	So.

Hawaii

Offense

WR	84	Britton Komine	5-10	187	Jr.
or	85	Jason Rivers	6-2	187	Fr.
WR	2	Chad Owens	5-9	174	Jr.
LT	70	Tala Esera	6-3	283	Fr.
LG	64	Samson Satele	6-3	289	Fr.
C	59	Derek Faavi	6-1	273	So.
RG	69	Uriah Moenoa	6-2	365	Jr.
RT	66	Brandon Eaton	6-3	287	So.
WR	38	Gerald Welch	5-8	205	Jr.
WR	19	Jeremiah Cockheran	6-0	190	Sr.
QB	14	Tim Chang	6-2	194	Jr.
RB	20	John West	5-10	180	Sr.
or	1	Mike Bass	5-7	174	Jr.
or	6	Michael Brewster	5-6	180	Jr.

Defense

LE	93	Houston Ala	5-11	260	Sr.
LT	97	Isaac Sopoaga	6-3	336	Sr.
RT	92	Lance Samuseva	6-0	309	Sr.
RE	1	Travis LaBoy	6-4	254	Sr.
SLB	46	Keani Alapa	6-1	229	Sr.
MLB	56	Chad Kalilimoku	5-11	240	Sr.
WLB	51	Ikaika Curnan	5-11	218	So.
CB	37	Abraham Elimimian	5-10	173	Jr.
SS	33	Hyrum Peters	5-8	188	Sr.
FS	17	David Gilmore	6-0	197	Sr.
CB	3	Kelvin Millhouse	6-1	205	Sr.

Specialists

P	25	Kurt Milne	6-0	204	Fr.
K	47	Justin Ayat	5-11	205	Jr.
Snap	45	T.J. Moe	6-0	220	So.
PR	21	Clifton Herbert	5-7	159	Sr.
or	2	Chad Owens	5-9	174	Jr.
KR	20	John West	5-10	180	Sr.
or	82	Ross Dickerson	5-10	173	Fr.
Hold	8	Jason Whieldon	6-1	187	Sr.

Schedules

Alabama (4-8, 2-6 SEC)

Aug. 30	South Florida	W, 40-17
Sept. 6	Oklahoma	L, 13-20
Sept. 13	Kentucky	W, 27-17
Sept. 20	Northern Illinois	L, 16-19
Sept. 27	Arkansas	L, 31-34 (2OT)
Oct. 4	at Georgia	L, 23-37
Oct. 11	Southern Miss	W, 17-3
Oct. 18	at Ole Miss	L, 28-43
Oct. 25	Tennessee	L, 43-51 (5OT)
Nov. 8	at Mississippi State	W, 38-0
Nov. 15	LSU	L, 3-27
Today	at Hawaii

Hawaii (7-4, 5-2 WAC)

Aug. 30	Appalachian State	W, 40-17
Sept. 13	at Southern California	L, 32-61
Sept. 19	at Nevada-Las Vegas	L, 22-33
Sept. 27	Rice	W, 41-21
Oct. 4	at Tulsa	L, 16-27
Oct. 11	Fresno State	W, 55-28
Oct. 18	at Louisiana Tech	W, 44-41
Oct. 25	UTEP	W, 31-15
Nov. 1	at San Jose State	W, 13-10
Nov. 15	at Nevada	L, 14-24
Nov. 22	Army	W, 59-28
Today	Alabama
Dec. 6	Boise State

Per-game comparison

Alabama	Category	Hawaii
25.2	Scoring	33.4
159.7	Rushing	100.1
186.1	Passing	388.6
345.8	Total Offense	488.7
18.2	First Downs	24.5
8.5	FD Rushing	4.9
8.3	FD Passing	17.5
1.3	FD Penalty	2.0
24.7	Points Allowed	27.7
132.3	Rushing Allowed	161.9
223.8	Passing Allowed	221.1
356.2	Total Offense Allowed	383.0
11-202	Interceptions -- Yards	10-49
46.8.3	Punting	39.5
69-562	Penalties	87-795
19-6	Fumbles-lost	18-9
30:38	Time of Possession	28:47
61-179	Third Down Conversion	64-153
13-23	Fourth Down Conversion	6-16

Key players

Rushing	A	Yards	Avg	TD
Shaud Williams, UA	262	1,262	4.8	13
Ray Hudson, UA	89	428	4.8	1
John West, UH	54	328	6.1	4
Michael Brewster, UH	32	265	8.3	0

Passing	A	C	I	Yards	TD
Brody Croyle, UA	304	162	11	2,056	14
Spencer Pennington, UA	29	13	1	151	1
Tim Chang, UH	517	310	18	3,576	23
Jason Whieldon, UH	73	47	3	647	6

Receiving	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Dre Fulgham, UA	30	475	13.3	6
Triandos Luke, UA	32	432	13.5	4
Chad Owens, UH	76	1,017	13.4	8
Jeremiah Cockheran, UH	44	647	14.7	6

Tackles	S	A	Tot	FL/S
Demeco Ryans, UA	70	54	124	8.5/1.5
Roman Harper, UA	76	32	108	0/0
Derrick Pope, UA	46	49	95	8/5
Charles Jones, UA	50	39	89	1/0
Freddie Roach, UA	48	34	82	7/1
Ikaika Curnan, UH	55	35	90	7/2
Hyrum Peters, UH	54	20	74	4/3
Chad Kalilimoku, UH	39	33	72	9/2
Abraham Elimimian, UH	46	15	61	2/0
Travis LaBoy, UH	47	14	61	18/11

WAC standings

	Conference	Overall
	W	L	Pct	W	L	Pct	Str
Boise State	6	0	1.000	10	1	.909	W8
Tulsa	6	2	.750	8	4	.667	W5
Fresno State	5	2	.714	7	5	.583	L1
Hawaii	5	2	.714	7	4	.636	W1
Nevada	4	3	.571	6	5	.545	W1
Rice	4	3	.571	4	7	.364	W2
Louisiana Tech	3	4	.429	5	6	.455	L1
San Jose State	2	6	.250	3	8	.273	L2
UTEP	1	6	.143	2	10	.167	L6
SMU	0	8	.000	0	11	.000	L11

Last week's results
Boise State 31, Fresno State 17
Tulsa 34, San Jose State 32
Rice 45, UTEP 14
Hawaii 59, Army 28
Today's games
Rice at Louisiana Tech
TCU at SMU
Nevada at Boise State
Fresno State at UTEP
Alabama at Hawaii