GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Tony Akpan sacked UAB quarterback Darrell Hackney in yesterday's game.

Hackney unhappy after
UH blankets White

Darrell Hackney isn't satisfied with being mediocre.

The UAB quarterback won a trophy as his team's most valuable player in last night's 59-40 Hawaii Bowl loss, but he was far from deserving on his own scorecard.

"C-plus, that's how I'd rate my performance," he said, even after completing 31 of 54 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns against Hawaii. "It was average."

Those stats, in addition to his 4-yard rushing TD that pulled the Blazers within two scores at 45-33 late in the third quarter, looked good in everybody else's book.

"Some people look at the yards and the TDs but forget about the turnovers," Hackney said. "I had two turnovers and that really hurt our team. In order to make it to the next level, you've got to put turnovers to a minimum."

Hackney was referring to his fumble and interception, both of which occurred in the second half, when the Blazers already needed to make up ground in a hurry.

He was hounded and hit by the UH defense all night and was sacked twice by Darrell Tautofi.

"A couple of times I couldn't set my feet and had to throw off my back foot because of the pressure," said Hackney, who admitted to a lack of touch on some of his short throws. "That's the main thing. I watched Tim Chang and he sets his feet all the time. Even when he's on the run, he can set his feet and complete passes. I learned a lot from him tonight, like how to get rid of the ball with a quicker release and to try to take what the defense gives you and not force it. I wish I could have a few more of those throws back."

The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Hackney also fessed up about trying to force it too much to All-Conference USA wide receiver Roddy White, who holds the C-USA record for receiving yards in a season (1,339) and who came into the game ranked second in the nation in receiving yards per game (121.7).

After one early touchdown, a 51-yarder, UAB's dangerous Hackney-to-White combination never fully materialized.

White also piled up the stats, though, making six catches for 113 yards, but Hawaii succeeded in virtually taking him out of the game when it counted.

"He (White) was frustrated that he wasn't getting the ball more," Blazers coach Watson Brown said. "But he was patient, and he and Darrell did a good job, considering all of that pressure Darrell was getting. Hawaii took our ability to pass to White away, but we did a much better job getting the ball into the hands of other people. We scored 40 points and I feel pretty good about that."

White, however, had his hands full with All-Western Athletic Conference cornerback Abraham Elimimian, who turned in a solid performance and, at times, got double-team help.

"Teams toward the end of the season got smart about playing against Roddy," Hackney said. "They start playing man and then after he shows what he has, they start doubling. Hawaii took him out of the game to see what else we could do."

White and Elimimian got into a couple of flare-ups -- minor pushing and shoving matches, trying to get the upper hand psychologically.

"I wanted the ball more and Coach did a good job trying to get it to me," White said. "We (White and Elimimian) were out there competing. We're both All-Conference. We had words a couple of times, but it was just our competitive natures."