Warriors make it 8

San Jose State sticks around, but Hawaii turns it on late for its eighth consecutive victory

Hawaii didn't kill the messenger last night. The Warriors swarmed to the source.

UH receiver Davone Bess met up on Friday with his old buddy from Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif. Yonus Davis is San Jose State's star running back. Bess was more than happy to let safety Leonard Peters and the rest of the UH defense know that Davis planned on shredding them for 200 yards.

"I think he did get 200," Peters said. "But it was sideways. But that doesn't count last I checked."

The defense held Davis to 29 yards on 14 carries as UH crushed San Jose State 54-17 for the Warriors' eighth win in a row.

The Friday night meeting of Bess -- who caught two of Colt Brennan's five touchdown passes -- was actually an extension of a text message conversation in the days leading up to the game, with Bess as the middle man.

"They basically let me know that they were going to swarm me and be all over me," Davis said. "They came out and produced and played a tough game and were more physical than us."

San Jose State managed just 192 yards in offense, while the Warriors added to their nation-leading average by piling up 568.

It was the lowest output by an offense against UH this season.

"There was no magic game plan," Warriors defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville said. "There was no cerebral thought from me."

UH is 9-2 overall and finished its WAC season at 7-1, clinching at least sole possession of second place. If Nevada can beat visiting Boise State next week, the Warriors get a share of the conference title.

The largest Aloha Stadium crowd of the season (29,523) saw the Warriors win their fourth homecoming game of the year -- Fresno State's, New Mexico State's, their own against Idaho, and last night's return of former UH coach Dick Tomey as the Spartans head man.

But the Spartans hung in longer and stronger than some of the other teams the Warriors have dominated this fall.

Compared to the recent early-round knockouts this was more like a late-round TKO. UH coach June Jones said his team was not as sharp as usual.

"It was not our best game," Jones said. "We overcame a lot. The positive was there was a lot of good hitting going on."

A five-touchdown spurt by the Warriors after halftime -- enabled by UH's crushing defense -- finally locked it up as Hawaii matched the school record for consecutive victories in one season.

UH led just 27-17 midway through the third quarter, but three San Jose State turnovers in the fourth quarter and the Warriors' offense turned it into a rout.

"It's not very complex," Tomey said. "They were just more physical than we were."

UH will likely make the Top 25 in the polls today, and Brennan -- though still a long shot -- did nothing to hurt his Heisman Trophy candidacy.

"We can just wait (for the Top 25)," Brennan said. "We don't need it now. We have games against two teams (Purdue and Oregon State) from big-time conferences coming up. Once we get that job done, it will say enough."

Brennan passed for 402 yards and the five TDs, and rushed for another, and was intercepted once. He is six away from tying the single-season record of 54 touchdown passes set by Houston's David Klingler in 1990.

Nate Ilaoa joined Bess in scoring two touchdowns for Hawaii, which also leads the nation in scoring and passing yardage.

Ilaoa rushed for 100 yards on 12 carries coming off missing last week's game with a sprained ankle.

UH scored on its first possession for the fifth straight game, on Dan Kelly's 39-yard field goal.

Hawaii made it 10-0 on the next series when Brennan passed to Chad Mock for a 36-yard touchdown. Mock got behind San Jose State cornerback Dwight Lowery, who came into the game with eight interceptions.

The Spartans got on the board midway through the second quarter thanks to a special-teams gaffe by the Warriors.

Myron Newberry mishandled Waylon Prather's punt deep in UH territory, and the Spartans' John Broussard recovered at the UH 5. James T. Collier, running behind 6-4, 335-pound blocking back Jibri Sharp, pounded it in from 1 yard out for the first rushing touchdown against UH at home since the Oct. 7 Nevada game.

Another bad UH return, this one by Ross Dickerson on the ensuing kickoff, put the ball on the Hawaii 7.

"We made two bad decisions on special teams on kicks that we shouldn't have touched," Jones said.

But the Warriors covered the 93 yards in eight plays, with Brennan scrambling for the final 8.

Jared Strubeck made a 37-yard field goal for San Jose State with 4 seconds left in the half.

Ilaoa rushed for all 53 yards of UH's drive to start the second half after Rustin Saole recovered SJSU's attempted onside kick. Ilaoa went 4 yards for the score and the Warriors led 27-10.

"(Running) was the game plan," Brennan said. "Coach Jones felt like it'd be fun, to mix it up. Almost every time we ran, we had a great play."

Collier scored again from 1 yard out, capping a 10-play, 77-yard drive and putting the difference back to 10 points.

"They didn't stay down," Brennan said. "Luckily we kept a level head."

The Warriors regained control with two consecutive long drives ending in touchdown passes of 5 and 9 yards from Brennan to Bess. The second gave Hawaii a 41-17 lead with 12:42 left in the game.

A fumble recovery by Ikaika Alama-Francis and Jake Patek's first career interception led to 19-yard TD passes from Brennan to Ryan Grice-Mullins and Ilaoa.

The recovery by Alama-Francis (on a fumble caused by Blaze Soares), was the third turnover in three plays. It came after Rakine Toomes intercepted Brennan and Solomon Elimimian recovered another SJSU fumble, caused by Patek.

"The running back was talking to Davone and said we were trash," Peters said.

Linebacker Solomon Elimimian led UH with 12 tackles, and Alama-Francis turned in three tackles for loss.

It was the best performance of the season by the defense, which continues to improve each week.

"It's fun to watch them. It's what they are and what they've become," Glanville said.

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