HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii football team has a bye week, and not a moment too soon.
Injuries have again taken a big toll, with even several “healthy” starters in need of some healing and rest. A day off (or two) would do all of the players some good, to let the body recover and the mind catch up on schoolwork.
In the meantime, this is also a good time for the coaching staff to maybe re-evaluate personnel and schemes — to really dig down deep and identify what has and has not worked so far in the first four games, and why.
The red-zone offense, in particular, needs a boost in the worst way. The Rainbow Warriors reached the red zone four times in last Saturday’s 21-12 loss at Colorado, with only field goals by Tyler Hadden to show for it.
That is part of a larger problem that has hampered UH in all three of its losses — pass completion percentage. The Rainbow Warriors rank 124th in the nation (next to the bottom) in that category, completing a dreadful 43.8 percent of their pass attempts.
Many of the fingers are pointing to starting quarterback Ikaika Woolsey, and certainly his numbers (67 for 146, 45.9 percent) leave much to be desired. But besides being less-than-pinpoint accurate, Woolsey also has had receivers drop passes when he has hit them in the hands, and there often is little room for error anyway because lack of separation means Woolsey must “thread the needle” — which goes back to his lack of pinpoint accuracy.
The slant patterns, in particular, have proven both points repeatedly, as the slots/receivers rarely are able to get quick separation off the line of scrimmage and Woolsey has had difficulty putting the right touch on the ball and hitting his target in stride.
One easy way to get the completion percentage up is to throw more high-percentage passes — have we seen any screens yet this season? We have seen swing passes to the far side, plays that take long to develop, but not so much shorter swing passes to the flat. What about shovel passes?
A lack of breakaway speed certainly has hampered the Hawaii receivers’ ability to get open, but Colorado’s Nelson Spruce (13 catches, 172 yards, one touchdown) proved last Saturday that you don’t need to be a burner in order to be a great receiver. Spruce’s 40-yard dash time reportedly is between 4.5 and 4.6 seconds, which is decent, but the main reason he gets open is because he takes smart angles and runs good, clean routes.
Some of the most productive receivers in UH history — Chad Owens, Craig Stutzmann, Dane McArthur — did not have sprinters speed, but they ran great routes and knew how to get open anyway.
Perhaps this is where receivers coach Luke Matthews can help. We have not seen many hitch-and-go patterns — how about more wheel routes?
Whatever it takes — clearly the receivers need help getting open, and clearly Woolsey needs them to be more open in order to improve his accuracy.
In the meantime, supposedly one of the main reasons Woolsey won the starting job was because of his athleticism, and yet that athleticism is rarely utilized in designed plays. Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said his team’s main objective against Woolsey was to “keep him in the pocket,” which the Buffaloes did.
Woolsey did break out for a 15-yard scramble, but that was a decision he made after all of the receivers were covered (again). Several times in the past two games, running backs Steven Lakalaka and Diocemy Saint Juste were swarmed and wrapped up immediately after taking the handoff from Woolsey, who had faked keeping the ball for a naked bootleg. Why not run that bootleg once in a while?
How about more option plays like the one we saw against Washington? A reverse pitch to Keelan Ewaliko more than once a game, since he is averaging 12.5 yards per carry on those?
What happened to the Wildcat formation that proved effective on the opening drive against Oregon State two weeks ago, but has not really been seen since?
Whatever the Rainbow Warriors do in this extra week of practice, it should include some wrinkles to the playbook that we either have not seen enough of, or not at all.
And there’s no better time to incorporate them and experiment than in the next game on Oct. 4 at Rice. The Owls are 0-3, including a 45-42 home loss to Old Dominion last Saturday.
Hawaii is tied for 43rd in the nation in red-zone offense, scoring on 15 of 17 trips (88.2 percent) to the 20-yard line or closer. But only six of those scores (35.3 percent) have been touchdowns, and so the Rainbow Warriors rank No. 100 (out of 125 teams) in scoring offense at 21.3 points per game.
A victory at Rice — no matter how it is achieved — would be great for the program. But one in which the offense actually reaches the end zone and completes at least 50 percent of its passes would help even more when it comes to bringing fans to the return home vs. Wyoming on Oct. 11.
And with this bye week allowing for three extra practices, there’s no better time for the offense to add a little extra pizzazz, as well.