On the road again: Hawaii heads to desert to meet Arizona

The home-cooking didn’t last long for Hawaii. Fresh off a win in their home opener, the Rainbow Warriors are on the road again, this time for a date in the desert with Pac-12 opponent Arizona (1-1).

The game is slated for 4:45 p.m. HST on Saturday and will be shown on the Pac-12 Network.

Last week against UT Martin, the ‘Bows (1-2) scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half to erase a 10-point deficit, but needed another touchdown late to down the FCS Skyhawks. Quarterback Ikaika Woolsey overcame three interceptions by throwing a career-high four touchdowns, including a 63-yard pass to Marcus Kemp that gave UH the lead for good.

First-year Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich admitted when talking to local media earlier this week that he didn’t exactly let out a huge sigh of relief after grabbing the first win of his young head coaching career.

“If it was smoother I might have, but we have a lot of work to still do,” Rolovich said. “I hope the boys did though. As ugly as it was, they did fight and stay together. They deserved to win and should be proud of themselves.”

A win is a win, and Hawaii has just three in its last 15 tries — two of those against FCS opponents. However, the early going hasn’t been a cakewalk for the ‘Bows.

The Wildcats will be the second Pac-12 opponent Hawaii has seen in its first four games. UH fell to Cal, 51-31, in its season opener in Australia on Aug. 26. A 63-3 loss to Michigan — now a top five team in the AP poll — followed.

This will be UH’s third time on the road in the first four games and the Rainbow Warriors have already logged 19,000 miles playing away from home. But the tough travel schedule doesn’t have the team down, especially offensive lineman RJ Hollis.

“You can’t be a football player, especially an offensive lineman, if you are backing down from a battle,” said Hollis, who played his high school ball in Arizona. “Pac-12, Big Ten, I mean, we ain’t went to the SEC yet, but if they throw us in there, we have to play. It’s going to be 60 minutes, regardless who is on the schedule.”

UH has committed multiple turnovers in each of its first three games this season — including three against UT Martin. However, Rolovich had an optimistic outlook for the offense if his team can minimize the mistakes.

“If we keep giving the ball away, we are going to make it harder and harder on ourselves to win, especially against a good team like Arizona, in their house,” Rolovich said. “I think we have the ability to do a lot of things on offense. We have shown a bunch of stuff on film the last few weeks and teams have to prepare for a lot.”

Arizona had its own problems last weekend against an FCS opponent, falling behind 21-3 to Grambling State before a second half rally secured a 31-21 victory.

“With the game against Grambling State, there are a lot of things we have to fix in all three phases,” Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “You have to give them credit. They had a good plan and they executed well. We certainly did not tackle well or execute well offensively in large parts of the game.”

The Wildcats had numerous questions heading into the season and still have plenty left. Foremost among those is the status of quarterback Anu Solomon. The Hawaii-born QB suffered a knee injury during practice last week and, as of Thursday, was still listed as questionable.

If he can’t go, it will be redshirt sophomore Brandon Dawkins filling in again. Against Grambling State, Dawkins helped spark a comeback, running for two touchdowns and throwing for another — all in the second half. He was 15 of 29 passing for 223 yards and gained 97 yards on 16 carries. However, Rodriguez didn’t exactly have overwhelming praise for his backup QB after the game.

“Brandon, for his first start, sometimes looked like a first-time starter,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes he competed and made some plays.”

Arizona’s first two games have truly been a tale of two halves. The Wildcats are being outscored 30-3 in the opening half of games, while dominating the second half with a 44-9 scoring margin. The second-half success includes a comeback against BYU that gave the Wildcats a brief lead late in the fourth quarter, and the 28-0 run against the Tigers.

“We have to try to do something to get us in a rhythm offensively where we can get some first downs and gain some confidence. Once you get in a rhythm offensively, by getting some first downs and some momentum, it’s easy to take off from there,” Rodriguez said. “We haven’t done that in two (first) halves in a row. We just have to execute better when we come out of the gates.”