The University of Hawaii football team’s 3-0 start can be viewed in graphic terms.
If the season could be charted on a graph, the Rainbow Warriors victories and improvement — and the schedule’s difficulty — are trending toward the top right.
“It’s not like it’s going to get any easier,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said the morning after Saturday’s 43-29 victory over Rice. The Warriors matched their best start since 2007, and equaled last season’s victory total.
“This thing is going to get harder and harder as the season goes on,” Rolovich said.
The Warriors’ opener was against Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo., where they had not won since 1988. Navy presented a disciplined challenge with a complex triple-option offense. Rice is patterned after Stanford’s physical run game and crafty defense. The Warriors’ upcoming game vs. Army offers elements of the first three games: on the road against a disciplined and physical opponent.
“We know Army is a good football team,” Rolovich said. “They’re going to have a lot of the same characteristics as the last three teams as far as the physicality defensively and the discipline and all that stuff. The good thing is this team has risen to understanding those qualities are traditionally in the teams we’ve been playing. I think that kind of elevated the mind-set. … It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again. We have to continue to get better.”
Against Rice, the Warriors surged to a 14-0 lead on scoring passes from Cole McDonald to John Ursua and Cedric Byrd. The Owls responded with a shifting defensive scheme behind a three-man front. Defensive backs would slide into the tackle box while linebackers would angle into the flats. It appeared to be chaotic activity. But freeze the defense, and it would show there were eight defenders in coverage, cluttering the routes for the four receivers.
“They didn’t want to let big plays happen,” Rolovich said of the Owls. “We had a hunch that, at some point, somebody was going to try us that way. I thought they had a good game plan.”
The scheme encouraged the Warriors to send running back Fred Holly against the three-man front. McDonald threw for 428 yards, with 63 from wideout JoJo Ward’s breaking free on an 8-yard hitch. McDonald said he was concerned more about the outcome than his individual numbers.
“I don’t care about the stats,” McDonald said. “I don’t care about how many yards, how many completions. I just care about the win. When it’s all said and done in the future, how was this team? How many wins? They don’t care about stats. They care about wins.”
Rolovich praised the defense for “character plays,” pointing to two fourth-down stops, including one inches from the goal line, and a key fumble recovery. Earlier in the game, UH missed a chance to recover a Rice fumble by not pouncing on the football. Later, linebacker Penei Pavihi forced a fumble that defensive end Zeno Choi recovered.
“Zeno is s smart kid,” Rolovich said of Choi’s decision to fall on the football instead of picking it up and running. “That’s what went through my mind when the ball was on the ground. I wanted to see him score a touchdown. That would have been great. If it bounced perfectly to Zeno, he would have taken it and tried to score. But it was awesome he said he remembered the last fumble.”
Rolovich added the defensive players “make big plays at times. They’ve played hard every down of the season. It’s good for them to kind of have the team on their backs for a lot of that game.”