For the opening of bowl week, Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich threw out the first unfocused football player.
The Rainbow Warriors practiced on Monday morning in advance of Saturday’s SoFi Hawaii Bowl at Aloha Stadium. To emphasize the workout’s importance, Rolovich ejected a player for being too argumentative, disciplined others for being tardy, and made the team run sprints after practice.
“This is the fine balance of enjoying the bowl experience, but understanding you’ve got a game to play,” Rolovich said following the two-hour practice on the grass field. “They have, what, six hours left to practice for this game? If they can’t give us everything they’ve got here, we’re going to run it out of them until they figure it out.”
The Warriors went 8-5 during the regular season to qualify for the Hawaii Bowl for the second time in Rolovich’s three seasons as head coach.
“The reward is getting the opportunity to play again for a state they’ve energized,” Rolovich said. “This is the problem when people feel they’ve arrived. I’m not going to let that even begin to creep in.”
Rolovich noted the Warriors were able to rebound from the 3-9 season in 2017 after which several players transferred or were deemed ineligible.
“The lesson we’ve learned is this is not a one-person deal,” Rolovich said. “The greatest lesson from this season is, OK, so how many players wanted to transfer last year? That didn’t have any effect on us moving forward. Everybody who witnessed that is sitting in this position right now at eight wins looking at the chance to get nine wins. I don’t think a lot has to be said. I think nobody’s bigger than the team. And the team, as long as they come together, they can do wonderful things.”
The Hawaii Bowl was created after the Warriors went 9-3 in 2001 but did not receive a bowl invitation. Rolovich was UH’s starting quarterback that year. Rolovich said an opportunity to play another game — not the bowl experience and accompanying gifts — is the coveted wish.
“The backpack, the moths will eat it someday,” Rolovich said. “The sunglasses probably will crack. The T-shirt probably will get sweat stains and have to be thrown out someday. But I would give a lot to play with that 2001 team again, especially because we feel we deserved to (be in a bowl).”
Rolovich added: “It’s not the bowl experience. It’s one more time looking at your brother through that face mask. The face mask is an incredible lens to the soul of a football player when the chips are down and there’s blood and sweat and you need to make a play. Getting that look through the face mask, there’s nothing like it. Because you look right into the heart and see what they’ve got. And there’s no lying when you see those eyes.”