Emerging from the fog
Mother Nature knows metaphors.
A heavy fog delayed flights out of San Diego and Los Angeles this morning. It’s been that kind of weekend for the Rainbow Warriors’ traveling party. The Warriors stayed overnight in San Diego following Saturday’s loss to San Diego State.
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Finally got to watch a game.
Dang.
Come back strong next week!
I think the toll of travelling 50,000 miles or whatever it is–is taking a toll on this team; there seem to be no fire this past game–maybe the coaches should throw in the 2nd unit for a few plays (think Boise does this) just to fire up at least the rest of the team. Who knows if they make a big play, it will fire up everybody, right? The players, who never get to go in, seems to be slumped over just waiting on the sidelines.
Final Road Game TICKETS for 35 yd line seats behind our team at Fresno (Nov 19) for only $50; regular price is $63. Sit with other Hawaii fans; and not the roudy home crowd. Text me: 415-324-0585; or email: tomkitaguchi@yahoo.com
“Physical superiority cancels all theory.”
Programs like SDSU and Boise have been successful for a while and their talent levels reflect this. UH can be competitive with middle and lower level MWC teams, right now, which is major progress under Rolovich in one year time. That SDSU secondary and defense as a whole has some NFL talent. Saw some spirited defensive effort by the Bows, but it wasn’t enough. Support the team and program by giving them the necessary resources to be competitive in the future!
Need to focus on Boise State.
BTW, Waialua’s Lincoln Barit gets my vote for high school coach of the year. Love those coaches who get the most from there players with little to work with.
It was a sickening game to watch in person coming all this way from Honolulu. Not sure if the bad omen was being on the same plane with Bobby Curran and John Veneri to SF and SD.
Any reason why St. Juste didn’t play? But Lakalaka played well, Ronley Lakalaka that is. But hark, the highlight is meeting and talking stories with Marcus Mariota’s mother at breakfast at the hotel this morning before today’s game, then on to Las Vegas. So it’s still a good trip.
My bad, meant Marcus’ grandmother. Marcus’ parents are with the team.
4. Physical superiority and theory cancels out theory. Read today’s article about SDSU’s 3-3-5 attacking defense and disguised coverages.
5. Saint Juste didn’t play because of a shoulder injury.
Caption in today’s print edition page C3, is incorrect saying Zwahlen’s pass that was intercepted was returned for a TD.
Did Hawaii lose to Michigan earlier in the season this badly?
At this point I cannot tell.
Warriors are certainly creating a tradition of losing under Rol’vitz
[This be my “sorta haiku” f’today]
No words to describe yesterday’s game. A very good team made to look great. Coach Rolovich sums it up very well that nothing is out of the scope. It seems to me that some teams just bring it in all phases every down and we don’t. Might be some time for tough love with some guys. No excuses no moral victories we gave away two games and well it’s hard to describe yesterday’s game at all. Might be time for a little tough love at some positions. With 3 games left unless the effort and output improve in some areas they are all in doubt. I have faith that the coaches and some of the players will know how to respond properly after all there are only 3 more chances to leave your mark. GoWarriors!!!!!!
Yesterday’s UH football game was aired over the CBS sports network, channel 247 on Oceanic Time Warner-Spectrum digital cable.
Please upgrade your cable package as needed. Don’t miss out on UH football games (even ones like these) that UH pay-per-view has no control over.
Maybe it’s the traveling but I noticed on the sideline in the beginning of the game the players seemed flat footed. No hopping up and down, getting loose or psyching up for the game. Just kind of looked like they just showed up for the game.
Team is work in progress…Includes prep and attitude…appeared from the NMex game that the defensive book on Brown’s passing strengths and weaknesses was written given the tape on him. Stay positive Team!
GO Warriors!
Of course it’s this conference game that they air on national Tv is when we get completely embarrassed.
Wow 4-5 years of Our teams
lossing on TV can’t be good
for recruiting .These 13-17 yr
old teenaged football players
gotta be looking to other schools.
This is not good!
I miss June Jones
Congrats Kapolei !!!!!!!!
This is not only a case of SDSU’s physical talent but you add a great coach like Rocky Long …..this is what you get.
SDSU is team with skill….talent….and. execution. I’m not really surprised with the outcome really. You have a young coach in Rolo and a team with minimal talent in UH against one with a lot of everything
All we can do is to pick ourselves up and move on. No need dwell on this game. SDSU was just a nightmare matchup for us. End of story.
TWN #2:
agree, but UH coaching staff does not have the “allahs” to do what you and I have been suggesting over the years.
let others play, individually or enmasse, on offense — heck cannot be worse that the 1st string!!! they practice as just as diligently [ assumption ] as 1st teamers
turned off the TV after the 72 yard TD run by Penny
like other past games, UH defense got caught flat-footed with NO defender in the middle where the LBers should have been – coaches play calling or players using their own decision? if the latter, they should be made to “sit” a while
again, offensive play calling was nearly totally “obtuse”, from Shawshank – so predictable, so ineffective, so unimaginative
glad to see AZ given a chance, but his first 5 passes were low [ defenders close or throwing motion? ] and throwing into a crowd of 3 DBs — nearly zero chance of completion – yea, one was picked off
but, it’s a start to becoming better for 2017
if both sides were “flat”, then it’s the coaching staff responsibility to motivate them with the help of team captains who are totally ineffective – so sad
but, I will watch the last 3 games with little hope of ending with a winning record — best would be 6 and 7 which many will jump with glee — not me! yes, there was an improvement from the last 4 years, but?????????????????
I agree with the comments about talent level. Teams like San Diego State have more talent than we do. But I think we are getting out coached some too. Although the 55 points scored doesn’t suggest great defence, I came away more optimistic about our defence than our offense. The defence made adjustments and actually started looking ok after the first few series. On the offensive side of the ball I could not see the adjustments being made (from my relatively unsophisticated perspective) and I have concerns about this.
I have much aloha for this entire coaching staff. But our offensive coaching staff just seems less able to make the adjustments that are needed during the game. Brian Smith was recruited into the OC job when the other guy fled for Boise. I am not sure coach Smith is yet ready or able to carry that load at a D1 effectively. Maybe he will be with more experience. The complexity of Rolo hiring his best (or at least very good) friend to be the OC is tricky. If it works out great. But if it starts to fail it becomes very awkward. I hope things improve and all of the coaches have a chance to learn, grow and be successful. But things don’t always work out that way. Much more will be revealed in the next three weeks. In the best case we come out and give Boise a good game next week and then win the games against the last two less powerful teams. If we keep looking bad it will make for many interesting (and painful) discussions.
I didn’t expect this blowout because the Warriors played the Aztecs fairly well last year at Aloha Stadium losing 14-28 against basically the same Aztecs’ team. Early penalties leading to poor field position and the turnovers really made a huge difference.
I’m sure that June Jones is giving some helpful advice to Rolo. Jones had his share of 70-14 (Fresno St) & 69-3 (Boise St) losses during his time at UH. How people forget.
Exactly old school dave and lets not forget that was both in one season.
The team was expected to be a bottom dweller in the west but has a 3-3 record and could’ve possibly been 5-1 right now. People started to get carried away after we beat san jose & nevada.
Apologies to the real Shoko. The false Shoko is truly classless.
Mr. A-House I know you wanted to see Zwahlen but he isn’t ready, no touch to his short passes.
And just for example’s sake, if certain kinds of plays do not work in practice like shovel or screen passes, would you use it in a game? Just something to think about when you wonder about the play calling.
non football, but congratulations to the Pacman for another title win. A true warrior and always true to the Philippine country and people. Salamat po Manny.
Brown can barely reach his receivers and Zwhalen is trying to throw the ball through the turf.
Was hoping to see Zwhalen take advantage of his time. You could tell he was nervous. Tried to throw fast balls on every pass.
Bad loss, but still hopeful for the future. Can we please stop talking about bowl games now? The expectations by some of this team were lofty to say the least.
Kev-1, yesterday’s loss was truly humbling, but still 3 more games on the schedule, so bowl not out of the equation. To reach the stars, you have to believe that you can. No other way.
And we need to give Dru more slack. I look at McKenzie Milton at UCF who beat Tulane yesterday 37-6. But it was not because Milton had a great day. In fact he had a bad day going 9-20-85-1 and was replaced by Justin Holman who went 3-3-65-0. They’re young quarterbacks and will learn from these bad outings.
Guud Afternoon Tsaikos…Bootiful Day!
Weekend blues seeping in…Bulldogs got zeroed…Warriors got zeroed…had to consume some Green Lights to ease the blues.
But…we got game this week so time to reload and focus on the Broncos.
A lot of newbies got some game time and I hope we all got a good look at why some aren’t starting. I defer to our coaching staff to make the right call.
It seems all plays work…on paper. If players execute as drawn up it will work. Whoever executes best, wins. Very evident this PAST weekend.
IMUA WARRIORS!
H-Man #27…roger dat…the sun really did come up today…and tomorrow and the day after…one snap and clear.
Coach Rolo is confused. He said they didn’t do any thing different. He thought they were ready to play. Maybe they need to do some different things? Brown starting to sound like Ikaika.
We have same problem as last year. Receivers could not get enough separation and dropped passes.
We need to stop longing or the day when higher quality recruits will save the day. In football, coaching, is, first and foremost, the difference between mediocrity and success (unlike most other team sports). Look at Jim Harbaugh’s first year with the 49ers and again with Michigan. The turnaround was dramatic from one year to the next. In Michigan, for example. the year prior to his arrival, many pundits were saying Michigan couldn’t possibly be expected to win consistently in conference with the lousy talent they had recruited (compared to their rivals). Harbaugh arrived and suddenly those “lousy” recruits played remarkably better.
Successful coaches swiftly see their opponent’s weaknesses on film, know their own player’s strengths, and put their players in positions to succeed on a week-to-week basis. Successful coaches know how to translate and communicate the weaknesses they see on film to their coaching staff, and provide mechanisms to effectively disseminate those messages to the players. Successful coaches are not beholden to schemes, scripts, traditional play calling patterns (run on the first three plays up the middle to “establish the run”) or overarching thematic strategies; they are willing to adapt on-the-fly each week to teach players how to succeed for that week’s opponent, not dwell on entrenched practice routines and stale practice schedules.
UH will never win the recruiting battle: the program doesn’t have deep pocket boosters to build the glamorous facilities to awe recruits (and the taxpayers will never ante up those kind of dollars to sustain such amenities); mainland parents want at least the plausible chance of attending several games that their son will be playing in during their college career on an annual basis (that is very unlikely given that all too many players come from economically disadvantaged families); top local players will almost always select mainland schools (with the blessing of their parents; anything different would be bordering on child abuse) because UH is not the best place to give them a chance to step up to the next level in life (this becomes an entrenched downward spiral with each passing year).
As such, UH under Rolo seems destined to live by a fate influenced by how the ball bounces each week, and/or how the opposition’s coaches fail (note, the Air Force and UTM games could easily be in the loss column). We are just blinded by the fact that Chow was so abysmally bad, coaching mediocrity seems wonderful. And to be honest, maybe Rolo is the best we can attain given our circumstances.
Perspective: UH’s first three conference opponents are 5-11 MW, 9-19 overall. Its last three conference opponents are 11-4 and 20-6. People say UH hasn’t improved, doesn’t make adjustments, has an unimaginative offense with questionable play-calling. But, maybe it’s simply that the opposition has gotten better.
People can’t really expect drastic changes with three games to play. Team just has to stay the course, trash the SDSU film, and try to be competitive the rest of the way.
Adding insult to injury, beating Hawaii isn’t enough to get San Diego State in either poll.
Is the goal to be number one?..or to have competitive hard nose football?
Me, just hard nose football where we don’t defeat ourselves with mistakes and mental lapses. The wins come when we execute and play good, mistake free football.
Putting yesterday to the side which is tough to do-anybody who can not see drastic improvement over previous years is blind. Recruiting is the name of the game that’s a major portion of the game itself-talent. What you do to develop it is the other phase. I can see drastic development in many cases but not enough of the good stuff to cover needs. This team has talent it is being developed and two disappointing losses and yesterday’s game do not detract from the strides forward. A long way to go far from perfect but if this team closes out with two out of three and at least a competitive effort with BSU it will be on the right track.
Yes people, read what MadDog has to say. He’s actually played the game at that level, and most of you others have not.
For year #1, after 4 year with a total of 1 road win and 4 conference wins, I couldn’t have realistically hoped for more than this season’s players and coaches have delivered. It’s also nice to see the Athletic Department under solid leadership again. And despite all the obstacles, the Rainbow Warriors are ranked #2 in the MW Conference West Division. … http://www.themwc.com/standings/#/m-footbl/2016
Apology accepted, burro sabio. Go Warriors!
Chicken Grease (what a name), thanks for the
update suggestion—if not extra moolah, I try.
Otherwise will have to cut out sea weed from
my noodles to pay Peter to pay Paul 🙂
Yea, UH is number two in the Mountain West in its division.
Remember, Practice makes perfect. That seems to be Boise’s
motto, too. And NFL ready draft choices…
Hey! All you peoples out there! Give the University of Hawaii football program credit and most of all ages great season!. You have to remember that? They’re were pick to finish last place in their division!. Also this is Rolovich first year too!. University of Hawaii Warriors will finish the season with a 6-7 record. Because their should win the last two games!. Hawaii should recruit a lot more players from Las Vegas Nevada area?. Because if they’re can recruit in Hawaii. We should do the same thing there too!. GO WARRIORS!
ST: Great photo of the SD Airport. Interesting thing — the fog begins just at the entrance to the airport as if it is hovering just over the airport. Nowhere else! Was stuck in San Diego a few times due to this crazy weather phenomena. Not a bad place to be stuck and make sure to try the “Smack Down Tacos” at the Lucha Libre Mexican Wrestling Cafe! Mask is optional.
Ok it was a blow out but I have a lot of hope with this team moving forward. Rolo has the right attitude and cultural understanding. To me the most difficult losses were to UNLV and New Mexico State. This team just needs to keep working and believe in themselves. Our offensive coaches need to open up the play book and create some excitement in their play calling. Our defense is on the field much too long. We need to establish our hard hitting defense from the first quarter. GO BOWS!!!
#4. I don’t agree. To me it was more their theory than anything physical that UH couldn’t over come. This is the sixth year SDSU has been running the same offensive and defensive systems. They’ve had the time to recruit to, teach and refine their systems. To me their offensive line was the most physical feature of their team. Our trio of RBs would be very effective running behind it. Their defense is probably the physically smallest in the league. They make up for that by having quick players who’s quickness is amplified by everyone knowing and performing their roles. They play as one where everyone reads and reacts and swarm to the ball. As a unit they bring it every play.
Their systems are mature while our systems are in their infancy. All their units are stocked players who are in their 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd years in their systems who can help the coaches get the new recruits up to speed. Their football culture is set while ours is taking shape.
It looked like SDSU had UH’s offense well scouted. They were prepared for anything UH tried. At times it seemed they knew what played was called.
Where is the team that beat Air Force? It certainly didn’t get on the plane to San Diego. But it needs to show up this Saturday at Aloha Stadium. If they do, they will have a chance to beat Boise St.
We need patience. Look at how many inexperienced freshman are playing. That says a lot about the poor state of the talent Chow left. There are some good Chow players, but not enough to fill out a good first string offense or defense without having to rely on freshmen. It takes time to recruit, and time to develop players, and time for the coaches to learn to work together and to fit their plays and schemes to the players.
This staff this team needs no defending. They see what everyone else has seen and are gutwrenched way beyond what any fan could be. When you enter the arena you enter a world exposed to scrutiny and critics. The darling of the Group of 5 Western Michigan and PJ Fleck are 8-0. That’s after 1-11, 8-5, and 8-5. How did he do it? A top 50 recruiting class this year and steadily climbed the ladder previous years. We have at least 11 freshman in one of the highest rated recruiting classes in years participating weekly and some being held back-that’s with a partial class. When the dust settles expect the Warriors to improve on results in this years recruiting with a complete class. The true measurements of coaching is when my guys are on the same plane as your guys-right now only a few schools can claim a much better talent pool we just saw one and are about to face another. FSU and SJSU have had higher rated class than most in MW in recent years-I have all the faith in this staff and this team moving forward-GoWarriors!!!!!
Thank you Maddog50 for your rational and thoughtful comments. I think that if Rolo is at fault for anything, it is putting the team in a position where expectations may have gotten ahead of reality. But that’s OK. Fans are still talking about this year and have not moved on to next year. A far cry from even a year ago.
Are there things that the team needs to work on? Yes. Are there things that the coaching staff need to work on? Yes. Is it unfortunate that all nationally televised games this year have not been kind to UH? A definite yes. Will this hurt recruiting? It certainly doesn’t help. However, is it better than past years? Absolutely!
To echo what other’s have posted, this is the first year for this coaching staff. There will be growing pains and lessons learned. The expectation, however, is that they will get there. Pete Carroll at USC was 6-6 his first year, Rocky Long was 3-9 his first time as Head Coach, Craig Bohl who has Wyoming going in the right direction was 2-10 last year and fans demanding that he be fired! Even Jim Harbaugh was 4-8 and 5-7 his first two years at Stanford. If Hawaii goes 6-7 with the possibility of going to a bowl game, i would say that Hawaii football has exceeded expectations…
Apologize for the long winded post!
The 3-3-5 package was too much for our young QBs. But its was so frustrating with the no calls holdings on SDSU OL throughout the whole game!
More holding than a high stakes poker game!
Guud Morning Tsaikos…Bootiful Day!
Waves are pounding the Northside today. Warriors are pounding the football.
Get ready for a brawl this week.
U da man Maddog50!
IMUA WARRIORS!
That loss was like we played at Florida or USC.
Morning Tsaikos!
Well said Maddog50 (#48) and 808SEC (#49). Hopefully the whining will stop.
No bones about it-I don’t make excuses. There is no tolerance for not coming out and playing physical relentless football. Two missed opportunities and this debacle last weekend. We (they) are better than that! It is put up or shut up for some guys. You play the game to win-not just to play the game! It’s time for the inner Warrior to surface 3X in a row starting with the first series! It starts now and continues this week against BSU! GoWarriors!!!!
burro – your #23.
no, I would not want nor expect OC to do that
my reference is to more QB options – like running or passing and faking hand-off to RB, keeping ball and running or passing
believe there have been 2 shovel passes by UH this year — bad thing was it went into a very “tight” 7-man box — begs the question, ‘why call that pay when the “D” is “tightly packed” in the middle??
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