You have to start somewhere, sometime.

The world-traveling University of Hawaii football program had the right place Saturday. The time was a little off, though, and with a few exceptions the Rainbow Warriors didn’t get started until the second half.

Most of us knew this wasn’t going to be like Northern Colorado in 2007 (63-6), or Lamar in 2012 (54-2), or a reverse of Hawaii and Michigan last week (63-3).

But who really expected the visitors from Tennessee Martin to bushwhack the Rainbow Warriors for most of the first half, and mostly match UH blow-for-blow in the second, nearly ruining Nick Rolovich’s home debut as head coach?

How about Rolo himself?

“(During the week) I called overtime,” he said after the 41-36 escape. “I think everyone expected a blowout.”

For a while it looked like it might be one … with UTM doing the blowing-out. Someone forgot to tell the Skyhawks the body bags were for them, not their hosts.

The underdog visitors from across the ocean with fewer scholarships pushed around the home team from the supposedly higher level of competition from the get-go. One play in particular symbolized the role reversal, with a UTM running back trucking a UH safety a full 5 yards down the field at the end of a 20-yard run.

The only thing stopping the Skyhawks from totally dominating the first half was their own mistakes and slippery turf that on one play had Ladevin Fair tackled by air.

If not for Jahlani Tavai’s second-quarter recovery of an unforced fumble and Steven Lakalaka’s ensuing 15-yard touchdown run, Hawaii would’ve been in even more serious scoreboard trouble than a 17-14 deficit at halftime.

“It was somber in there,” Rolovich said of the locker room atmosphere at the break. “It was a test. Give up or stand up and play right now.”

Football games are always full of mistakes. This one had plenty of big ones by both teams, throughout. And while it wasn’t always artistic, it was entertaining — for casual fans, anyway.

It’s too bad UH can’t just play a schedule of teams like this, and athletic director David Matlin is likely patiently responding to emails today asking why Hawaii can’t take a step down to FCS.

For coaches, it was the kind of game that can drive them nuts but then find gratifying if their team is the one that finally stops making mistakes and comes up with the big plays at the end to win it.

And that’s exactly what UH did.

Hawaii won despite turnovers and some horrific special teams play. The Warriors were fortunate that their opponent committed more errors of equally large magnitude, and late in the game.

You may be at the point where a win is a win, and you’ll take it.

You may be one of those fans who will only grouse about the level of competition and the many mistakes rather than the big plays by Lakalaka, Tavai, Marcus Kemp, Diocemy Saint Juste, Ikaika Woolsey, Trayvon Henderson and others.

It was a start, but there’s still a long way to go. Their coach knows that as well as anyone.

“We made probably three times more mistakes (than) we can do and win consistently. … I don’t think this team expects to win. I think they hope to win. You want to get to the expect-to-win mind-set. I guess that’s the ultimate goal,” Rolovich said. “They got knocked down plenty of times. But they had it in themselves to come back.”

On Saturday, UH played like a good team, for a half. The Warriors were lucky that was enough.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.