LOGAN, Utah >>
If the 3-8 University of Hawaii football team hasn’t hit bottom for the season, you could certainly see — and hear — it from here.
It wasn’t enough that the Rainbow Warriors got skunked 38-0 and concluded Mountain West Conference play at 1-7, their penultimate game of this rapidly unraveling season was punctuated by what was described as a confrontation in the postgame locker room.
The rumble within the concrete walls of the facility was so loud that it could be heard amid the outdoor interviews.
Sadly, that and two minor tussles with Utah State players, one before and one during the game, were what passed for fireworks on a day when the ’Bows’ offense came away empty-handed from three first-half trips inside the red zone.
A dour head coach Nick Rolovich, who was addressing the media when the locker-room confrontation took place, said, “There’s not a whole lot to say other than an apology to our fans for us playing that way and coaching that way. And it starts with me.”
Indeed, on their best scoring threat of the day, a drive to the Utah State 1-yard line in the second quarter, the ’Bows exhibited poor clock management and disdained calling time out (they had two remaining).
Then, running back Diocemy Saint Juste fumbled the ball away at the 1 with five seconds remaining, only his second lost fumble in nearly 300 carries over two seasons.
After the game, Saint Juste said of the fumble, “… at the end of the day, I’m the runner with the ball in my hands. If it comes out, that’s my fault.”
There would be plenty enough fault to go around.
UH had eight penalties, five of them for false starts. It sustained five three-and-outs, gave up four sacks and converted just five of 19 third downs and one of five fourth-down opportunities.
Moreover, four of the Aggies’ scoring drives required less than a minute in duration and another just 1 minute, 2 seconds.
While giving up so-called “explosive plays” — those of 20 yards or more — six times, including 60- and 48-yard touchdown runs and touchdown passes of 49 and 48 yards, UH managed just one “explosive play.”
UH still hasn’t scored on an opening drive this season, and by the time they looked up after three punts and a missed field goal to start the game, they were down 21-0.
“Right now there’s just not a lot you can say,” said receiver Dylan Collie, UH’s leading receiver for the day with seven catches.
Rolovich said, “I’ve got to take a hard look. No points, awful on third and fourth downs. … Just a bad-looking performance by us.”
For the (6-5, 4-3) Aggies, who earned bowl eligibility for the sixth time in seven years with the victory, visions of, perhaps, even a trip to the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl danced in their helmets and the minds of their fans on senior day.
As the ’Bows trudged off Merlin Olsen Field, the remnants of an announced Maverik Stadium gathering of 17,650 chanted, “Let’s go bowling!! … Let’s go bowling!!”
Eleven months ago it was the Rainbow Warriors who played in — and won — the Hawaii Bowl. Now, after their eighth loss in nine games and without a conference road win to show for this season, they never seemed so far removed from being a bowl team. Or being a team with a promising future.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
