UH football has lost much of its flair and many of its fans

The last time I watched a University of Hawaii football game at Aloha Stadium as a paying customer was Nov. 18, 2000. My friends and I were treated to an exciting game featuring two freshman quarterbacks: Timmy Chang for UH and Luke McCown for LaTech. Hawaii won 27-10, and 27,093 of us were there to see the Warriors win just their third game of the year.

That UH team finished the season 3-9 under a second- year head coach, June Jones.

Just like this year. But so different, too.

For one thing, about 8,000 more fans at the stadium different. And, whether it’s fair or not, the fans expressed more hope for the future back then than they do now.

I applaud the hearty fans who show up and support their team rain or shine, win or lose. That takes dedication — especially when Aloha Stadium on Saturday night isn’t the place to be like it once was.

You can blame pay per view and, of course, seven consecutive seasons of no winning records for that.

“I get the (TV) thing,” said Joe Nobles, a UH receiver from the 1980s who has vivid memories of packed houses. “But is that experience better than the roar of a crowd in a 50,000 seat stadium cheering for the home team?”

A lot of folks would just rather watch at home on that big flat screen they fought for on Black Friday.

Or do something else.

Those who have checked out, well, I can’t say I blame you. The Rainbow Warriors were so disappointing this season after going 7-7 and providing a glimmer of hope with a bowl win in 2016.

Surprisingly, they were pretty boring this year. And the exciting moments became fewer and farther apart as the season went along.

For every great play there was a bunch of stalled offensive drives … not to mention the ones that didn’t even get into gear because of an overly conservative offense. Then there were all those gashes on defense and, other than blocking a few kicks early in the season, poor special teams play.

Yes, the offensive style was partly dictated by a personnel situation mostly not of the making of head coach Nick Rolovich, but which he had to live with — like nearly all second-year head coaches do.

I’ve got to believe that Rolo will open things up when he’s got the players for it. But that needs to be soon.

Quarterback Dru Brown is among the 99 percent of the 2017 UH football team that did the best they could, were good citizens, and never gave up (yes, there is a 1 percent that doesn’t fit that description and should never be allowed to wear the uniform again).

But trying hard is just not enough for most of Hawaii’s notoriously casual fans. As unrealistic as it might be in some cases, they can’t help but wonder how different things would be with McKenzie Milton (Mililani/Central Florida), Jordan Ta‘amu (Pearl City/Ole Miss) or even Tua Tagovailoa (Saint Louis/Alabama) behind center.

It is, however, more than fair to expect better local recruiting, at all positions, than what we’ve seen so far. It was pretty shocking that UH was blanked on that front last year.

Hawaii is short an assistant coach right now, too. Maybe the timing is right for Mike Cavanaugh to return and run the offensive line again.

Cav was on the staff and Rolo was the backup quarterback when I watched that UH victory from the nose-bleeds 17 years ago. The next season, Chang got hurt and Rolovich found success as the starter, his third year at Manoa. The offense was wide open, and hopefully in his third year as coach he will have the personnel and inclination for that.

It might not add up to nine wins like in 2001 yet, but it could help stop the bleeding at the gate.

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