Army keeping UH, defensive coordinator up nights

PARK RIDGE, N.J. >> Corey Batoon is immune to jot lag.

As the University of Hawaii football team’s defensive coordinator, Batoon is frequently jotting ideas and random concepts on note pads, envelopes and napkins.

“I’m always writing,” Batoon said.

The night the Rainbow Warriors arrived on the East Coast in advance of today’s game against Army, Batoon had difficulty sleeping. His REM was interrupted with thoughts on how to counter Army’s complex triple-option offense.

“I was up until 4 in the morning, just writing notes,” Batoon said. “Your mind doesn’t turn off. You just write stuff down so you don’t forget in the morning. It’s something I’ve done for a long time.”

The Warriors have navigated through diverse offenses in the first three weeks of the season. Batoon insisted Army is a worrisome challenge. The game will be played on the road in one of the country’s most picturesque football environments. At Michie Stadium, standing room only is a cadet expectation, not a ticket manager’s declaration.

Two weeks ago, UH faced a military academy’s triple-option offense. But Army offers wrinkles to Navy’s schemes, mainly a more aggressive passing attack. Last year, the Black Knights were 20-for-65 for 361 yards in 13 games. In this season’s first two games, quarterback Kelvin Hopkins Jr. is 12-for-18 for 258 yards and two touchdowns. While last week’s UH opponent, Rice, played bully-ball with a power running game, Army is an inherently tough team on which every player is a future military leader.

“There’s a lot of self-regulation,” Hopkins said. “There are a lot of guys who fix things and make sure things are getting done.”

Middle linebacker Cole Christiansen said: “We’re literally going through the best leadership-development program in the world. It’s pretty cool. There isn’t just one guy who has a voice on the team. Everyone has a voice. Everyone is an alpha personality — and everyone follows each other. … We suffer together in our military training. That just brings us closer together. When we’re on the football field, we’ve been there before. We’ve been through tough times through other aspects of life in the Army.”

Army players viewed last year’s game against Navy, which was played in a snowstorm, as a fun snow day.

“It actually was the coolest game I’ve ever played in,” Christiansen said. “But that was nothing compared to sitting on a mountain in a hole in the rain at 2 in the morning. We’ve done worse than playing in the snow.”

Christiansen said the Knights are respectful of a “really good Hawaii team coming in. … We’re going to have to play our game.”

The Warriors, meanwhile, are not dwelling on their 3-0 start. While many schools have a 24-hour rule to celebrate or lament a game’s outcome, offensive lineman J.R. Hensley said, “for some of us, it’s 12. By the time Sunday morning rolls around, every single person on this team is locked in and ready. We’re not worrying about the past game. We’re worried about making some corrections and winning the next game.”

UH linebacker Jahlani Tavai noted the Warriors hit the reset button after each game.

“It’s been a while since we’ve done that,” Tavai said of opening the season with three consecutive victories. “We have to put everything in the past. It’s a new week. It’s Week 4. We have to be 1-0 this week.”