UH wants to send seniors off winners, with Hawaii Bowl invite

For tonight’s final home game of the regular season, the University of Hawaii football team will celebrate 18 seniors, pay tribute to a former player and seek definition from Merriam-Webster.

“The next two games are really going to help define which direction we’re going or how this season will be remembered,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said.

After a 6-1 start, the Rainbow Warriors have lost four in a row. The shave ice has been on hold as the Warriors still need one more victory to clinch a winning 13-game regular season and earn the accompanying berth in the Dec. 22 Hawaii Bowl. Their remaining regular-season games are tonight against UNLV at Aloha Stadium and on the road Nov. 24 against San Diego State at SDCCU Stadium. The Warriors had an open date last week.

“If you said this in January, ‘Oh, six wins going into a bye,’ a lot more people would be excited than they were,” Rolovich said. “But we created a little bit more excitement and expectations, which is good. That’s part of our job. Now we have an opportunity in our next two weeks to finish this thing off right.”

UNLV had lost six in a row before upsetting San Diego State last week. Max Gilliam, who has started six games in a row since quarterback Armani Rogers suffered a toe injury, picked apart the Aztecs’ usually trustworthy defense. Rogers is available to play tonight.

Before the season, UNLV running back Lexington Thomas crafted a wish list. “I’ve been here four years, and we never beat (SDSU),” Thomas said. “That was the first time we beat them. It was a great feeling to get off the losing column.”

UNLV safety Dalton Baker said: “Sure enough, the guys rallied together, and we did it.”

The Warriors are hopeful for similar cohesiveness for senior night. The Warriors have struggled on offense and defense during the four-game skid. In their previous game against Utah State, they dropped six passes and missed 22 would-be tackles.

Rolovich said the time off provided a much-needed break. The Rainbows, who started the season — and training camp — a week earlier, had played on 11 consecutive Saturdays, including five road games in three time zones.

“The schedule took a toll on these guys,” Rolovich said. “And it does take a toll on guys after the same weekly grind, the physicality and the mental aspect of it. … There’s no excuse for losing. These are still human bodies that needed the rest, and I’m glad we were able to get it to them.”

UH quarterback Cole McDonald, a third-year sophomore, said the underclassmen want to provide a parting gift for the seniors.

“The seniors have been here for four or five years,” McDonald said. “They put their blood, sweat and tears in. We want to give them something to go out on, something to remember, from us younger guys. Having them leave their legacy and imprint on this program is huge for us.”

McDonald said the Warriors would like to end a period of playing “bad football.”

“I feel we have something to prove,” McDonald said. “A lot of people have counted us out. We kind of hit a losing streak. The bye week gave us a chance to step back and see what we did wrong, and how to fix and attack it from a different angle.”

The Warriors will honor Vince Manuwai, a former UH offensive lineman who played eight NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Manuwai, who was 38, died on Nov. 4.

“He was an incredible teammate,” said Rolovich, who played with Manuwai on UH’s 2000 and 2001 teams. “I’m not standing here without Vince. … He was a kind soul, very generous. He was very loving and very welcoming. It didn’t matter who you were. People were people to Vince. For a guy who was as talented as he was and got as much accolades as he did, he never strayed very much from being that good person.”