FRESNO, Calif. » "Our time will come," coach Norm Chow resolutely told the University of Hawaii football team amid the Warriors’ darkening season.

But Saturday night wasn’t the time and Fresno State’s Bulldog Stadium sure wasn’t the place.

And you really have to wonder at this point: When will it be?

Next season? The year after?

Don’t let the score of Saturday’s 45-10 loss fool you, either. The margin could have been whatever Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter and the Bulldogs wanted it to be.

Fifty points? Sixty?

All were very much within the Bulldogs’ reach before DeRuyter early — and mercifully — called off the ‘Dogs before a crowd of 30,755 woofing red-clad faithful. He benched record-setting quarterback Derek Carr (304 yards and four touchdowns) and running back Robbie Rouse (102 yards and a TD) and several of their teammates at halftime, content with a 42-3 lead.

Basically, the Bulldogs took a knee at intermission.

"A classy gesture," said Chow, who was more accustomed to being the puller when he had Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Ty Detmer.

Instead, he pulled Sean Schroeder, his quarterback, in the fourth quarter to preserve his physical well being.

Normally at this point in a losing season we would be lamenting UH being rendered ineligible for the postseason by a seventh loss. But watching the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on TV again for a record second consecutive year is the least of the Warriors’ problems. Having fallen down as a program and not being sure how they will get up is more pressing.

In a 1-7 (0-5 Mountain West) season that’s going nowhere fast, the Warriors’ sixth consecutive loss — the worst losing streak since the 0-12 season of 1998 — should pose questions that peer beyond this cursed campaign. The deep, necessary kind that should, ideally, be fielded by an athletic director or someone in charge of purse strings and infrastructure.

But UH is still without a permanent head of its athletic program and, just as important, it is lacking a long-term vision and articulated commitment.

So, once again Chow talks of "doing the only thing we can do, keep fighting." He promises to, "keep going back to work and trying to get better." He pledges to "be back in the office (today) working hard. Nobody is quitting. Nobody is giving up," Chow said. "There’s no quit in these guys, that’s why I love ’em."

But, as the burial at Bulldog Stadium showed, this isn’t about perseverance or putting face masks to the grindstone. Commendably, those virtues have little wavered in the face of a string of blowouts.

But things aren’t getting better, the outlook isn’t brightening. And, as potent as Fresno State (7-3) was, No. 19 Boise State is up next.

And if you think this year has been torturous, then don’t look ahead and turn the page toward 2013. Next year the nonconference lineup includes Southern California, Oregon State, Brigham Young, Army and Navy. Oh, and there are no Football Championship Subdivision breathers like Lamar, UH’s only victim this year, to be found on the schedule either. A sobering thought, indeed.

Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West, was on hand for Saturday’s game. Watching from the press box, he diplomatically said he understood UH’s plight of having a new coach trying to install a new system. "These things can take time," Thompson said.

When that time might come is the question, and nothing that happened Saturday night shed any encouraging light on an answer.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.