Tank Hopkins and the UH secondary struggle against Washington

SEATTLE >> Too often, Hawaii’s Tank Hopkins finds himself at the corner of Rough and Ready.

As the Warriors’ field cornerback, Hopkins is assigned to defend the wide side, often without any help.

“As a cornerback, you feel you’re on an island,” said UH associate head coach Rich Miano, who coordinates the defensive secondary.

Hopkins was the primary defender on a play that went for 47 yards on Washington’s opening drive, and he was caught out of step on a 31-yard scoring play before the half. But Hopkins also made key plays in amassing six tackles and a pass breakup.

“He’s been a great aspect to our defense,” strong safety Richard Torres said. “He plays really good man coverage. They had some good throws on him. Some of the plays weren’t his fault. The one over the middle was my fault. People probably thought it would have been on him, but it wasn’t.”

On the 31-yard scoring play, Devin Aguilar was running a choice route in which he had the option of breaking to the post or the corner. Hopkins was expecting Aguilar to do a double move — stutter-step one way, then cut back the other way. Instead, Aguilar caught the slightly underthrown pass and zipped to the end zone.

“It was a short pass, and I made a play on it,” Aguilar said. “It was a broken play, but Keith (Price) made the pass, and I made the play.”

Hopkins said: “I was guessing on the double move, but he just settled down on me. I shouldn’t have been guessing. It is what it is.”

Miano said Hopkins is considered one of the leaders of the secondary.

“It hurts because he practiced so well,” Miano said. “He works hard. He does it every day in practice, but he struggled in this game. That’s the life of a defensive back. You can either lose your confidence or realize, hey, there’s another game to be played next week. He’ll get his confidence back.”

Miano added: “There’s enough blame to go around. There are a whole lot of guys who didn’t do their assignments. As a cornerback, if you get beat for a touchdown, you feel it’s the end of the world. It’s not. There are more plays to be made.”

Hopkins, meanwhile, brushed off the physical pain. His right arm was wrapped with an ice pack.

“It’s a little swelling, but it’s all right,” Hopkins said. “After every game, you’ll have nicks. You can’t let it get you down.”