Louisiana Tech head football coach Sonny Dykes lauded the University of Hawaii today for its “focus and attitude” in handling the prolonged second quarter delay en route to a 44-26 victory Saturday.

“I think they (the officials) are still sorting through everything right now, honestly,” Dykes said on the Western Athletic Conference coaches teleconference today. “It is kind of … bad for the game. I mean, it was about a 20-minute delay — maybe even longer than that — and Hawaii’s team handled it a lot better than we did,” Dykes said.

The game was stopped in the second quarter while officials reviewed over and over to determine whether UH had a fifth-down punt. The replay official in the booth lost count of the number of downs Hawaii had in its offensive series. Prior to the third-down snap, Hawaii was granted a timeout.

The Warriors eventually had to punt on fourth down, but the replay official thought it was the fifth snap of the series and ruled LaTech should have the ball on the UH 22, instead of the LaTech 36. UH head coach Greg McMackin went off on the sidelines, forcing the head referee to consult with the replay official once again. The discussion lasted 17 minutes before getting it right. 

On another series, three players — two from Tech and one from UH — were called for unsportsmanlike penalties. UH eventually scored to make it 20-6 and then thwarted a Tech drive with an interception to take that lead into halftime.

“Our players did not handle it very well and we didn’t do a very good job of responding to that,” Dykes said. “I was really impressed with their (UH’s) focus and attitude. I could tell their players were into it and focused. They had very good look about them.”

Dykes said, “I think coach (Greg) McMackin and his staff did a really good job getting the guys ready to play. It was a long trip and I was really impressed with the way they handled everything.”