Usually when they bring a student out of the stands for one of those kick-an-extra point-win-some-bucks contests during a break in the action, there is a smattering of polite applause for the effort.
But not Saturday night.
When a contestant working without a holder came up well short — and low — of the intended target, the vocal portion of an Aloha Stadium crowd of 30,568 took out its accumulated frustrations on the awe-struck student.
Even being well on the way to a 45-34 victory over New Mexico State and a 4-3 record (2-1 WAC) apparently was not enough to assuage the mounting disappointment of fans looking for an end to a seemingly endless string of breakdowns that have haunted the Warriors’ kicking game this season.
On homecoming night, what many UH partisans wanted most was the expected return of the once-formidable
kicking game and they were disapponted.
A night that had started hopefully enough with a loud, statement-making ovation for the first of Kenton Chun’s three consecutive successful PAT kicks ended with the Warriors resorting to back-to-back 2-point attempts (both unsuccessful) after new problems appeared.
One PAT attempt clanged off an upright and missed and another went awry with a bobbled snap, each setback bringing a loud chorus of boos from the frustrated faithful.
"Well, at least we didn’t get anything blocked (by the other team)," noted one UH official without humor.
Unlike last week at San Jose State, where a blocked extra-point attempt and a blocked field goal spelled the difference in a 28-27 loss, this time it did not cost the Warriors, though it did leave UH with the narrowest margin of its eight victories in the series.
The failings took away from an otherwise solid night on special teams, highlighted by Kamalani Alo’s 13-yard touchdown return of a punt blocked by John Hardy-Tuliau for UH’s second touchdown. It was the first return of a blocked punt for a TD by UH since 2001 and a thing of beauty after what the Warriors have suffered through with six blocked place kicks this season.
The Warriors covered kicks well and allowed no punt returns.
The hope, at that point, was that the Warriors had put the trials and tribulations of past weeks behind them.
Instead, here we are at the midpoint of the season and it is anybody’s guess what will happen from week to week. Progress this isn’t. What it is is back to the drawing board, again.
"If everybody wants to focus on PATs and field goals, I got a remedy for that: We’ll just go for 2," head coach Greg McMackin said afterward.
Just in case it comes to that, offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich was asked how deep the playbook chapter on 2-point conversions is.
"We’ve got plenty … enough to go through the season, if we have to," Rolovich said.
"If people want to write about that (special teams breakdowns), I’ll be responsible for the PAT and Dick (Tomey) can handle the rest of it," McMackin said. "I don’t like people attacking our coaches when they’re working their ass off. I’m really upset with that."
On a night where there was a lot of frustration surrounding the UH kicking game, he was just part of the crowd.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com 529-4820.
