There was quite a bit Dave Lefotu did well in Hawaii’s win last week.

Lefotu was more interested in what he could have done better.

Lefotu’s play on the Hawaii offensive line contributed to the Warriors’ first victory of the season last Saturday. But those highlights don’t mean much to him now, certainly not with the Warriors’ Mountain West Conference opener against Nevada directly ahead.

"You can’t live on the week before," Lefotu said. "In this game you always have to look to get better the next week.

"Like everyone knows, the film doesn’t lie. When you watch the film there’s a lot of stuff I can improve on, and there’s a lot of stuff I think I did pretty good on. But we’ll never settle for pretty good."

With last week’s footage filed away, Lefotu has focused on studying Nevada’s defense in advance of the Wolf Pack’s visit to Aloha Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff for the first meeting between the programs as MWC members is set for 4:30 p.m.

"I came in right after class and watched film for about an hour and a half, 2 hours," Lefotu said after Tuesday’s practice.

When he watched his own performance earlier in the week, Lefotu’s takeaway from the session reviewing last week’s 54-2 win over Lamar were the plays that might have broken open if he’d stayed on his blocks a little longer, or as UH offensive line coach and run-game coordinator Chris Wiesehan puts it, "play to the echo of the whistle."

"It was a lot of fun but obviously there’s a lot we have to clean up and just really work on our technique and executing the plays," Lefotu said. "Like Coach said, we have to work on sustaining our blocks so we can get those big runs.

"We had a couple of big runs. But if you watch the game again, if we would have held on to our blocks just a little longer we would have had way more explosive runs."

As it was, Lefotu was part of an offensive line that helped produce 219 rushing yards and two touchdowns and gave quarterback Sean Schroeder time to throw for 150 yards and three scores last week.

"Dave was rugged in there, he’s going to be a leader and he brings a lot of want-to and effort," Wiesehan said of the 6-foot-3, 305-pound sophomore from Pearl City. "He’s going to be a good, good player if he continues on this course as far as work ethic."

Lefotu has started nine of UH’s past 10 games at right guard since taking over midway through last season and put in the work to trim down over the summer. He had ample opportunity to work on run blocking last week when the Warriors — who averaged 25 rushing attempts per game last season — ran the ball 48 times, the program’s highest single-game total since 1998.

The Warriors’ top four running backs averaged 5 yards on 43 combined carries, led by Will Gregory’s 62 yards on six attempts.

While grinding out yards on the ground is justifiably associated with power, there is a measure of precision to opening the holes in time for the running backs to accelerate through the line.

"I have to be in the right place and I have to help the right people or else guys are just going to come free and make plays in the backfield, which we can’t have," Lefotu said.

Through three games, Nevada (2-1) has 12 tackles for losses totaling 45 yards, including five sacks, and the duel between relatively youthful units on UH’s offensive line and Nevada’s defensive front figures to be a pivotal matchup.

UH’s starting line features a junior, two sophomores and two freshmen while Nevada has six freshmen and sophomores among the eight defensive linemen listed on the two-deep.

"These guys are going to play hard and we need to match that physicality," Wiesehan said.