FORT COLLINS, Colo. » Hawaii football coach Norm Chows insists, "Every game we look at as just another opportunity to play, another opportunity to do the best we can do."

And Colorado State’s Jim McElwain maintains "just trying to go out and win every down is something we need to try to get back to."

As much as nobody wants to come out and acknowledge the "D" word — and both coaches have gone to great lengths to talk around it this week — today’s 1 p.m. meeting is very much a desperation game for Hawaii and Colorado State.

When you have teams that are 1-5 (Hawaii) and 1-6 (Colorado), how could it not be? When you have one team (UH) that has won just one of its last 10 games against Football Bowl Subdivision competition and another (CSU) that has won but one of its last 15 against any opposition, that practically spells d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-i-o-n.

Or, should.

For one of the downtrodden, the season gets a little bit brighter today. For somebody, the gloom parts at least momentarily. Both know they badly need to be that team.

What we have here are two first-year, first-time head coaches who expected difficulty and struggle in turning around lagging programs. But neither they nor their fans expected what has materialized.

To be sure nobody around UH expected the depth of the blowouts the Warriors have suffered. And few around CSU saw six consecutive losses coming after the big season-opening victory over Colorado.

"I’ll be honest, I’m very disappointed in our win-loss record, McElwain told Mountain West Conference reporters this week. "That’s not acceptable for me."

Chow said, "Neither side, I’m sure, is satisfied. (We’re) a little bit embarrassed and we just need to go play well."

And that’s a big part of what gives this game whatever importance it has. Both teams see somebody they can get better against.

Look at it this way: If the Warriors don’t win this week, when will they?

Next week at 5-3 Fresno State and the following weeks against 18th-ranked Boise State (6-1) and at Air Force (4-3) sure don’t portend better opportunities at victory. And, who wants to go into their final two games of the season still looking for victory No. 2?

What we could very well have here is, in fact, an elimination game for last place in the MWC among two of the three teams that most figure in the race at the moment. The other being Wyoming (1-6). All are 0-3 in conference.

Chow says, "We’re both in our first years and we can’t worry about that (desperation). We’re both building a program; we’re building a foundation. You know, three, four years from now, two, three years from now, then if we’re not getting it done then, yeah, I would look (at it that way), not this week."

Perhaps, but who wants to take a chance of heading into year two with that kind of a burden if you can begin to lessen some of it with a victory this week?

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