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Hawaii tried football tactics that were old, new and borrowed, but the outcome still was decidedly blue.
This generation’s Big Blue — Boise State — rolled to a 49-14 victory at Aloha Stadium on Saturday. It was likely the last meeting between the teams for a while. The Broncos (8-2, 5-1 in the Mountain West) are relocating to the Big East next year.
The Warriors suffered their seventh loss in a row in falling to 1-8 and 0-6.
The Warriors’ 240 yards were inflated in garbage time, much the way the accounting was boosted with the school reporting a generously announced turnstile count of 24,001.
In the aftermath, UH coach Norm Chow will evaluate the quarterback situation after reviewing video of the game.
Sean Schroeder, a Duke graduate who has started all nine UH games, was 10-for-19 for 100 yards. He was sacked four times, with one resulting in defensive end Demarcus Lawrence’s 25-yard fumble return for a touchdown. He was intercepted once. Schroeder has lost eight fumbles this season. The Warriors managed 85 yards when Schroeder was the quarterback on Saturday.
Jeremy Higgins, a Saint Louis School graduate who transferred from Utah State in 2011, was 11-for-17 for 154 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked twice, one of which became a lost fumble, and was intercepted once.
"I’m going to look at (the situation)," Chow said. "I’m going to look at it pretty hard. I thought Jeremy played pretty good. We have to look at the tape. You always have to remember the first guy is playing against the better teams. We’re going to evaluate the tape. But after what we saw, Jeremy played awfully well."
Asked if he should be the starter, Higgins said, "Yes. … I feel like I deserve it. I feel I can do good things."
There is friendly competition among Schroeder, Higgins and Cayman Shutter.
"We have our quarterback battles, but we’re all trying to get the same goal done," Higgins said. "We can’t let that get in the way."
In the hush of UH’s postgame locker room, Schroeder said: "We have to keep pushing. We have to keep moving forward."
Schroeder said he was not injured on the sack that led to the lost fumble. Higgins was summoned for the next series.
"I’m good to go," Schroeder said.
For the Warriors, there was an early glitch. Their opening drive stalled. On the ensuing punt, which Chris Potter ran back 37 yards to the UH 33, the Warriors’ Will Gregory was penalized for throwing a punch at a Boise State player. Gregory was ejected, and the penalty advanced the ball to the 18. Two plays later, receiver Shane Williams-Rhodes took a handoff from wildcat quarterback D.J. Harper and scooted 9 yards for a 7-0 Boise lead.
Gregory said he did not throw a punch.
The Boise State player "was grabbing me," Gregory said. "I was trying to get him off of me."
Chow said Gregory is "a very valuable part of our team. That was uncalled for. That was stupid, and it will be dealt with severely."
Gregory is the Warriors’ speed back and the off-set returner on kickoffs. His absence on special teams was felt after Mike Edwards took the ensuing kickoff 3 yards deep in the end zone and raced and weaved the other way for the tying touchdown. After that, the Broncos tried to kick away from Edwards.
"All week I’ve been seeing visions of the return," Edwards said. "I wanted to make a play for the team any way possible. I got the opportunity. I made the best of it."
Later in the first quarter, the Warriors forced the Broncos to punt. But UH’s sure-handed returner Scott Harding muffed it.
"I just dropped it," Harding said. "No excuses. I just dropped it."
The Broncos recovered at the UH 15.
Six plays later, Joe Southwick threw toward receiver Matt Miler’s back shoulder. Miller turned to his left to make the easy catch for a 3-yard touchdown and 14-7 lead the Broncos would not relinquish.
"If a mistake happens, we have to drop it and play three more downs," UH defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer said. "We can’t let mistakes affect how we play defense. We have to keep attacking."
But the Broncos had too many weapons.
Aaron Burks sped away to catch a 46-yard scoring pass. Jay Ajayi ran 13 yards untouched for another score. Tight end Holden Huff, left open on the left when the rest of the offense moved right, caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Southwick.
Southwick, who waited two years as Kellen Moore’s understudy, was 17-for-29 for 209 yards and three touchdowns. He was not sacked, and barely harassed.
The Warriors, meanwhile, failed to cobble together drives. They were unsuccessful on seven third-down plays in the first half. They set a school record for the worst rushing output — minus-14 yards.
Boise defensive end Samuel Ukwuachu said: "Coming into the game, we knew we had to get pressure on the quarterback. I felt that was our main goal for the game. We game-planned it. We knew what the offense was going to give us, and we executed. We came with that goal."
After Schroeder’s lost fumble, Chow decided to make the change.
"It’s not all Sean," Chow said. "The protection broke down. We’ll have to look at it. We’re not getting better at protection. It’s always hard when it’s an obvious pass situation, when people can pin their ears back and come after you. It makes it tough."
The Warriors will have little recovery time. They depart Wednesday afternoon ahead of Friday’s road game against Air Force.
"I can’t lie, it’s been tough," Harding said. "More mentally than physically. We constantly have our backs against the wall, and coming up against good teams that are putting up a lot of points against us. … We’re still making those mistakes that are really costing us. I was to blame for one of them. We have to cut them out. We can’t match with any team unless we cut (the mistakes) out."