Defense fuels Hawaii’s surge

A bountiful harvest of turnovers was not quite enough for one of the greatest comebacks in college football history to come to fruition.

Hawaii had five takeaways against No. 25 Fresno State — four in an unreal second half ­— to bring the Rainbow Warriors within end-zone striking distance in the final seconds of a 42-37 defeat on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.

UH, one of the worst teams in the country in turnover margin (minus 2.33 per game, 121st) entering the night, finished plus-three in bipolar pouring rain and clear conditions.

That included FSU’s pick of resurrected quarterback Sean Schroeder on his desperation heave with zeroes on the clock, denying a comeback from 39 points down that would have been an NCAA record.

"The defense played great. I think we just fed off of one another," Schroeder said. "Kept it going and it was a beautiful thing."

After FSU scored three touchdowns on its first three possessions of the second half for a 42-3 lead, the UH defense came up huge. It stopped the Bulldogs on seven straight drives, while the ‘Bows special teams came up with a fumble recovery for another denial in the first half.

"There was a lot of encouragement (afterward)," said sophomore Ne’Quan Phillips, who had one of UH’s two interceptions of FSU quarterback Derek Carr. "We just drew the line. Ready to go undefeated from this point on."

The last time UH forced five turnovers in a game was at Colorado State last year.

"We talked about it before the game," UH coach Norm Chow said. "We said the turnovers were going to make a difference. Defensively, we had to go after it. We couldn’t wait for it to happen, and we couldn’t turn it over on offense."

Each takeaway was key as UH could not get to Carr. Linebacker Brenden Daley, who led the ‘Bows with nine tackles, including two for loss, had UH’s lone sack of Carr.

Art Laurel intercepted Carr when the ball was batted straight up in the air with 3:46 to play in the third quarter and UH trailing 42-10. Two passes from Schroeder later, Hawaii had its second touchdown of the game.

The defense came up with another turnover on Fresno’s next drive, when safety Marrell Jackson forced a fumble on FSU’s Greg Watson and recovered the ball himself, setting up yet another Schroeder score.

Phillips dove to intercept an errant Carr pass near the sideline on the next Bulldogs drive, and the momentum had fully turned, though UH did not score off that turnover.

"Basically we started picking up on their concepts," Phillips said. "Also, the D-line got their hands up. If it wasn’t for the D-line, none of that would have happened."

Almost immediately, TJ Taimatuia recovered another Fresno fumble, this time by Josh Quezada with 12:29 to play.

That would be the end of the turnover madness, but it helped give UH what seemed so improbable — a chance at the end — and hope it might claw out of an 0-4 season start.