Rainbows look to break cold spell in frigid Laramie

LARAMIE, Wyo. » If only it can be heard above their chattering teeth in the sub-freezing weather, opportunity knocks for the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors today.

On the snow-sprinkled Wyoming campus, where employees were shoveling the white stuff in 18 degree temperatures prior to the UH football team’s 16-minute "walk-through" Friday, is a way out of its so-far winless season for the ‘Bows.

That’s because on an artificial field so cold that the white yard lines crack like panes of glass when you step on them, the ‘Bows face another team of misery today at 9 a.m. Hawaii time — Wyoming.

To be sure, the Cowboys have a record, 4-6, that UH (0-10) would trade its whole stock of retro uniforms for. But the victories were accumulated in much better times, and the way Wyoming has gone about compiling the losses of late should give the ‘Bows cause for hope today if they can work past the elements.

After a 3-1 start in which the only loss was a three-pointer at nationally ranked Nebraska, the Cowboys have fallen hard and shown little sign of being able to get up. They have lost four games in a row and five of their past six, doing it badly.

The Cowboys look for all the world like a team that has given up on itself and the season, or so people here will tell you.

The fans sure seem to have moved on. When War Memorial Stadium was full to its 29,181 capacity, folks here used to say it became the Cowboy State’s fourth-biggest city after Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie. But they haven’t been able to say it in a while. And today, they suggest, only half-kiddingly, a barn might hold the anticipated turnout, which many believe will be less than 10,000.

The combination of a season gone sour, temperatures forecast in the high 20s and the winless Warriors as the opponent don’t portend much of a turnout for the Cowboys’ final home game of the year, Senior Day.

A lot of that is because the Cowboys, a program that has long prided itself on defensive tenacity, have yielded, on average, 49.8 points and 568 yards per game over their past four appearances. Those figures are even more hideous than UH’s 38 points and 470 yards allowed over the same period.

Things have been so bad the Cowboys fired their defensive coordinator, ex-UH assistant Chris Tormey, at the end of October. Bill Young was hired out of retirement to try to resurrect things, but little has changed.

Meanwhile, the offense has sagged, too.

Now the drum beat for the ouster of head coach Dave Christensen, who is

26-34 in five seasons, has grown to the point where he and Norm Chow have become fixtures on various coaches’ hot-seat listings.

Of course, the Cowboys are looking at the visit by UH as a last-ditch way out of their funk, an elixir for all that has ailed them.

Today, one of the downtrodden teams will find a break in its misery, and if the ‘Bows can work through the cold, they could dump the ignominious baggage of a winless season in the snow instead of lugging it back home.

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