HOUSTON » When the University of Hawaii football team came through here seven years ago — staying at the same hotel, even — it wasn’t to play Rice, which is the Rainbow Warriors’ mission Saturday night.

It was between games at Louisiana Tech and UNLV, and coach June Jones didn’t see any sense in flying west just to go east again. He also saw how ludicrous it would be to have a college team stay in Las Vegas any longer than necessary.

So Houston made sense, and it worked out. While UH barely survived overtime at LaTech, a fresh team not bedraggled by jet lag handled UNLV with ease and the Warriors went on to an undefeated 12-0 regular season.

Four of the defensive backs from that team — Ryan Mouton, Gerard Lewis, Myron Newberry and Jacob Patek — are from the area or played junior college ball nearby. Mouton and Lewis — who made a game-saving play against LaTech — addressed the Rainbow Warriors after practice Friday.

Most prognosticators believe UH needs all the help it can get against the Owls, although both teams have 1-3 records. Perhaps because Rice’s victory is more recent, and was on the road. And Hawaii’s win was last month at home against FCS opponent Northern Iowa.

Both teams are better than their record. But Hawaii has a big problem at quarterback, unless Ikaika Woolsey can rediscover whatever it was that was working for him at the beginning of the season-opening game against Washington.

UH’s first drive of the season was a thing of beauty, as the Rainbow Warriors mixed plays with aplomb and used Woolsey’s running skills to set up passes, and vice versa. Of course it helped that big back Joey Iosefa was healthy. But in his absence Steven Lakalaka has moved the ball steadily on the ground behind an improving offensive line.

But this team cannot be one dimensional on offense and win.

It’s pretty simple for UH: Woolsey must settle down and throw accurate passes … consistently. If he gets hit hard for a sack or a hurry? So what, that happens. Move on to the next play. If a receiver drops a pass? Same thing, forget about it and play with the same confidence.

Part of coach Norm Chow’s job is to keep a close eye on Woolsey — if it’s going to be more of the same that we’ve seen in the past four games regarding a lack of accuracy he must be relieved, early.

It might be harder to pull that trigger now that No. 2 quarterback Jeremy Higgins is out for the year, but Chow must remember that Taylor Graham was starting to come along when he got hurt last year at Nevada. If Graham gets enough playing time maybe he can still be that special quarterback Chow had hoped for. He certainly has the big arm and the big body for it.

The Rainbow Warriors appear to be better overall than the Owls on defense and special teams. But that can’t offset an offense that does not put the ball into the end zone, even if it takes care of the football. This is not the 1980s.

This is a winnable game, but UH cannot trade field goals for touchdowns like it did at Colorado and expect to do so.

Unlike 2007, Hawaii isn’t just here for a rest between games. It wants to leave town with a win.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.