Warriors have confidence, but will they have enough?

The University of Hawaii football team is in a strange land of precarious confidence right now. As the Rainbow Warriors prepare for Saturday’s game at San Diego State, they are still trying to win on the road for the first time since 2011.

UH makes this trip with just one quarterback with any experience, and he’s banged up. It also travels without the player whom going into the season was considered its best offensive threat, and was expected to possibly return from injury this week.

Joey Iosefa rushed 37 times for 150 yards in last year’s 28-21 overtime loss to the Aztecs at Aloha Stadium. But his arrest early Sunday morning for suspicion of DUI has led to a three-game suspension.

That is not good news for anyone, except perhaps the San Diego State defense. Still, these facts remain: UH is 0-2 in the games Iosefa played in to start this season and 2-2 since in the ones he did not.

Yes, you can say that is more a function of the opponents, as Hawaii started the season against Washington and Oregon State and the wins in Big Joey’s absence came against Northern Iowa and Wyoming.

But football is a what-have-you-done-lately undertaking, and UH’s most recent history is a 38-28 victory over the Cowboys in which the Rainbow Warriors got stronger as the game went along — even as their ranks thinned with more injuries.

The strength of the Hawaii team is on both lines, and that’s why despite plenty of attrition to quarterbacks and running backs UH has competed late into every game. Injuries have also hit the defense, especially at linebacker, but so far there’s been enough depth to compensate.

Ikaika Woolsey played the best half of his college career against Wyoming, but the only quarterback with any experience available for SDSU was so sore after Saturday’s game he only started practicing Thursday. Steven Lakalaka, who started the four games in place of Iosefa, took a hard hit to the head against the Cowboys and is being watched closely, even after passing concussion protocols — as it should be.

All this has generated plenty of hand-wringing from the fan base.

But the players seem more focused on who is available to play rather than who isn’t. And after three scored their first touchdowns in Hawaii uniforms on Saturday, you can forgive a bit of hubris.

"The morale is high right now," said sophomore running back Diocemy Saint Juste, who sped for 135 yards and a TD against Wyoming. "Everyone has confidence now that we know how to win. We’re going to take it to a bowl game. All the (team) goals are still there."

Suddenly, the offense that was settling for field goals when it was lucky looks like it has a nose for the end zone.

But if Woolsey gets hurt, or reverts back to his previous under-50-percent passing accuracy?

Then Hawaii fans had better hope San Diego State coach Rocky Long wasn’t just blowing smoke when he said, "Their front seven is as good as anybody we’ve played against; I compare them to Oregon State."

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