You know things aren’t going very well when you’re breaking records from the Fred vonAppen coaching era.
On Saturday, the University of Hawaii football team eclipsed the program mark set in 1998 for road futility with its 20-10 loss at San Diego State, a nation-leading 16th in a row away from home. Norm Chow has been coach for 15 of them.
Another telling similarity is that the team’s most effective player on offensive downs is often the punter. Remember Chad Shrout? He could kick the ball the proverbial mile … and he had to because Hawaii was seemingly always booting the ball away from 1996 to 1998, and from terrible field position.
Current punter Scott Harding, with his unpredictable rugby style, is a bit different. He has a knack for making opposing return teams cough up the ball in a variety of ways. When UH recovered an Aztecs fumble Saturday, it was the ninth time in his career one of Harding’s punts resulted in a new set of downs for Hawaii.
That’s one of the most incredible statistics you will ever see, in any sport.
Unfortunately for the Rainbow Warriors, they’ve too often failed to cash in on this distinctive windfall. Such was the case Saturday, when they came up empty, failing to make a first down and missing a field goal after Quinton Pedroza recovered the ball at the San Diego State 28.
The score remained 10-0 Aztecs, and you got the feeling that the squandered opportunity would really bite UH in the okole when all was said and done. And it did, almost as much as the holding call on Keelan Ewaliko’s 100-yard kickoff return to start the second half.
Despite how hobbled UH was for this game, it was there for the taking. But a week after having all the right moves at home against Wyoming, the Rainbow Warriors seemed to regress and lose that little edge that so often makes all the difference when overall talent is comparable.
And now they’ve gone into the red for the season on turnovers, 13-12.
The good news is they’re home for the next couple of games. The bad news is Hawaii will likely be the underdog against both Nevada and Utah State.
Nick Rolovich was still the UH offensive coordinator when the road losing streak started at Reno in 2011. Now he fills that role at Nevada and has helped the Wolfpack to two wins over his alma mater.
Rolovich is beloved in Hawaii as a player and a sharp offensive mind who gets along with pretty much everyone he meets. I won’t be the only one this week to question the wisdom of not retaining the former UH quarterback when Chow was building his staff. And the speculation around town of his returning to Manoa as either a head coach or one in waiting under June Jones is way above stage-whisper in volume.
Whether that is fair to Chow and quarterbacks coach/play-caller Jordan Wynn is irrelevant; it’s just symptomatic of what happens when you’re 6-25 in your third year. Chow was right when he said it would help Rolo’s career to go somewhere else … but he probably wishes it was to a team UH didn’t have to play every year.
Rolovich is famous here for beating BYU as a player, and he did it again Saturday as a coach. Nevada’s coming off a 42-35 comeback win at Provo, Utah, led by UH nemesis Cody Fajardo at quarterback.
Nevada’s three losses are all within one touchdown, including 35-28 at Arizona — which beat Oregon and whose only loss was by two points against USC.
This is homecoming week for UH … as it is for Nick Rolovich.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
