Lance Williams has seen enough.

As far as the Hawaii junior linebacker was concerned after Saturday night’s 35-14 loss to Utah State, his teammates can either shape up or ship out.

"That’s their choice. You’re in or you’re out," said Williams, a team captain. "You either like the game or you love the game. If you like something, you can give it up real easy. But if you love something, it’s really hard to surrender. So you know what I mean? It’s not my choice, but I just gotta lead. The other captains, we just gotta lead. It’s their choice to choose if they want to follow or not."

An Aggies freshman quarterback led the way from the outset for the visitors. Kent Myers, USU’s fourth-string signal-caller making his first career start because of injuries, completed his first 12 passes and tossed three touchdowns. UH (2-7, 1-3 Mountain West) took its third straight loss and fifth in six games, officially knocking the Rainbow Warriors out of bowl consideration (barring an unlikely conference championship).

Now the once-stalwart UH defense will have to hash out its assignment problems away from the comforts of home — the next two are road games.

"In life, when you become a true man it depends how you come back," Williams said. "Life is not perfect. So when stuff goes wrong … either you give up or you keep going. So this is a life lesson. … We just gotta keep working. The one thing is life is, you never should give up. You never, ever should give up."

Defensive lineman Beau Yap hasn’t, though weariness was evident on his face.

"It’s really, from here on out, just about pride," said Yap, another captain. "Just trying to set up next year, really, and try to send out the seniors on a good note. Yeah, that’s pretty much it."

Sophomore safety Trayvon Henderson, asked if the team can find something to fight for on the road, stared at the Aloha Stadium locker room floor.

"Yeah, I think we can," he said quietly. "It’s going to be real hard for us, but I think it’s possible."

UH defensive coordinator Kevin Clune spent the last five seasons as linebackers coach at USU before joining Norm Chow’s staff. The game plan was first to stop the run, and then not to fall for USU’s trick plays.

"He knew what they were doing, he knew their entire personnel," Yap said. "I mean, we had a great game plan. We just didn’t execute. That’s the bottom line. It was all mental, really."

Trailing 28-14 at the break, UH surrendered its most first-half points since giving up 31 against Oregon State in the second game of the season.

Myers didn’t miss on a pass until his second attempt of the third quarter, and finished 14-for-15.

"I think he played great," Yap said. "I mean, I’m pretty sure we made him look better than he actually is. But nothing against him, but that’s probably the truth, man."

Williams pointed the blame squarely at himself and the other 10 on his side of the ball.

"It was all on the table there," he said. "We didn’t expect nothing. He’s a true freshman. We didn’t do our job, we didn’t do our assignment, we wasn’t ready. I’m going to be honest. We wasn’t ready."