Questionable calls not good for UH team in development

MADISON, Wis. » Perfection is the goal, but virtually impossible. When football coaches and players talk about mistake-free what they really mean is keeping errors to a minimum.

In one sense, the University of Hawaii football team did that Saturday in its 28-0 loss at Wisconsin. If you’d first heard the Rainbow Warriors committed no turnovers, you probably figured they gave themselves a chance to win. You would have at least expected they’d scored some points.

But then look at just about any other stat and you know: Wisconsin dominated.

The 326 to 15 in net rushing is glaring. So is 512 to 255 in total offense, and UW controlling the ball 40 minutes.

A lot of that was expected heading in against the No. 22 team in the nation.

This, though, was surprising: Hawaii was assessed 100 yards on 11 penalties. In the first three games of the season, UH averaged just 42.7 yards in penalties (opponents were hit for an average of 66 yards).

In all three prior games, the Warriors were ticketed for less yardage than the opposition — even in the 38-0 loss at Ohio State.

It seemed a turn of a significant corner, a major signal of being on the path to respectability. Too many penalties has been one of UH’s biggest flaws in recent years. Now, Rainbow Warrior fans need to hope this was just a hiccup.

Would Hawaii have won this game if it had been penalized for its usual amount of yards this season, less than half of that 100? No. But several penalties contributed vastly to the Badgers scoring and the Warriors not scoring.

And then there’s the question of how much of this is on UH and how much of it on the officiating crew. Two interference calls were questionable, including one that led to the Badgers’ second touchdown, in the waning moments of the first half.

Why can’t interference be reviewed? I asked a veteran college football official.

"There are a great number of moving parts and categories of pass interference," he said. He added that there are six categories for defensive and three for offensive pass interference.

So, I guess the implication is it would take too long and be too difficult to review. That’s not good enough, right? Maybe not this time, but botched pass interference calls often heavily influence who wins and loses games.

Also, UH’s best chance to score was thwarted by its own penalties and one against Wisconsin which was negated (the targeting call that was waved off after review).

"If you call a late hit, it could still have been a penalty," Hawaii coach Norm Chow said. "But they called (only) targeting, so it’s either you get ejected like we did (on an earlier targeting call), or the penalty is nothing. I thought it was a late hit to begin with."

You can’t blame Chow for frustration — with his team’s mistakes, and those made by the officials.

Reverse the questionable calls and UH still loses the game. But it almost certainly avoids another shutout, and that means a lot to an offense and team still trying to develop its identity.

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