BOISE, Idaho >> The University of Hawaii football team surrendered 55 points in its third shutout loss of the season, but coach Norm Chow emphasized one point.
"It’s just one loss," Chow said of the Rainbow Warriors’ Mountain West opener against Boise State. "It’s just one game. That’s what I told the kids: ‘It’s one game.’ You would hope to come through healthy. We’ll have to check that out."
The Warriors have played three road games in the past four weeks and, after this coming Saturday’s home game against San Diego State, will play consecutive road games against New Mexico and Nevada.
"It’s definitely great we get to play at home," said co-captain Ben Clarke, a reference to playing at Boise a week after a road game against Wisconsin. "That’ll definitely help morale. Being on the road two weeks in a row, that sucks."
Ikaika Woolsey, who replaced ailing quarterback Max Wittek just before the intermission, said the Warriors will need to regroup on Monday.
"You have to stay together," Woolsey said. "You can’t start pointing fingers. Coach (Chow) said we can go two ways. We can go up from here or we can go down. We have to stay together. We have to stay positive as a team."
Offensive coordinator Don Bailey said: "You get back to work and get better. You have to improve. You have to get to practice, and lick your wounds, and get on with it."
Bailey said the players need to trust the system and "play with more confidence."
"It’s not about anything else than that," Bailey said. "We have to be able to focus and play each play like it’s going to be our last. We’re not doing that right now. We’re playing hard, but it takes more than that. You’ve got to be able to put it together mentally and physically for three hours."
UH safety Daniel Lewis said the Warriors will "have to get back to the drawing board and come back way stronger."
Woolsey said the Warriors will quickly move on to preparing for San Diego State.
"Ready or not, they’re coming to town," Woolsey said of the Aztecs. "They don’t really care what happened to us (in Boise). We’ll try to learn from it, and move on, and get read for San Diego State."