Just in case any of the applicants for the University of Hawaii head football coaching job had labored under delusions about the severity of the task ahead, Saturday night should have served as a neon reality check.
Or, on a night when rain squalls rolled through, a cold bucket of water.
Nobody who watched Fresno State’s 42-14 pummeling of the Rainbow Warriors can view this rebuilding assignment as anything but what it is — a considerable undertaking.
Manoa, we were reminded in the longest game of the season, will not be rebuilt in a day. Or even a year. The program has fallen mightily and needs plenty of help getting back up, judging from the second smallest turnout, 16,131, in its Aloha Stadium history.
The 50 or so current applicants, according to UH officials — not to mention any other prospective ones waiting for their regular seasons to end — got a revealing look at where this program is. And, more to the point, where it isn’t as it continues to plumb new depths.
Progress this isn’t.
What it has become is a steppingstone for the Mountain West Conference’s worst teams. For the second week in a row UH was in a matchup of two-win teams and, again, it was not the one that escaped two-win purgatory.
The 2-9 Rainbow Warriors also are the only team in the 12-member conference without a league victory (0-7), and their last chance to do something about it is their next game, Saturday against San Jose State.
Realistically, with two games left this season, the ‘Bows might have one shot left to end their losing streak, which stands at eight, and that is Louisiana-Monroe (1-9) in the Nov. 28 finale.
Once upon a not-so-distant time when the ‘Bows and the Bulldogs got together it meant something. Often a league title or the inside track to a bowl.
You wonder what ex-Bulldogs coach Pat Hill, doing the Fresno State radio, really thought watching this one.
Saturday night it just meant that one of them, Fresno State (3-7, 2-5) in this case, got to look good by comparison and go home feeling good on that charter flight paid for by UH.
Take the Bulldogs, who were seven-point underdogs, and their quarterback, Zack Greenlee, for example. He had thrown just seven touchdown passes all season and barely held onto the starting job. Against UH he authored six TD passes and, when not drawing roughing-the-passer calls like a crash dummy, looked like Derek Carr.
You can question a couple of the 11 penalties for 132 yards but hardly the overriding trend this season. UH came into the game ranked 111th among 127 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in penalties.
Saturday night the ‘Bows just dug themselves a little deeper and did it a little earlier.
Likewise with four more turnovers, a department in which they have ranked 126th. All the while failing to force any themselves.
One thing applicants for this job should also understand is that there is a hardy core of supporters waiting, hoping for a revival. The remnants of the smallest crowd since 1976 waited through rain, penalties and turnovers long after the night’s hopes had been dashed.
That was about the best thing any suitor of the UH job could take from watching Saturday’s game.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
