Few things in Hawaii’s forsaken season have been as dependable as running back Paul Harris.
Harris again was a bright spot in a dark time for the Rainbow Warriors, as he rushed for 179 yards and a touchdown on a career-high 28 carries in UH’s 42-23 loss to San Jose State on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.
The junior college transfer offered some precious moments of stability in another shaky outing for the beleaguered team. His rushes — just about all through holes up the middle provided by his linemen — were worth an average gain of 6.4 yards.
Other than that, it was a pretty bleak night for UH (2-10, 0-8 Mountain West), which caps its season next week in nonconference fashion against Louisiana-Monroe.
"I’m just trying to give it my all for my seniors that’s leaving this year," said Harris, a 5-foot-11 junior. "Just for my team, play with pride. Just trying to lead by example, as far as giving it my all, trying to make sure everyone sees that so they can do the same thing."
It was Harris’ fifth 100-yard game of the season, and third in a row. As part of four straight handoffs to Harris to open the third quarter, he sprung loose for a 36-yard gain, then two plays later reached the century mark on a 27-yard touchdown run, his fifth score of the year.
Making his consistency more remarkable, Harris didn’t just lose his head coach, Norm Chow, like the rest of his teammates at midseason. He also lost his position coach — Wayne Moses was recently reassigned to administrative duties. Harris now answers to offensive coordinator Don Bailey.
"Just trying to make the best of it. Do what they tell you to do," Harris said of the coaching carousel. "I mean, at the end of the day they’re just trying to help you be the best that you can be."
Five 100-yard games is the program’s season high since Travis Sims went over the century mark nine times in 1992 in UH’s option offense. Harris also became the first UH back to go over 100 yards in three consecutive games since James Fenderson in 2000.
He’s also just short of 1,000 yards for the season — 966.
Informed of such feats, Harris paused and offered up a proverbial shrug.
"I really don’t try to feed into that, because next yearI’ve gotta have a better season," he said. "And we’re still losing on top of that. So it’s like, I’m not doing enough for the team to get the win. If I was, I would be very positive and very thankful for (the blocking). But, we’re still losing."
Interim head coach Chris Naeole called the overall team performance "embarrassing" in between a few bouts of profanity, but he saluted Harris and a few other players.
"Some guys earned my respect. Some guys are out there playing hard," Naeole said. "Julian Gener, Kory Rasmussen, the O-line played good … Harris ran the ball. Guys are still fighting.
"We definitely concentrated on the run game. The O-line moved the ball and Harris was able to have a big game. But it was our turnovers (two) that ended up hurting us."
