Warriors, Warhawks have a lot in common

If everybody has a twin in this world, then the University of Hawaii football team’s doppelganger is Louisiana- Monroe.

Each has lost nine in a row entering today’s game at Aloha Stadium.

An interim head coach leads each team. The Warhawks fired Todd Berry on Nov. 14, then promoted defensive line coach John Mumford. Two weeks earlier, the Rainbow Warriors dismissed Norm Chow, replacing him with associate head coach Chris Naeole.

Each team has endured injuries, including the loss of No. 1 quarterbacks — ULM’s Garrett Smith and UH’s Max Wittek. At one point, the Warriors had 34 players on the injury list.

Brutal schedules? The Warhawks play eight of their 13 games on the road. They opened at Georgia and then, during a stretch, played three consecutive road games. The Warriors played five road games — inluding at Ohio State, Wisconsin and Boise State — in a seven-week period in September and October.

Both teams even can discuss the weather. That muggy and wet summer in paradise?

“I dare any Hawaii person to come down to Northeast Louisiana and hang out in July and August,” ULM linebacker Michael Johnson said. “They’ll get a good feel for humidity.”

For the Warhawks, this is their bowl game.

“You take a trip like this, and realize this will be one of the last times you’ll be with a group like this,” ULM tight end Harley Scioneaux said. “So, yeah, you do take it as kind of a bowl-game approach.”

Johnson is part of the Warhawks’ 2011 recruiting class, many of whom have earned degrees and now are in master’s programs.

“We grew up together,” Johnson said. “It’s funny looking to my left and my right and behind me and seeing guys I’ve been with for five years now. We can go out there and joke around, and still make plays. It’s really interesting, and it’s really fun.”

Today’s finale marks the end of the Warriors’ fifth consecutive losing season. The past four seasons, they are 10-39. Only two players — fullback Justin Vele and slotback Ryan Pasoquen — remain from 2011, Greg McMackin’s last season as UH head coach. Both redshirted that year — Vele as a linebacker, Pasoquen as a walk-on nickelback.

The UH seniors include left tackle Ben Clarke and linebacker Lance Williams, both of whom grayshirted during the 2011 fall semester and joined the Warriors in January 2012. Both said they have no regrets about committing to UH. Clarke and Williams will graduate on Dec. 19.

“We’re playing for our seniors,” junior quarterback Ikaika Woolsey said. “It’s their last week. It might be the last time they play football in their lives. We want to finish strong for them.”

Woolsey suffered an apparent injury to his right Achilles’ during last week’s game against San Jose State.

“I iced it over the weekend,” said Woolsey, who will make his fourth consecutive start. “I’m all right. It’s nothing serious. There are a lot of guys out here, like Ben Clarke, with more serious injuries. They come to work every day.”