Feel of ‘sweet spot’ was all Sanchez needed to know

ANN ARBOR, Mich. >>> Usually it is the “boom” sound that tells place-kicker Rigo Sanchez when he has hit a long field goal just right.

Saturday, with the noise of the remnants of a crowd of 110,222 at the Big House in his ears and his focus on the moment, it was the feel of the “sweet spot” on the ball that told him the 55-yard field goal was good, Sanchez said.

It accounted for UH’s only points in a 63-3 loss to seventh-ranked Michigan.

“You can feel it when you hit the sweet spot, about the size of a quarter, on the ball,” Sanchez said. “You feel it right here,” he said, pointing at the side of his right foot.

The field goal was the longest for a Rainbow Warrior since 2004, when Justin Ayat kicked a 56-yarder against Tulsa to tie Jason Elam’s school record.

Sanchez’s longest previous UH field goal was a 50-yarder. But Sanchez managed a 54-yard field goal at Butte (Calif.) College and a 57-yarder at Hamilton (Calif.) High.

Special teams coach Mayur Chaudhari said, “I asked (Sanchez) if he wanted to go for it and he said, ‘If the ball is on the 35 (yard line) I can do it. If it is on the 37 or 38, I can probably do it,’ so I told Rolo (head coach Nick Rolovich). He said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”

Rolovich said afterward, “I just wish he wasn’t a senior so we could have him a little longer.”

Crowd preparedness

Gazing up at a crowd of 110,222, the largest gathering ever for a UH game, “you can feel your nerves at first,” said receiver Marcus Kemp.

“You look up and you see all of them and hear that crowd, but then you focus and just go out and play your game,” said Kemp, who led UH with five catches, including an acrobatic one, for 96 yards.

“But if you want to play at the next level someday you have to get prepared for those kinds of crowds,” Kemp said.

The ’Bows have been getting their chances over the past two weeks — against California in Australia and at Michigan — UH has played before 171,469.

“That’s a lot of people,” Kemp said.

UH bang for the buck

Athletic director David Matlin said UH expects to net somewhere “between $550,000 and $650,000” from the appearance at Michigan.

UH receives a $1 million guarantee under terms of its contract and Matlin said the projection is for “around $400,000” in expenses.

In addition, since UH had a charter flight to and from Detroit, it was able to sell some first class seats to boosters at $3,000 a head.

“That’s one of the advantages of a charter, something we do usually have,” Matlin said.

UH was scheduled to return to Honolulu this morning.

Rolovich said, “I think we probably made the best of it with our administration and Na Koa (booster club) and Hawaiian Airlines, that partnership to get that charter to come here. That’s the bests scenario for us and we appreciate everybody that chipped in to make it happen.”

Wolverines say aloha?

Matlin said he is speaking with his opposite number, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, about the possibility of the Wolverines playing a future game at Aloha Stadium.

UM head coach Jim Harbaugh, in response to a question this week, said, “Yeah, we’d definitely consider that.”

With a potential 13th game — and an open date — to offer under terms of a new NCAA policy, “I think we have a little more to offer somebody like Michigan than we have had in the past few seasons,” Matlin said.

But Matlin said the earliest such a game could probably come about — even if there is agreement — would “probably be around 2020 given the way the schedules of both schools are set up. Hopefully, by then we’d be in a better position (competitively).”

Cal absentees return

Safety Daniel Lewis Jr., tight end Metuisela Unga and linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams, who were all held out of the California game for team rules infractions, played against Michigan.

Only Lewis started.

Wheels on the bus

The Rainbow Warriors and their corporate sponsors stood outside their Ypsilanti, Mich., hotel Saturday morning waiting for the four buses scheduled to take them to Michigan Stadium, but only two initially showed up, a UH spokesman said.

The players and coaches caught the first rides to the stadium, with staff, corporate partners and boosters coming later, UH said.