A thousand rushing yards couldn’t secure a prominent role for Paul Harris under Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich. One text message did.
The senior running back got a long-awaited opportunity to shine on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium, but some big plays on Harris’ part were not enough for the Rainbow Warriors to prevent UNLV’s 41-38 visiting victory.
“Confidence was always there, it’s always going to be there,” said Harris, who rushed only seven times but netted 94 yards and his second touchdown of the season. “Just fix my faults and watch film on the next team (Air Force) and make sure we capitalize on everything that we can. We can’t lack on it.”
Harris, a 1,132-yard rusher last season, was asked in fall camp to play behind Diocemy Saint Juste, who enjoyed a 200-yard game two weeks ago against Nevada with Harris playing a supporting role. Steven Lakalaka emerged as the short-yardage power back and leads the team in touchdowns.
But Harris saw the success of his fellow backs as a good thing as UH went into Saturday 2-0 in the Mountain West.
Saturday he had the feel of a dangerous man being thawed out of carbonite, and Rolovich pulled the switch.
“I see a kid who sent me a text last night, that says ‘Coach, I don’t care how much playing time I get. I just appreciate what this staff has done for this program,’ “ Rolovich said. “And that humbleness and appreciation for his teammates, the will of wanting to win, is incredible. There probably haven’t been enough carries for him, but tonight he got them. He did some nice things with it. I hope he continues to hold the ball, ball security needs some work, but he’s able to help this football team. And his mentality is pretty unselfish right now.”
Until a dropped kickoff return chance in the end zone on UH’s last-gasp possession, Harris was enjoying a stellar game there, too. He opened the game with a 75-yard kickoff return, but it didn’t result in a Hawaii score. For the day, he averaged 32 yards on five returns.
His thoughts lingered on the final chance with 49 seconds left.
“I was thinking about taking it out, but when I muffed it, I was just like, I’m going to knee it,” Harris said. “I took my eyes off the ball, so it messed up my catching it. … (Still) that was my best game with the return. Gotta keep it up.”
He was his old self in the backfield, though, going for 13.4 yards per carry. Harris’ 35-yard take in the second quarter set up Dru Brown’s 3-yard passing touchdown to Dakota Torres for a 14-7 UH lead.
After a huge fourth-quarter reversal of a lost fumble call on Marcus Kemp, Harris darted for 28 and 7 yards on the next two plays, gliding in to give his team a 38-31 lead with 9:02 to play.
Kemp nodded his appreciation for Harris’ patience.
“I think it would definitely be hard to come off a 1,000-yard season and kind of go into splitting time with three backs,” Kemp said. “But I think he’s really responded well. He’s waited for his opportunities, and every opportunity he’s had he’s made the best of it. This game is a good example. He might’ve had to wait a few games where D or Steve got the spotlight, but this game he got his opportunities and made them.”
Most of them.
“We had opportunities to put the ball in the end zone, just something always happened,” Harris said. “We just gotta go to the drawing board for next week and forget about this week.”
