He has carried a hunting knife in his belt, withheld night-time snacks on the eve of games, and removed the bench on his football team’s sideline.

For all the motivational tools, University of Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich said the most needed is a return to the first step. The Rainbow Warriors have lost three in a row, the past two by a combined 107-16, to ensure their sixth consecutive losing regular season.

“It’s stages,” Rolovich said. “The first one is admitting you have a problem.”

In the past Saturday’s loss to Boise State, the Warriors imploded with another early deficit, 10 penalties (including two personal fouls), and two momentum-siphoning turnovers.

Of the past two opponents — San Diego State and Boise State — Rolovich said: “We got a pretty good picture of the elite of the conference, and we’re not there yet. I think I said something (after the game) like we can compete with Boise’s backups.”

Rolovich added: “I don’t care if they’re tough teams. We can’t have 10 penalties. We can’t have unsportsmanlike penalties, delay-of-game penalties, bad turnovers, bad communication up front. That has nothing to do with the teams we play.”

Rolovich refused to blame injuries. The Warriors were without leading rusher Diocemy Saint Juste (691 yards) and H-back Kaiwi Chung.

“We have to be able to move on and adjust and be creative,” Rolovich said. “I thought there was some good work done late in the week by the offensive staff. There was some creativeness. But it didn’t translate very well.”

While Dru Brown is expected to remain as the No. 1 quarterback, Rolovich considered using Ikaika Woolsey in the second half against Boise State. Woolsey, a sixth-year senior, started the first four games but has not played quarterback in a game since then.

The Warriors continue to search for solutions to their slow defensive starts. In the past four weeks, opponents have scored seven touchdowns in the first two drives — eight possessions — of the game.

“We have to play smarter and we have to play better and we have to coach better,” defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa said. “Back to the drawing board. We’ll see what we can do there.”

The Warriors will make their seventh road trip when they play Fresno State this Saturday. The Bulldogs, who are 1-9 overall and 0-6 in the Mountain West, hired Jeff Tedford as head coach this past week. Tim DeRuyter was fired two weeks ago. Interim head coach Eric Kiesau will coach the Bulldogs against UH.

Rolovich does not expect the Warriors to take the Bulldogs lightly.

“I don’t worry about that,” Rolovich said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. If they’re not excited to play football a couple more times together then they’re not wired the right way.”