The last time Hawaii and Colorado State played each other in football, they were two Mountain West programs headed in opposite directions.

That was 2014, and Norm Chow was the UH head man. Jim McElwain led a 49-22 dissection of the Rainbow Warriors at CSU’s old stadium.

With their fourth loss in a row, the Warriors were on their way to 4-9 and Chow was on his way out. That didn’t happen until late in the next season, as UH officials claimed there was no money to buy out Chow’s contract after the third year of futility.

The Rams were on their way to 10-3, and McElwain was on his way to Florida, where he is now in his third year at the Gators helm.

The teams’ current head coaches, Nick Rolovich and Mike Bobo, were offensive coordinators back then; Rolovich at Nevada and Bobo at Georgia, his alma mater.

Recruiting a coach from among the coordinator ranks in the SEC worked once for the Rams when they hired McElwain, so why not again?

Of course, that means CSU could be in the market for a new leader again soon if it has double-digit wins under Bobo — or maybe it won’t even take that. He’s already considered an up-and-comer and a potential Power Five head coach.

Colorado State went 7-6 overall, including a bowl loss, in each of Bobo’s first two seasons. The Rams also were 5-3 in conference both years. Many believe this is the payoff year for CSU.

In their nonconference games, the Rams did nothing to diminish the idea of their being the class of at least their own division. But they’ve been overshadowed overall in the conference by San Diego State’s flashy 4-0 start.

The Rams are just 2-2 heading into their Mountain West opener, but it’s clear that CSU is good. How good is hard to determine at this point. That’s what happens when you play Alabama. What are we to make from a 41-23 loss to the top-ranked team in the nation?

The Rams also lost 17-3 to rival Colorado, which looks like one of the Pac-12’s better teams this year. It is being kind when we say Oregon State is not. The Rams clobbered the hapless and still winless-against-FBS-competition Beavers 58-27 on Aug. 26. CSU’s other win was 38-10 over Abilene Christian, an FCS team that is just 1-3.

Hawaii is also 2-2 after letting Wyoming off its hook last week in Laramie to start conference play. UH doesn’t have as impressive a loss as Alabama on its ledger, but UCLA was ranked at one point.

UH started out 2-0 with wins at UMass and then at home against Western Carolina. As it is with CSU, Hawaii is hard to read based on what it has done so far.

Hanging on to edge the Minutemen 38-35 was initially impressive, since the Warriors had to travel so far to do it. But now UMass is 0-5. Beating the Catamounts 41-18 generated shrugs in general and even concern from Rolovich because of its sloppy aspects, and the fact that WCU is from the lower FCS ranks … but the Cats have won all three of their games since visiting the islands.

Offensively, the ’Bows have often displayed balance, including a strong running game. But they’ve also been betrayed by penalties and key turnovers. Defensively, they were solid nearly all game against Wyoming’s highly touted quarterback Josh Allen, but torched by UCLA’s Josh Rosen.

The Warriors have the ability to beat the Rams, who are favored by a touchdown tonight. That is, if they don’t beat themselves.

Bobo and Rolovich are alike in many ways.

They were both school-record-setting quarterbacks. They’re both relatively young; I can imagine Bobo being enlisted by his defensive coordinator to take a few reps as scout team quarterback, as Rolovich was at Thursday’s practice.

They seem to like as well as respect each other, and Rolovich ribs Bobo for eating fried chicken from a convenience store in Nashville, Tenn., when both were at an offseason event there.

“Kind of like 7-Eleven Spam musubi here,” said Rolovich, who considered a winner-winner-chicken-dinner bet for tonight’s game.

Unlike three years ago, both of these programs generally look like they’re headed in the same direction, that being up. That obviously changes temporarily for one of them after tonight’s game — a game that could tell a lot more about how the rest of 2017 will play out for both teams than all of their previous ones have.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.