“Hawaii’s never beaten them, right?”
No, I answered. It just seems that way.
A friend had asked on Friday night about the San Diego State football team and its dominance over the University of Hawaii.
After the most recent installment of this one-sided series it does feel like SDSU is 30-0 against UH instead of 21-9-2. The Aztecs bludgeoned the Rainbow Warriors 28-7 on Saturday at a nearly two-thirds-empty Aloha Stadium.
Offensively, UH was as flat as beer left over from the last game, two weeks ago against San Jose State. Hawaii won that one, but unless the ’Bows move the ball better in November they can forget about playing in December.
The magic number is three, as in three wins out of the remaining four games to become eligible to play in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. But other than during a few rare moments, the ’Bows looked nothing like a bowl team on Saturday.
Sure, San Diego State is one of the better teams in the Mountain West. But the Aztecs were coming off two very deflating losses and weren’t exceedingly sharp themselves.
San Diego State won mostly because it controlled the lines of scrimmage, the tempo and time of possession.
Warriors quarterback Dru Brown said it wasn’t anything fancy.
“They do a lot of things well. I don’t think their scheme was overly complicated. They have good players, they have good coaching and they execute what they do,” Brown said.
Mostly, they just manhandled the Warriors, with Rashaad Penny accounting for more yards (253, all rushing) than UH could produce as an entire team (195 total offense).
It was simple, really: The Warriors did not stop Penny, and the Aztecs did stop Diocemy Saint Juste.
UH’s star running back managed just 40 yards on 17 carries. Saint Juste had come into the game averaging 156.3 rushing yards per game, good for fourth in the nation compared to Penny’s 139.4, which was fifth.
Before nation-leading receiver John Ursua was lost for the season due to injury early in the San Jose State game, there were complaints of lack of diversity in Hawaii’s offense. Unfortunately, there’s some credence to that, as without him the Warriors went from two-dimensional to one-dimensional.
Against some defenses, a back of Saint Juste’s abilities might be all you need. But that was not the case with San Diego State.
Hawaii’s first seven offensive plays went to Saint Juste. They netted 15 yards and zero first downs.
Things went so badly for the Hawaii offense early on that even when it appeared the Rainbows got a first down it was merely a mirage. After further review, an 8-yard pass from Brown to Marcus Armstrong-Brown that initially moved the chains was ruled incomplete.
UH didn’t get a real first down until the 12:45 mark of the second quarter, after SDSU had scored twice, posting all the points the Aztecs would need to win.
Meanwhile, Penny nickeled and dimed the Warriors’ defense in the first quarter, carrying 13 times for 45 yards. As the evening wore on the UH defense wore down. It was just a matter of time before the 3-yard gains became 6-yard gains and then the 6-yard gains became breakaways bringing back nightmares of Donnell Pumphrey and — for the older fans — Marshall Faulk.
On Hawaii’s one successful drive, six players ran or caught the ball, and two more were targeted with (incomplete) passes. The touchdown came when the San Diego State defense converged on Saint Juste after a fake handoff, and Brown dove into the end zone from a yard out. (The 16-play, 88-yard drive was also greatly aided by two Aztecs penalties for 30 yards.)
Saint Juste is a great running back, but especially in the absence of Ursua the Rainbow Warriors must develop more offensive weapons if they are to finish this season strong.
UH is 3-5 now, and on Saturday its offense produced more three-and-outs than you might get in a Justin Verlander-Clayton Kershaw pitching matchup.
“We’re having issues, but once we get rolling we’re pretty tough to stop,” Brown said. “We can’t keep putting our defense out there after three downs. It’s not fair to them.”
Maybe this result can be considered an improvement over the 55-0 embarrassment of last year’s meeting on the road at Qualcomm Stadium. After another lopsided loss the next week against Boise State, UH bounced back to win its final three games, including the Hawaii Bowl.
“We got into the type of game they wanted,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said. “It’s similar to what happened last year. You get behind and they start preying on you.”
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
