University of Hawaii football fans got their first look at the run-and-shoot offense in 1975: when Portland State and Mouse Davis brought it to Aloha Stadium.

The Rainbows beat the Vikings 24-7. Former UH player and future UH coach June Jones was the Vikings quarterback.

Hawaii had few problems stopping the offensive scheme with which it would terrorize the Western Athletic Conference three decades later.

“Their coach is considered one of the most radical offensive thinkers in the college game,” Rainbows coach Larry Price said before the game. “To play against a radical you’ve got to think radically, too. We’ll be playing some really radical defense in this one.”

Price replaced two linebackers with additional defensive backs.

In a penalty-ridden rematch a year later, also at Aloha Stadium, Hawaii prevailed again, 20-17. Jones was intercepted five times. Davis pulled his team from the field with two seconds left on the clock after Curtis Goodman kicked a field goal for the winning points.

“We had our chances, but at the same time we were overmatched,” Jones said recently of playing against his former UH teammates. “We were a Division II school, and they had NFL guys. We weren’t playing just your average guys, so it was a total mismatch But it was good fun. I just wish it would’ve turned out differently.”

Former UH linebacker, assistant coach and TV analyst Rick Blangiardi often says, “Physical superiority cancels all theory.”

“I learned that from Larry Price,” Blangiardi said.

It’s not that Blangiardi hates the run-and-shoot. It’s that he’s more of a believer in “the core of things,” he said. “You have to have the athletes.”

Blangiardi, now the general manager of Hawaii News Now, was inducted into his alma mater’s Sports Circle of Honor in May.

He said he recently renewed his season tickets and, although he isn’t the biggest fan of the run-and-shoot, he says he is “ridiculously supportive” of the UH football program.

“For all the curiosity about this offense, I want to see how we play defense,” Blangiardi said. “That will speak volumes.”

So will how opponents play defense against the Rainbow Warriors.

Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich said the run-and-shoot can be slowed “if you can bring pressure.”

Factors that can make that a big “if” are a mobile quarterback and receivers who adjust to the play correctly and take advantage of one-on-one coverage that often comes with a blitz.

UH associate head coach Mark Banker was Oregon State’s defensive coordinator when the Beavers beat the Warriors 35-32 in 2006 and 45-7 in 2008.

“We were just flat-out a better team in ’08, and in ’06 I thought we were very well matched-up,” Banker said. “That offensive line that they had and the receivers and the quarterback (Colt Brennan) were among the best in the nation. And we still had a good team as well. So the talent makes a difference and you can see it in those scores.”

Banker said the teams’ ability levels were close in 2006, but time invested months before that Dec. 2 regular-season closer helped Oregon State snap 24th-ranked Hawaii’s nine-game winning streak.

“You need to know what the offense is going to do before they’re going to do it, or at least have a clue,” Banker said. “So in preparing for the run-and-shoot, in the offseason, we studied the principles and the concepts … that might give us an advantage.”

If Brennan had not been sacked six times and intercepted twice, it’s quite conceivable Hawaii would have scored at least three more points.

Georgia sacked Brennan eight times 13 months later when the Bulldogs crushed UH 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl after the Warriors had gone 12-0 in the 2007 regular season.

The Georgia defensive line was so good that the Bulldogs didn’t need to blitz to disrupt Hawaii’s timing and force Brennan into mistakes. When Brennan did have time to throw, Georgia usually had seven or even eight defenders covering four receivers.

This was a whole different level from UH’s soft regular-season schedule that included just one ranked team. Hawaii had beat up on FCS squads Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern and needed overtime to edge LaTech and San Jose State.

Meanwhile, Georgia lost two games but beat four ranked opponents while negotiating its annual SEC gauntlet, including No. 9 Florida (led by Heisman winner Tim Tebow) and at No. 16 Alabama.

It’s worth repeating, “Physical superiority cancels all theory.”