The Hawaii football team welcomed another chance to say goodbye.

On Thursday afternoon, for the fifth time in nine weeks, the Rainbow Warriors departed for the mainland for another road game. This time, they will play yet another past rival — Fresno State — in a nationally televised gam e at Bulldog Stadium.

“Every trip we take is hard,” said coach Nick Rolovich, whose team will have accumulated 32,280 frequent-flyer miles this year when they return to Honolulu on Sunday. “I’m not going to start pointing at it, giving a built-in excuse.”

Rolovich said the Warriors embrace a chance to play in front of one of the most animated fan bases on the West Coast.

“We get the opportunity to go to Fresno — with the checkerboard end zone, with the bulldog (logo) with the funny elbows,” Rolovich said. “I’m excited to go. It’s a great place. The fans are so behind their team … and very creative with things they say. It’s been one of our more modern rivalries.”

Mark Weber, who was hired as UH’s offensive line coach in January, has viewed the rivalry from the opposite sideline. Weber had two coaching stints with the Bulldogs — 2004 and 2005 under Pat Hill, and 2016 under Tim DeRuyter.

“The first time, good times,” Weber said. “The second time, not so.”

After the 2016 season, during which the Warriors won 14-13 on Viane Moala’s block of a field-goal attempt, Fresno State’s coaching staff was not retained.

But Weber said under Hill, “it was a rivalry. I don’t know if it was a rivalry when I was there the second time, but it was a rivalry when Pat Hill was there. … The people here love and hate Pat Hill. That was a lot of fun. We had some really physical games.”

Weber said Hill used perceived slights as motivation. There was a time when a police escort was not available for the drive to Aloha Stadium when the Bulldogs stayed on the North Shore.

“That stuff just fueled the fire,” Weber said. “He loved it. He loved that style.”

Weber also recalled the “Red Mile” — the path from the visitors’ locker room to Jim Sweeney Field — where fans were able to heckle opposing players.

“The Red Mile was great,” Weber said. “It’s too easy now. They’ve got a tarp up. The fans can’t get to us. It was crazy back in the day. They had to walk through that crowd, and the crowd was relentless. It was fun with Pat. It was fun with the fans.”