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At the end of Tuesday’s two-hour practice, the Hawaii football team was off to the races.
Sideline-to-sideline sprints. Morse-code-like sequences of dash, stop, dash.
In advance of Saturday’s road game against Boise State, the Rainbow Warriors were building their wind for the City of Trees’ elevation (2,730 feet above sea level) and the 14th-ranked Broncos’ shifts, motions and revolving personnel.
But when it comes to Albertson Stadium’s blue turf, the Warriors insisted they are color blind.
“We don’t get caught up in all that,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said. “It’s a field. It has the same dimensions as a normal field.”
Cornerbacks coach Abraham Elimimian, who has experienced the turf as a player and coach, said: “It’s just a different color, that’s all. Just blue.”
Nose tackle Eperone Moananu is the only Warrior who played in UH’s previous game in Boise in 2016. While acknowledging the turf “was pretty cool,” Moananu said what he remembered the most was the boisterous crowd.
“The environment was crazy,” Moananu said. “The fans were crazy.”
Quarterback Cole McDonald said he played a high school game on a field with painted patches of red and black.
“I could care less if the field were blue, green, yellow, orange,” McDonald said. “We’re going to go out there and handle business regardless of the color of the turf.”
Head coach Nick Rolovich has downplayed the turf’s hue, saying, “you don’t make too big a deal of it where it becomes the focus of the game.”
A greater concern, according to Rolovich, is the 5-0 Broncos. The Warriors are 0-6 in Boise.
Rolovich said the key is to “get over the Boise mystique, and (treat) them as another opponent. (Boise) is a talented opponent, an opponent that knows how to win football games. (The Broncos) know they’re playing for a bigger purpose. This is as great a challenge as we’ve had all year.”
Elimimian said: “They’re really good players. They’re disciplined. And they play together. That’s what’s always been consistent about those guys. They execute what they execute. They don’t make mistakes as much as other teams do.”
The Broncos also will have an advantage in personnel. They can utilize their entire 100-plus-player roster. The Warriors are traveling with about 70 players. With shifts and overloads to create mismatches, Rolovich noted, the Broncos seek “a weakness or somebody who’s out of place (and) they take advantage of it.”
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