Air Force’s surprise attack caught Hawaii football team off guard

The sun did rise, but it still was a gloomy Sunday morning for the Hawaii football team.

“Nobody feels good,” head coach Nick Rolovich said the day after Saturday’s 56-26 loss to Air Force at Aloha Stadium. “We thoroughly got whupped at home.”

The Rainbow Warriors had studied every play of the Falcons’ first six games. But AFA offensive coordinator Mike Thiessen added several new looks involving formations, motions and angles. The Falcons rolled up 522 yards — 9.0 per snap — and scored touchdowns on eight of their 10 full drives.

“They’re as challenging as any offense in the country, especially the way they’re playing now,” Rolovich said. “I thought their coordinator was borderline sadistic with some of the things he came up with.”

Rolovich and Thiessen exchanged several texts on Sunday.

“I think he should be proud of himself,” Rolovich said. “He put together a nice game plan. A lot of new formations. A lot of stuff we didn’t have on film to prepare for. He got us.”

With the Falcons’ ability to manipulate the clock and maximize possessions, the Warriors were pressured to hold serve. The Warriors’ initial drive was sabotaged because of a questionable pick violation, and there were unrealized scoring plays because of drops and overthrows.

“Their offense puts so much pressure on your offense to be perfect,” Rolovich said. “That’s one of the underlying effects of that offense being run that way.”

The Warriors also missed several tackles and struggled to adjust to the Falcons’ new offensive wrinkles.

“Kudos to them for changing some things up,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said. “The things they showed on tape, we did a pretty decent job of knocking out. Then they had a couple of different formations and a couple of different motions they hadn’t shown. We had a hard time adjusting to that. They had a good game plan. They executed well. We didn’t.”

Batoon stayed up late long after the game’s final whistle. He was in the office early Sunday preparing for this Saturday’s road game against New Mexico.

“You don’t have time to be licking your wounds,” Batoon said. “You have to get on. New Mexico’s a good team. Going there on the road in a short week, there’s no time to be moping around feeling sorry for ourselves. Our kids will rally. We’ll be fine.”

Rolovich also expects the Warriors to rebound. “I don’t see why not,” Rolovich said. “They’re hurting today, I’m sure. They don’t enjoy being on that end of that game. But there’s a lot of football to be played.”