As much as this 9-4 season has been about the advancement of the University of Hawaii football program, much of its forward progress has also been built on dusting the cobwebs of the past.

For example, the Rainbow Warriors had won once in Reno, Nev., in 2007, until they shellacked Nevada, 54-3, in September.

They had lost seven games in a row to New Mexico until they went to Albuquerque, N.M., and ran past the Lobos, 45-31, in October.

The Warriors had lost in five consecutive trips to Las Vegas before beating UNLV, 21-7, last month in the desert.

They had lost six of their last seven games to San Diego State until holding off the Aztecs, 14-11, two weeks ago.

And, what has all this repaying of accounts earned them? Why, the opportunity to do it at least once and, possibly, twice more in their remaining two games, beginning today with the Mountain West Championship game at No. 19 Boise State (11-1).

The Warriors have never won on The Blue, as Boise State’s smurf turf is reverently known in potato country. UH is 0-7 there, and not even the 2006 Rainbow Warriors, perhaps the most talented team UH has put on the field, could turn the trick, falling 41-34.

But this year’s Warriors, who did a 59-37 face plant into the turf Oct. 12, get something no other UH team has been gifted— a second opportunity in the same season.

For some teams, once in a season might be plenty. But not these Warriors, who know the previous meeting in Boise, Idaho, was, in many ways, their worst performance of the season. Between four turnovers (including three first-half fumbles), 10 penalties for 93 yards and 533 yards surrendered, it was not a representative display.

True to running back Miles Reed’s pledge after trudging off the field that cold night — “Right back here (to Boise)! Right back here (to Boise)!” — they have earned, through the West Division championship, an opportunity to do something about it.

This one comes with a bigger potential jackpot in play, as it would be their first league championship in eight years of MWC membership, and a national stage on ESPN. This one, unlike last week’s Army game on the CBS Sports Network that started at 12:35 Eastern time Sunday morning, will have a 4 p.m. Eastern kickoff (11 a.m. Hawaii time).

How the Warriors fare may also have something to say about where they play next. The most likely bowl scenario has UH coming home to play Brigham Young in the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl, a team that UH hasn’t beaten in its last five tries or, since, well, Nick Rolovich was playing quarterback for the Warriors in 2001.

But there is also the outside possibility of ending up in the Dec. 21 Las Vegas Bowl. Both games are owned and operated by ESPN Events.

The MWC champion has, traditionally, gone to Las Vegas, which gets the first pick of bowl-eligible MWC teams.

But, even in a loss at Boise, there is a slim chance of UH going to Vegas. If Cincinnati knocks off Memphis in the American Athletic Conference championship game today, Boise would be the favorite to emerge as the top-ranked Group of 5 team and be awarded the Cotton Bowl bid that goes with it and the MWC schools would share approximately $4 million (UH’s share being about $333,000).

If Cincinnati were to beat Memphis and UH upsets Boise, the Warriors could, then, cost the MWC its $4 million payday.

Not that the Rainbow Warriors would mind, of course. They would have achieved the most delicious payback in a season built on them.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.