FRESNO, CALIF. >> The Hawaii football team broke in a new season with a 34-19 victory over Fresno State.
Then the Rainbow Warriors broke a rock.
“We actually have a rock each week,” said Todd Graham, who became the first head coach since Bob Wagner in 1987 to win his UH debut. “Our focus was on breaking this rock. We have a rock that has ‘Fresno State’ on it. We busted that rock out, did a little celebrating and dancing, did a little prayer, gave the good Lord the glory, and moved on to the next one.”
It was quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, who led the Warriors in rushing and passing, to be handed the rock-crushing hammer.
“Our leader, Chevan, broke that rock,” left tackle Ilm Manning said of the 12-inch-by-12-inch stone. “He used the hammer. He brought the hammer.”
Running back Miles Reed said: “That was Chevan’s day. He balled out today.”
>> PHOTOS: Hawaii beats Fresno State
It actually was an ensemble effort that left the rubble in Bulldog Stadium. Cordeiro, a third-year sophomore, was 20 of 30 — one pass was dropped, two were intentionally tossed away — for 229 yards and no picks. Cordeiro rushed for 133 yards on nine non-sack scrambles and keepers, netting 116 yards on the ground, and sprinting for two touchdowns.
The Warriors rushed for 323 yards — the first time in four years they ran for more than 300 yards and first time in three years the ground game out-gained the passing attack.
Calvin Turner, who transferred to UH after Jacksonville dropped its football program following the 2019 season, was everywhere the Bulldogs did not want him to be. Turner, who aligned as a running back and in the slot, parlayed two direct snaps into scoring runs of 2 and 4 yards.
Reed added 109 yards on 21 carries.
“Just taking what they gave us,” Graham said of the shift in tactics.
The Warriors tried to create openings with a mix of deep routes, quick outs and crossing patterns. The Bulldogs countered with 4-1 front and six defenders in coverage. The Warriors then decided to think inside the box, re-calibrating to a more physical strategy.
When opponents are putting five defenders in the tackle box — the imaginary rectangle near the line of scrimmage — “you’ve got to run the football,” Graham said.
And Graham noted, “we ran the ball with physicality.”
In recent UH offenses, the tackles set up in a crouch. Under line coach Sam Bennett, the blockers have a hand on the turf, a grinder’s stance.
“We were physical up front,” Manning said. “Tried to move the ball, and that’s what we did. It was pretty fun.”
As part of evolving to the new run-and-gun offense — a blend of the run-and-shoot, run-pass option (RPO) and Air Raid’s power running — the Warriors incorporated plays involving single and double backs, jet-sweeping receivers, an H-back/tight end, and mobile quarterbacks.
“I thought we physically dominated them,” Graham said.
Although the Warriors rolled up 552 yards and controlled the clock for 32 minutes, 56 seconds, Graham said it probably will take another two weeks for the offense to be fully implemented. “This was like, if you can think in college, cramming for an exam that you studied none for,” Graham said. “It was kind of like that. Not very much. … This will be a different year. I think we’ll be installing things through the first three or four weeks.”
Graham was pleased with his defense, which played about 12 different coverages against a Fresno offense that relies on running back Ronnie Rivers’ jump-cut moves and quarterback Jake Haener’s play-action passes and rollouts. The Warriors applied enough heat from a three- and four-man pass rush to force the Bulldogs into four turnovers. Linebacker Quinton Frazier, a graduate transfer from Azusa Pacific, had a strip-sack of Haener. Safety Eugene Ford intercepted two passes and linebacker Jeremiah Pritchard picked off one.
“Getting takeaways is what it’s all about,” Graham said. “You’re plus-3 every game on takeaways, you’ll win every game. I’ve never lost a game when we’re plus-3 in turnover ratio.”
To be sure, this was not an ordinary game. Fresno State’s boisterous fans are collectively known as the Red Wave. But there were no fans in attendance because of the pandemic. The 500 cardboard cutouts of “fans” in the North end zone and recordings of “crowd” noise set at 70 decibels could not replicate the usual Bulldog Stadium festivities.
“It was kind of weird in the beginning,” UH’s Manning said. “The fans were on speaker.”
It was more surreal when, after a review, it was ruled the Warriors fumbled away the opening kickoff return. The Bulldogs parlayed the mistake into Rivers’ 7-yard scoring run for a 7-0 lead.
But the Warriors regrouped — twice — on Cordeiro’s 20-yard run to tie it at 7, and later, his 3-yard scoring run to make it 17-13 at the intermission.
After Ceser Silva’s second field goal closed the Bulldogs to 27-19 in the fourth quarter, the Warriors answered with a 12-play, 70-yard drive. Turner ran the final 4 yards.
The Warriors then got the ball back when Haener misfired on a fourth-down pass.
The Warriors had the ball at their 15, when they faced a third-and-2. Cordeiro made sure the Bulldogs did not touch the football again. On a called keeper, Cordeiro broke to the left, spotted space created with Turner’s stutter block and then went 54 yards to keep the drive alive. “My mind-set was to just get open for the first down,” Cordeiro said. “Once I made that cutback to the left, I saw an opening. I just took it. I didn’t want to go out of bounds.”
Fresno State sports a “V” for the Central Valley. As the clock ticked down, the Warriors formed their V-shaped victory formation. Cordeiro took a knee to end the game.
