No dice in Las Vegas as Hawaii football team falls to UNLV

LAS VEGAS >> It was somber enough to hear a tear drop.

The University of Hawaii football team’s quest for an extended season ended in a disheartening 27-13 road loss to UNLV in Allegiant Stadium.

The Rainbow Warriors entered the Saturday matinee likely needing to win their three remaining regular-season games to become bowl eligible. But in losing their third in a row, the Warriors clinched a sub-.500 regular season while free-falling into last place in the Mountain West’s six-team West Division. They are 4-7 overall and 1-5 in league competition.

After 14 consecutive losses dating to 2019, the Rebels have won two in a row.

“Very disappointing day for us,” said UH’s Todd Graham, who was assured only his fourth losing record in 15 seasons as an FBS head coach.

Graham apologized to the team after the game, then met with reporters to express his discouragement without offering specifics.

“It does you zero good to even analyze that,” Graham said. “It was very frustrating. Disappointing that our seniors aren’t going to get an opportunity to go to a bowl game.”

Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, a fourth-year junior, was overcome with emotion while discussing his elder teammates. “Having a bowl game for our seniors, another game to play … couldn’t do it for them,” a tearful Cordeiro said, softly.

What added to the Warriors’ confounding outcome was their opening and closing productions were not synchronized. In video studies and practices, the Warriors discovered a vulnerability in the Rebels’ coverage. Graham welcomed the Rebels’ decision to kick off to start the game.

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On UH’s first play, Cordeiro threw deep to Nick Mardner, who made the catch in stride, broke free from cornerback Aaron Lewis, and raced the rest of the way to complete the 79-yard touchdown.

“Before the game,” Cordeiro admitted, “we knew we could go by them.”

And then the Warriors’ defense seized control, forcing three turnovers in the opening quarter. UNLV quarterback Cameron Friel, a Kailua High graduate, was going through his checks when center Leif Fautanu fired the shotgun snap. The ball ricocheted off Friel’s chest, and linebacker Darius Muasau recovered at the UNLV 28. But the Warriors could not cash in, with Matthew Shipley’s 43-yard field-goal attempt sailing left of the goal post. Stud defender Khoury Bethley and safety Solo Turner had first-quarter interceptions on UNLV’s half of the field. But those picks resulted in Shipley’s 32-yard field goal and a punt.

“I think we missed a lot of opportunities early,” Graham said. “I thought we should have been up 14, 21 to nothing. “We just didn’t capitalize on things.”

Even with the return of running back Dae Dae Hunter, who had missed the three previous games because of a sprained shoulder, the Warriors could not find their offensive rhythm. After the opening touchdown, the Warriors’ next 50 plays netted 161 yards. Cordeiro was 9-for-22 for 104 yards during that stretch. He was intercepted twice and sacked three times.

Hunter said Cordeiro was not solely responsible for the offense’s struggles. There were drops, route detours, protection glitches and penalties.

“Nobody should ever talk down on Chevan,” Hunter said. “That’s the man. He’s one of the best people I know. … I have the utmost respect for Chevan, so that’s my dawg right there. Anybody got something negative to say about my dawg Chevan, they can come see Dae Dae about it.”

The Warriors also could not contain Charles “The Chuck Wagon” Williams, UNLV’s career rushing leader. Williams rushed 38 times for 266 yards, an average of 7.0 yards a carry. His three touchdowns came at key times — 5 yards to tie it 7-all; 7 yards to break a 10-10 deadlock in the third quarter, and a 47-yard dash with 1:07 to play.

“They blocked us,” Graham said of an offensive line that averages 321 pounds per blocker, “and we didn’t tackle very well. We’ve not had anybody run the football on us like that since UCLA (in the opener).”

The Warriors also were burned on plays that they had rehearsed repeatedly. Graham said the Warriors worked on defending the “bang 8,” a timing throw the quarterback makes to a receiver running a skinny-post route. “We give up the bang 8 for 47 (yards),” Graham said.

Williams went 60 yards on a stretch play.

“They did nothing we didn’t work on,” Graham said.

After Shipley’s 43-yard field goal closed UH to 20-13 with 10:58 to play, UNLV became the Rebels without a pause. They held possession for 7 minutes, 10 seconds — completing three third-down passes — before punting back to UH with 3:48 left.

The Warriors took over at their 38, then ran four running plays in a row, with Dedrick Parson’s fourth-and-2 run stopped just ahead of the first-down marker with 1:44 remaining. “We thought we had a good play to do that, but came up an inch short,” Graham said.

The Rebels took over, and two plays later, Williams had a hat trick of touchdowns. UNLV gained exactly 300 yards on 48 non-sack rushes.

“It was ridiculous,” Graham said. “Obviously on the last one, we were in desperation trying to stop ’em, and the popped one on us there.”