Wednesday was the Hawaii football team’s ignore-the-speed-hump day.

The Rainbow Warriors released the constraints in full-speed, “good on good” sessions matching the top offensive and defensive units at UH’s grass practice field.

The Warriors are coming off a bye week that featured a player-run workout and then three days of practices. This week, head coach Timmy Chang decided to increase the pace and ferocity during 11-on-11 sessions on Tuesday and even more on Wednesday.

“I felt we were in position to do some good-on-good competition against each other,” said Chang, whose Warriors play host to San Diego State this weekend. “That helps the speed of the game for the guys on Saturday.”

Safety Meki Pei said: “Every athlete has heard, ‘the way you practice is the way you’re going to play. But it’s good to practice all the things that might come up in a game. You might think it won’t come up, but when that one play does, it could change the whole game. It’s good to practice everything.”

The sessions helped the Warriors work on hitting moving opponents. In a 2-4 start, the Warriors are averaging 12.3 missed tackles per game. “You can never get enough live reps,” defensive back Cam Stone said. “Those are the best reps possible. … Just good on good, I think, is very good and helping us a lot.”

The offense also was able to practice against a defensive front that relies on stunts and loops, and a secondary that often aligns with three safeties in high coverage.

“That’s how it’s going to be,” quarterback Brayden Schager said. “It’s good to go out there (in practice) and get that competitiveness going.”

Chang said an emphasis has been placed on improving the Warriors’ scoring efficiency.

“Every time you get the ball, you want to score,” Chang said.

But this year, the Warriors have scored 16 touchdowns and seven field goals in 69 full possessions. They have had 23 three-and-out drives.

“You want to get in the end zone,” Chang said. “That’s where the yards come. That’s where the production comes. It builds confidence in your team. When the offense is doing well, it psychologically helps the defense. ‘Hey, man, the offense is ballin’, let’s go. Let’s step up our side.’ For the offense, it’s, ‘the defense is playing well, we’ve got to get going.’”

For the offense, the goal is quicker starts. This year, the Warriors’ average opening drive nets 4.3 yards.

“We’ve been kind of waiting and reacting to what (the opponent is) doing,” Schager said. “We really need to change that mentality. We need to come out and start playing faster right away. That’s been a bit of an emphasis. Coming out with the juice, playing faster.”