At the end of what he described as a week of “tough” football practices, Hawaii coach Timmy Chang knew there was a final point to be emphasized.

Chang turned to a tough Mutter.

“There are guys who play football,” David Mutter recalled telling the Rainbow Warriors after Friday’s practice at the Ching Complex, “and there are football players. There’s a difference.”

Mutter then challenged the Warriors “to be football players” in today’s game against San Jose State at Ching.

“They haven’t played to expectations,” said Mutter, referencing the Warriors’ 2-6 record. “But this could be a new day. I believe in them. I’m looking for them to be competitive.”

Mutter was the center of the 1973 Warriors who went to Seattle as 50-plus-point underdogs. The Warriors came away with a 10-7 victory over Washington that has been heralded as one of the greatest upsets in the program’s history. Mutter, Scott Haneberg, John Arnold and Skippy Lopes were players from the ’73 team who attended Friday’s practice. A dozen others from that team — including Cliff Laboy, Manny DeSoto, Henry Noa and June Jones — will be among the special guests for today’s homecoming festivities.

“That’s special,” Chang said of the reunion. “When they come out here, it means something. For them to spend their time and give back to the boys, it’s everything. We’re proud they wanted to come back and wanted to be part of this. It’s meaningful.”

Chang has used the 1973 team and his own experience as a UH quarterback to drive the current Warriors this week. After last week’s disheartening 42-21 road loss to New Mexico, Chang increased the intensity of practices this week. During warmups on Wednesday, every player had to push the weighted blocking sled. Chang said there was noticeable improvement in performance and attitude after that.

Center Eliki Tanuvasa said the Warriors have accepted Chang’s message that “this game has to be played by men, and men alone. We want to see who wants to be here, who’s not scared. … In life, a lot of things are going to be thrown at you. Right now we have a chance. We can either cower down and keep letting our season go as it has or we can stick together, band together, get tough, and attack it head on, and just kick that door down.”

Chang said the practices were “hard because the game’s hard. Nothing’s easy. I know first-hand, life ain’t easy. The way you can get out of a 2-6 record is you practice harder, you play harder, you keep working, you keep on the grind, and you keep going forward. Eventually, the tough ones make it.”

Chang recalled his first UH season, when the Warriors opened 2000 with a loss to Portland State — the last time UH would lose to an FCS opponent — in what would spiral into a 3-9 record. But that set the way to going 9-3 in 2001, punctuated with a rout of BYU and the creation of the Hawaii Bowl the next year.

In 2004, the Warriors faced widespread criticism after falling to 4-5 following a 70-14 smackdown by Fresno State. But with Chang at the controls of the run-and-shoot offense, the Warriors defeated Idaho, Northwestern and Michigan State to clinch a winning regular season and earn a berth in the Hawaii Bowl. UH beat UAB 59-40 that Christmas Eve.

“I’ve never gotten anything in life easily,” Chang said. “Everything you do, you have to work for. We’re figuring out what hard work means. … We’re a team that’s finding its way. We’re trying to get better one day at a time. If we can do that, if we can stack good days on each other, these guys are going to be good.”

The Warriors face a familiar quarterback today. Chevan Cordeiro, who spent four years with the Warriors, including the final two as co-captain, has started for San Jose State since transferring in January 2022.