For Saturday’s road game against San Diego State, the Hawaii football team wants to play the role of home wrecker.
“When we go into somebody else’s house, this is not a vacation,” associate head coach Chris Brown said of the 2-2 Rainbow Warriors’ Mountain West opener at Snapdragon Stadium. “We’re going there on a mission.”
Brown emphasized that mission statement during a team meeting on Monday. He said the Army Special Forces’ all-as-one approach should serve as inspiration.
“I gave them the background on Special Forces — how they train, how everything has to be on point, how they train in different areas in combat,” Brown said. “It’s no different than football. How you tackle, how you block, how you catch. You learn all these different skills, and you practice them over and over and over until you master them. And then you need to work alongside your brother, your teammate. … If one guy doesn’t do his job, if you don’t check that one door, the mission is lost. One mistake.”
Brown then showed a video of the Special Forces’ rescue mission of a captured pilot. The video showed the stealth walk through a forest, the strategic placement of snipers, the checking of every door in the tunnel into the fortress, and the enemies being taken out by snipers, one by one, as the team rescued the pilot.
“Everybody relied on each other,” Brown said. “That was my whole point to them. When we go to San Diego State, we’re on a mission. We’re going to execute the mission.”
Mike linebacker Logan Taylor, a co-captain and inspirational leader, echoed Brown’s exhortation.
“We’re excited knowing this is where football counts,” Taylor said. “We’ve put in the work in the prior weeks and now we’re going to put it all together knowing that’s our focus. That’s our emphasis this week — that it’s a mission, just like the Special Forces. Nothing else matters but accomplishing this goal we have.”
The Warriors have broken even after the season’s first six weekends, which included decisive victories over two FCS opponents (Delaware State and Northern Iowa), a narrow loss to UCLA, a crushing road defeat to Sam Houston, and two byes.
UH also is trying to redirect some trends. Under head coach Timmy Chang, the Warriors are 0-3 following bye weeks and 1-12 in road games. As host, SDSU is 12-4 against UH, winning 10 of the past 11 (including a game played in Carson, Calif., while Snapdragon was being constructed).
“For us, every game is an opportunity,” Chang said. “There is a sense of urgency because it is conference (play), and it’s a good conference. … Zero and zero. We’re going to take every game one game at a time, and go out there and play hard.”
UH used the bye week to heal. Quarterback Brayden Schager did not participate in drills in last week’s three practices but took all the first-team reps in Tuesday’s two-hour practice. “He’ll be ready to go,” Chang said.
Of last week’s bye, the second of three this season, slotback Pofele Ashlock said: “This bye week, we did a lot more work and a lot more lifting. We even got a beach workout on Saturday. Even though we’re not playing, we’re still working. Our biggest thing (after the Northern Iowa game) to keep the momentum was to keep working. I think we did an amazing job with our bye week.”
The Aztecs are 1-3 following Saturday’s 22-21 loss at Central Michigan. The Aztecs missed two field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter. But freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil has not been intercepted in 80 passes this season, and Ball State transfer Marquez Cooper is averaging 118.5 rushing yards in the first four games.
