The Hawaii football team’s missing ingredient cannot be found in the playbooks.

“The parts we need are not physical,” said UH defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, whose Warriors play UC Davis at 6:05 tonight at Aloha Stadium. “They have nothing to do with talent or ability. We’re working on the mental parts of the game, and the emotional parts of the game. That’s where our work is cut out for us.”

In practices this week, the players were encouraged to celebrate successful plays.

“We want to be excited to make plays,” defensive tackle Kaniela Tuipulotu said. “You could see a lack of excitement the last two games. That’s not an excuse, but you can see the difference in attitude between (the victory against Colorado) and (the losses) the last two games. Hopefully, from now on, we’ll enjoy each other’s plays, and enjoy each other’s company on the field, and celebrate accomplishments.”

Outlook: With every starter raised in California, it makes sense for the Aggies to run a variation of the West Coast offense. The scheme has deeper roots. The son of Bill Walsh, who popularized the controlled-passing scheme, was an Aggie. Former Aggies coach Jim Sochor was a mentor or associate to several West Coast proponents, such as Paul Hackett and Mike Holmgren. Over the years, the Aggies added one-back formations. Then they meshed the layered-passing elements of the West Coast with the one-back scheme. In the offense’s latest version, there are multiple-personnel groups, and constant shifts, often with Cody aligning as an H-back to create an overload. “We have to figure out ways to make people misalign against us,” head coach Bob Biggs said. All of which means, Biggs said, “a lot is put on our quarterback, because he has to understand all of the reads and read progressions.” Wright has been the right choice. When a starter decided to join the ministry after the 2010 spring semester, Wright emerged as a leader. This year, he uses rollouts and play-action moves to complement his strong arm. And Wright has shown he can adapt. Through the sixth grade he attended a Spanish-immersion school.

Outlook: Search the family tree, and Texas Christian’s successful defense is linked to UC Davis. The tie is Lou Bronzan, a former Aggies defensive coordinator whose schemes revolve around a two-deep zone. TCU coach Gary Patterson started his career on the Davis staff. The Aggies usually align with an even front, with zone coverage on the back side. In all of the situations when they faced four-wide formations this season, most notably against Arizona State, they rarely blitzed more than one player. That might change after reviewing videos of UNLV’s blitzes against UH. The Aggies have six interceptions, but only one sack, in 87 passing situations this season.

Outlook: After converting 80 percent of his field-goal attempts as a junior, Kelley was named the Great West’s 2011 preseason co-player of the year for special teams. But this season he has made only one of three field-goal attempts, and he’s averaging only 60.9 yards per kickoff. He has no touchbacks this season. Schmidt has been quite active, summoned 20 times in three games. He’s averaging 44.3 yards per punt.

Outlook: Clapp, a run-blocking receiver at De La Salle High, gets his second consecutive start because of Miah Ostrowski’s foot injury. UH substitutes receivers infrequently, meaning fourth-quarter endurance is always a concern. “It definitely gets tiring after a while,” Clapp said. “We stay in shape here. We work out a lot to get our bodies in shape.” It is fortunate that Moniz incorporates boxing into his offseason workouts. Against UNLV, Moniz was hit 13 times — three were on sacks, three more on scrambles. But he was only hurried four times, and in UH’s grading system, the offensive linemen did not have any negative marks for effort on any play. Laurel’s shoulder and foot problems are not a concern, and he will start. Jordan Loeffler and Blake Muir also practiced at left tackle this week. Lefiti had two errant snaps in the UNLV game, but one was traced to the ball snagging on the artificial surface. Line coach Gordy Shaw said the glitches have been addressed.

Outlook: Against UNLV, the defensive backs were in the correct positions but repeatedly failed to finish plays. “It’s frustrating,” defensive coordinator Dave Aranda said. “It doesn’t mean anything if the end result isn’t making plays.” Part of the problem is the Warriors did not have a scout team to practice against in preparing for UNLV. The coaches wanted to limit the hits on the first-team receivers. “You play how you practice, and you have to practice making plays,” Aranda said. Back in Hawaii this week, the Warriors took their best shots against the offensive scouts. Aranda also plans to revive the platoon system that was abandoned after the second-team linebackers yielded an 80-yard touchdown run last week. Brown and Paredes played more than 65 snaps each against UNLV. Aranda said playing too many downs takes its toll, and by the eighth week, many starters can’t participate in all of the practices. “I want to avoid that,” he said. “I want to break the cycle.”

Outlook: Some of the special-team units have been restructured, with linebackers Aaron Brown and Rykin Enos added to the mix. Brown is the Warriors’ best open-field tackler, with a team-high 6.0 solo stops per game. Enos is considered a good match-up player — one-on-one blocker and tackler — and will be used on the kickoff and punt-return units. Dunnachie had difficulty punting against a strong wind last week. He said he will do a better job of gauging conditions and, against the wind, try to drive the football lower.