It’s not easy being a Hawaii Rainbow Warrior football fan these days. Actually, it hasn’t been all that easy for a while now.
Five years ago, the team was a fun, high-scoring group with an offensive nucleus of quarterback Bryant Moniz, running back Alex Green and wide receivers Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares. That ‘Bows team won 10 games and ended the regular season in the national Top 25 polls.
But that was the only winning season under Greg McMackin, who would resign one season later. McMackin’s tenure didn’t even have all that many high points and included a 30-day suspension after some dumb comments to the media and an even dumber handling of it afterward.
The 2010 campaign is the only winning season since June Jones departed and the more recent results have made that season feel like an eternity ago.
Hawaii is not just a results-oriented program and the fans will come out to support a competitive team, even if it isn’t fighting for a conference title. But outcomes like this past week’s don’t do a whole lot to boost the spirits of a more and more disgruntled and disappearing fan base. Hawaii managed to tear a loss from the jaws of victory, falling to 2-5 on the season and 0-3 in Mountain West play.
There were some early reasons for optimism this year. Hawaii opened with an admittedly ugly win over Colorado. But it was still a victory over a power conference opponent. The team came to play against Ohio State, despite a 38-0 final score. But the inconsistent play and health of Max Wittek had put the team in some tough spots before this week. Ikaika Woolsey stepped in with an uneven but solid game, though the team surrendered a touchdown in the final minute of play to lose, 28-27, at New Mexico.
There’s been some critical discussion of Norm Chow’s approach when it comes to predictability and the lack of aggressive play calling. He knows his personnel better than anyone, so Coach Chow always deserves the benefit of the doubt, but he came in with the reputation of having worked with some prolific offenses. Seeing the same safe calls over and over has put those expectations further in the rearview mirror.
But without Wittek, without production from Marcus Kemp or Quinton Pedroza, the offense is going to feel hamstrung. It made some big plays against New Mexico and was solid in the running game with Paul Harris and Steven Lakalaka, but it’s hard to win on the road scoring just three points in the second half. Hawaii let the Lobos hang around in their own building and were burned for not putting the hammer down.
Again, it’s not just about wins and losses. Hawaii is doing some things better this year than last without the results to show for it. But developing a winning attitude is part of the college process and it doesn’t seem like UH is expecting to win these types of games.
Fans aren’t going to have reason to believe if the team isn’t also exuding that expectation and belief in itself.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
