It was an orange and black kind of night for Hawaii.
Orange for the swaths of empty seats in Aloha Stadium on Saturday. Black for the eyes of the Rainbow Warriors program after a 58-7 Halloween loss to Air Force, its worst margin of defeat at home in a conference game.
High up in the stadium press box, speculation intensified throughout the lopsided game that it would be the last as head coach for Norm Chow, and that UH could relieve him of command today.
Down on field level, UH players offered a mixed bag of emotions on the subject immediately after the loss, which officially knocked the reeling team out of consideration for a bowl game.
"What’d I tell people is, I wouldn’t tell them my mind, what I really think, but he’s the coach right now," said defensive lineman Kennedy Tulimasealii, who offered up a rare bright spot for UH against the Falcons’ triple-option attack by leveling running back Benton Washington in the third quarter for one of his three tackles for loss.
"Just gotta let (Chow) be, you know?" Tulimasealii continued. "We will respect that he’s the coach right now and we will fight to the end for him, because he’s the head coach. He’s the man operating all of this. We have no doubt that he’s the man."
Said linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams after recording 17 tackles, including 10 solo: "We just gotta keep playing. That’s out of our hands."
So was the ball for UH on Saturday — a staggering 45:06 to 14:54 disparity in time of possession. By the second half, the stadium was eerily quiet.
Defensive coordinator Tom Mason was glum after his defense yielded 576 yards of total offense. He was even less enthusiastic talking about the prospects of filling in as interim head coach, something he did at SMU last year upon June Jones’ departure.
"I don’t know. I’d have to address that if it happened," Mason said. "You know, I don’t like that kind of stuff, I don’t like that kind of talk. I dunno."
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Receiver Dylan Collie, posed a question about Chow’s future, said he was "not even thinking about that right now" in an interview outside of the UH locker room.
The redshirt freshman suggested the players themselves were at fault.
"Simply playing football. I don’t think we did a lot of that tonight," Collie said of the biggest challenge Saturday. "And that’s on us as a team, on us as players. We’re the guys suiting up and the 11, 22, however many guys were out there, didn’t perform. The scoreboard showed, once again."
Kickoff returner Keelan Ewaliko prevented the shutout when he ran one back 98 yards with 5:56 to play, making it 51-7.
There might have been scattered cheers around the largely vacant stadium in that moment, but not enough to drown out the background noise about his coach.
"We hear it, we hear it all the time," the sophomore said. "Social media, the news. But if we focus on that we can’t focus on the next game.
"Whatever happens to Coach Chow, that’s out of my control. I have no (further) comment."
Senior offensive lineman Ben Clarke wasn’t recruited by Chow, but has played every game of his career under him and expressed fondness for the coach.
"I’ve heard rumors and stuff, but I don’t care to listen to it," Clarke said. "I love these coaches and what they’ve done for us. Things might not have worked out (getting to a bowl game), but I’ve only got four more games, so I’m going to keep playing.
"I love everything they’ve done. I feel bad for them that it didn’t work out as far as winning more games. I wish we could have done it for them and the rest of the seniors too. It is what it is."
