After completing their investigation, Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan and head football coach Greg McMackin decided linebacker Aaron Brown and wideout Darius Bright will not face additional suspensions.
Both players were suspended from UH’s 34-17 victory over Colorado because of their Aug. 28 arrests following their alleged involvement in a Waikiki fight.
"They can make the trip to Washington," Donovan said, a reference to this Saturday’s first stop in a two-game road trip.
McMackin is expected to require both players to perform community-service work.
Allen Sampson started Saturday at left wideout in place of Bright and had two catches for 21 yards.
"Allen did a great job," quarterback Bryant Moniz said. "He did what he was supposed to do. Darius will add an element to our offense. It will be good to have him back."
Against Colorado, the Warriors modified their four-wide offense to include rollouts and bootlegs. Moniz rushed for 121 yards and three touchdowns, including a 57-yard dash off a fake handoff.
The changes, Moniz said, were designed to "get Colorado off its game plan, to think about other things. We’re still going to be the same offense. We wanted to move the pocket (Saturday) night, try a few things out."
Moniz rushed nine times (he was credited with five more carries because of sacks). He admittedly had a restful night after the game.
"I had a nice long sleep," he said. "There’s a little bit of soreness, just the regular-game owies."
As for celebrating the season-opening victory, Moniz said: "We’re washing cars and painting (daughter) Cali’s nails."
The Warriors defense was not affected by Brown’s suspension. The Buffaloes were held to 17 rushing yards — they lost 44 yards on seven sacks — and could not connect on vertical routes. With the middle rushing lanes closed, the Buffaloes turned to perimeter runs and screen passes.
"Once we got them into second-and-long and third-and-long situations, we knew they couldn’t beat us on long passes," UH associate head coach Rich Miano said. "We felt we had to get them into those situations. Winning first down was important."
The Buffaloes converted two of 12 third-down plays.
For the Warriors, it began on the defensive line. In the pregame meeting, defensive coordinator Dave Aranda delivered this message: knockbacks.
Translation: Push back the line of scrimmage.
Defensive line coach Tony Tuioti then issued the tsunami warning. Tuioti implored second-unit linemen Geordon Hanohano, Haku Correa, Liko Satele and Marcus Malepeai to create as much of an impact as the starters.
"The first wave creates all of the havoc and destruction," Tuioti said. "How many more waves come after that before there can be some sigh of relief? We want to bring that type of pressure where there’s no relief. We want the next wave to be as hard as the first wave, and the third wave just like that."
