Todd Graham the head coach was overjoyed.

Todd Graham the defensive coordinator seemed a little bit down after Hawaii’s 50-45 senior night victory over Colorado State, closing out UH’s first home slate at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.

UH was up 43-31 midway through the third quarter, with the ball and the momentum, and it looked like the Warriors were going to run away from the Rams … maybe some seniors who rarely play would get some run.

But the Rams kept battling back, as the teams with seven straight losses between them kept trading blows like punch-drunk boxers, and the outcome wasn’t finalized until Cameron Lockridge recovered CSU’s onside kick with 17 seconds left.

“It was a hard-fought deal,” Graham said. “It never can be easy.”

Defensive-minded coaches don’t like those box scores full of numbers other than zero in all of the boxes — especially 28 in the fourth quarter for the opponents. But Hawaii kept firing back, too — and in the end, it was enough.

>> RELATED: Hawaii offense explodes in win

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Colorado State

It wasn’t perfectly played football, but it was the most exciting of the Warriors’ six home games, by far.

Graham wasn’t happy with 651 yards of Colorado State offense, but the 535 produced by UH along with Lockridge’s pick-6 and more big defensive plays by Khoury Bethley and Darius Muasau turned out to be enough. And we can’t forget the three field goals from Matthew Shipley that had UH nursing a 9-7 lead after the first quarter.

The fact that the Warriors hadn’t found the end zone yet created some angst (but no booing, at least that we could hear in the press box) among a fan base that has been questioning UH’s offensive play-calling at every turn in recent weeks.

But, either it didn’t matter what plays and in what order offensive coordinator Bo Graham called them in because Colorado State’s defense wasn’t exactly stellar, or he put quarterback Chevan Cordeiro and the rest of the attack in better position to make good things happen than in previous games. It may have been more of the latter because of a position change; instead of the sideline like he usually has, Graham worked from the coaches box above the field for this game.

“You can see the field better from up there,” he said after the game. “There were some reasons we did it the other way, some leadership reasons. But it’s good getting up there and seeing more of the field. It helps with adjustments.”

The plays it helped set up included some with wide-open receivers, like when Cordeiro hit Zion Bowens for a 93-yard touchdown and Nick Mardner for a 42-yard score.

“Yeah, that’s the way we originally wanted to do it,” said the head coach, who added that he plans to have Bo, his son, calling plays from upstairs again next week in the season-ender at Wyoming. “Just trying to work through some things. Structurally, learning. That’s the way we want to do it. It’s better, it’s easier calling plays from up there. I thought we did a nice job tonight doing that.”

I hope that Todd Graham has cheered up by now, and isn’t worrying too much about those 527 yards passing and 28 fourth-quarter points the Rams scored.

It’s like what former Warriors star receiver Greg Salas said afterward.

“A shootout in Manoa. This is the kind of football people get behind,” he said.

Salas works in marketing at UH now, and he knows footballs in the air get people pumped up.

Yes, in a perfect world the home team wins 100-0. But aren’t some things better than perfection? Scores like 50-45 keep the fans engaged.

So, after one season of home games at Ching, what other than high-scoring nail-biters will enhance the on-campus home field experience?

>> I’ll settle for a scoreboard … especially if there are going to be more games with points galore.

>> Are we sure there’s no way to somehow squeeze out another year of eligibility for Calvin Turner Jr.? He’s the most exciting player most Hawaii fans never got to see in person. This may be blasphemy, but I swear that on Saturday I saw a move reminiscent of Gary Allen and another like something Chad Owens might’ve done. And that’s not even counting those impromptu reverses that led to touchdowns earlier in the season.

>> During the third quarter, a hangry fan shouted out, “We want food!”

There wasn’t enough time to get it going this year, but we’ve been assured that there will be a fun atmosphere where you can get your pregame grub on, set up at Murakami Stadium. UH gear will be available at the ’Bow Zone, too.

It’s not exactly the tailgating experience many fans have come to know and love.

But if you get a high-scoring, exciting win, everything else is gravy, right?