SAN DIEGO » It was 20 years ago when Hawaii became a college football paradise.

The future was full of hope after UH completed an 11-2 season with a surprising victory over Illinois in the 1992 Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium.

But the Holiday bliss did not last.

To be sure, there were prosperous times under coach June Jones, notably the 12-1 season in 2007, and moderate success under Greg McMackin.

But the Rainbows are now the Warriors. Norm Chow is the fourth UH head coach since Bob Wagner was fired with a game remaining in the 1995 season. John Veneri, a reserve slotback on the 1992 team, is now the broadcast color analyst.

And the rebuilding permits have been issued.

Such is the setup when the Warriors face San Diego State today. It will be the Warriors’ first game in the renamed Qualcomm Stadium since 1998, the year before the Aztecs and seven other schools seceded from the Western Athletic Conference to form the Mountain West Conference.

Fourteen years later, after 33 years in the WAC, the Warriors are now members of the MWC.

The significance of this return is lost on a generation of players whose recollection of the 1992 season is culled from YouTube clips or replays from KFVE’s archives.

Few even remember the battles between the Rainbows and Aztecs. UH won a share of the 1992 WAC title and the right to represent the league in the Holiday Bowl despite being blown out by the Aztecs earlier that season.

And then there were the games in which SDSU’s Marshall Faulk co-wrote the opponents’ section of the UH record book.

As he did for the Warriors’ first two road game this season, Chow is viewing today’s without the historical perspective.

"We need to play well on offense and defense," Chow said.

In last week’s 47-0 road loss to Brigham Young, the Warriors were shut out for the first time since 1998, a span of 182 games, and relinquished 396 rushing yards.

In each of the four years under McMackin, the Warriors remained on the mainland between back-to-back road games. Under Chow, the Warriors returned to Honolulu after the BYU game. That enabled them to have four practices and Friday’s walk-through on the Manoa campus. The Warriors departed on a direct flight on Friday afternoon.

The Warriors will have few environmental obstacles. The weather is expected to be nice, and Qualcomm’s field is actually below sea level. Utah’s thin air was a problem last week against BYU.

"After the first quarter, I was getting tired," defensive tackle Haku Correa recalled. "Everything should be good for this game."

The Warriors are making some changes to a defense that has yielded 751 yards in the past two games.

Freshman Benny Fonua, who was supposed to redshirt this season, was activated on Monday. He is expected to start at middle linebacker.

Another freshman, Jerrol Garcia-Williams, might start at strongside linebacker. He was competing against TJ Taimatuia, who moved to the strong side after starting the first four games at middle linebacker.

The Warriors are trying to patch a defensive line that has lost four tackles to injuries. Beau Yap, a defensive end, will start at one tackle position. Ends Jordan Pu‘u-Robinson and Tavita Woodard also will rotate there.

"There are bigger dudes (on the offensive line)," Woodard said. "I try to beat them off the ball with my first step. If I can get that quick first step right off, I should be fine."

The Aztecs, who have lost two in a row, also are in search of answers.

"We’re a struggling football team," coach Rocky Long said. "We didn’t play well on offense; we were very average on special teams last weekend. For the last three weeks, we’ve been playing absolutely terrible pass defense."

SDSU quarterback Ryan Katz added: "The past two weeks, we fought hard. Those were two good games. We have to put it all together. I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential yet. We have to go back to the drawing board and keep on working."