Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich did not need to review the videos on Sunday morning to know what went wrong in a 51-21 loss to Colorado State.
“We were outcoached and outplayed, I thought,” said Rolovich, whose Warriors fell to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Mountain West. “That’s a bad combination.”
The Warriors and Rams are at two different developmental stages. Rolovich is in his second season as head coach. Mike Bobo is in his third year at CSU after succeeding Jim McElwain, who parlayed his success with the Rams into a lucrative coaching job at Florida.
“There were parts of that game I’m not sure we belonged on the same field as them — or the same conference,” Rolovich said. “I think they’ve done a really nice job. I definitely think there are things we could do better, that we could get better at. I think it was more of them doing things right the last few years. There are a lot of things we need to clean up. But they deserve a ton of credit.”
Rolovich noted that each game has its own theme. With speedy receivers and a dart-accurate quarterback, the Rams entered averaging 2.54 points per possession. “We wanted to start fast,” Rolovich said. “We didn’t. Not necessarily fast, but clean. Not three three-and-outs.”
Rolovich praised the Warriors’ patchwork offensive line. Their two best blockers — Dejon Allen and Fred Ulu-Perry — did not play. Ulu-Perry was scratched after suffering an injury during warm-ups. Chris Posa, who was iffy because of an ankle ailment, gutted it out to start at left tackle before moving to right tackle. Matt Norman, who was groomed to play tight end in the jumbo package, was used most of the game at left tackle. With injuries to Metuisela ’Unga and Dakota Torres, H-back Kaiwi Chung and true freshmen Kade Greeley and Brandon Kipper rotated at tight end.
Rolovich said Allen, Ulu-Perry and ’Unga are expected to be available for Saturday’s road game against Nevada.
Rolovich said it was the Rams’ defensive strategy — loading the tackle box and limiting blitzes — that led to the Warriors tinkering with the game plan. “That’s probably why we threw it more,” Rolovich said of the discrepancy in passes (47) to rushes (21).
The Warriors will have meetings, video sessions and a walk-through session today. They will begin on-field preparation for Nevada on Tuesday.
It will be yet another homecoming for Rolovich, who was the Wolf Pack’s offensive coordinator for four years. Rolovich’s head coaches — Chris Ault and Brian Polian — are no longer with the program.
“There are a lot of players I still know there,” Rolovich said. “It’ll be good to see them.”
He also will be reunited with former UH quarterback Timmy Chang, who is Nevada’s receivers coach. Chang and Rolovich were UH teammates in 2000 and 2001.