Hawaii vs San Jose State Newspaper Wrap-Ups

Stephen Tsai's wrap-up has the story of how the UH defense was riled up by what Yonus Davis told his friend Davone Bess.

Davis and UH's Bess are childhood friends, and they talked Friday night. UH stays in Waikiki the night before games, and the Spartans were at the nearby Hyatt Regency. Apparently, what happens in Waikiki doesn't stay in Waikiki.

Passed through the coconut wireless, the conversation between the two players ended up being a taunt to UH defenders' ears.

"Through the grapevine, I heard he said he would rush for 200 yards," UH inside linebacker Adam Leonard said. "He thought we were basically trash. We had to show him tonight we could play."

Led by an overpowering defensive line — ends Ikaika Alama-Francis and Melila Purcell III and nose tackle Michael Lafaele — the Warriors smothered the Spartans' power running game. First, Davis was limited to running between the tackles and, after a while, he was running in place.

Davis finished with 29 yards on 14 carries, an average of 2.1 yards per rush. The Spartans gained a total of 82 rushing yards on 38 carries.

"We heard he was going to get 200 yards rushing," free safety Leonard Peters said. "He might have got that side to side, but the last time I checked, they don't record the side to side."

"Nope," Leonard said, "I don't think they count that nowadays. Give credit to our defensive line. They did a great job. They dominated the whole game."

Hahaha, that's so cold! Yonus sounds a little bitter about being stuffed.

"Their defense today, what they did to me was used a 3-4 with two outside linebackers containing me and the inside linebackers just waiting to see what I would do," Davis said. "I'm not disappointed in our O-line or in myself or in anybody. It just lets us know what we need to do from here on out."

Asked if UH hit harder than other teams, Davis said, "They're not hard hitters at all."

Ho brah, why you so salty!?

Dave Reardon's wrap-up has more regarding that Bess-Davis story as well as June Jones and Dick Tomey's evaluation of the game.

Compared to the recent early-round knockouts this was more like a late-round TKO. UH coach June Jones said his team was not as sharp as usual.

"It was not our best game," Jones said. "We overcame a lot. The positive was there was a lot of good hitting going on."

A five-touchdown spurt by the Warriors after halftime -- enabled by UH's crushing defense -- finally locked it up as Hawaii matched the school record for consecutive victories in one season.

UH led just 27-17 midway through the third quarter, but three San Jose State turnovers in the fourth quarter and the Warriors' offense turned it into a rout.

"It's not very complex," Tomey said. "They were just more physical than we were."

Nick Abramo has more from Dick Tomey and SJSU's Marcel Burrough.

Tomey blamed the loss on getting manhandled at the line of scrimmage.

"Their guys (on the line) whipped our guys and that's what wins," he said. "They kicked our butts up front. And three turnovers on three straight possessions (two fumbles and an interception in the second half), that'll kill ya. They outcoached us and outplayed us."

SJSU senior left guard Marcel Burrough was in the firing line of Hawaii's hungry defense that held the Spartans to 192 scrimmage yards.

"They out-physicaled us," he said. "It wasn't that close. When it was 20-10, we were lucky to be in the game. We didn't move the ball like we should have. They (the UH defenders) were doing some really loud talking after they made plays and maybe we let it rattle us. We weren't doing the right things. We just handed it to them. It was like we said to them, 'Here's the ball, you want it?' "

Ferd Lewis writes about the great defensive performance and has this quote from Ikaika Alama-Francis:

All we heard all night was the sound of 'ughhhh' when he was hitting the ground," said defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis who, along with fellow defensive end Melila Purcell, was a regular visitor to the Spartans' backfield. "It was a very good sound, believe me. As a lineman you like hearing it."

Jason Kaneshiro talks to coach Jeff Reinebold, who has praise for his players:

"These kids have an awful lot of pride and they're starting to develop an identity," defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said. "For years they've been pushed around, people have run the ball on them at will almost. Now they've developed an attitude that nobody's going to run the ball on them.

"We challenged them during the week that this is going to be as good a running team as we've seen since Nevada and they rose to the challenge."

...

"I had to take their helmets away to keep them from going with no time in the fourth quarter," Reinebold said. "They're in great shape, they work hard. They're a credit to this program and I'm awful proud of them."

Way to go D. And big props to Reinebold for helping them get there!

But we can't finish all these stories about the UH defense without some quotes from Jerry Glanville, which Kalani Takase provides.

"As usual," said UH defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville, "we didn't do anything (different), the difference was the players."

and

"If Jake Patek isn't All-WAC, everybody at this university should be fired," Glanville said.

Right on.

Colt Brennan threw for 402 yards and 5 touchdowns last night. Ho hum! Par for the course! Just kidding. But let's focus on Nate Ilaoa, who rushed for 100 yards and had 66 receiving yards with two touchdowns and as Stacy Kaneshiro writes, broke a school record in the process:

On the Warriors' first play from scrimmage last night, the 5-foot-9, 254-pound senior stomped his way for a 26-yard gain off a shovel pass from quarterback Colt Brennan. The play not only paved the way to UH's first score, a 39-yard field goal by Dan Kelly, in a 54-17 win against San Jose State, it made Ilaoa UH's career leader in receiving yards by a running back.

Ilaoa entered the game with 870 career receiving yards. The old record of 895 was set by Gary Allen (1978 to 1981), who ironically played under then-UH coach Dick Tomey, who stood on the opposite sideline as SJSU's coach.

"It's good, but it's not only me," Ilaoa said. "It's my linemen, my quarterback, coaches and everything. It's something that comes along with teamwork."

Everybody on this team seems so selfless. Way to go.

This story by Kalani Takase and Ferd Lewis highlights the fact that this is the highest scoring Warrior team in school history. And if you thought Yonus Davis was salty, read what Louisiana Tech is complaining about.

(WAC commissioner Karl) Benson reviewed the Warriors' pregame haka performance last night in the wake of a complaint by Louisiana Tech, Benson said.

Tech was UH's opponent last week and apparently felt UH performed its version of the battle dance too close to the Bulldogs' team.

Benson declined comment other than to say, "it (last night's haka) was fine."

UH has performed the pregame haka since the season opener at Alabama.

Wow, that's REALLY salty! I think they're the only ones who have complained. Bulldogs cannot handle! If you haven't seen it, this is what they're complaining about.



I can understand, it's pretty scary.