FSU Review, LaTech Preview

Dave Reardon recounts five big plays from the UH-Fresno game in his Warrior Replay.

Stephen Tsai writes about UH's unsung heroes.

Head coach Greg McMackin praised role players such as long-snapper Jake Ingram, kick-blocker Antwan "Tua" Mahaley and specialist Spencer Smith.

"That's what's important to us — knowing your role and fitting in," McMackin said. "That's why we're able to hang together. There were a lot of guys who were backups who played in that ballgame. We probably played 20 guys on defense. Our special teams had different guys who were playing. Most of the 64 guys that we took had a part in that victory."

Jason Kaneshiro writes about Inoke Funaki's breakthrough game. Some quotes from the article:

"He was more confident, especially when he was breaking off those long runs," center John Estes said. "You could see in his eyes that he was going to make big plays."

"He did exactly what he was supposed to do," UH offensive coordinator Ron Lee said. "He managed (the game) but he made some plays, he didn't throw an interception. What he did was he made good decisions and he played smart."

"He missed two throws early and the old Inoke misses those throws and he's in the dumps for the rest of the game," Rolovich said. "He missed those throws but he never gave up until the clock was zero, and then some."

The article also has some season stats.

Here's a review of the game, and all of Fresno's mistakes, from the Fresno Bee's Bryant-Jon Anteola.

"We were pretty sad," defensive end Michael Stuart said Sunday night. "It's our senior year and just to see it get thrown away like that -- those hopes of a BCS gone, a loss in the WAC.

Dave Reardon's Further Review column takes a look at UH's "ugly" win and where we go from here.

Whether this game goes down in UH lore as a bizarre oddity during a junk season or an epiphany on the way to another Hawaii Bowl is all on the Warriors now. A team that loses the ball six times one week and then takes it away a half dozen the next is just too unpredictable. The only label we can apply so far is big heart, because that's what it took to bounce back after losing at home to San Jose State and beat a nationally ranked outfit on the road.

Ferd Lewis hopes that the rest of the season can be built upon this huge victory.

It took UH 33 years — and 11 tries — as a major college (Division I and Football Bowl Subdivision) member to finally pull its first road-trip upset of a nationally ranked opponent. And, it was a doozy, requiring a 180-degree turn on offense, defense and special teams from the team UH had started its season as.

It would be a shame now if that experience wasn't taken to the bank by the Warriors and invested in the rest of this still impressionable season. If the Warriors can knock off Fresno State amid the growling Red Wave, there has to be the confidence it can win at Utah State and at New Mexico State, and, who knows, dare we say perhaps even at Boise State?

And Jason Kaneshiro looks ahead to the next set of Bulldogs.

Louisiana Tech (2-2, 0-1 WAC) will have a little extra time to prepare for the Warriors. The Bulldogs played last Wednesday, losing at Boise State 38-3. Bulldogs receiver/kick returner Phillip Livas leads the WAC in all-purpose yardage averaging 163.2 yards per game.

"You've got to get on to the next game," McMackin said. "We can enjoy it today, but tomorrow we need to move on and build on the good things that happened."