UH vs Utah State Wrap-Ups

Stephen Tsai's wrap-up of Hawaii's 30-14 loss to Utah State recounts a lot of the mistakes and miscues the Warriors made in the game.

UH's Malcolm Lane was about to complete a kickoff return for a touchdown when, at the "Welcome" mat of the end zone, he lost his grip on the football. Utah State recovered the bouncing ball, triggering the countdown to an against-all-oddsmakers outcome and ensuing celebration.

"It's the sickest feeling," Lane said.

Lane's unforced error had no bearing on the final score, but it was symbolic of a game in which little — except misfortune — went the Warriors' way.

"It was a team loss," running back David Farmer said. "It wasn't one play that decided it. It was a series of unfortunate events."

Jason Kaneshiro has an "Aggie-nizing" game summary (with stats) as well as a wrap-up.

Hawaii's offense racked up more yards, but Utah State -- led by sophomore quarterback Diondre Borel -- delivered the game's decisive plays in defeating Hawaii for the first time since joining the Western Athletic Conference in 2005.

Conversely, Hawaii, which had scored at least 50 points in its last three meetings with Utah State, came up empty on four of five red-zone opportunities and had two field goals blocked in falling to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in WAC play.

And what makes it worse:

Hawaii entered the game among the WAC's most efficient teams inside its opponents' 20-yard line, converting on 19 of 22 chances with 13 touchdowns and six field goals through eight games.

Utah State, meanwhile, had kept teams from scoring inside its 20-yard line just five times in 39 such situations.

In a special to the Star-Bulletin, Jeff Hunter writes that Utah State executed when it counted.

In two specials to the Advertiser, Wade Denniston writes how USU QB Diondre Borel and USU's special teams sparked the Aggies to victory.

Here's a game wrap-up from Jay Wamsley of the Deseret News.

Ferd Lewis has some notes from the game, along with injury news about Mana Silva, Josh Leonard and Kealoha Pilares.

Defensive back Mana Silva suffered UH's only significant injury in the game, McMackin said.

Silva, who left Romney Stadium on crutches, was rolled into by another player and left hobbling on his left ankle and foot.

His status for the New Mexico State game is uncertain.

Lewis also writes that Adam Leonard appears to be back to full health again, the starting QB for the NMSU game has yet to be decided, and the clock operator appeared to be helping Utah State.

McMackin said he was bothered by the operation of the clock that appeared, at several points, to run time off unnecessarily, including following the Warriors' fourth-quarter touchdown.

He was so upset that, with 7 minutes to play and UH trailing, 20-14, McMackin conferenced with the referee, linesman and field judge for nearly a minute on the field.

"I felt like we were losing time off the clock," McMackin said. "I thought we lost (in the course of the game) a lot (of time)."

McMackin said he was told the officials said, "we couldn't go (put it) back on."

Lewis writes that there's no sugarcoating this debacle.

You probably have to go back to 1980 to find a more baffling — or disturbing — loss by the Warriors.

That was the game, a 34-14 loss to Texas-El Paso at Aloha Stadium, that prompted then-head coach Dick Tomey's infamous hearty "we weren't worth a bleep" comment on live radio. A game that was the Miners' only win in a 1-11 season.

And finally, Dave Reardon and Stephen Tsai are taking comments and suggestions as to what went wrong and what can be done to right the ship.