Crunch time here for UH
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Southern Methodist was an occasion for deep breaths and high fives.
Texas-El Paso was a 3-hour, 22-minute highlight reel in the making.
And Tulsa was a blast.
So much for the "easy" part of the University of Hawai'i's football schedule.
Beginning with 18th-ranked Fresno State today, what now confronts the Warriors after a 4-2 start, is the heavily back-loaded second-half of the schedule.
One loaded with challenges, from the looks of it.
If the first half was the marshmallow coating, now comes the jaw-breaker center.
After a diet of NCAA Division I-A opponents who went just 11-20, the Warriors now must close against a lineup that has gone 27-13.
After a charge against several conference down-and-outs, the Warriors face a gauntlet that could include the champions of three conferences (Western Athletic, Mountain West and Mid-America) and as many as five bowl teams.
Favored to win four of their first six games, the Warriors could be underdogs in four of their last six contests.
Beginning with the 6-1 Bulldogs — and really who could set the tone or whet the appetite for the second half any better — five of the six teams the Warriors finish with have winning records and two of them (FSU and Brigham Young) are nationally ranked.
What has taken place up to now has been strictly the preliminaries and some much needed, fortuitously timed ones at that. For they have afforded the defense an opportunity to find itself, special teams the chance to refine itself and the offense the room to regroup in the absence of starting quarterback Tim Chang.
Along the way, the Warriors have assumed a confidence and spirit not seen since the championship season of 1999, elements that were neither in evidence or assured a month ago.
Except for that pratfall at Nevada and the loss of Chang, it is a process that has pretty much unfolded like most thought it would. At 4-2, the Warriors are about where they figured to be, give or take a game, and still very much positioned for a positive finish.
Up to now it has all been about positioning and getting ready for the gauntlet that was awaiting them. About being ready to take advantage of six consecutive weeks on the home turf of Aloha Stadium.
Now comes the make-or-break part of the season. That portion which will give the campaign its drama by deciding whether there is to be a return to a winning season and all that might accompany it or a continuation of last season's disappointment.
This is where the tale of the 2001 Warriors takes its shape. This is where the Warriors come to define themselves and their season.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
