Rice's 'bandit' steals one from UH

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

If Hawai'i fans could not believe Dan Dawson's defensive performance in last year's 38-13 loss at Rice, he made believers out of them in last night's 27-24 win against the Warriors.

Dawson led the Owls with 12.5 tackles, including four for negative yardage, returned an interception 74 yards for a touchdown, blocked a field goal that might have given UH the lead and deflected a pass that was intercepted by Brandon Green.

For the senior linebacker — the "bandit" in Rice's 4-3 scheme — it was redemption from a 48-3 loss at Nebraska on Sept. 20.

"I've been struggling a bit lately," the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Dawson said. "I'm just glad I was able to come up big tonight."

With the Warriors leading 24-14 midway through the third quarter, Dawson cut in front of wide receiver Justin Colbert on a screen pass from quarterback Tim Chang and returned it 74 yards to pull the Owls to 24-21 with 7:03 left in the third quarter. He knew about the screens, having seen it at practice. But there was one noticeable difference.

"I saw it differently at practice," he said. "They were blocking different. I was getting blocked at practice. (The Warriors) let me loose."

But that was just the beginning of Dawson's destruction of the Warriors. Later in the quarter, he deflected Chang's pass on first-and-10 at the Rice 17 that Green snagged and returned to the Rice 46. Nine plays later, Brandon Skeen tied the game with a 31-yard field goal with 13:09 remaining.

Dawson made it a possible 13-point turnaround on UH's ensuing series, when he blocked Justin Ayat's 42-yard field goal attempt. But he credited linemen Lance Redmon and Larry Brown for pushing UH's line back to allow him to get his hand up.

"When you have a player like Dan Dawson on your team, it can only make you play better," Rice defensive lineman Nick Sabula said. "When he makes a big play, it really picks up the whole defense. We all look up to him. You see the effort he puts out and you want to play better."

Sabula was obviously pumped by Dawson's play. During a UH series midway through the fourth quarter, Sabula sacked backup quarterback Jared Flint on first down, deflected his pass on second down and hurried him into throwing an errant pass on third down.

Dawson said he has nothing but respect for Chang, whom he said improved from last year when he was "telegraphing" his passes.

"Last year, I was sittin', sittin', sittin'," Dawson said. "And he was looking and kept wanting to throw it. This year, he's dumping it to the backs and that makes it tougher on me.

"I mean, that guy's a sophomore. That guy's leading the nation in total offense. To get an interception on him makes you feel good."