A helmet-swinging melee erupted on the ESPN national cable broadcast after the final gun that took coaches and police several minutes to finally quiet.

It was the second time in two seasons a UH game ended in skirmishes.

Both involved opponents from Conference USA. Last year Cincinnati and UH brawled for several minutes after the conclusion of UH's victory.

Last night, several small fights broke out re-igniting the situation when coaches and police intervened to try and settle matters.

"It was embarrassing to our university and I'm sure the University of Hawai'i also was embarrassed by it," Houston coach Art Briles said. "But emotions run high and with a lot more people on the field than normal because of the larger travel squads, things got out of hand there for a while."

Herman Frazier, the University of Hawai'i's athletic director, said he didn't see how the fight began but promised to look at tapes to see what happened.

Briles told the Associated Press he would review the postgame fight on film and determine whether any disciplinary action is necessary.

"We'll look through that and see what got it going and who kept it going," Briles said. "It's certainly not something we plan on happening, it was just one of those things."

Herb Naone, head of security at Aloha Stadium, told The Advertiser, "after the (on-field) incident, there were no continuance" once the teams entered the locker rooms.

"We got the teams off the field safely and we got Houston on the bus."

Naone said the stadium's "main concern is to maintain crowd control and keep fans from participating."

UH coach June Jones blamed the on-field officials from the Mountain West Conference for letting things flare at the end.

"In my opinion, it is the referees let the game get out of control by not taking control of some of the taunting and some of the things that were going on," Jones said.

"It was unfortunate that (the Houston players) taunted our kids before the game, even while warming up," Jones said. "I told (the officials) in the end of the third quarter, 'If you don't get control of this game, something's gonna happen.' "