A lot on line at end of road
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
RENO, Nev. — By the time its Aloha Airlines charter flight touches back down in Honolulu tonight after its sixth and last roadtrip of the season, the University of Hawai'i football team will have flown about 33,000 miles this year.
We know that is more than once around the Earth. We know that is more than any of the NFL teams will fly in the regular season and exhibition season combined and more than all but one of UH's previous football teams have flown.
But while we know how far the Warriors have traveled, what we don't know yet is how far they have really come this season.
That is something today's game with Nevada will likely tell us.
For 10 games into this season, this is where the Warriors either win and earn a Dec. 5 showdown for the Western Athletic Conference Championship with defending champion Boise State, or they exit the race.
At 6-3 (5-1 WAC) and four regular-season games remaining, they either continue to have a shot at matching the school-record for victories (11 in 1992) in a season or they are left to play out the string.
All that and an opportunity to clinch a berth in the Christmas Day Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl figure into the mix.
A school-record six road games over five time zones has made this team road Warriors in ways probably imagined a few short months ago. Engagements at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Las Vegas, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech and San Jose State have exposed them to the gamut of experiences, both pleasant and otherwise.
Presumably the shootouts, upsets and controversies along the way have also toughened them for one last Mainland go-round. This time it looks to be trial by ice, or at least ice-cold, rather than fire.
Two months removed from the 95-degree temperatures of Las Vegas where they wilted against UNLV in a flood of turnovers, today's task is to hold off a Nevada team in what the weatherman says will be 40 degree temperatures with a chance of rain.
The Warriors have had their moments and their disappointments on the road this year in going 2-3. What they have learned along the way should, if executed correctly, hold them in good stead today.
Now, it is time for them to put together a complete game, or at least something resembling one, on the road for the first time this year.
We've seen defense at UNLV, Tulsa and San Jose State. We've seen offense at Louisiana Tech. And, at times, special teams have made their mark, too. But what we have yet to glimpse is the kind of collaborative effort you'd like to think the Warriors should be capable of at this point.
That they are listed as 3 1/2-point favorites on many of the nearby betting lines suggest it shouldn't be asking too much.
Not if the Warriors have come as far as their travels should have taken them.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
