The group consisted of family members of redshirt freshman placekicker Nolan Miranda, who played in his first collegiate game last night in the Warriors' 59-28 win over Army.

Miranda scored Hawai'i's first points on a 32-yard field goal with 8:01 remaining in the first quarter.

"The first one I was really nervous, but I had to concentrate on what I was doing rather than worry if I was going to make it or not," Miranda said. "It kinda helped, once I saw that first kick. It made me more nervous (to start off with a field goal), but that's just the game, you can't choose to have a PAT or not."

Miranda also converted 8 of 8 point-after attempts.

"He didn't say much. Nolan really doesn't say much," said his mother, Janet Alejado. "I know he was nervous and excited ... he's been waiting a year and a half."

Miranda has been waiting his place in line behind Justin Ayat, who converted 15 of 23 field-goal attempts and 55 of 56 PATs last year. But this season, Ayat has missed his past four field goals and eight extra-point kicks.

"We have two good kickers and Justin was struggling a bit with his PATs and stuff, so we decided to make a change," special teams coach Tyson Helton said.

Miranda said that Ayat spoke to him before the game, telling him not to be nervous and "just do your regular thing."

"They are roommates, and Nolan looks up to Justin," Alejado said. "I'm sure Justin has helped Nolan in terms of calming him down. They're real supportive of each other."

Ayat, who did the kickoffs last night, said: "He's been doing good at practice and he got his chance tonight and he did real well."

Head coach June Jones said that Miranda would be the placekicker in next week's game against Alabama.

"As a parent, I'm so proud to see my child out there," Alejado said. "My whole pregnancy, Nolan kicked the whole nine months. I knew he was going to be some kind of kicker."