After losses in all three road appearances this season, the Warriors find themselves in the midst of the longest-possible Western Athletic Conference trip, 4,035 miles from home, desperately needing a road win.

In the course of their six road games — the most ever by a UH football team — the Warriors will be second only to the 1992 Holiday Bowl Champions, who did about 35,000.

But talk about your hang time, this season's UH total outdistances the 31,976 air miles the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL leader, will do this season. By the time the Warriors finish their travels — and trips to San Jose State and Nevada remain — they will have flown more miles than the New York Giants, Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans combined.

Small wonder that, as UH defensive lineman Lance Samuseva says, "It feels like an NFL schedule except the trips are longer for us because we have to come from out in the middle of the Pacific."

UH coach June Jones, who, for 15 years led a pro football existence, says , "It is tougher than the NFL because even in the NFL you at least get two (games) in a row at home sometime or another. We don't get that 'til the end."

Indeed, what has been a week at home, week-away rotation for these Warriors gets tougher beginning with this game, which marks a streak of three road games in five weeks (an open date is sandwiched in).

After going 0-for-3 at Southern California, Nevada-Las Vegas and, surprisingly, Tulsa, the burden is squarely on the Warriors to start pulling some victories out if they are to make anything of this season.

With seven games left, the 3-3 (2-1 WAC) Warriors need some road wins if they are to have a prayer of contending for the conference title. With Alabama and Boise State still lurking on the home schedule, a couple of road wins would also make for bowl game insurance for UH, which needs four more victories to be bowl-eligible.

"We have to do whatever it takes to win on the road," Jones acknowledged. "I mean, if you've got to score 70 points, (then) you've gotta score. If you've got to shut them out, (then) you've got to shut 'em out. We've got to pull together and fight through all that stuff."

For all the plaintive cries about the rigors of travel from Rice and the eastern schools in the WAC who are considering joining Conference USA to lessen their burdens, it is the Warriors who have the most reasons, almost 33,000 of them this season alone, to hope that the conference will emerge with a travel-reducing 12-team, two division format.