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By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
With all the Ph.D's running around at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, you'd think somebody could get to the bottom of the campus' most confounding question.
Namely: How can the football team's offense that has been such a dud on the road pack megaton explosiveness at home?
How can, for example, these Warriors be so punchless at Fresno one week and then land the kind of heavyweight haymakers they did last night in a 52-21 rout of Idaho?
You'd think an institution that can clone green mice could solve this one before lunch.
Yet, never in this season of wildly undulating fortunes has the difference been more starkly pronounced than these last two weeks or the head scratching more furious as the question remains unanswered.
Eight days and two time zones removed from the 70-14 debacle at Fresno, where they were unable to pass their way out of a paper bag, the Warriors lit up the Aloha Stadium scoreboard with 500 yards total offense and fired up the gathering of 24,739 to decibels beyond their meager size.
In one 28-point second quarter during which quarterback Tim Chang launched four of his six touchdown passes, these Warriors were unstoppable. Pick just about any quarter they have played on the Mainland this year and the Warriors have stopped themselves.
One game they can't complete a pass of more than 14 yards and the next they can seemingly dial up any yardage they desire. Suddenly, the spirals are there, Chang's touch is surgeon-like and receivers are running routes as if guided by lasers. And, all this with a reconfigured offensive line showing the way.
But if the uniforms didn't say "Warriors," you'd hardly know these were the same guys who made the trips to the train wrecks that were Rice, Texas-El Paso, Boise and Fresno, so different has been their confidence and performance levels.
Part of the antidote this time was undoubtedly Idaho, which finished its season 3-9 and didn't have the weapons to match UH score for score. But if this had been played at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, how confident would you have been?
Surely there is a thesis to be written and a solution to be found somewhere in academia because down in lower campus, where the athletic department is located, there is no explanation. Only shrugged shoulders and, for the moment, visible relief at being back at .500 (5-5) again.
"We're just a different team at home," June Jones, the head coach, said.
"I wish I knew why," said Dan Morrison, UH quarterbacks coach.
"You've got me," said Mike Cavanaugh, offensive line coach.
All-black uniforms. FieldTurf. The home crowd. A sense of desperate urgency. Or, all of the above.
On a night when he had four touchdown catches and, seemingly, the answers to everything posed by the Vandals' defense, receiver Jason Rivers said: "It is that we have all our friends and families watching us, counting on us to do all the little things that it takes to win. The crowd plays a big role."
Just as soon as they find an answer to the enduring logo dilemma maybe somebody on the upper campus can get to the bottom of this one.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
