By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

EL PASO, Texas — With three interceptions, cornerback Abraham Elimimian was almost too much last night. But by himself, he wasn't nearly enough to keep University of Hawai'i football team from its worst Western Athletic Conference loss in 4 1/2 years.

Try as he might — and Elimimian ran back one interception for a touchdown and helped prevent scores on defense and special teams before leaving the game in the third quarter with a strained hamstring — the 51-20 lambasting by Texas-El Paso was more than even he could prevent.

In this, Elimimian was something of a modern-day Sisyphus, doomed to try to roll uphill a boulder that kept coming back down.

Curious coaching strategy, dropped passes, fumbles, kicking game breakdowns, blown routes and assignments, you name it. It all added up to a bad loss for a team that could ill-afford one.

Indeed, this third loss against two victories was a setback from the head coach, June Jones, to the the bottom of the roster.

Jones put the Warriors in a precarious position they didn't need right off the bat with a reach of a call. On the fourth play of the game, a fourth down-and-12 situation from the UH 18 yardline, UH faked a punt and came up empty with the daring pass.

Two years ago in the same Sun Bowl, that time in the third quarter, it worked. Upback Chad Kapanui then completed a 70-yard pass off the fake punt to Kilinahe Noa that set up a game-breaking score.

Which, right away, probably should have been ample reason for not trying to go to the well too often.

For this time the pass — with the same principals involved in the execution — was incomplete and UTEP required just five plays to score the game's first touchdown.

It was, UTEP coach Mike Price would say later, a trick the Miners were aware might be coming, again.

Still, what are the chances of fooling UTEP twice with the same play? It was a longshot of a call at a point in the game where the Warriors didn't need to be dealing from desperation.

Maybe, just maybe, you could try it with six minutes left in the third quarter and down as the Warriors later were 38-13 — when it didn't work, either. But, please, not the opening series in the shadow of your own goalposts. And, not with a defense that had enough of an uphill battle thanks to injuries.

When you are supposed to have a high-caliber, high-scoring offense, better to let them win the game for you than dig an instant hole with a shot-in-the-dark gamble.

One of the refreshing things about Jones can be his willingness to toss the coaches' handbook aside at times. And, in instances like last night, it can, unfortunately, also be one of the more maddening traits.

Still, the Warriors, who came back to close to 14-13 in the first quarter, might have survived it had they been able to convert on a field goal late in the first or cash in on more than just one of UTEP's four turnovers, all pass interceptions.

Instead, they could do none of the things you have to do to win, especially on the road.

So, for the first time in 17 seasons, they wasted a four-interception effort by the defense in a loss.

Small wonder some fans in the stands serenaded Jones with chants of, "mahalo, coach" afterward.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.