There are a lot of places where the University of Hawai'i football team might want to put on a demonstration of a haka this season.

But 4,370 miles from home at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the season opener, where the Warriors figure to be outnumbered by about 90,000 folks Saturday, wouldn't seem to urgently top the list.

A majority of the Warriors — for participation is said to be optional — have put an exclamation point on the conclusion of practices recently with their version of what is described as a Maori war dance. We're told by players and coaches there is a possibility it could be performed before their season-opener Saturday at Alabama, though they maintained at practice yesterday nothing has been decided. Head coach June Jones said it was to be a team decision.

Here's hoping the team finds another way to stoke its competitive fires Saturday. Not that opening a season in one of the most storied cathedrals in college football should really require additional stimulus for the Warriors. Just running onto the field before the red-clad multitudes, the biggest crowd most of them are likely to ever see, should do the trick. If that atmosphere doesn't do it, better check for rigor mortis.

Likewise there's little to be gained by firing up the hometown crowd or its team. As 17-point underdogs to a nationally ranked opponent, you'd think the Warriors would like to embellish a low profile going into this one. That they'd prefer to lurk in the weeds right up to kickoff, given the opportunity. Not scream into the Crimson Tide's helmet earholes. There's no percentage, as they say, in tugging on Superman's cape in a place where the home team wins 83 percent of its games.

The lesson that the haka can inspire more than its practitioners should have been learned the hard way four years ago in the 2002 Hawai'i Bowl. That's the last time the Warriors broke out a version for an opponent, and it backfired, helping to stir what had been a somnolent Tulane team in a 36-28 Green Wave victory.

The Green Wave might not have previously known the haka from a shaka but the players immediately grasped its aggressive motions and rallied to answer them. Some UH coaches, fearing as much, had even forewarned Tulane coaches before the game. Whereupon the suspicion was the Green Wave's coaches used it precisely to whip up their players.

The Warriors would seem to have a lot on their collective plate in this season opener. Plenty to focus on and more than enough to try and execute by way of a game plan for a team that has traditionally started slow. After the Warriors have mastered the elements of tackling and blocking, running and catching, then they can move on.

Until then, the haka can wait.

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