TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Hawai'i football team's coaches and players said all the right things, of course.

Precisely the type of time-honored, cut-and-paste statements teams are supposed to make after losses like the 25-17 season-opening defeat the Warriors sustained against Alabama last night.

About how there was no consolation in coming close. How they didn't come this far just to be in the game. And how winning was the only thing.

But amid the genuine disappointment over what might have been on a humid night in Dixie if only they hadn't stumbled and bumbled at the start, deep down you knew the Warriors would be taking something more than a dose of coulda-woulda-shoulda back with them on the bus ride to Atlanta and the flight home to Honolulu today.

They would — and should — be taking the knowledge that the resiliency that escaped them in a 5-7 finish last year put in an appearance last night.

If the Warriors could shoot themselves in the extremities with three turnovers and a safety and somehow still be launching passes with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, they had not left Bryant-Denny Stadium empty-handed for the journey. Or without hope for the young season.

As losses go this was one to draw from rather than be forever haunted by.

Would the Warriors like to have some of those dropped passes back? Would they trade their coach's courtesy car for a smoothly-fielded snap, a better-secured ball or more efficient time management? Of course. And they had better get them ironed out before Nevada-Las Vegas comes to Aloha Stadium Sept. 16th.

But in overcoming a clumsy start that could have doomed them to a lopsided ending, the Warriors got something to cling to for the open date and the season ahead.

In keeping most of the record crowd of 92,138 in their seats and the No. 24 Crimson Tide anxiously occupied to the final second of what had held the potential to be a blowout, the Warriors had shown something all right.

Something noticeably lacking last year when the slightest setback on offense, defense or special teams would shatter a fragile psyche and doom a whole night's exercise to exasperating failure.

How many times had we seen the Warriors fall down and be unable to get back up? How often had a turnover or inability to stop somebody on third-and-long bring everything unhinged?

This time the offense and defense fed off each other and complemented each other in making a game of it after getting down 22-3. There would be no finger pointing. "They (the defense) picked us up and inspired us," quarterback Colt Brennan said. "They had our back and we had theirs. They were awesome in the second half."

And how many times could any of that have been said last year?

Yet, here the Warriors were making a real charge at Alabama, 4,370 miles from home in front of the largest, most robust crowd most of them are liable to ever play before.

Somewhere down the line this year in a season that takes them to Boise State and Fresno State, and figures to test them against Oregon State and Purdue, that has to mean something.

To be sure the Warriors left here without what they wanted. But they might have also departed with something they really needed.

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