SAN JOSE, Calif. — If these walls could talk ...

At the Dolce Hayes Mansion, the Hawai'i football players were told of the haunted tales involving this estate that was turned into a luxurious hotel.

"We heard a lot of stories," defensive lineman Josh Leonard told visitors.

The biggest horror story would be if the Warriors, who harbor visions of an unbeaten regular season, were to falter against 17-point underdog San Jose State in today's nationally televised game.

"This is a big game for us," quarterback Colt Brennan said.

So significant that defensive left tackle Fale Laeli, who has added a sore right calf to the tendinitis in his left knee, said: "I'm running out of legs. But if I have to crawl on my hands to play, I'll do that."

Defensive right tackle Michael Lafaele, who has a menu of ailments — fractured right hand, strained right hamstring, strained left calf — also will play.

"Come on now," Lafaele said. "Nothing is going to keep me out of this game."

Here's a look at the teams:

HAWAI'I OFFENSE

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

LWO—84 Jason Rivers 6-2 189 Sr.

LSB—7 Davone Bess 5-10 190 Jr.

LT—62 Keith Ah Soon 6-1 315 Jr.

LG—65 Hercules Satele 6-2 293 Sr.

C—55 John Estes 6-2 292 So.

RG—73 Larry Sauafea 6-2 294 Sr.

RT—78 Keoni Steinhoff 6-3 282 Jr.

RSB—1 Ryan Grice-Mullins 5-11 180 Jr.

RWO—2 C.J. Hawthorne 5-11 168 Sr.

QB—15 Colt Brennan 6-3 201 Sr.

RB—21 Kealoha Pilares 5-11 190 Fr.

RB—4 Leon Wright-Jackson 6-1 211 So.

RB—48 David Farmer 6-1 224 Jr.

Outlook: How much has Brennan recovered from a sprained right ankle? While visiting yesterday, his mother, Betsy, said she had forgotten he was injured. Brennan's mobility is vital to the Warriors' four-wide offense. Brennan not only has been effective on deep passes this season, he also has resurrected the magic of the shovel pass with Pilares. When Brennan is the quarterback, Pilares is averaging 11.6 post-catch yards on shovel passes. During the offseason, Pilares said he watched cut-up videos of Brennan shoveling passes to Nate Ilaoa, last year's running back.

"Colt and Nate were doing some crazy stuff," Pilares said. "I tried to learn from that. When I take my steps, I know Colt's going to get me the ball."

Like a baseball pitcher who uses the same motion to throw different pitches, Pilares has learned that the best way to sell the shovel pass — or any draw play, for that matter — is to make the defense believe he is a backfield blocker on every play. "(Running back) coach (Wes) Suan pushes us to make it consistent," Pilares said.

Last week, Rivers, who had missed the previous six quarters because of lower-back tightness, had his best game of the season, catching seven of the nine passes thrown in his direction. He did not make any mistakes in his routes. Rivers leads the UH receivers with a yards-after-catch (YAC) average of 6.66.

Hawthorne has emerged a sure-handed receiver (he had five catches for first downs last week), but his YAC is a team-low 2.13. Still, he has become a physical blocker. Aligned as a tackle in an odd formation last week, Hawthorne made a pancake block. "I'm an OK blocker," Hawthorne said. "I'm not as good as Jason or Davone."

HAWAI'I DEFENSE

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

LE—54 Amani Purcell 6-4 277 Sr.

LT—96 Fale Laeli 6-1 292 Jr.

RT—67 Michael Lafaele 6-1 302 Sr.

RE—12 Karl Noa 6-4 251 Sr.

SLB—43 Brad Kalilimoku 5-10 221 Sr.

MLB—17 Solomon Elimimian 6-0 218 Jr.

WLB—44 Adam Leonard 6-0 236 Jr.

LCB—23 Gerard Lewis 5-9 175 Sr.

LS/NB—35 Keao Monteilh 5-11 193 Jr.

LS—30 Dane Porlas 5-10 186 Jr.

RS—31 Jacob Patek 6-0 204 Sr.

RCB—3 Myron Newberry 5-9 174 Sr.

Outlook: The value of "gold" — the nickname for the defensive tackles — should increase with the return of Lafaele. The Spartans are known for their A game (the space between the center and guards), and Lafaele, Laeli and Keala Watson are aggressive gap pluggers. "The key is they have great quickness and they play vertically into the offense," defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said. "They use their hands extremely well. They have the toughness that it takes. There are not many gentle things that go on in there during the course of a game. They can handle it, and actually enjoy it."

Within the framework of the defensive call, Lafaele, a co-captain, is empowered to make changes in the line stunts. His main objective is to push back the line of scrimmage and, along with Laeli, try to draw multiple blockers. "When they're double-teamed, that allows our linebackers to make plays," defensive coordinator Greg McMackin said.

Leonard, who has been playing with a tiny fracture in his right hand, and Elimimian are effective open-field tacklers. McMackin said Elimimian has some of the characteristics of All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis, whom he coached at Miami. "He's got Ray Lewis' speed, his instincts," McMackin said of Elimimian, who leads the Warriors in solo (32) and total (73) tackles. "They're both vicious competitors. He's a sideline-to-sideline player like Ray was, not just a tackle-to-tackle guy."

HAWAI'I SPECIALISTS

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

K—86 Dan Kelly 6-3 202 Jr.

P/H—49 Tim Grasso 5-11 221 Jr.

S—57 Jake Ingram 6-4 234 Jr.

KR—89 Malcolm Lane 6-2 184 So.

KR—5 Michael Washington 5-7 173 Jr.

PR—7 Davone Bess 5-10 190 Jr.

Outlook: As the nation's scoring leader, UH has the most kickoffs (53), but is ranked 80th among 120 I-A teams in kick-return defense (22.79 yards). Still, with an average kickoff of 64.2 yards, Kelly is forcing opponents into difficult situations. His kickoffs average 4.2 seconds of hang time; anything above 4 seconds is considered to be good.

Meanwhile, the Warriors lead the nation in kickoff returns (30.1 yards), and that's despite Ryan Mouton being out with a slightly torn posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

SAN JOSE STATE OFFENSE

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

WR—8 David Richmond 6-4 200 Jr.

LT—65 Fred Koloto 6-3 290 Fr.

LG—76 Moa Ngatuvai 6-2 303 Fr.

C—79 Ronnie Castillo 6-0 292 So.

RG—72 Isaac Leatiota 6-4 295 Fr.

RT—69 John Booker 6-4 335 Sr.

TE—9 Jeff Clark 6-6 250 Sr.

WR—6 Kevin Jurovich 6-0 183 Jr.

QB—17 Adam Tafralis 6-2 219 Sr.

RB—42 James T. Callier 6-0 220 Sr.

RB—20 Jacob French 5-10 205 Sr.

Outlook: SJSU head coach Dick Tomey has made a career of relying on run-first offenses. But partially out of necessity — injuries to running backs Yonus Davis and Pat Perry; three 2007 high school graduates starting on the offensive line — the Spartans have green-lighted the passing offense. Against Utah State, the Spartans were in a no-back formation 42 times. Tafralis was not sacked in that game, either.

"We had to go to something that was going to work for us," Tafralis said of the hybrid attack, which is rooted in the West Coast offense. "It just hit us against Utah State. Why go away from a good thing?"

The Spartans still like to use two-tight end formations, and run between the guards. But Tafralis, who has completed 68 percent of his passes (to Brennan's 73.4 percent), was billed by one Bay Area newspaper as the best quarterback in today's game. Tafralis traces his accuracy to repetition.

"All summer, all season, I mean, I do nothing but throw all year," Tafralis said. "I hope I have some accuracy."

He said he began his offseason training Dec. 26. "We went anywhere from four to seven days a week. A lot of the young guys didn't understand why I was making them go out every day, but it's paying off right now. That's all that matters to me."

The cost of living in the Bay Area is expensive, but the majority of the Spartans made the sacrifice of staying around this summer. "It is very hard," Tafralis said. "I made sure I made myself available any time of the day they needed me. I told them, 'Call me, and I'm there.' That's how it went down this summer."

SAN JOSE STATE DEFENSE

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

DE—53 Jarron Gilbert 6-6 280 Jr.

DT—99 Justin Willis 6-1 305 So.

DT—96 Adonis Davis 6-2 295 So.

DE—93 Justin Cole 6-3 240 So.

LB—46 Demetrius Jones 6-1 230 Sr.

LB—35 Matt Castelo 5-10 228 Sr.

LB—14 Travis Jones 6-1 220 So.

CB—25 Dwight Lowery 6-1 185 Sr.

S—27 Jonathan Harris 6-0 190 Jr.

S—33 Dominique Hunsucker 5-10 194 So.

CB—29 Christopher Owens 5-10 170 Jr.

Outlook: As good as Castelo has been in his career — he entered 2007 as the nation's leading-returning tackler — Jones has had a better season. Jones, who can play piano despite not reading music, also is instinctive in football. He has double-digit tackles in each of the last five games, and leads the Spartans with 62 tackles.

Castelo is a household name only in his house. A linebacker since the age of 8, Castelo uses his quickness and strength to swoop in for tackles. "I've played against good competition growing up," Castelo has said. "These coaches have been teaching me how to know the play before the ball is snapped. You kind of get a feel for the game." He leads the WAC with 7.5 tackles for losses.

The Spartans are tied for the WAC lead with 11 interceptions.

UTAH STATE SPECIALISTS

Pos.—Player Ht. Wt. Cl.

K—23 Will Johnson 5-8 180 Jr.

P/H—15 Waylon Prather 6-3 225 Sr.

S—40 Grant Izokovic 6-0 250 Sr.

KR—3 David Marrero 5-10 190 Gr.

PR—25 Dwight Lowery 6-1 185 Sr.

Outlook: Tomey's teams have always been efficient on special teams. This team is not. The Spartans are last in the WAC in kickoff coverage (average opponent drive starts on the 27), and punting (average net of 30.1 yards), and eighth out of nine teams in punt returns (8.6-yard average). They have missed seven of nine field-goal attempts.

Visit Tsai's blog at www.HawaiiWarriorBeat.com

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.