MOSCOW, Idaho — University of Hawai'i football coach Greg McMackin stood with his back to a large clock yesterday, a fitting place it seemed, to answer questions about the latest loss in a season and, indeed, an era running out on the Warriors.

The 35-23 thumping by Idaho was the fourth defeat in a row for the Warriors and the most telling yet for the program in this season gone steadily sour.

What it said was more disturbing than merely the score or the 2-4 (0-3 in the Western Athletic Conference) record now burdening UH. It spoke beyond the painful truth that UH, which needs to win five of its seven remaining games to be bowl-eligible, won't be going to a postseason this year.

Mostly, it was an unmistakable symbol of how the once-proud program continues to plummet.

The Warriors, who once played with confidence and a healthy swagger that came from making big plays and winning, have none of that now.

Instead, it is their opponents, with the Vandals being the most recent and, yes, most shocking example, that possess it. To be sure the Vandals, suddenly-bowl eligible at 6-1 (3-0 WAC), are a team on the rise. But have they really improved a 44-point differential's worth in just 11 months?

Because that is how wide the backward swing was for UH from Nov. 22, 2008, when the Warriors blasted Idaho, 49-17, through yesterday when the Vandals were, well, vandalizing UH on several fronts.

If it could be said that the Warriors had "owned" an opponent in the WAC, it was surely the Vandals, whom they crushed by an average score of 48-10 over four conference seasons.

But the worm has not only turned, it is spitting Gatorade in UH's face mask. "We owed them," Idaho linebacker and Baldwin alum JoJo Dickson said.

It isn't only Idaho, either. Fresno State, Louisiana Tech and Nevada-Las Vegas, all opponents UH had had runs of victories against, have taken their measure of revenge in recent weeks and it hasn't been pretty.

The symptoms are familiar: an inability to close out drives on offense, the difficulty in putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks or stopping running backs, mental miscues on special teams, poor clock management.

Again and again they are taking down the Warriors, who have lost six of their last eight games dating to last season, in no small part due to the failings of the Warriors themselves.

The loss of deep pass-receiving threat Rodney Bradley, one of the true stars of the team, to a broken leg for the rest of the season will not help.

The Warriors took the field yesterday in their road white uniforms, something not seen since the Sugar Bowl. But, more than anything, the uniforms served to remind us just how much has changed with the program in such a short time.