SHREVEPORT, La. — The University of Hawai'i football team will have traveled more than 4,000 miles to get to its Western Athletic Conference opener in nearby Ruston, La., today.

But how far have the Warriors come on the field this season?

That is the question that hangs over their made-for-TV midweek game on ESPN2. For a team that has worn "WAC Champions in training" T-shirts for months in preparation for the conference season, today's 2 p.m. (Hawai'i time) game figures to say a lot about where they stand on reaching their avowed goal.

In addition to being its longest conference road venture, this game also figures to be UH's most challenging WAC appearance away from home this season.

Get through this one, where they are 3 1/2-point underdogs on the Las Vegas betting line, and things will be looking up for the currently 2-1 Warriors, who return to Aloha Stadium next week for their first home game in 36 days.

But history tells us an opening loss in the eight-game conference schedule would be a severe, if not devastating, setback. In six of the past seven years a team has had to go unbeaten to win the WAC. In 2007, UH was one of them. And, only once in the last nine years has anybody taken the title with more than one loss.

So, the Warriors — and everybody else — have their work cut out for them in a conference where Boise State, which has won or shared six of the last seven WAC titles, has left them with little room for error.

The task confronting the Warriors appeared much more daunting a few weeks ago when Louisiana Tech was viewed as a prime threat to Boise State's reign. But the Bulldogs struggled to a 1-2 start that began with a 37-13 loss at Auburn and a 32-14 setback at Navy before rebounding against Nicholls State, 37-13.

The surprise is two-fold: The Bulldogs' running game has missed a beat from last year when it was second-best in the WAC, and their rushing defense, which was also second, has suffered to the point where opponents are averaging 407 yards per game. Louisiana Tech has yet to play a pass-first team, which should be good news for the Warriors. Especially if their first-half team of the two previous games shows up.

UH has had its moments, especially in first halves at Washington State and Nevada-Las Vegas. But things got sloppy in the second half against the Cougars and the victory got away from UH in the second half at UNLV.

There were considerable lessons to be learned from both experiences, not to mention on defense and special teams. How well the Warriors, coming off a 10-day break, have applied the hard-earned knowledge figures to tell the tale today and beyond on the WAC season for them.