TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If the University of Hawai'i football team had its way, it would collect all of the confidence-boosting lessons and feel-good moments from last night's 25-17 loss to Alabama and direct deposit them into the Dumpster.

There was little comfort for the Warriors as they sulked off the field, the 200th time a visiting team has lost at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Against the longest of odds — the largest crowd (92,138) in the stadium's history, Alabama's glorious football tradition and a tide of crimson-clad fans who serenaded non-stop for 3 hours, 3 minutes — the Warriors refused to blink.

Although the Warriors were in contention until the final play, Lionel Mitchell's interception at the goal line as time expired, they were not ready to raise a toast to "nice try."

"There's no such thing as a moral victory," inside linebacker Solomon Elimimian growled. "You don't get points for a moral victory. How can we have a moral victory when we expected to win?"

Quarterback Colt Brennan said: "It was an absolute blast right up to the time we ended up losing."

The Warriors paid a steep toll. Their best running back, Nate Ilaoa, departed in the second quarter because of a concussion.

"He tried to come back in, but his head hurt way too much," Brennan said. "He came into the locker room and he threw up. He was hurt, and he still is hurt."

Ilaoa's backup, Reagan Mauia, wasn't any healthier. Mauia suffered sprains to both thumbs, and he aggravated the sprained ligament in his left shoulder.

"You've got to be a savage," Mauia said. "You've got to love the sport. I love the sport, and I wanted to keep going."

But he couldn't, and in the final series, the Warriors turned to walk-on David Farmer, the last running back they could fit into the school-imposed, 60-player travel roster.

By then, even Brennan was ailing. After being struck on the chest, he coughed up a small amount of blood. "They said I popped a blood vessel," Brennan said. "It's not a big deal."

But before each of the final three plays, Brennan vomited. He blamed the condition on being "all worked up."

Still, Brennan managed to keep the game's outcome in suspense until the last play.

After connecting with slotback Ryan Grice-Mullins for a 31-yard touchdown that pulled the Warriors within 25-17 with 7:04 to play, Brennan engineered one final chance to force a tie and overtime.

With time ticking away, and facing third down from the Alabama 26, Brennan's pass to left wideout Jason Rivers was tipped away in the end zone with one second remaining.

On the final play, the Warriors aligned three receivers to the right and kept Rivers on the left.

"We tried to overload one side, hoping everybody would flow that way, and leave Jason in single coverage," Brennan said. "He's kind of a bigger guy (6 feet 1), and he can jump. But it was going to be difficult any way we did it because they had five defenders in the end zone."

Brennan was forced from the pocket and his pass, intended for Rivers in the back left corner of the end zone, was underthrown. Mitchell's interception triggered a wild on-field celebration for a Tide team that entered as a 17-point favorite and was ranked No. 24 in the coaches' poll.

"We're going to have to play a little better, but we won, and that's the main thing," Alabama coach Mike Shula said.

The Warriors' early mistakes contributed to the outcome.

Ilaoa fumbled at the end of two of his four carries, including a planned play in which he stepped in front of Brennan to take the direct snap.

In the third quarter, after the Warriors advanced to the Tide 9, Mauia took a handoff, powered his way for a first down and then was stripped of the football. Alabama's Simeon Castille recovered at the 3.

"I carried it low," said Mauia, who was holding the football with one hand. "They were going for my legs, and I should have protected the ball."

UH coach June Jones was visibly agitated by the turnovers. "We ask them to put the ball away," Jones said. "That's the only thing I told them: 'Just finish with the football. I don't care how many yards you get. You can get a lot of yards, but finish with the ball. You have to take pride in that. That's the only thing you've got to do.' "

Mauia said: "I made a mistake."

So, too, did punter Kurt Milne, who mishandled a snap that resulted in a safety.

"It was one of those deals, a mental lapse, or whatever you want to call it," Milne said. "I had one of those for a split second. I just dropped it. The (Alabama defender) grabbed me and I just heaved (the football)."

Milne tried to throw the ball out of the end zone, but Alabama's Roy Upchurch chased it down near the back line. The play was ruled an Alabama touchdown. But upon further review, replays showed Upchurch had recovered out of bounds, and the play was downsized to a safety, extending the Tide's lead to 12-3 in the second quarter.

While Brennan completed 30 of 44 passes for 350 yards and two touchdowns, four of his passes were dropped, including two by usually sure-handed slotback Davone Bess.

"I think my mind was moving so fast," Bess said. "My first reaction was to get the ball upfield. I didn't look it in. Every day, I catch the ball and look it in. All of a sudden in the game, with the adrenaline going and everybody cheering . . I'm not sure what happened."

Brennan backed Bess, saying, "Davone has some of the best hands in America. I think maybe we needed to be a little more calm and take it step by step."

The Warriors, in fact, took an aggressive approach. During warmups, the Tide players started to cheer when "Sweet Home Alabama" blasted from the three JumboTron systems. Coach Jones turned to UH center Samson Satele, one of the tri-captains, and asked if the Warriors wanted to perform the haka, a Maori war dance they had practiced for two weeks.

Satele nodded.

"We felt great coming into this game," Brennan said. "We weren't scared. When we were out there, we said, 'Let's do the haka.' It was a quick decision. 'Let's do it. Who cares.' And we did it."

The Warriors extended that approach to their defense. UH defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville set two goals: 1) don't give up a long pass completion and, 2) stop running back Kenneth Darby, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of the previous two seasons.

The Warriors placed as many as five defenders on the line of scrimmage and eight in the tackle box (the imaginary rectangle near the line of scrimmage). Darby was limited to 25 yards on 16 carries.

But Alabama has many poisons, and Darby's struggles forced the Tide to rely on quarterback John Parker Wilson, who was making his first NCAA start. To assist Wilson, only two players went out for passes at a time, leaving eight others to block.

The extra protection made Glanville call off the all-points blitzes — a key to his 3-4 attacking defense — and drop an extra defender into pass coverage.

But even against that strategy, Wilson, mostly off of play-actions passes, connected with wideout Keith Brown at important times. Brown, who had six catches for 132 yards, managed to make plays out of improbable situations. He made a diving reception for 22 yards. After soaring for a 36-yard reception, he was knocked flat by a streetcar named Leonard Peters. And pushed off balance by linebacker Elimimian, Brown held on for 35-yard touchdown catch that increased the Tide's lead to 22-3 in the third quarter.

"I thought (Wilson) threw up three passes that should have been interceptions but came down as completions," Glanville said. "That makes you mad. I mean, (the passes) were dying ducks."

After that, the UH defense tightened, holding the Tide to 16 yards the rest of the game. By then, Brennan and the offense were clicking, with receivers zig-zagging against man and zone coverages.

"We messed up a good amount in the beginning," Brennan said. "We gave them so much momentum. In the second half, I felt, we were getting it, and we were finally rolling. Vince Lombardi once said, 'Sometimes you don't lose football games. Time just runs out.' I think that's maybe how it was for us. We fought but, you know, Alabama won."

No moral victory

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.