Hawaii football coach Timmy Chang\u2019s first impression was not lasting.<\/p>\n
In his college debut on Sept. 9, 2000, Chang was a bystander quarterback in the Rainbow Warriors\u2019 stunning 45-20 loss to Division I-AA Portland State. The memories have long faded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was 25 years ago. You want a 25-year-old memory, that\u2019s Sean McVay,\u201d said Chang, referencing the Los Angeles Rams head coach\u2019s photographic memory. \u201cI know we were 0-1 after that (season-opening loss). I can\u2019t remember what the emotions were. That was a loss, and any time you lose, it\u2019s one you want to get back or prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since that night at Aloha Stadium, the Warriors have won 23 in a row against FCS teams. That includes a 49-35 victory over PSU on Sept. 4, 2021, the first UH home football game at the Ching Complex. Because of COVID-19 protocols, there were no fans in the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t take three coaches and 14 players because they were coughing or sneezing,\u201d PSU coach Bruce Barnum recalled. \u201cWe had a skeletal crew that game. It was kind of eerie.\u201d<\/p>\n
PSU and UH have traveled separate paths to today\u2019s game at the Ching Complex.<\/p>\n
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The 0-3 Vikings have endured injuries and a challenging schedule. It took 118 offensive plays and three games to score their first touchdown. They are averaging 6.7 points per game, 3.5 yards per play. In the second half of a 69-0 loss to BYU, the Vikings had 12 plays for minus-3 yards. They have not converted on any of their three field-goal attempts.<\/p>\n
The Warriors are 2-1 \u2014 their first winning record after three games in Chang\u2019s four-season tenure \u2014 including a Power Four victory over Stanford. Last week, quarterback Luke Weaver started in place of the ailing Micah Alejado, throwing for 294 yards and three touchdowns. Kansei Matsuzawa, who connected on three field goals, is perfect on eight attempts this season.<\/p>\n
In a heated practice on Tuesday, Chang delivered several fiery speeches. On Wednesday, associate head coach Chris Brown upped the volume \u2014 and adjectives \u2014 in his \u201cpep\u201d talk. Chang said he wanted the players to bury the past, from 25 years ago and from last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want our guys to understand what\u2019s in front of them and not what\u2019s behind, and continue to grow,\u201d Chang said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on this opponent. And we\u2019ve got to practice well and play well. If we practice well throughout the week, and we\u2019re focused, we\u2019ll give ourselves an opportunity to be successful. That\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the second week in a row, Alejado\u2019s availability is listed as a \u201cgame-time decision.\u201d Alejado participated in skeletal drills this week. Weaver took all the first-unit snaps in team sessions.<\/p>\n
The Vikings project John-Keawe Sagapolutele as their starting quarterback despite absorbing several hits from North Dakota last week. Sagapolutele, who transferred to PSU in January after two seasons with the Warriors, made his first NCAA start against the Fighting Hawks. He was the third quarterback to start in as many games; the Vikings have used four QBs this season.<\/p>\n
Of the injuries, PSU rush end Spencer Elliott said: \u201cFootball is a violent sport. You can\u2019t control a lot of the things that go on. Everybody has a next-man-up mentality. It\u2019s terrible when you see your guys go down. Absolutely. It\u2019s a long season. You\u2019ve got guys two deep, three deep, who are going to step up and play just as good a football as the guys in front of them,\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vikings arrived on Thursday afternoon. They were allowed an hour of free time on Thursday and Friday, presumably at Waikiki Beach, with two stipulations: They had to wear T-shirts to prevent sunburn and footwear to avoid stepping on coral. And by overwhelming approval, two of the team meals will be provided by Zippy\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawaii football coach Timmy Chang\u2019s first impression was not lasting. In his college debut on Sept. 9, 2000,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[35159,7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-364551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-editors","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115196634297804676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}