I watched in person Hawaii play against UNLV a couple of Saturdays ago.  Hawaii's QB, Joe Alexander, is a big guy who throws a ton of short passes over the middle.  The Warriors have a couple of very good receivers, Rodney Bradley and Kealoha Pilares, who are good after the catch.  Hawaii gets their one returning defensive starter back from injury this week, stud DE John Fonoti, who could put some good pressure on Bulldog QB Ross Jenkins.

La Tech has been a disappointment so far this year especially considering they returned 16 starters, nine on offense.  They lost, 37-13, at Auburn being outgained by 311 yards and then traveled to Navy where they lost, 32-14, being outgained by 226 yards with a time of possession shortcoming of 19 minutes to Navy's 41.  They are only rushing for 3.1 yards a carry. They do have a playmaker in Phillip Livas.  It appears a lack of leadership, just ten seniors on the squad, and a loss of some take charge players to graduation has hurt the Bulldogs. 

Over the past ten years, WAC home favorites of this price range in conference action have been a very good play.  This is Hawaii's third straight road game.  For their first two, at Washington St. and at UNLV, the Warriors stayed on the mainland.  They did go home after the UNLV loss and Ruston, LA is a long flight.  Hawaii also has had difficulties in recent years at La Tech.

I wanted to play La Tech, but last year they were weak on pass defense and two of the three games they have played were against predominant ground attacks, Navy and Nicholls State.  Auburn's Chris Todd threw for 255 yards with an excellent QB rating of 173.2 against LT. 

If Hawaii gets up by a couple of scores, I don't believe LT has the firepower to get back in the ball game.  But, considering the past history, travel conditions, and this being a Wednesday night game, I don't want to take Hawaii.

 

I PASS.

Good luck,
Jim