Hawaii won’t dwell on loss, gearing up for Aztecs

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1998 | 1:10 a.m.

After getting shut out for the second straight week, one would think Hawaii head football coach Fred vonAppen would be disappointed that the Rainbows have one less day this week to prepare for Friday night's WAC matchup at San Diego State.

"The positive spin is that we don't have time to dwell on how miserably we've played," von Appen said Monday. "It's a short week. We're trying to rebound from another woeful offensive performance against SMU. ... We can't kick a field goal or score a touchdown. That really hurts your options."

Hawaii, blanked 20-0 by Arkansas State a week earlier, followed that with a 28-0 loss to previously winless SMU on Saturday night. You have to go all the way back to 1964 for the last time the Rainbows (0-4, 0-2 WAC Pacific) suffered back-to-back shutouts.

Now Hawaii has to fly to San Diego a day earlier than normal to play the Aztecs. The game was moved up because of a potential conflict with the baseball playoffs at Qualcomm Stadium, but, as it turns out, the Padres will be playing in Atlanta over the weekend.

The Rainbows have lost a school-record 10 consecutive games. They haven't won a league road game in 21 tries and haven't defeated San Diego State since 1989. They lost, 58-6, to the Aztecs two years ago in San Diego.

"We have to be very careful we don't start pointing fingers at each other," vonAppen said. "We're going to find out how much hair we have on our back sides in the coming week of practice. ... We have to move on and not dwell on our past mistakes."

UNLV's Williams honored

UNLV senior wide receiver Damon Williams was selected on Monday as one of 32 candidates for the 1998 Biletnikoff Award by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club.

The Biletnikoff Award, started in 1994, is voted on by a panel of former collegiate wide receivers and members of the national media. Last year's winner was Marshall's Randy Moss.

An initial vote will result in 10 semifinalists on Oct. 20. A second vote will pare the group to three finalists, who will travel to Orlando for the Dec. 10 announcement on ESPN.

Williams, UNLV's all-time leader in receptions with 174, has caught at least one pass in a school-record 39 consecutive games.

Nevada-Reno's Geoff Noisy also made the cut.

Ram tough

Colorado State (4-2, 2-1), which hosts surprising Tulsa (2-2, 0-1) in a key game WAC Mountain Division game this week, could be without starting running backs, Kevin McDougal (hamstring, shoulder) and Damon Washington (ankle) this week.

McDougal, who has been hampered by a shoulder seperation most of the season, gained 155 yards on 25 carries in last week's 20-17 win at UTEP. However, on his last carry of the game which set up Derek Franz's game-winning 39-yard field goal with 1:02 left, McDougal also injured his hamstring.

"He popped his hamstring and that usually takes a couple of weeks," Rams coach Sonny Lubick said. "He was limping pretty bad (Monday). He has a high pain threshold. I hope he can come back this week, but I doubt it."

Washington, still plagued by an ankle injury, also is expected to miss the game. The duo both rushed for over 1,000 yards last year.

Party time

Following last week's 31-21 win over BYU (2-3), Fresno State may be the happiest 1-3 team in the nation.

After the game, senior defensive lineman Jerry Lemon was in tears and fans tried to tear down the goalposts at Jim Sweeney Field.

"We were just tired of losing, that's it," Lemon said. "We knew we just had to hang in there."

Fresno State jumped out to a 24-7 halftime lead only to see the Cougars cut it to 24-21 in the third quarter. The Bulldogs finally put it away midway through the fourth quarter when quarterback Billy Volek hit wide receiver Rodney Wright with a 39-yard touchdown pass with about nine minutes remaining.

"The last three weeks have been really, really hard," Fresno State coach Pat Hill said, alluding to narrow losses to Colorado (29-21), Texas Tech (34-28) and Nevada-Reno (27-24). "We've bled a lot. I think every week this team played very hard, we just haven't learned how to finish a game. (Saturday night) we did."