Cougars shoot for winning trend against Hawaii

Momentum is a concept completely foreign to Washington State football this year, but the Cougars will try to acquire a taste for it Saturday night in Hawaii.

"They won the Apple Cup," says Greg McMackin, the first-year Hawaii coach. "They're fired up again. I'm sure they're going to come over here and use this as their bowl game."

The Cougars are 2-10, having just upset Washington. The Warriors are 6-5, and, playing 13 games, must either beat WSU or Cincinnati — the probable winner in the Big East — to qualify for a bowl game.

This will match teams having starkly different seasons than they did a year ago, each under new coaches. Hawaii stormed to the Sugar Bowl under coach June Jones and quarterback Colt Brennan, but was pounded by Georgia, after which Jones left for SMU and Brennan departed for the NFL.

"We kept things as they were," McMackin says. "We run the run-and-shoot [offense] and the defense I brought here."

Not surprisingly, they don't run the offense as well. The Warriors began the season in over their heads at Florida with quarterback Greg Alexander, a junior-college transfer.

"He threw two picks for touchdowns, and I didn't want to ruin him in the first game of the year," said McMackin.

So for the next few games, McMackin turned to three other quarterbacks while Alexander went back to the drawing board. Hawaii turned again to Alexander against Nevada — a 38-31 Hawaii win four games ago — and McMackin says he's "been outstanding. He's getting the ball off quicker, he understands the reads, he's really quickened up his game.

"He's a great leader, he's tough, and the players really respect him. I think he's going to be a solid guy for the next couple of years."

Hawaii has been dogged by the same sorts of problems that have plagued the Cougars. The Warriors have committed 32 turnovers (including 19 interceptions, but few lately) and 97 penalties. They've also allowed 39 sacks.

Only two teams have committed more turnovers, and one is WSU (36), which has the worst ratio in the nation.

Veteran linebacker Solomon Elimimian was the WAC defensive player of the week for his work against Idaho in a 49-17 victory.

The Cougars have surrendered 546 points, and the Football Bowl Subdivision record is 566 by Eastern Michigan in 2002. This will be WSU's 13th game, though, while EMU did it in 12.

There's a bit of similarity to the setup for this one and the last time the Cougars played at Hawaii. That was the trying season of 1999, when Jason Gesser, a Honolulu product, made his first start of what would be a memorable college career.

WSU coach Paul Wulff has promised that true freshman J.T. Levenseller will get more playing time against the Warriors. He has thrown only 23 passes in providing insurance for starter Kevin Lopina.

Earlier this week, Wulff said he challenged his team to refocus after the UW victory, saying: "How are you going to play? Will you learn from this, come out and do it, or lay an egg?"

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com