Todd Graham is a well-traveled 56-year-old football coach who made 11 stops during his career before landing in Hawaii.
Along the way, he’s grown thick skin, and that came in handy once when he was coaching at Arizona State.
“This lady was just giving it to me,” Graham told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser this week. “We turned the ball over nine times and just gotten beat. … I stopped and looked at her. She thought, ‘Oh, boy, Coach is going to say something mean.’ I said, ‘No, I agree with you.’”
And for any Rainbow Warriors faithful feeling antsy about their team’s 1-3 start, Graham agrees with you now.
“I don’t want to be in a place that doesn’t want to win, ” Graham said. “I don’t want to be in a place where fans aren’t passionate. You deserve the criticism. We embrace that, and take accountability for that, and work our tail off to get better.”
In a matchup between teams winless against FBS competition this season, Hawaii takes on New Mexico State (1-3) on Saturday, kicking off at 2 p.m. (Hawaii time) – the game that will not be televised. The Rainbow Warriors left for the Land of Enchantment on Thursday, and if history is any indication, they were in for a soft landing.
UH has never lost to their former Western Athletic Conference rival in eight contests, including going 3-0 in Las Cruces. The Aggies, an independent, are a 17-point underdog and are coming off their first win of the season, a 43-35 home victory over South Carolina State.
Quarterback Dino Maldonado completed 24 of 32 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first New Mexico State player to surpass 300 yards in almost 14 years.
“They are no pushover team, we have to take them seriously,” Hawaii junior linebacker Darius Muasau said. “Of course, we have to stop the run. They have playmakers on both sides of the ball. Their quarterback is a playmaker.”
UH’s defense is coming off of its best overall performance of the season against defending Mountain West Conference champion San Jose State, though it wasn’t enough to avoid a 17-13 loss in Honolulu. A partially blocked punt set up the Spartans’ 44-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter. On SJSU’s ensuing possession, backup tight end Dominic Mazotti broke away for a 46-yard reception to the 1. And while UH questioned whether Mazotti had fumbled near the goal line, Nick Starkel threw a 1-yard scoring pass. “So we gave them that seven,” Graham told the Star-Advertiser.
The second-year coach came away encouraged by his team’s resolve in a strong practice earlier this week, and he took the blame for his team’s offensive shortcomings. Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro threw for 242 yards on 18-for-39 passing against the Spartans, but four passes were dropped, and Cordeiro was pressured 12 times.
“It’s not a Chevan problem, it’s a preparation problem,” Graham said. “It all starts and ends with the coaches and what we’re doing. We’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys to execute. We’re not executing.”
While freshman Brayden Schager is a skilled quarterback and is ready if needed, Graham said, “Chevan’s our starter. We believe in him. I’ve been in this long enough to know when we’ve got a good product in him. It’s not him, it’s us. We’ve got to execute. We don’t have a quarterback controversy, we’ve got a winning controversy. We need to win.”
Hawaii needs six of them, in fact, in its the final nine games if the program is to produce its fourth consecutive winning season.
The Rainbow Warriors will get two shots against the Aggies. Saturday’s contest is the first of a rare in-season home-and-home series. The teams are scheduled to meet again Oct. 23 in Honolulu. To win on the road Saturday, the Rainbow Warriors want to avoid the slow starts that plagued them in previous road losses in which they’ve been outscored 45-3 in the first quarter.
“What are you made of ?” Graham said of reacting to setbacks. “If you get knocked on your can, and you lose a game you should have won, and you didn’t play well, and you’re 1-3, what do you do ? If you’re a winner, you go back to work, you take ownership and accountability. I’m accountable for everything. … You go to work. At the same hand, you have to examine what you’ve done well and what you haven’t done well. We’ve got to do better. We’re not doing things to our potential. That’s our responsibility.”
Tribune News Service contributed to this report