HAWAII FOOTBALL LOOKING TO “TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS” ON THE ROAD AT SDSU

Linebacker Logan Taylor said it best ahead of the Hawai’i football team’s trip to San Diego State to open up Mountain West conference play on Saturday.

“It’s a business trip,” the senior captain said. “We’re excited, we’re going to work.”

The Rainbow Warriors (2-2) are hoping to continue the momentum they gained after defeating Northern Iowa, 36-7, on Sept. 21. The 29-point win was the largest margin of victory was the largest under head coach Timmy Chang.

“Every game is an opportunity, but there’s a sense of urgency because it is conference (play),” Chang said. “We’re just going to take every game one game at a time and go out there and go hard.”

It will also be chance for Hawai’i to redeem itself from its woes on the road and following a bye week. Under Chang, the Rainbow Warriors are 1-12 when they travel and are 0-3 after a week off.

Taylor said associate head coach and linebackers coach Chris Brown showed a video clip of soldiers and troops going to war to help the team get their focus right when they do travel this week to face the Aztecs.

“Just emphasizing the maturity, when those guys go to war, they got one mind, one thing in goal,” Taylor said.

“We’ve put in work in the prior weeks and now we’re going to put it all together, knowing that really that’s our focus, that’s our emphasis this week, that it’s a mission just like the special forces. Nothing else matters but accomplishing this goal we have. That’s the mindset we’re having, man we’re excited to go 1-0 this week.”

Fortunately for Hawai’i, the team already has experience coming off a bye week and going on the road earlier this year when the Rainbow Warriors traveled to Sam Houston in Texas and lost, 31-13, on Sept. 14.

Sophomore receiver Pofele Ashlock admitted that the team wasn’t as cohesive in the previous road trip.

“I feel like we didn’t do too much, we weren’t all-in together in our away trip, especially leaving Hawai’i, five-hour flight, automatically it kicks in for a lot of people. I think with that experience, we can go into another travel game with a better mindset,” Ashlock said.

The Rainbow Warriors also approached the bye week differently. Linebacker Jamih Otis called it a “buy-in week” after a practice last week and Ashlock said the workload also increased.

“This bye week we did a lot more work and a lot more lifting and even got a beach workout (last) Saturday,” Ashlock said. “Even when we’re not playing, we’re still working. That was the biggest thing to keep the momentum, was to keep working.”

Hawai’i will travel to San Diego State (1-3) on Thursday following a walkthrough practice. The game will start Saturday at 2 p.m. and can be watched on the CBS Sports Network.