HONOLULU – University of Hawai`i Warrior football head coach Greg McMackin conducted his weekly press conference Monday, recapping last weekend's resounding win over Idaho and commenting on this Saturday's crucial game versus Washington State.

 

 

The balance between the pass and run is what the defense gives you. I would like to throw the ball every snap, and set up the run by throwing the ball. From a defensive standpoint you need to control the run, but you'd better be ready to play the pass. From an offensive standpoint we went right with our plans by coming out throwing the ball in the first half. In the second half we started running the ball a bit more to move the clock. Defensively we were going to try and go after their quarterback in certain situations. We made some mid-game adjustments to match their adjustments to us. 

 

Greg understands the offense and now he'll just get better and better. Now he's starting to hit deep things, where at first it was just the shorter things. He's getting off his pre-reads, and he's much quicker. The good thing is that he's running the offense and he's motivating the other players because he's a tough guy, but a humble guy. He's establishing himself as a football player and as a leader.

 

Malcolm (Lane) has been getting better the last few weeks and I think the combination with Greg (Alexander) has really brought out his potential. He had 144 yards and is in the top ten in punt returns. He's maturing as a person and as a football player. Solomon (Elimimian) has been playing great all season. He's such a great leader and an inspiration to everybody including myself…I think he's the best linebacker in the WAC.

 

His attitude, his intensity, and his ability to play the same speed every single play makes him a great player. He plays the same speed the entire ball game, and not a lot of players can do that. 

 

They just beat Washington and that gives them new life. They've got a guy at quarterback who can throw pretty well and is mobile. I know they've held some teams to low-scoring games. It's really an important ballgame for us because we need a win to become bowl eligible. This is a must-win game. 

 

We've got to play how we played last weekend and get a little bit better. We play our style and do what we do. They are smart guys, they know the importance of each ball game. They have to be mentally ready for each game.

 

When I took this job I knew there were two things we had to get through. One, was the schedule. At the end of this year we'd have played five league champions, and four or five teams that have been in the top 20 when we played them. Two, was that we had to rebuild our offense, and that takes time because it's a very sophisticated offense. I think we've been through it, we thought it's be a smooth thing, but now and in the future we've got our quarterback situation squared away. 

 

For about the last three or four weeks we are over our struggle. We're just going to get better and better and now we don't have to go through this in the years to come. We are pretty well set for about the next five years with the guys that we have brought in here and with the guys that we have.