HONOLULU – University of Hawai'i Warrior football head coach Greg McMackin conducted his weekly press conference Monday, reviewing the team's WAC road game at Idaho and discussing preparations for the team's clash with nationally ranked Boise State this Saturday.

 

First of all, I'd like to take a second to congratulate Dave Shoji. I know what an extreme, great, accomplishment this is…I think he's the greatest and I like being around him. He's a winner and he's just a class act. He's really great for the University of Hawai'i.

 

He's feeling a lot better. He was in a lot of pain. They put a rod in it and it was very successful. The doctors feel very good about it. Rodney is in no pain now, he's feels so much better. 

 

He's one of the greatest kids I've ever been around. He's humble and classy…he's part of our family and we're going to take care of him. We feel very heart broken that he went through that.

 

It's tough. In our business, you don't want to lose one straight. It's frustrating, but the thing is, you've got to move on. The players' efforts were very good throughout the game. As a team, we have some problems that we have to solve.  We have to finish on offense, we had two dropped balls in the end zone. On defense, we have to start making plays.

 

There are some things we have to get consistent with. I'm going to focus on the positives and as for the negatives, we've got to improve on. We really focused on red zones last week on both sides of the ball and we need to focus more. We really focused on third down, especially defensively. 

 

Guys don't screw up because they're stupid. They know what they're doing. It comes from the heart. No one goes out there and tries to mess up. Because we are so new, next year we'll be able to open it up a little more. All the injured guys and redshirt guys are going to be back. We need to do a sound job of coaching right now. That's what happens, especially when you're behind. When you're ahead, it's easier to keep your discipline. Defense is completely about being disciplined and then going to help your buddy to make a play. We have to do a better job of coaching that.

 

This is the seventh game and we're still working at it. Sometimes you get different players and they get their chance.… I know, in my heart, guys don't make mistakes and go out there to play their own game. I know my players, I love my players. They're great human beings and great kids. They're just trying to make plays, but they're not doing it at the right point in time. They're guessing. We need to be more disciplined.

 

They have an excellent coaching staff. I've looked at a lot of their film, they're very well coached. You don't see a lot of the guys going into the pros, but they very well coached. The players play very hard. They have a system that they believe in. I think the players really believe in the program. Because of the bowl games, they do a good job of recruiting, it's getting to be more national. I think they do a great job. I think they have excellent players and are a really good football team.

 

We've got to move the football. We've got to get some turnovers to get the offense on the football field…we've got to move the ball and finish. We've got to get in the end zone and defensively we've got to stop somebody. The kicking team has to keep the field position. The game hasn't changed. To beat Boise State, they're really a sound football team, we have to play a sound football game.