HONOLULU – University of Hawai'i Warrior football head coach Greg McMackin conducted his weekly press conference Monday, assessing  the team's Western Athletic Conference opener at Louisiana Tech last Wednesday and discussing preparations for the team's first home game in more than a month, this Saturday against Fresno State.

 

Number one, I give full credit to Louisiana Tech…Derek Dooley and his staff did a great job. We had our chances in the first half. We didn't capitalize on them, they capitalized on their chances and outplayed us. We were fairly even in the special teams category, but offensively and defensively—I always say, you have to win two out of the three—we held our own in special teams but they beat us in offense and defense.

 

Everyone's been excited about the way we've been hitting in the first three ball games. I think there were some mental things going on that I don't even want to get into or make any excuses for. Normally, the years that I've coached, when guys aren't catching the ball or dropping the football or missing tackles, then you have to go back to the fundamentals. But they can tackle. Those guys can hit. They've been hitting all season.

I feel really bad for Greg Alexander. He's put so much into this program and worked so hard. I respect him so much, and I feel terrible for him. He's worked his way into being one of the top quarterbacks in the country. We're going to very much miss him. He's a great team guy and a great person. 

 

We're going to move on with Bryant Moniz and I have the utmost confidence as do the rest of my staff in Bryant. Bryant Moniz is a guy who we've liked all along. His up-side is very good. We've said ever since we first saw him that he's got it. He's cool, he has a good arm, he can throw every ball, very smart, very athletic. He can get himself out of trouble with his athletic ability. Behind him will be Shane Austin and Inoke Funaki will be a guy that if we needed a third quarterback, then he has the experience to come in emergency situations because we don't want to burn any of our freshman redshirts.

 

I'm really proud of the players. I've talked to them on Friday and my staff was on the mainland recruiting and Blaze Soares and John Estes asked me if they could have their own practice and if they could get trainers and equipment. I thought it was a great idea, it shows leadership and unity. It gave me chills, I was so proud of them. I've coached for a long time and never had a team do that. It shows what they take. It shows that they're taking some ownership and responsibility. I talked to them before they practice and told them how proud of them I was and I told them again today. I think it's just outstanding. It shows what kind of character we have on our football team. We have some adversity going on and we need to just get tighter and the leadership needs to come from within.

 

 

It's good to be home. These guys haven't played a home game in a month. Again, I don't want to make excuses. The tsunami and earthquake in Samoa hurt about ¾ of our team. If you're one member of our team, then you hurt for your brothers on the team. I give all credit to Louisiana Tech because they won the ball game and outplayed us. In the real world, that's a tough thing to do.

 

That's the first thing we're going to do—is try to control their running game. They've got a great running game. They're going to run the ball 40 or 50 times. They always get a bunch of running yard on us because they run the ball a lot of times. They have a quarterback that is an accurate thrower that complements them. But the first thing we need to do—with any team—is control their running game and that's our main focus this week. It's going to be tough because they're really good. They're well-coached. Pat Hill is an excellent coach. He believes in toughness and running it right at you. We've got to man up and it's going to be a great, tough football game. It's a rivalry and it's going to be settled at the end. It's going to be a street fight. It's going to be a one-on-one, man-on-man, street fight.