HONOLULU – University of Hawai'i Warrior football head coach Greg McMackin conducted his weekly press conference Monday, recapping the team's 16-14 come-from-behind victory over Idaho over the weekend and looking ahead to Saturday's game against Utah State.
 
Opening Statement:
I was really excited about the win; it's always good to win on the road. Also, the way the guys did it. We were in a tough situation and we have a saying that the players believe in, when things get tough, we get better. I really like the way we finished the ball game, as far as all-three phases participated in it. Aaron Brown made the interception, the offense moved the ball down into field goal position, and then special teams, Kenton Chun, made the game-winning field goal. That was a great thing for our football team. When you get in that situation and you fight your way out of it, it can help you more than going down there and winning by a big score. It showed the character of the players and it was a good win for us.
 
On the close-win game against Idaho…
People that say that are not coaches because winning is hard. There is so many things that go into travel, into injuries, and into things that people don't even see…into “bye's” where they can prepare for you. Winning is hard and all coaches know that, real coaches know that. (Idaho) has good coaches. Everybody forgets they lost at Virginia by one point and Virginia beat Miami…The point being, that is where our league is. Every team has played some big time team pretty well. You can beat anybody on any given day and that's really the truth and it's really the truth in this week.
 
On whether Idaho's change of quarterback to start the game was a surprise…
I was because we knew the other quarterbacks and we knew that their best one had been playing.  That is probably why they closed things down. What they tried to do was run the football against us and keep it out of the quarterback's hands, except for boot-legs or short passes. We were ready for that. I really admired what our defense did. I know Hawai'i people love defense. That was great defense. They had two interceptions and two fourth and ones, which were outstanding and made a big difference in the ball game. They tried to run it at us and we played the run pretty good.  I think we are in the top 20 or 14th or something like that in defending the run. Our secondary made some plays too. I thought our defense was outstanding and held us in the ball game and I thought our special teams were much improved.
 
On the upcoming opponents having a bye week before playing the Warriors…
It's just something you have to deal with. There are no excuses in football, whether you are at home or away, that doesn't matter. We had some calls that could of gone either way, that they don't matter. You can challenge a couple of them, or you can have a bye. We have three team's in a row, all WAC teams, that have bye's before they play us, so they'll get little extra work on us. There are no excuses, you know. That's why I'm so proud of our guys for coming back and winning that ball game because there wouldn't have been any excuses if we lost that ball game. We won it and I am very happy about winning that ball game.
 
On linebacker Aaron Brown and placekicker Kenton Chun winning WAC defensive and special teams player of the week…
Aaron (Brown) is just playing outstanding. He is just getting better and better and he is just a great competitor. He's the defensive player of the week this week for the WAC. Kenton Chun is the special teams player of the week. That just gives immense confidence to our special teams and we've been working on getting better and it's paying off. That's the thing about football, you playing it with human beings and I've never been in a perfect ball game. If something is breaking down then you got to get it right, you've got to fix it up. I give Dick Tomey a lot of credit, his coaching and how hard he is working on special teams, and some of the other coaches that are helping him. Like I said, I have an excellent staff.
 
On this week's game being the big test for the run defense…
I think it is going to be a big test because you can throw away (Utah State's) record.  In the WAC, either Hawai'i or Utah State is leading every category. They're a very well-coached and a very good team. They've got a great running back. He is rated as the top pro athlete coming out of the WAC. His first play against BYU was a touchdown, first play of the game. He is outstanding….I bet he'll be in the top one, two, three rounds (in the NFL draft). Then they've got two other guys. They throw the ball a little bit too. Their defense is very outstanding also. They're first and we're second (in the WAC) or vice-versa in defense. Stat wise, we are very comparable, looking at it, it's going to be a pretty even ball game. We are at home, that's special to us playing at home in front of our own crowd, but this is going to be a good ball game.
 
On how injuries have an effect on this week's game preparation…
It hurts you, it really isn't good when a guy is hurt and he is hurt so you can't send him out their in practice. Basically, all you can do is they can get mental reps. I read a study that if a guy is at practice and puts him into position and visualizes his responsibility, he'll get about 65% of the practice, as far as if he'd be there or not be there. So that is the best we can do with those guys. They have injuries that aren't going to totally rip them out, we're not going to hurt them. I have a rule that you have to practice at least one day, just for the mental part of it. (In last week's game preparation against Idaho) We've got about three guys, like AB (Aaron Brown) he only missed one practice, so he (mentally) practiced four times. Corey (Paredes) practiced Thursday and Friday. Corey (Paredes), you'll see him go down and it's really painful and then he shakes off the pain and comes back in and plays. He's a gladiator, he's a tough guy. 
 
He (Richard Torres) practiced the beginning of the week.  He's not as serious as the other guys. He's got a what's called a stones bruise or a healed bruise and that's just sucking it up. Most hurdlers get that when they come down on their heel. The other two guys have knees and it hurts.
 
On if whether UH has played its best game of the season yet…
We are getting better because you'll see that we are changing our lineup all the time. Now we have a freshman left outside receiver, who did some really good things, then did some, you know, there was a long pass and he came up on it, could of kept going and that is a mistake. He made some great catches. We think he's going to be another Royce Pollard. I don't think we've came near to playing our best, but we've been shuffling people. Our offensive line, we've had three centers. Our right tackle got hurt playing this ball game. Our offensive line has juggled around a lot. What the offense did, they made that…great drive to put us in the position to win the ball game, but we were sort of our of sync in this ball game. We've got to improve that this week.
 
On the reason for being out of sync…
We over-threw some passes. We had a lot of pressure. They're several things that we just have to look at. Just like what we had to do with our PAT, field goal and get things fixed up. That's what coaching is, you know, something is wrong so you have to fix it.You have to talk to people, you have to communicate, you have to coach, you've to be positive because there is no lack of effort on this football team. That is evident in the comeback, probably the best we've played is the last three quarters against Washington, is probably the best three quarters that we've played. We need to put it together like that again. Then play four (quarters) like that.
 
We were pretty healthy at that time. We're nicked up and that's football and it's the mid point of football and we are still on course. We can still have a piece of the championship, if somebody knocks of Nevada, I mean, shoot, we have a chance to win the whole thing. We have our own destiny, we've got to win our league games and then we have to win two more games to qualify for a bowl game. We have all of our goals ahead of us, our attitude is really good and it's a great emotional thing for the football team to win a tough game like that on the road. That's got to really help our confidence and I know people of Hawai'i like defense, we are playing pretty good defense. Making plays and like you say about our two defensive tackles, Kaniela Tuipulotu is a stud, I mean, he came running by me one time after one of those fourth and one plays and his face was all bloody. I don't know if that was his blood or what but he said, “Coach we got you covered.” That makes you feel good. Vaughn Meatoga is playing his best football and Zach Masch is playing his best football and we play those three guys together. Paipai (Falumalu) is playing really well. Our front seven is playing pretty well. This is my sixth year on defense.  Dave Aranda and his staff has a great plan and I know the people here love defense. We have to play really good defense this weekend because this team is sixth in the country (in rushing) and the Nevada team we play the next week is seventh in the country in total offense so we are going to have to play good defense.