Hawaii Football: Warriors Look to Roll Lucky '50' in Las Vegas

While it may be a stretch to suggest that scoring less than 50 points tonight in "Sin City" would be a sin for the Hawaii football team, doing so could lead to a few players and coaches asking for forgiveness come Monday's film session.

In its last three games, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas has given up over 50 points to all of its opponents and that includes a 59-21 shellacking at Hawaii last December; an apropos exclamation point to the Rebels' dismal 2010 season in which they finished just 2-11.

That game at Aloha Stadium witnessed Hawaii quarterback Bryant Moniz throwing for 380 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for two scores. And by all accounts, the senior Heisman hopeful is even better in 2011.

The same cannot be said for UNLV.

The 0-2 Rebels surrendered 258 yards passing, and 241 rushing in its season-opening 51-17 loss at Wisconsin.

Though they only had the ball for 25 minutes and 40 seconds, the Badgers encountered no problems chewing up the UNLV defense. After the game, Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson marveled:

"I don't think I got touched at all today, which is pretty unbelievable."

Then last week at Washington State, the Rebels didn't do much better. Their 59-7 loss to the Cougars was the fourth worst in school history, and save a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, it would have been worse.

Not exactly three of the most confidence-building games for UNLV heading into their home opener at Sam Boyd Stadium, where half of the crowd is expected to be cheering for Hawaii.

Not to mention, that just five miles away on the Las Vegas Strip, casino bookmakers are calling the Rebels 17 1/2-point underdogs. So much for "home-field" advantage.

One person not putting too much credence into the aforementioned testimony is Hawaii coach Greg McMackin.

If anything, McMackin supports the notion that UNLV is in a position to upset the Warriors, due in no small part to their coach, Bobby Hauck.

"Bobby Hauck is an excellent coach," McMackin said earlier this week. "They're gonna come out to play. He's gonna put them in the same situation that Washington was in playing us; in that they were embarrassed by their first effort so they had coaches, and press, and everybody on them all week."

Last week Hawaii lost a not-so-closely-contested battle with the Washington Huskies. The week prior, Washington won by the skin of their teeth over Eastern Washington and embarrassed by their performance, vowed they would come out firing on Hawaii

"Obviously, (Washington) came out really strong and did some things," McMackin said. "I think we did too. It wasn't that we didn't come out strong, we came out with good energy. But we have to really come out with good energy again this week, because these guys are going to come out with big-time energy.

"We've got to come to play and get after them right from the start."

After a slow start last week—Hawaii fell behind the Huskies 21-0 in the first quarter and lost 40-32—McMackin knows the importance of coming out fast against UNLV.

If they can, Hawaii will have a good chance of duplicating the 50-point outbursts that the Rebels are becoming accustomed to surrendering.

Two weeks into the season UNLV's defense ranks 118 out of 120 schools, giving up 555 yards per game. For Moniz and the high-powered Hawaii offense, that spells points.

Fifty or more would go a long way in improving the Warriors record to 2-1 on the season and let's not forget, a much more pleasant film session on Monday.

If history tells us anything, UNLV should be happy to oblige.