Hawaii Football: Warriors Travel to Close Confines of Kibbie Dome for WAC Battle

With a capacity of just 16,000 seats, the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, is the smallest stadium of all the Football Bowl Subdivision venues.

But listening to University of Hawaii players talk about it, the Idaho Vandals' home field is more advantageous than you might think.

"It seems like you could hear every individual, what they're saying in the stands," linebacker Corey Paredes said this week. "It's almost like it's amplified what they're saying and you hear 'em in the back of your head...the fans are right behind you, (and) you feel like they could grab you from the back. But it's a good place to play, I'm really excited."

The Warriors are 4-3 overall, and 2-1 in the Western Athletic Conference heading into this Saturday's game against Idaho (1-6, 0-3 WAC), leading the overall series 9-2. The Vandals, though, are not being taken lightly by the defending WAC co-champions, despite their poor record and last-place standing in the conference.

"They're hungry. Their record definitely doesn't speak for what kind of team they are," quarterback Bryant Moniz said. "We know that they got a bunch of guys that want to play, they have a few veterans that I've played against in the past few years so they represent huge problems for us. We just got to prepare for them and can't take them lightly at all.

"We can't make mistakes because they are so disciplined. We got to make every possession count, we can't let any drives get away from us otherwise it will affect us in the end of the game."

In last season's game at Aloha Stadium, Hawaii feasted on Idaho turnovers—converting four takeaways into 28 points, including a 57-yard fumble return for a touchdown by safety Richard Torres. The Warriors led 31-3 at the half and won comfortably, 45-10.

In 2009 at the Kibbie Dome, it was a different story: Idaho came away with a 35-23 win in what was Moniz's second career start. The Vandals' 194 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns led them to victory.

"(When) they're at home they have confidence, they play really good at home," Paredes said. "But we're a lot different team (now) from when we were the last time we played there. So we just got to play like how we can: play quick, do our assignments and I have confidence in our team this week... I know we practiced hard this week, we put in a good week of practice and we just got to turn that switch on.

"They have a really good (offensive) line, strong guys, they work hard and they finish guys up front. The skill players are really good, they're pretty experienced (and) they have a lot of good guys coming back from last year. They take advantage of opportunities they get, so we got to definitely be disciplined; they run a lot of trick stuff."

Idaho's only win this season was a 44-14 victory over North Dakota in Week 2. The Vandals come into Saturday's game 114th in the nation in total offense and 107th in passing defense. The Warriors, meanwhile, are eighth in the nation in passing offense, and 28th in total offense.

In their 2010 game against Idaho, Moniz threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns; in 2009, he threw for 360 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for a score in both contests.

The Kibbie Dome is "a fun stadium to play at," Moniz said.

"The walls are pretty close to the back of the end zone, (and) I remember (punter Alex) Dunnachie could hit the JumboTron up in the middle of the field because the roof was so low. It's a cool stadium to play at and it's going to be another fun and exciting away game...it doesn't have to be that packed to be loud. It's one of those kind of stadiums."

Kickoff is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. HST.

The Future Is Now

True freshman Trevor Davis is expected to make his first career start against Idaho.

The 6'1", 170-pound receiver out of Alhambra High School in Martinez, California, caught two passes for 48 yards in his first appearance last week in Hawaii's 45-34 win over New Mexico State. 

This week at practice, Davis said, "We're just still working the X (left wide-out position) to give me more repetitions so I can get used to it more. Because I never worked that side before ever in my life."

Quarterback Bryant Moniz said of Davis: "I think he's a great player, great person, and he's going to be the future over here being that he's playing so young and he's already doing great things.

"He's getting a quick knowledge of the offense, and I think by the time he's a senior he's going to be a tough one to guard. I'm very confident with him, I think he got his jitterbugs out this last week, first time playing D-1 ball. And I think he'll get more comfortable as he starts to play more and he's going to be another great weapon for us out there on the field."

Kevin Riley is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.