Army/Hawai'i Game Preview

Hawai'i visits West Point this weekend for Army's home opener.

Hawai'i has a great UH football blog - likely the most dedicated Hawai'i blog there is. Plenty of  UH/Army content and preview video to be had there.

Sal looks at Hawai'i's flight mileage noting that they are already in New York.   

Hawaii traveled 4,945 miles to play Rutgers on Oct. 4, 1975 in Piscataway, N.J. The Warriors’ trip to play Florida was 4,669 miles in 2008.

Hawaii’s flight time shouldn’t be an excuse. The Warriors landed in Newark, N.J. Wednesday. The team has stayed at a hotel in Park Ridge, N.J. and practiced locally.

The Warriors can wake up every day from Wed. to Fri. at 4:00 AM Honolulu time and they still won't be used to the time difference. Even with the extra time allowed for Hawaii to get used to the time that kind of trip can take a toll on athletes. I believe that is the main reason for Army to be favored on the early betting lines. Another is Army's ridiculous record in home openers -  this stat is gold... Army is 96-21-3 in home openers. That number is just shy of their all time season opener winning percentage, but it is still a berzerk video-game-like number.

Army's chances hinge on more than just ball control. For one thing, this is a game where the whole team needs to perform - the Defense alone won't be able to pull this game out of the fire this time and for all their efforts against Eastern Michigan the offense can't do it themselves either.

WEST POINT — Army quarterback Trent Steelman made sure he found linebacker Stephen Anderson after their 31-27 victory on Saturday at Eastern Michigan.

"I told Steve the defense picked us up all last year and it's finally time to pick them up a little bit," Steelman said. "When we step on the field, we expect to put the ball in the end zone."

Keys to victory:

The D-line will have to get Moniz.

While there is still speculation of a concussion, Moniz says he does not have any sort of concussion symptoms. Right now the coaching staff – along with team doctors, are monitoring him. He is considered day-to-day.

Moniz says he will be ready to go for next Saturday’s game against Army. If not it seems like a very capable Shane Austin would step into the starters roll.

The Offense will have to not only possess the ball, but also light up the scoreboard.

“We need to finish, he said. “There were still a lot of points left on the board. In order for us to come out and play our best game, we have to put some points on the board. We had a lot of things go well for us against Eastern Michigan. We have to continue to finish our blocks and continue to pound the football. That’s what we do best.

Overall the team will have to capitalize on turnovers.

Creating Hawaiian turnovers and capitalizing on them plus completely eliminating turnovers on the offensive side of the ball is what Army must do to come out on top of this game.

I'm not in the predicting game, but Sal has his list of picks.


Army's game notes are up (PDF), also there are Hawaiian game notes available here.