In the big picture of scheduling, sometimes when you play a game matters a lot. Weʻre not talking time of day here, but time of the season.
As bad as Northern Illinois is, I do wonder if it would have made a difference for the University of Hawaii football team if the Warriors visited the Huskies and ripped up their house 56-21 in early September instead of late October.
UH is now 2-6 after Saturday’s rout, its first win in the Mountain West after four losses. The other win was against New Mexico State of Conference USA, and it seems like an eternity ago.
While much of the narrative is and will be about how bad a team NIU is, this is still a conference win and a road win for the Warriors — the first of both this season. Regardless of the quality of the opponent, UH did finally turn a corner. The Warriors’ most lopsided loss is 18 points, at Arizona State, and UH has had its chances in nearly every game, but failed to stay in it with mistakes at crucial times.
Maybe Northern Illinois is just what Hawaii needed — but much earlier in the season.
One of the biggest problem areas that cost UH games earlier was much improved Saturday.
The ridiculous red zone woes that were a low point of the now halted four-game losing streak finally ended, as UH was 6-for-6 when it reached the NIU 20, and all touchdowns.
Does it mean anything that Hawaii scored the most points against this 0-7 team, including power conference teams Iowa (40) and Arizona (42)? Maybe, maybe not.
Yes, this opponent was one of the worst in FBS Division I. And UH plays another one of them — statistically and record- wise, anyway — next.
The Warriors now have a good chance of winning two road games in a row for the first time since 2016, when they won at San Jose State and then at Air Force, sandwiching a home victory against UNLV. This time they have a bye before the second road game, which is at UTEP.
On paper, the Miners (1-6, 0-3) are nearly as bad as the winless Huskies, and most recently lost 24-11 at home to San Jose State before a bye last week. But they’ve played a tougher schedule than the Warriors, including early-season body-bag games at Oklahoma and Michigan.
Their only win was between those two was by 41 points against Texas Southern, after a 51-0 pounding from the Sooners and before a 52-17 one from the Wolverines.
UH is a road favorite for the second game in a row, with the Vegas Insider line calling the Miners as a 2-point home underdog after it opened with them getting 1 point.
The Warriors’ next home opponent, North Dakota State, lost 21-16 at New Mexico in a battle of Mountain West championship contenders. The Bison were a dominant machine in FCS but they’ve never played at Hawaii before, and UH led most of the game against New Mexico before some costly second-half mistakes and a Lobos rally.
NDSU will likely recover in a big way Saturday against UTEP, as with their day off the Warriors get the rare chance to closely watch a game matching their next two opponents.
After North Dakota State, Hawaii closes out against two teams that now have losing records: at Nevada (3-4, 2-2) and Senior Night against Sacramento State (1-7, 0-5 MAC).
The odds are against winning out to finish 6-6 and become bowl-qualified, but it’s possible.
It’s also interesting to ponder if things might have worked out differently for this Hawaii team with so many new starters if its first conference game in early September had been against Northern Illinois or UTEP instead of UNLV.
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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com.