Hawaii football: Kalen Hicks, Warriors prepare for Washington’s hostile environment

As tough road environments go — crowd, ambiance, weather — Washington’s 70,000-seat Husky Stadium could rank up there with some of the most intimidating Hawaii has played in in recent seasons.

The Pac-12 stadium on the shores of Lake Washington (where UH coach Nick Rolovich entertained thoughts of a pirate landing) is one of the more unique venues in college football.

Count senior safety Kalen Hicks among the unintimidated.

“Our mind-set can’t really change. It’s going to be a new environment for us, but we still gotta do the same, execute the same assignments, alignments, techniques,” Hicks said this week before the 2-0 Rainbow Warriors left for Seattle on Thursday. “Everything’s going to be the same, it’s just a different environment. This is a good school we’re going up against, so we’re really going to have more energy, be more focused and locked in, and dialed in to our opponent.”

Senior safety Kalen Hicks weighed in on the state of the secondary heading into #HawaiiFB’s toughest test so far at No. 23 Washington. pic.twitter.com/LjoggUuusg

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 13, 2019

Here are some of the more daunting places UH has played under Nick Rolovich in the last three years:
>> at BYU, Oct. 13, 2018, 49-23 L (52,354 tickets issued)
>> at UCLA, Sept. 9, 2017, 56-23 L (50,444 tickets issued)
>> at No. 7 Michigan, Sept. 3, 2016, 63-3 L (110,222 tickets issued)
>> vs. California (Sydney), Aug. 27, 2016, 51-31 L (61,247 tickets issued)

In addition, in Norm Chow’s last season of 2015, UH played No. 1 Ohio State in The Horseshoe (107,145) and No. 22 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium (80,829).

Hicks’ pick as the toughest place he’s played might surprise you.

“Probably Air Force, with the elevation and stuff, the air up there,” Hicks said of UH’s 34-27 overtime win in Colorado Springs in 2016, his freshman season. “(The crowd) probably them too, because they were loud, they were talking trash right behind us. They had their fans right behind our bench while they were talking, so yeah.”

Husky Stadium is known as one of the loudest in college football.

“Oh, we expect it to be loud,” Hicks said. “I think it’s been kind of rainy over there, but we’re used to that over here (with) the Manoa mist. But I expect it to be loud, and it should be a good game.”

Washington is coming off “one of the weirdest nights in Husky Stadium history,” according to Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins.

The Huskies’ 20-19 loss to Cal was delayed by nearly three hours due to a lightning storm in the area. About three-fourths of the fans went home early. Calkins estimated 16 or 17,000 remained to see the late-night finish.

On the topic of tight finishes, Hicks has been a central figure on defense so far this season. In UH’s opener against Arizona, he collaborated with Pumba Williams to bring down Khalil Tate at the 1 on the final play of the game.

Last week against Oregon State, Hicks had a game-high 10 tackles (six solo) and a pass breakup. For the season, he has a team-high 19 stops, including 12 solo.

Defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said this week that Hicks is playing with less hesitation this season.

“He’s been a stabilizing force back there,” Batoon said. “We’ve had some injuries, and so he’s played three different positions for us in the secondary (strong safety, free safety, SAM linebacker). He’s a guy you can plug in and play at different positions because he understands the defense. And so that’s been a great calming influence on the guys he’s playing around and next to.”

Hicks rated the UH secondary positively but a work in progress.

“I feel really good about our secondary. We’re starting to be more locked in, communicating more,” he said. “Executing our jobs more. We just gotta clean up the little things with our eyes, sometimes. Eye discipline. But for the most part, I think we’re pretty solid. Everybody’s just trying to do their job. Everybody’s on the same boat, trying to accomplish the same things.”

As for Washington’s touted quarterback, Georgia transfer Jacob Eason, Hicks was of the same mind-set as he is on the Huskies’ daunting venue.

“I’m just going to treat him like any QB. Just do our jobs. You do your job, everything else will fall into place. It doesn’t really matter who’s in the backfield at the end of the day,” he said.

There’s a 36 percent chance of rain at game time Saturday (1:30 p.m. HST kickoff).

UH is 1-1 all-time at the renovated Husky Stadium and its predecessors. It pulled off a stunning 10-7 victory on Sept. 15, 1973, under Dave Holmes and lost 40-32 on Sept. 10, 2011 under Greg McMackin.