The only time in its nearly 35-year Division I history the University of Hawai'i football team started a season with seven consecutive victories was in 1981, under head coach Dick Tomey.

So, guess who is standing in the way of the 6-0 Warriors doing it again Friday?

Yup, Tomey and his current team, San Jose State.

But, then, you knew their paths were bound to cross at some notable juncture this year. Had to happen. To earn a place in UH football history usually means a confrontation with the Tomey era (1977-86) sooner or later. Most often in the record book.

For these Warriors, however, it will be sooner and with the man himself in San Jose, where UH will play a rare Friday night game at the request of ESPN.

Until last year when June Jones (now 70-40) passed him, Tomey (63-46-3) had been the winningest coach in school history against an all-college schedule. He is well remembered as the one who delivered UH's first Top 20 rankings and national TV appearances. He is someone Jones, defensive coordinator Greg McMackin, defensive ends coach George Lumpkin and defensive backs coach Rich Miano have all worked with or under.

After games against the out-of-division likes of Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern, who were of little consequence, and meetings with Louisiana Tech, Idaho and Utah State, with whom there were hardly any meaningful recent ties, here is a game and an opponent with plenty of recognition. A lot of history, to boot. Finally, a coach and a team people have not only heard of but actually know something about.

Let's face it, it took not only the Warriors but their fans a while to get excited about anybody on the schedule up to now with the possible exception of Nevada-Las Vegas. And it has showed in slow, sometimes yawning starts and struggles to find and maintain a rhythm.

It shouldn't be that way in a season where the Warriors have so much to shoot for and a whole lot to lose, but it has been. Which is part of the reason the No. 16 Warriors got little traction in the polls out of beating but hardly delivering the expected blowout of winless Utah State Saturday.

The Spartans are just 3-3 with a win column that parallels some of UH's (Utah State, Idaho and UC Davis) and a loss column (Arizona State, Stanford and Kansas State) tougher than what UH has faced this year. What San Jose State, even with its early-season disappointments, adds up to is, for the first time in weeks, an opponent capable of beating the Warriors if they don't show up or take their time in warming to the task.

Incrementally, beginning with San Jose State, the schedule gains in degree of difficulty with Fresno State, Nevada, Boise State and Washington coming in short order. The pinata parade is about to end. The meat of the season looms and the Spartans are a good reminder.

With Tomey on the opposite sideline there are the memories. The type that remind what Tomey might be capable of when he sets his sights on one game on the schedule, having seen them first-hand when he was at UH. How often, when Tomey was playing at home and needed a statement win, did his seasons turn on one game, especially when they took down somebody, a West Virginia, Wisconsin or South Carolina, that had been a favorite?

That's food for thought and fair warning as the Warriors chase a bit of history at Tomey's doorstep.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.