HOUSTON — Louisiana Tech's Derek Dooley is just 38 years old, which makes him the sixth youngest head coach among the 119 in NCAA Division I-A football.

But he was far from born yesterday. Wet behind the ears he isn't.

In fact, you have to wonder if this whole University of Hawai'i haka controversy Saturday wasn't the product of some sly gamesmanship on his part. For it is precisely the kind of wily trap you wouldn't put past someone who is a former product liability attorney and the son of legendary ex-Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.

It isn't hard to see it as a well-orchestrated gambit that nearly paid off in an upset of a nationally ranked team for somebody in his first I-A game as a head coach. As it was, the Bulldogs, 28-point underdogs, had UH up against a wall in Ruston before losing 45-44 in overtime when another of Dooley's gambles, the two-point conversion pass attempt, was batted down in the end zone by Hawai'i's Gerard Lewis.

Last year, Dooley's predecessor at Tech, Jack Bicknell, screamed to the heavens about UH's performance of the haka at Aloha Stadium. All Bicknell got out of it was an increased focus on the rule by the Western Athletic Conference and its officiating crews. Dooley, you suspect, made it pay off.

Dooley knew, for example, officials have been instructed to enforce the NCAA prohibition against taunting and understood the Warriors would do the haka on the road, flying in the face of a "directive" from the WAC office encouraging teams to keep it for home consumption.

Suspicion is Dooley timed getting the Bulldogs off the field so that the officials would be forced to call the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Something Frank White, the Hawai'i-based head of the crew, couldn't very well refuse to do under the letter of the rulebook or with a WAC associate commissioner in attendance.

The 15-yard penalty forced UH to kick off from its 15 and got the Bulldogs the ball at the Tech 44, setting up the game's first touchdown. Then, Dooley rolled the dice again with Tech very nearly pulling off an onside kick but still ending up with a 14-0 lead.

In the end, the Warriors managed to pull out a victory that was a lot harder fought and emotionally wrought than it should have been. But, in the process, UH should also consider it came away with some other valuable lessons from the experience. One of them being a need to be careful when and where the Warriors do future haka.

And, to be filed away for future reference, the understanding that Dooley and Tech have become more than worthy adversaries to keep an eye — and preferably both — on.

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