FRESNO, Calif. — If you've seen Boise State or Fresno State football games on television — or even the highlights and accounts from them — you're sometimes left with the mistaken impression that one of them won the Western Athletic Conference Championship last season.

So lumbering, to date, has been the University of Hawai'i's 1-3 start, compared with 4-0 and 3-1 beginnings by Boise State and Fresno State respectively, that it has been easy to not only dismiss the Warriors' chances of a repeat in 2008 but forget they won it all in 2007.

It took UH 29 seasons to win its first outright WAC championship in football and a scant 29 days into this season the Warriors have already begun to be forgotten and written off. Two games into the WAC (this is their second) they are in danger of being out of the running to defend that title.

So, what you'd like to see from the Warriors in today's 4 p.m. (Hawai'i time) game at Fresno State is some type of reminder that they were champions just 10 months ago and might be at least a factor in this season's race.

One third the way into the season now, you'd hope to see some sign the Warriors aren't already history in the WAC for 2008; that they can put a consistent offense together for more than a half and play a well-rounded game against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.

To be sure, the opportunities for such statements are in front of them — or will soon be.

Today's opponent, No. 22 ranked Fresno State, is the preseason pick of the WAC coaches to win the conference. UH's opponent in two weeks, No. 17 Boise State, is the media pick. When people talk about the WAC these days, those are the teams that are, rightfully, mentioned in the conversation. UH, if it is brought up at all, is cited as a riches-to-rags tale.

So, while everybody has their eyes on the well-planned Nov. 28 meeting between the Bulldogs and Broncos as the WAC title showdown, you'd like to see the Warriors throw a little surprise into the equation and drain some of the drama, if they can.

It will not be easy, of course. The Warriors are 21-point underdogs today and they are playing on the field of their chief rival. A retribution-minded one at that.

But there is perhaps no better place for the Warriors to make a stand. No place on this schedule where self esteem, not to mention self preservation, more encourages it. Indeed, Fresno State head coach Pat Hill has termed this a "line in the sand" game for UH and professes to see danger in the Warriors determination and desperation.

Barely two games into their WAC season, the Warriors find themselves in Fresno and at an important crossroads in the conference. Either they begin making a case as a factor in the WAC race or they fade from contention.

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