FRESNO, Calif. — Go to an Augie T. show, expect knee-slapping entertainment.

Go to Nimitz Highway, expect traffic gridlock.

Go to Fresno, expect ...

"... a tough, physical football game," said Hawai'i offensive line coach Dennis McKnight, whose team plays Fresno State today in Bulldog Stadium.

The Bulldogs have struggled this season, losing four of five games. But Mc-Knight said the Bulldogs will be a difficult obstacle as long as Pat Hill is head coach.

"I don't care if they're 1-4 or 5-0," McKnight said. "A Pat Hill-coached team is going to play hard every week. Pat Hill is the type of guy, as a player, I would have loved to play for because of his passion, and his intensity, and 'his guys' attitude, and he hates everybody else."

Jeff Reinebold, who coaches the UH defensive line, said he once served as an assistant to Hill in the East-West Shrine Game in 2001.

"Those all-star games are usually low key, very little hitting," Reinebold said. "It's an opportunity for the NFL scouts and coaches to watch the kids up close. It's really kind of a beauty contest. We thought it would be a situation where nobody would get hurt, we'd get our watches and go back home. Pat thought otherwise."

Reinebold said Hill had strict practices. In daily pep talks, he yelled, "We're going to knock the other guys off the ball!"

"Man, oh man, Pat's talking about how this is an 'East against us' thing," Reinebold recalled. "That's all part of the psychological warfare. He had the kids all pumped up. He made him feel they were entering a rivalry. And the kids played great."

Hill said he was following the players' lead.

"We're coaching players who want to win," Hill recalled. "That was a tryout in front of NFL scouts. I think you want to put them in position to compete so NFL scouts can see what they've got. There's no reason why an all-star game shouldn't be competitive. It's not the NFL Pro Bowl."

Hill has used that attitude in 10 seasons as FSU's head coach.

"When I lose that passion, I won't be coaching," he said.

He also has molded the team in his tough-guy image.

"The first year when we got here, that's the way we decided to have a certain type of personality, and that's what we're going to be," Hill said. "We try to play hard every game we play. We try to play a physical style of offense and defense. That's what we try to hang our personality on. We look for certain personality-type players when we recruit. We're looking for a guy who has a personality that fits. Not every guy who goes to college wants to run the football in this day in age."

Hill said the Bulldogs have full-contact practices Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They are supposed to taper off on Thursdays, but that wasn't the case this week.

"On Tuesday," Hill said, "you'd better bring it all out. It's the full monty."

Hill also implores his players to take an us-against-the-world approach. While this is considered as a rivalry game, several Warriors expressed surprise at the Bulldogs' ferocity.

"I think it's part of Pat's way to get people ready," McKnight said, adding Hill probably tells his players, "These guys are soft. They're from the land of sun, and aloha, and they have long hair, and tattoos and pass the ball."

UH safety Leonard Peters said: "They can hate us as much as they want, but my theory is we smother them with kindness. They're just another opponent. They play on the other side of the field. We're going to play hard against them, but we don't hate anybody. We respect them. They're a hard-nosed football team."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.