FRESNO, Calif. — While the heat is on the underachieving 1-4 Fresno State football team, let's not forget the University of Hawai'i has something to prove today, too.

Unless, of course, you think it is mere coincidence the Warriors have been booked as homecoming opponents two weeks in a row.

Yes, it is Bulldog homecoming today in the San Joaquin Valley and New Mexico State homecoming next Saturday in Las Cruces, N.M. And the festivities being scheduled around appearances by the Warriors (3-2) probably have more to do with UH being 2-8 over the past 10 road games entering this season than Fresno State and New Mexico State getting good deals on cheesy plastic lei to hand out.

After all, the home school always wants to show the alumni a good time. And, let's face it, UH hasn't sent many opponent alums home disappointed recently. UH hasn't exactly been road Warriors since 2002, the last time it had a winning mark (3-2) away from Aloha Stadium.

So when officials at both schools sat down early in the year to plan homecoming you can imagine them looking at the Warriors' road scores of the previous couple of seasons — UH being outscored 39-22 on average from 2003-2005 — and saying, yeah, that's when homecoming will be. Or, as someone on the radio in the Big Raisin put it after recalling UH's 70-14 loss here two years ago, "Book 'em Danno."

Once upon a time, in the first years of head coach June Jones' tenure, UH more than held its own on the road, going 3-0 in his first year (1999) and 8-7 between 1999 and '02. But road wins have been few and far between since with UH 4-13 from 2003 through this season. Which, in a nutshell, is why the Warriors haven't contended for a Western Athletic Conference championship in a while.

Probably not since the Fred vonAppen years have the Warriors been as popular homecoming guests. Not since 1985 — a 4-6-2 season — have they been booked for back-to-back festivities.

So, the Warriors do, indeed, have something to prove today. If not to FSU officials, then to themselves and their own fans. Despite the losses at Alabama and Boise State, the Warriors have shown a stoutness on the road that was missing in recent seasons. When falling behind they did not fold as too often happened.

Remarkably, UH is a four-point favorite today, the first time in eight trips to Bulldog Stadium it has been favored. Consider that UH was an underdog of 20 points or more in three of its last four visits to Bulldog Stadium.

So there is opportunity. What the Warriors do in their three remaining road games — winnable all — at Fresno, New Mexico State and Utah State will say a lot about the season they wind up with. Win here in the toughest of them and they stay in the running for a 10-, or possibly, 11-win season.

But lose and you know what that could mean. More homecoming games next year.

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