“Sunshine” Superman
It was during an orientation meeting, when each player was asked to introduce himself.
Dru Brown recalled that when he stood up, “everyone kind of said, ‘Sunshine.'”
It was a reference to Ronnie “Sunshine” Bass, also a quarterback, from the movie, “Remember the Titans.”
“I kind of embraced it,” Brown said of the nickname. “It’s better than most nicknames. It’s better than what most newcomers get called.”
In his first NCAA start, Brown was 15-of-18 for 222 yards and two touchdown passes in leading the Warriors to a 38-17 victory over Nevada. The Warriors scored five touchdowns and a field goal on 10 full drives.
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Life returned to Aloha Stadium last night!
Sunshine! Yahooooooooo!!!
Great job overall and nice start by DB. Here’s hoping injury report not serious especially JGW
The clouds parted, the sun shone down. I wonder what his QB efficiency rating was? I heard it was over 200 or something like that.
What a night, what a game. I am delighted but not surprised. The Warriors put it all together and took Nevada apart.
We were told early on that “patience” was the key word. As an optimist, that was easy to embrace. The key word now is “consistency”. The optimist in me says last night was just the beginning. Much respect to the Warriors and their staff.
GO WARRIORS!!!
GOOD MORNING, HAWAII!
The Sunshine brought out the best Rainbow – or is that a mxed metaphor?
Happy for Rolo and the band of brothers!
Congrats Sunshine! Your play last night was awesome. Hey, with 83% completion percentage, 2 TDs, no picks, great composure, right decisions, not panicking and going through your progressions all night; right on! A performance 180 degrees from what we have seen for so long at QB. Continued success the rest of the season.
Guud Morning Tsaikos…Bootiful Day!
Yesterday was “Da Bomb”! Got to see a lot of Tsaikos I haven’t seen in a while.
Lots of “F’s” too…Food, Family, Friends, Football, Fun, Fried Foods. Was good to talk story with you all!
Then cap it all off with a dominating performance by our Warriors!
Defense showed up and reminded me of past teams. Played with their hair on fire! Swarm, Hit, Impede & Tackle defense!..back again!
DB was on point, on time with the ball. A little small adjustment to those things led to some great receptions!
DSJ…magnificent…Unga dominating…Harris…immaculate…Boom Lakalaka…went Boom again!
Everything started with the D!
IMUA WARRIORS!
next up…Believe…Run the Table!
First thing I thought about when I regained consciousness from a night of sleep was “UH football”. Although I never lost the excitement, I’m at another level.
#4, per NCAA Stats, DB at 70.5 QB rating against Nevada. To put this in perspective, IW’s rating in the last win versus UTM was 27.4. That’s what happens with completion percentages and TD to Interception ratio.
Good job by DB & the Warriors. Most dominating game by a Warrior team in a long time! I is Warriors!
Great win last night. Disappointing crowd. Only six of us diehards in our row showed up.
Congratulations to Nick Rolovich and the UH Football team on a convincing win.
It was such a great feeling being at the game and feeling the excitement of the fans.
It was like old times once again.
It was fun.
Going in to Halftime, the fans gave a loud, deserving, and appreciative round of applause to the UH team as they left the field for the Locker Room.
Then it occurred to me, when was the last time I saw that, probably when Rolovich was Coaching at UH.
I think it caught some of the players by surprise.
With each and every win, hopefully we will see more fans in the stands at Aloha Stadium cheering on our team.
Very impressed with Dru Brown at QB.
He seems very poised and confident and the team responds around him.
UH Football future now looking very promising.
Go Bows!
The defense played great. At least now they know when they get a stop on defense and the offense gets the ball back, they know now that the offense can score.
DB at the helm was a major piece that was missing. To help build for the future I hope Rolo names AZ as the 2nd string QB.
As for IW, he will be gone after this season. If he doesn’t have to play at QB again this season, don’t play him at QB. Have AZ or McDonald move up in the dept chart. Move IW to the scout team. It can prepare him to eventually be a football coach one day if he so chooses.
This coming weekend is going to be big. A win on the road should equate to more walk up sales in the next home game. Dru brings a great level of energy to the team’s effort. Someone mentioned “consistency”. The team that played with grit last night shows up with improvements where needed gives us a great chance to come out with the win. Very possible!
For those of you who may have missed last nights UH Football game vs Nevada, it is being replayed right now on Oceanic Cable Channel 69 and 1089 HD.
It is also on Hawaiian Telcom Channel 89 and 1089 HD.
It is replayed several more times during the week………all for FREE.
This is one game that I would recommend everyone watch.
You cannot help but be impressed with the improvements.
Good Fun!
Enjoy!
Sorry, should be OC 1069.
Now I suppose all the girls on the UH campus are
drooling over Dru. Maybe the band can play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y835-5OIfQY
So let the sun shine in 🙂
Great great win! Do all the Woolsey supporters still want him to be the starter next week? We needed to get away from Woolsey nothing personal but he just had bad mojo surround him for the pervious regime. Offense looked great last night. Would like to see Unga get more targets, not only red zone. He could be a great weapon for us. This offense could be something special, we have a lot of weapons. Just pray DB stays healthy!!
Attendance will start trickling back if we play like last night. Win or lose … the point is that we now feel competitive again. Not all problems solved … and no sure wins ahead, but we now know we can compete!
#15 Kapahulu…Oceanic 69 not “free” 🙁
Us poor chaps on social security only get the “basic” package
of the local channels up to 13 plus church channels and 27, 28,
43, 44, 55 to 58. That’s it.
It’s amazing what this offense did last night with a new QB at the helm.
The players are the same as last season with the exception of Dru Brown at QB.
Great win Rainbow Warriors. Rest up and then get ready for next SJSU.
Kapahulu,
Great posts as usual. I knew in my heart we would win last night. Add another building block to the Coach Rolo era.
Good win Coach Rolo and Staff. Great offensive and defensive schemes. Much respect and aloha Ikaika for continuing to support your team. You will always be a leader in your future endeavors for you are a TRUE WARRIOR.
So who is “Mello Yellow”?
Great win last night!
The 3rd quarter had a minute remaining when I notice fans starting to leave… “Hey, we’re winning…you going already?”, I thought. Then I realized that it happens in a rout whether you are winning or losing…it was just soooo different to be on the winning end after so many years!
…I stayed to the end, but I did doze off in the fourth quarter and missed the two Nevada TDs. 😳
I thought DB looked great last night! I’m not sure if his performance was becuz overall the team played amazing or if it was DB leadership that pulled them through the win. I have to think that 300+ yards made DB job easier. He made some great plays with his feet that’s forsure!
Good things happen when assignments are done, timing is correct, routes are as drawn up, blocking assignments carried out ball carriers hit the hole on time.
I can’t get over the the change in “personality ” of the defense. Seemed like they really turned the corner.
Big difference in a Power 5 Conference school and all the “others”.
BELIEVE…RUN THE TABLE!
Absolutely great to see the “youn ings” getting quality playing time – time to start adding to the building “block” by evaluating who is #2 and #3 at QB.
there is NO union contract or seniority — play who’s the best if you want to have a successful program
if the upper classmen decide to leave it gives coaching staff more scholarships to award including those who are contributing now without a scholarship or those who want to transfer in — be it a local product or mainland or international student
choices have to be made — it may be gut wrenching, but absolutely necessary — how it’s done is important — especially in Hawaii!!!
It was DB’s play and leadership that pulled the offense and the team through.
With IW at the helm, this is a different team. If IW played the entire game last night, the QB completion rate would have been at 50% and he would have turned the ball over with several interceptions that would have given Nevada a short field several times. He would have also placed the defense in tough field positions throughout the game because of all the incompletion he would have thrown. He did that his entire career at UH.
If IW played the entire game last night, Nevada would have won and made the point spread of 3.5 points.
Rolo and company have found their starting QB in Dru Brown.
no more trips for us, but will be at Windward Mall Saturday morning to catch the UH – San Jose game
tough decisions — yes, but not as great as a young 2LT in the Army as his decisions will end a life in combat — that’s tough for a 22 or 23 year old man.
In the first start of his NCAA career, Brown was lights out … poised and efficient.
A tip of the hat to Tui Unga, too. There’s an interesting backstory there as Rolo praised the junior tight end for turning his life/career around since the opening-game suspension, perhaps more as a person/student than a football player.
Aside from his two TD catches last night, including the one-hand grab in the back of the end zone, thought Unga blocked extremely well, too. He’ll be another receiving option to complement Kemp and the others.
Does it hurt our APR(probably wrong about that abbreviation) when folks leave a team. I thought it did in basketball and wonder if it’s for all sports. When that “thing” goes down, it hurts the team/school. Scholarship reduction?
Good win, for sure. Definitely not the same Nevada as in years past. I hope UH can keep it going.
I advocated for a QB change too, but what’s the point of bashing IW at this point? The change has been made, and it appears to be for the better. Still, not sure why people feel the need to dog IW today.
kev-1: I’m not sure why people feel the need to dog any student-athlete on any given day.
Kev-1 May be same or somewhat similar to the ongoing bashing of Norm. We have a tough time letting go of the past. Yes, moving beyond is probably a better thing to do.
Ikaika Woolsey…………game manager
Drug Brown….playmaker
Who is more exciting to watch?
End of story!
I remember a few months ago someone saying saying “when healthy, DSJ is the best runningback he’s ever seen play for UH.” Much respect to the blog host…
(Although, I actually don’t really know because I can’t WATCH the freakin’ game)
Well said Kev. Ikaika put blood sweat and tears into this program for 5 years.He did the best he could on the field and was a great representative off the field. He will graduate and move on and will forever have a UH degree in hand. Not to mention he is still a solid contributer on special teams. He deserves more respect.
Just throw the ball to Marcus. He has been big this season. Da beast!
Great win last night!! Congrats to the Coach Rolo and the boys, keep it up. Would have LOVED to watch it, had to listen to Bobby on the radio (painful) but exciting to hear us play well.
Maitlin, get this online streamline issued fixed and fixed now, there are fans who want to watch the games!!!!!
Since he’s the holder and going on all the road trips, IW needs to stay in the QB mix. For the same reason, players like Falemalu, Tullis, and Padello need to be prepped and ready to step up and play on the road.
Nice job coaches. Especially receivers coach. Nice turn around.
Great turn around for the team this weekend, enjoy now and back to work tomorrow, another big in front of them, SJS is +3.5.
What is they exact problem with “streaming online”, it pissing me off too?
GO WARRIORS! Brown did a great job in his first division one game!. He said that? He made some mistakes during the game. Remember he is young and in a different systems. He really not like Woolsey! Because he been in the University of Hawaii football program four years. He never shown nothing for the program! Even when Matt got hurt last year! . Now! The gamblers are really seriously upset that? Hawaii will be doing good now!. Because when Woolsey was playing! A lot’s of gamblers were put $100 and even $5,000 down to lose!. Now! It have change!. I’ve told some of you it most haave to change at Quarterback! And put Woolsey on the bench!. But please note as a backup behind Brown! Put other two Quarterbacks in front of him!. Woolsey would a great clipboard helping the quarterback coach!. In Vegas peoples are really shock that Hawaii Warriors had beaten UNR not small!. But by a large score!. Now! San Jose State is open with a 4 point favorite in the sportsbooks!
I don’t think the streaming problem has anything to do with UH so please call Oceanic directly.
Well said Kev-1.
Gotta say one thing….
Norm Chow left us some talent up and down the roster on the O-line and at receiver and running back. Smash mouth football which he wanted, I’d have to say is now going to help open things up for DB at QB.
There’s really little that separates Brown and Woolsey as far as talent and ability. Ikaika may actually have a strronger arm but it seems to me Brown is more in control of his emotions, makes quicker decisions and has better touch. Two passes comes to mind when if comes to touch. The first is Unga’s one hand snag for a TD. If you look at the replay the pass was at the right speed in the right location for Unga to have a good chance of making the one hand grab. That’s the kind of play Wooley would throw a fastball that would’ve been twice as difficult to make the same catch. The second was the long throw to Camanse-Stevens. The pass had the right amount of loft for the receiver to catch up to it and layout as the ball lost velocity.
I feel sorry for Ikaika when fans take his play personally. He’s a better man than me for taking all the negativity directed his way and yet continue to be upbeat and work hard in practice. Unfortunately, controlling emotions and keeping a clear mind in the pressure of a game is hard to improve upon in practice. It only comes with doing it in a game and building the confidence that you can do it.
Good fun last night.
WTG gang.
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Please fix online streaming for the next home game. We are loyal fans too.
Agree….
When you gotta knock down a guy, much less a student athlete, when he’s down and has given everything he had…more things are wrong with YOU than just a passing arm.
Ikaika, heads up young man. I appreciate your efforts. Perhaps your desired outcome might not be there today, but trust me, your character and strength in going through this will build you into better man than most could ever dream to be. Including myself.
How many of you have played QB in college? High school? Pop Warner?
Yup, that’s what I thought……
Watched Coach Polians post game-consistently mentions their travel schedule and Hawaii and Purdue bye’s for their losses- 68 rushing yards vs Purdue, 3 total points for 3 quarters vs Hawaii. Little General (Chris Ault) would never cite such nonsense. Defense was huge this week but far from where it could be, this was an emotional win for many reasons-now can they build on this? I for one think so. Theses guys this team projected as losers……now is their time to prove otherwise. Confidence from this performance should build even on the road. SJSU is ripe for the picking but not without all out all units performance-66 players entered will 66 men leave? Go Warriors!!!!!
Coach Rolovich’s approach (as I see it anyway) of having IW as the starting QB in non-conference play while readying DB for conference games seems to have worked out very well. I still don’t understand the need that some feel to criticize players that are clearly doing their best and were seriously disadvantaged due to 4 years without a complete coaching staff to train them.
Those False Start & Holding penalties by Dejon Allen & Jon Wa’a are driving me CRAZY … I sure would like to know what Chris Naeole is doing about that. Also I felt the “D” with about 10 mins left started playing like the game was won. Don’t know about other Warrior Fans but I felt the intensity level drop. Also I would have love to have seen Aaron Zwahlen get some game time … BUT … great win and it looked like the Offensive unit has found it’s leader in Dru “Sunshine” Brown … great nickname … for the first time since ’01 I will unfortunately not be at the San Jose State game but will be there in “Spirit” …
LIVE ALOHA / PLAY WARRIOR / DEFEND THE ROCK … GO ‘BOWS !!!!!
Ikaika Woolsey … I’d just like to say he has handled his “demotion” with class and dignity and has always handled himself that way … he’s just a 20+ year old trying to get his degree to make a future for himself … let’s all give him credit for that … I watched him on the sidelines at times and he was focused on the game, smiling, and interacting w/ his teammates; never once saw him pout …
LIVE ALOHA / PLAY WARRIOR / DEFEND THE ROCK … GO ‘BOWS !!!!!
Also IW is the first one on the field to hold for extra points; and has been a great mentor and friend to Dru Brown since he got here a few months ago. IW is a true Warrior!
Let’s stop all this negative talk; and say only positive things as this team now has the momentum to continue it’s magic at San Jose! One game at a time! We Believe!
I will be at San Jose this Sat sitting at the 50 yd line behind our Warrior bench; Sect 130, Row 14, Seat 1. Come by and say hello. I will be sitting close to Rolo’s mom, & the families of Malachi Mageo, Jalen Rogers, Dakota Torres & Rigo Sanchez. There should be over 400 Hawaii fans sitting here; but I am expecting 1000+ in total.
Big HCCNCC tailgate (free) at 11:30am with Larry Beil as MC, Dave Matlin, & maybe Coach Rolo speaking. Email me if you need the info: tomkitaguchi@yahoo.com
Hawaii tailgate at San Jose State road game Oct. 8:
WE have confirmed that UH Athletic Director Dave Matlin will be at Oct 8 tailgate, well known ABC news sport anchor Larry Beil will emcee, and Coach Rolovich has been invited to meet the fans as well. Ono kaukau by Hukilau San Jose, famous GREEN cups, live Hawaiian music, and great raffle prizes, including HZONE Hawaii football gear and 2 round trip tickets on Alaska Airlines to Honolulu with weekend stay in at Waikiki Hyatt.
Tailgate is free. Bring food, mats, coolers. No glass bottles as tailgate on new, NFL quality football practice field (Carolina Panthers practice field for 2016 Super Bowl). Bring pop up tents if you like. No staking.
Road Warrior Tailgate is a SF Bay Area tradition since 1999.
Deep discounted ticket sales for seats behind Hawaii team ends on October 2nd.
Here is link:
http://hccnc1.ning.com/…/hawaii-football-road-warrior-tailg…
Also, special Friday nite (Oct 7) football pau hana reception party for Hawaii fans at Hukilau San Jose. 6 to 8 pm. Live music, ono pupus, raffle prizes. HZONE tent setup for Hawaii football gear sales. Coach Rolovich invited and AD Matlin attending to meet fans.
http://hccnc1.ning.com/events/pau-hana-football-bash
http://hccnc1.ning.com/events/hawaii-football-road-warrior-tailgate-rally-and-football-game
I remember eating the loco moco at Hukilau. I rank it up there with the katsu moco at Da Kitchen on Maui. Sounds like there will be good food at the SJSU tailgate!
GOOD MORNING, HAWAII!
Great Win! And Let the Sunshine In!
Thank you IW for being a Warrior.
I’m not sure what is going on re: Oceanic and Hawaiian Tel. Our condo Directors decided to switch to Hawaiian Tel. The representatives of Hawaiian Tel told me that they were not able to broadcast UH games.
When the fiber optics were installed, Hawaiian Tel had the OC-16 as part of its package.
This is where it gets weird – The UH-Nevada game was on a delayed basis (understandable) but they showed a men’s VB game on Friday during the time the Wahine was playing Fullerton and showed the Fullerton Game on a delayed basis.
Last night, they broadcasted the UH-Riverside game live!
How you figgah?
tom-warriornation
Tom – you should be named “TomTerrific”.
Thanks for all you have done and do for UH Athletics!
I doh no. I thought our oline was holding a lot but got called on a few. I thought Michigan held a lot but we didn’t get the call. I see a lot of holding that doesn’t get called on Saturdays. Why they sometimes call and why they don’t? I doh no. Got to ask the refs.
Maybe coach Rolo can answer this one.
Ikaika is the rainbow,
Dru is the sunshine,
and Aaron?
Maybe the pot of gold
🙂
I bet waking up on Monday morning after a dominant victory feels pretty sweet but it’s time to get back to work and prep for the Spartans…Go Warriors!
New post: http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=39541