Warrior Beat: Call goes Farris’ way
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, cornerback Rojesterman Farris II was a signature away from the next phase of his life.
During a signing ceremony at Coral Springs (Fla.) Charter High, Farris was set to make a written commitment to Wagner College, an FCS school in New York.
“I was sitting at the table, and the next thing I know my dad was on the phone,” Farris recalled. “I’m looking at him, mad as hell, like, ‘C’mon, bro, it’s my day,’ and we’re taking pictures. The next thing I know I’m looking at him (as) he walks over to me at the table. I’ve got the papers in front of me, my pen, he leans over and says, ‘Don’t sign anything. Hawaii just offered you.’ I was like, ‘oh, wow.’ I always wanted to play D-I. I was like, ‘this is an opportunity of a lifetime,’ so I took it.”
If his father had waited, Farris said, “I would have signed the papers and given them to my coach and been on my way to New York. Now I’m out here in beautiful paradise Hawaii. I love it out here.”
Farris said he committed without visiting Hawaii.
“I researched it up online, looked at some pictures,” he said. “That’s all I had of it. I knew it was Hawaii. What’s wrong with Hawaii? Hey, it’s Hawaii. Everybody was like, ‘hey, you’re going to Hawaii?’ I said, ‘Yeah!’ “
Farris has the natural ability of playing the ball very well. He has his problems turning while in running motion. Some stationary bike work (back pedal too) with his body torqued sideways might help him. He can be shutdown corner next year once he figures it out. Terrific.
Imagine if Unga and/or Greely were in some packages in this offense. DB’s would have to rethink coming in “at full blast” when tackling or even challenging the reception. A broken tackle could be a huge gain. You don’t have to worry about that as much when hitting Ursua, Byrd or Ward. They need more space to break a tackle. Got to figure it out soon.
I give props to the Warriors that we’ve had through the years that come to Hawaii that aren’t from here. I give even more props to the ones that stick it out and embrace the Hawaii experience. Kudos to Roe for being a Warrior all the way from Florida.
I’m very happy we landed Farris. Easily our best corner on the team. But the way we recruited him is why we were bad for so long. You never want to get into a habit of just offering kids last minute without visiting them and doing more research. I don’t want to list the names of guys we’ve repeated this with that didn’t pan out. This is one of the few times it worked out. It’s a bad habit though. Successful teams don’t recruit this way.
Hanapaa
http://www.samoanews.com/sports/fagaituas-steven-fiso-receives-full-scholarship-uh
Furuta should start in the second half, Save his legs and give the defense a new look.
RE: #6
I believe June did this in his first year when he played Afatia Thompson one half……and then had Avion Weaver play the other half.
I’m not sure of Dakota Torres’ blocking ability but he could line up at RB on 3rd down and obvious pass and provide a better safety valve. But I’m just a burro who can spell.
We are lucky to have Farris back there. Defense gonna kick it up a notch. Dey gots too. Dey will!
burro – u right. Torres is a secret weapon. I loved seeing him catch that pass.
GO WARRIORS!!!
Na Koa lunch report on BYU:
https://www.nakoa.org/2018/10/15/coachs-lunch-report-oct-15-2018/
As far as the defensive line vs the run is concerned my opinion is that they should try and penetrate the gaps in my opinion. It seemed that the 1 and 3 techniques responsibility was to occupy the blockers first (to free up the linebackers) THEN look for the runner. The initial contact was good enough. But as the play developed BYU’s line pushed UH’s at least two yards forward, and still managed to “mess up” the linebackers. Hawaii has a proud history of guys who were “penetrators”. Doesn’t have to be every play but mixed in with the existing scheme. It worked against Wyoming when the crowd was “nuts”. Just my opinion here but we do have the guys with the ability I think.
Why is the dB leading the team with the most interceptions not playing? Wilson has the best ball skills of them all, seems he led his high school conference with picks too! We need turnovers!!! Our turnover ratio is horrible.
User friendly Aloha Stadium ???
Plenty info on Aloha Stadium for this Sat. game.
http://www.kitv.com/story/39297650/heading-to-nevada-vs-hawaii-at-aloha-stadium-this-weekend-what-you-need-to-know
Shouldn’t it be, “If his father hadn’t waited” instead of “If his father had waited”?
Aw crap, never mind
The one unknown is how beat up some of our guys really are. For example, Cole didn’t play that one game, or Matautia. Gotta have a bunch of them really dinged up and not capable of playing at 100% at this time in the year. Lack of bye week is starting to catch up. Hopefully we can win this week and survive until the bye week (11/10).
the truth is,defenses have adjusted to our offense,and we haven’t been able to adjust.
#8 Torres can still lineup as tight end, he already has a td. Not sure why don’t use him more often.
Waiting for his father also seems like when Faamui waited then signed with Virginia. Bet the other school felt like us.
The best thing about this season?
Going through ESPN’s “Bottom 10” and not seeing Hawaii’s name there.
But even when Hawaii athletics succeed, like when the basketball team upset Cal in the NCAA Tournament, they can’t give the Warriors their due without being snarky about it.
During post-game, I think it was TBS, they put up a picture of Tom Selleck backed with the sort of Hawaiian music you associate with luaus in Hollywood films playing in the background.
I am so fired up for this weeks “must win” game. I too have fond memories of Nevada 2010 and 2016! For those maniacs out there that just love college football digest this. Nevada is 108 in pass defense. If your impress with their game last week know this BSU was penalized 108 yards with 105 in first half. NevadA had 5 of 23 first downs off penalties. BSU turned ball over 4 times 3 on interception all poorly thrown balls. BSU is not the BSU of old. Vandy hung 41 on them, Toledo hung 63 on them and Fresno held them to 3. Neither Vandy nor Toledo has winning records. Am I homer you bet bleeding green! Neither FSU nor SDSU is even close to infallible(watched) all their games 2x. The one I have yet to really figure out is USU. So that being said this is the game of the year-secure bowl bid, secure winning record secure opportunity to challenge for conference honors or at least upper tier MW conference finish! This is that game! I am so jacked-I should be able to hear the hum of the chain saws in the background at kick-off cause that’s what they should run into. If this team (us) comes out with the relentless resolve to just take this to the ultimate degree of intensity, the equipment guy for Nevada will get chewed out for not packing enough clean underwear! GoWarriors!!! And I mean GoWARRIORS!!!!$
20
Well unfortunately you also see a couple of UHs opponents in there.
Men’s Basketball Green & White game on Friday, per article today.
Three 7 foot players.
Wahine WBB Green & White scrimmage on Sunday.
I give you credit Maddog, I have a hard enough time watching UH 2x much less an opponent. 100% agree with you about Boise St. this year. They seem to be a little more ordinary than usual. Not the good “barometer”. Mountain West so “up for grabs” this year. “Las Vegas” views Hawaii and Nevada as “mirror images” on paper so “intangibles” may be the difference here. We need our playmakers to make plays and come up “huge”. The “Home Crowd” (seems size doesn’t matter) is the other intangible. This game is BIG because winning the division is so possible. One game at a time. We gotta do it. Full focus. Go Warriors!
I admire you guys for remaining so positive. I used to think that I was like that at one time, but my attitude is a bit more realistic these days after experiencing the many disappointments over the past few years. One exception was 2016 when the Warriors finished the season 7-7 after beating Middle Tennessee State in the Aloha Bowl. Unfortunately, the Warriors followed that season of euphoria with a splash of real cold water by finishing 2017 3-9. So another splash of cold water. A small splash, but nonetheless, the reality is the Warriors showed very poorly against BYU after posting a 6-1 record against teams with losing records. The BYU loss brought me back to reality. Now comes the tough part of the conference schedule with Fresno St, Utah St and San Diego St. Beating any one of these three will be a huge, huge win. Beating Nevada is a real maybe. I think the Warriors still looking for answers nine games into the season, both offensively and defensively. The running game, or the lack of a running game is a real concern. Maybe they can beat Nevada this Saturday, but I think it will come down to special teams and turnovers.
The trajectory of Coach Batoon seems to be on the same track as Aranda. I’m not saying that he has reached that kind of level yet but as of this “time line” I think there is a very similar path. I didn’t like (couldn’t stand actually) Aranda’s defense at first but you could see it was setting up something in a “bigger picture” (I could see it but I couldn’t understand it). Not the “basic” semi-simple stuff (that often works) we learned playing Pop Warner. Last year’s defense was like that (basic). Different with Batoon. The pieces seem to be in the right place. Just the technique of the players need to be more “finely tuned”. Position coaches (strength coaches too) got a lot of work to do yet. A “work in progress” this defense right now, but their time will come once everything corrects. Gonna be incredible next year I think.
H-Man
I was disappointed too. It was deflating. Things felt different after witnessing that. Especially with the lack of adjustment on both sides of the ball. But I think Maddog put it in perspective. BYU had a lot to play for, we did not. I feel like Coaches went “vanilla” on both sides of the ball, saving their “stuff” for conference. They let the kids tough it out (and they did) under duress and learn how to be competitive while physically inferior. I think they did get a grasp of that aspect. So not a total disappointment in the end. Had there been more at stake there would have been more adjustments I think. We still would have be physically inferior though, that will correct itself in time. Step by step. Next year. Be ready.
Great Morning All!
Perspective…
Much bettah to be talking about eef we can get to one bowl game than EEF we going even WEEN WUN GAME! 😯
😎
😈
Pomai,
59 – 28 Akamai Okole
Middle Tennessee State?
I am a fanatic when it comes to the Warriors. Not blind not a dreamer don’t ignore reality. I can comfortably say this team has not come within 70% of optimal performance. That’s just my opinion. Again for reasons stated previously, this is the single most important game since 2010. A lot more in the tank for this young squad. Would love to see Augafa in the offensive game plan. I predict if given a chance will have an impact on KOR. Oh by the way I’m the middle of FSU/Wyoming for 2nd time. If Cowboys had some Offense and or a punter game was real close. This week is huge!!!!
BTW, seems size doesn’t matter 😉 but let’s hope for a good sized crowd. Important and winnable.
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