Seeking the next Warriors

GOOD MORNING, HAWAII!

Bigger, faster, (and studious) Warriors – go get ’em!

Who was #95 that switched jersey to #57 to play OL in the 2nd half next to Posa?

A.O.: I believe #95 was Brandon Kippen, a true frosh who was being used as a blocking tight end, and was pressed into service the last 3 games or so when so many OL’s went down to injury. He has a bright future. Just needs to bulk up a bit.

What’s the story on Devan Stubblefield? I thought he was going to be a much bigger factor at UH. At the high school level he seemed to really excel and looked to be in a class by himself as far as receivers were concerned.

#7:

that would be welcome news — shades of Timmy Chang or was it someone else who grad early and enrolled in UH mid-term.

hope UH will allow him to compete immediately if the “back-up” QBs are good, but not good enough to play in all games which was a travesty – how does one expect to get better w/o any game experience — mental reps are good, but not even close to being on the field.

same goes for Panoke and the other St Louis receiver — small in size, but talented!

Good luck and best wishes to the seniors!
I am sorry I missed the Senior Walk last Saturday as I left the stadium with 7 minutes left the 4th quarter. I was disgusted and was the last person left in my section.

I was not unhappy about the play or efforts of the athletes. I felt sorry for DSJ who averaged 2 yards per carry…but at least he got enough carries to set a record.

Reading Feed Lewis’s and Dave Reardon’s columns, they told it like it is…and correctly noted that fans would vote by attendance and ticket sales next year. There is much damage control that needs to be done on the coaching staff and its dogma.

When ST writes his “behind-the-scenes-how it- really-was book, this season certainly deserves it own chapter. Other chapters would be the Norm Chow era, Greg McMackin era, several chapters on June Jones and coaching staff, ST’s favorite olympic gold medalist Athletic Director and Mark Takai, the Tsai-kos, the vonAppen era, and Bob Wagner era.

Best of luck to the seniors.

Lewis and Reardon gotta sell papers, so they write stuff like that. UH doesn’t have fans. They have spectators who disappear when the team loses.

Ty Detmer out at BYU. Norm Chow and former Utah OC Aaron Roderick have been seen around the BYU Football offices recently and are friends with Sitake.

With “several coaches hitting the road” to recruit, is it safe to speculate that Rolo will keep his staff intact, hiring only for the new 10th slot and coach Naeole’ s vacant position?

If so, that would make for an interesting 2018.

June Jones and his staff, particularly new D.C. Kevin Lempa, should have been fired after going 3-9 in 2000 and 9-4 the previous season!

Kevin Sumlin now available. Common UH!!

I was listening to the sports animale on 1420 this afternoon with Rich Miano. He mentioned the coaching staff needs at least one coach who will be the hammer when the student athletes need discipline. Rolo can be a players coach. But, he needs that one coach that won’t take any crap. That sounded like Naeole. He needs that disciplarian on staff.

Chow was a disciplinarian. In the long run, I think players will respect him for that part of his coaching. For him, the wins just didn’t add up. These student athletes are 1- 5 years removed from high school. It’s like in high school, students walk all over teachers that are easy going with little to no discipline. With the strict teachers they cannot get away as much. But, in the long term, students are thankful of the hard teachers. There are exceptions of course.

Overall, the players need a coach that will get on their case when they need it. If not, the players will find a way to get what they want and do it their way instead of the right way. The players need to their part. But, this season, there were several games that it was all on the coaches. Calling timeouts before the half to set up a play, guarding against the onside kick on a kickoff at the 50 yard line and many others that may have changed the momentum of the game. You cannot blame the players for that. Probably a more experienced coaching staff would have done things differently. But, Rolo and the other coaches are learning just like the players. Next season is year 3 for Rolo. I hope he and his assistant’s have learned from their mistakes also. If not, 13.5K will be the norm for home game attendance.

Also, I hope the can do better this recruiting season in February. Didn’t the coaches go zero for … with regards to the top talent in the state? Rolo will be judged by the wins and losses just like every HC. Let’s see if he makes any coaching changes or lands some solid recruits.

Oregon State fired Gary Andersen’s entire group of assistants, minus the interim HC. Kevin Clune and Chad Kauhaahaa are out of UH’s salary range, but what about former UH Special Teams & DBs coach Jake Cookus who was a quality control coach for OSU?

Mainly I think UH “injuries” were the downfall of this season.
Not the players.
Not the coach and his staff.
Not the athletic director.
Not the governor.

“Man, what are you doing here?”

-Billy Joel

to Adams State’s Mike Thomas…

#21 The problem Rolovich faces is while this is his year two is this was year six of watching a boring conservative offense. Rolo needs to give fans hope for next year and doing the same thing all over again by bringing back the same coaches dashes that hope.

in case you missed it …

The Big West will expand from nine to 11 members in 2020, the conference announced today, with the inclusions of Cal State Bakersfield and UC San Diego.
Bakersfield is currently a member of the Western Athletic Conference and UC San Diego is a Division II program that desires to make the transition to Division I.
They will both join the Big West on July 1, 2020, and compete in the conference beginning with the 2020-21 athletic calendar. The UCSD Tritons will begin a four-year reclassification period in 2020 and become a full-fledged D-I member (and a full member of the Big West) in 2024.

How do you recruit kids to play for a program that isn’t eligible to participate in the NCAAs?

Incarnate Word, during their ongoing transition process, beat both Nebraska and St. Johns.

What is wrong with the Big West?

Now they have an odd number of teams again; now Big West opponents can continue to visit Hawaii without having to play a Thursday game.

Utah Valley, Southern Utah, or Seattle can be the 12th team.

#21 Hey Paniolo, How can you say you are a loyal fan but quit on the team? Good luck milking cows or whatever you will do doing on Saturday afternoons. I bet we see you posts again next year when we start winning.

33. From UH’s first drive, they were passing most of the time.

33. And they were only behind by either 7 or 6 points for most of the
first half. The UH running plays were apparently shut down by BYU too.

I suppose Rolo did not substitute for DSJ because he wanted him to be #1 RB for most yards in a season — which occurred, but did it hurt the team by not allowing the other RBs to gain field experience? me tinks so!

is the priority to set records or win games? remember the 4 WRers on the 2007 team where each gained over a 1,000 yards and Carl Benson created a special award for them?

Brown’s 73% passing efficiency against BYU — will Rolo use that as a reason to keep him #1 QB for 2018? it would be a big mistake.

If Unga comes back next year I hope he gets his head screwed on right. He’s a talent but he makes terrible decisions and is not a leader. If Cordeiro signs I’ll be stoked. I’m also really high on Moussa and Bethley. Holly and Bethley might be a nice combo.

I think the Defense needs a “situational swim technique” DL (like David Tanuvasaa, Kila Kamakawiwo’ole, Al Aliipule) and use him (in spots) in a four man front package to cause disruption without having to put too many players up into the box. Padello is that guy right now but you can only use him outside. He is a playmaker for sure but only in certain spots. We need one in the interior. As the season went on I think the defense evolved somewhat using stunts and twists on the DL instead of over aggressive blitz packages. We just need to execute better. I am optimistic for next years defense, we just need Tavai to stay.

Hawaii should go back to the system offenses like the run and shoot or Paul Johnsons triple option. A lot of teams in the P5 conference use the run pass option offense. UH should go to an offense teams don’t see every week. I was not in favor of a triple option offense. But, if that gives UH the best chance to win, then I pick the offense that gives the team the best chance to win.

Also, I cannot say it enough, open up the QB competition. If Rolo stays with his offense, then use a QB who can run and is not afraid to tuck it and run when the opportunity presents itself.

Let’s go Warriors! Recruit, recruit and recruit.