After Jeff Tedford’s sudden departure at the end of a forgettable 2019 football season, both fans and administrators knew that the clock was ticking to find a replacement. With Early Signing Day hitting on December 18th, the Dogs needed to zero in on their choice, and get their signature on the dotted line before recruits could choose their destinations.

The early choice for a lot of Fresno State fans was former OC Kalen Deboer, and that is who the university was able to entice back from Indiana to take over the football program. After two highly successful years as the offensive coordinator under Tedford, where they won 22 games and an MWC title, DeBoer was hired away to Indiana University in 2019.

Just like at Fresno State, the improvement was sudden there. The Hoosiers became the top passing offense in the B1G, and are looking at their first 9 win season in decades. All that the former Sioux Falls coach knows how to do is produce strong offenses and win games.

He went an absolutely absurd 67-3 while at Sioux Falls, then turned Eastern Michigan into a bowl team before joining the Bulldogs in 2017. An offense that had hovered in the 110s in the last years of the DeRuyter era all of a sudden had life again, and jumped up into the 30s for 2018. Now he is tasked with again fixing a struggling offense, and building a young team back into the title contenders they were in his first stint.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/12/16/photo-gallery/university-of-hawaii-football-practice-5/

2 JC commits, 1 HS commit and 1 FCS transfer in 1 day.

On video, Smith shakes and rocks (in 3 point stance) with anticipation. Like a Lion ready to pounce. Built like a 3-4 NT but smaller scale so the fit should be nice for this scheme. Could pair nice with Vega (high motor at 3 technique) and could also iso Taala and/or Laulu allowing them to ‘bull” and reset the line of scrimmage vs run. Just need Justice to step up now. Can do. And Manuwai played good vs Arizona so you can see his potential to step into some “depth” rotational role that Batoon likes to use. Now just need Ritner to step up into Laulu’s role as Laulu replaces Hune on first unit. “Rotational Kinematics”. Batoon’s scheme does sound like Physics.

Dalton should be ready for proficiency next year too. He was a “mixed bag” as well but you could see the potential. Just the instincts need to sharpen. Can do. He has the physical tools. Going to be a nice tandem. Different (skillset wise) than the Okeke/Hicks tandem. But athletically equal I think. Now just need the JC CB to pair with Davis. Awesome. Unreal soon.

Two former UH football standouts part of the 2018 team had NFL Sundays to remember.

John Ursua suited up for a regular season game for the first time in his NFL career as his Seahawks took on the Panthers in Charlotte. He didn’t register any stats but did get the game ball from quarterback Russell Wilson.

Jahlani Tavai became the first Lions rookie linebacker to register five tackles for loss, a sack, and an interception in their first season. The interception happened today as he picked off Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston.