Post Colorado State Game thoughts?

[shrek2]

Hats off to Ilm Manning, Solo Vaipolu, and Blessman Taala for playing in their first D-1 game and proving that they belong. In the first half one of the announcers said that the CSU linebacker said they could pick on Ilm Manning if they kept on pressing. I guess he can hold his head up the highest because there were no sacks allowed and he proved the CSU linebacker wrong. Congrats also to the coaches for picking who they felt were the best players.

[cabanalane]

I last heard he was in the rehab facility. Old info. If he is home, that's great.

From Tsai's blog
http://www.hawaiiwarriorworld.com/footb ... -warriors/

Naotala was a freshman defensive tackle when he suffered a spinal injury during an accident off Waikiki in July 2017. Following the accident, he was transferred to Craig Hospital, a rehabilitation facility in Colorado that specializes in spinal-cord injuries. After that, he returned to his home in Virginia. He is in Colorado this weekend for follow-up treatment.

Thanks for update.

[shrek2]

The one thing I liked about McDonald's play was he kept the ball and got hit after he got the throw off. That shows NFL potential. If he throws better on the run, Hawaii will have a high draft pick at quarterback when he graduates.

[xer 21]

Long time absence from here but i'll note a few things i saw offensively from 3 quarters of play.

-Byrd is not the most physical at the catch but i saw him pull some sneaky moves on the corners in the middle of his routes with his hands, that i think bodes well for future production against corners who can actually cover. CSU's DBs were bad, but i think Byrd will be successful against better DBs. It was obvious CSU was scared of him at times, they gave him some enormous cushion on some plays, i do want to see how he fights off press coverage. I like that he bailed McDonald out of a couple of late throws too. He adjusted to the ball well.

-Rolo called two BRAZEN pick plays in the first drive, especially Ursua's TD where it wasn't even disguised. Im not sure what the college legality of it is, but hey, if they allow it, abuse it. I liked rolo's playcalling most of the game actually.

-The execution from the QB and the O line to sell the shovel passes was the best i've seen in 12 years. They ran them so smoothly compared to the past couple of years.

-McDonald feels pressure about 20x better than Brown did. I like the way he moves in the pocket. He also reads the middle better than Brown did (though he isnt perfect. he did almost throw a pick directly to a linebacker at the end of the second quarter). Im not sure how much I can gain from watching his play here since to be honest, CSU's coverage was just uniformly terrible, but so far it looks like he directly addresses the problems the offense ran into with Dru Brown. That alone will elevate this offense. McDonald also runs the read option better than Brown but we knew that since that's all they really let him do last year.

-I do have one nit to pick with McDonald: His long ball isn't great. in the third, about 10:45 left he lofts one up for the sideline and just air mails it. too much float, and the reciever runs out of room. Later, on Byrd's long TD, he again leaves a little too much air under it, and even though Byrd has the secondary totally toasted, he has to visibly slow down to adjust to the pass. We also didn't see too many tight window throws to the sideline. This leads me to believe that McDonald's arm strength is less than desired. This is fine i think, so long as the WRs can repeatedly beat their guys (and Ursua and Byrd were toasting people) but it COULD lead to some bad multi INT games. Of course, he could still just be building rapport with the receivers and underthrowing them because they're not fully on the same page. Something to watch the rest of the season.

-Furuta is fun to watch. He has some nice balance. Loved how he squared up for a hit early in the game and absolutely leveled a LB, but kept his momentum going downfield. He's not Ilaoa (I still havent seen a back his size with feet like that, not in the WAC/MWC at least) but I think we can be creative with him.

-Holly looks quick but he had a couple runs were hesitations cost him yardage. Still excited for him.

[cabanalane]

-Byrd is not the most physical at the catch but i saw him pull some sneaky moves on the corners in the middle of his routes with his hands, that i think bodes well for future production against corners who can actually cover.

The "thing" with Byrd is that he is short. So there is no point in being physical, like a Greg Salas, who is big enough to stiff arm the defense for a bit more yards. I'm sure he was more than awesome in high school, but the size gotten larger in college. His strength is not to be physical and rather beat the defense with other attributes.

[xer 21]

-Byrd is not the most physical at the catch but i saw him pull some sneaky moves on the corners in the middle of his routes with his hands, that i think bodes well for future production against corners who can actually cover.

The "thing" with Byrd is that he is short. So there is no point in being physical, like a Greg Salas, who is big enough to stiff arm the defense for a bit more yards. I'm sure he was more than awesome in high school, but the size gotten larger in college. His strength is not to be physical and rather beat the defense with other attributes.

well i mean, that's my point. i didnt expect him to be pushing people around, but i was surprised to see him pulling off some useful hand fighting stuff on downfield routes.

[shrek2]

After the first game, I don't feel the loss of Kipper, Moala or Mermea so much. It probably opened up spots for the players on the team who want to win for Hawaii. If Hawaii continues to roll, the top recruits will want to come to the school.

[My3Cats]

One game does not a season make. But it sure feels good.

[SRJC]

http://www.espn.com/college-football/bo ... =401012680

Is Colorado State even good? They just lost to Colorado 45-13. If you compare scores Hawaii's win over them pales in comparison.

[gopunahou]

http://www.espn.com/college-football/bo ... =401012680

Is Colorado State even good? They just lost to Colorado 45-13. If you compare scores Hawaii's win over them pales in comparison.

To be fair and give Colorado credit, some are picking them to be a bowl team.

The key for us is to build on this previous win.