recap of bobby curran show at the practice field

[Waryor]

here's my recap of his interviews with all the coaches:

Rich Miano:

brad kalilimoku hurt his hamstring so is not practicing, but is a tremendous athlete who could be the next Lono Manners.

aj martinez, always knew he had football skills, he has adjusted nicely and is at the position that he’s always wanted to be at uh. was a corner in high school. aj was timed at 4.41 forty. miano wasn't there at the timing and so questioned its validity, but during practice a receiver had a gotten step on aj and aj closed on him fast, which reaffirmed to miano that aj has the speed to play d1 corner.

right now the starting corners would be aj by far and the other would be guyton caldeira.

talked about kenny patton, said he is smart and has a great work ethic and if anyone could pull off a switch in one year, kenny could (as a wr). But he could always come back on defense in a pinch.

when bobby asked miano if there was a corner right now who is better than Kenny patton, miano’s answer was ‘no comment’

miano said cj hawthorne works his butt off in the weight room and has a great attitude and can help us at corner this year.

it is very important to get peters back. if we don’t get leonard back at safety we will be thin as ‘ice’ at that position.

but we do have people who look the part, mentioned dane porlas, erik pedersen, desmond thomas and mike malala. Once they know their position, we will have great depth.

said he is 100% sure peters will make it into the nfl. has all the physical tools, size, speed and hits hard. his only weakness is to become a ball-hawk, to force turnovers and make big plays cause that's what a free safety needs to do

june jones talked about the offense.

expects 30-35 new people in the fall, so obviously, many here in spring practice will get cut.

believes patton can make the transition to receiver. played receiver in high school. if we needed him on d, he could play nickel, but anticipates he will stay on offense for the entire year. could return kickoffs too.

talked about cj hawthorne, has really shown in just 7 days that he can play receiver. good quickness and speed. but the best way for him to get on field might be on defense, so he will let him decide where he wants to play in the fall.

jj said it is unbelievable how good the quarterbacks look. confidence, decision making and accuracy of both qbs (colt and graunke) are unbelievable. hopes he can give graunke reps in games. need to have him ready in case colt goes down. says tyler is throwing the ball better than ever and might get his shot this year.

overall, best group of kids athletically that we’ve ever had here. 3 senior offensive lineman will probably get drafted.

bobby asked if there was any weakness on offense. jj said need to make big plays on the outside against man to man coverage. ian sample and jason rivers returning on one side. kenny, cj and ross on z gives them that class of speed we need. also, some new guys coming in who were projected at db could play receiver, but most of them are a year away from getting onto the field.

thinks the bama game will be a night game and picked up on espn.

jerry glanville talked about the defense

bobby asked jg if we will see a big jump in improvement because it’s our second year under the his defense, will the players be able to just play without having to think so much? jg says the biggest jump, always the biggest improvement occurs in the second year for pros but college is different since you lose kids to graduation. we lost 3 key starters (manners, kila and moe?) if those 3 guys were back we would have seen a ‘rainbow’ leap in improvement.

as an example regarding the problem of inexperience, jg said last year, against usc, we had only 10 mistake free plays in the entire game. it got better with each game and we made less mistakes. this year he expects we won’t have any games like that (like the usc game).

bobby mentioned that ikaika and mel were asked to gain weight. jg said 279 is the magic number for de weight. if you’re 279 you’re big enough for the nfl. aside from his physical abilities, ikaika has the heart to make it in the nfl. runs full speed in all plays. runs like a tightend. both mel and ikaika have hip flexibility (can turn at the hip), which not many people that size can do.

a nose tackle needs to be a ‘trained killer’ lafaele has that mentality. thinks we will be strong with the people up front. jg said, “93 (keala Watson?) is coming on, we’re playing him at end because we know he can play nose.” also mentioned 97 (renolds fruen?) is not here for spring because he is not on scholarship and has to work to pay for tuition. we need 6 down lineman to play (need more than one line to play an entire game).

dennis mcknight

glad to be back and to eat at gracies and l&l. he is bolo head now (bald for you mainland folk)

thinks if we can pull it all together and if the leaders step up, this team “could do some special things this year.”

talked about san diego st. and compared to uh. athletically, said sdsu is not even close. said no sdsu player could crack our starting offensive line group. says speed and athletism on our defense and obviously the receivers and qb is ‘scary how much talent is on this field.’

said linebacker group could be as special as he’s ever seen. said leonard looks incredible.

mcknight said his dream would be to be hawaii’s head coach (i think he was just joking though)

anyway, that's pretty much the highlights of what was said.

[barak181]

Thanks for the detailed report! Excellent job.

Getting jacked for the upcoming season!

[jediwarrior]

Thanks Waryor. Excellent recap.

I was wondering how Mcknight would compare UH to SDSU. I do think our talent level has sky rocketed in the last 2 years.

It's a good sign when you have three Freshmen All-Americans on one team. Maybe we'll have three more this year.

[seasider]

jj said it is unbelievable how good the quarterbacks look. confidence, decision making and accuracy of both qbs (colt and graunke) are unbelievable. hopes he can give graunke reps in games. need to have him ready in case colt goes down. says tyler is throwing the ball better than ever and might get his shot this year.

Mahalo nui loa, Waryor.

Inoki Funaki was quite a player coming out of high school--athletic, great runner, strong arm. How is he coming along? Is he getting any reps? Its a no brainer that CB is the man, but can Funaki challenge TG for the back-up position? Does he have a future as a QB?

Blaine Gaison, a QB out of Kam, switched to Safety, and went on to the NFL. Inoki reminds me of Blaine--about the same size, same athleticism. Hmm, maybe a switch to the defensive side of the ball will bring out the best in him. JMHO.

[Waryor]

the coaches didn't talk about inoke, but tsai who was also in the interview with bobby curran, said that inoke looks pretty good in the spring and has a strong arm and nice touch. also said wil brogan along with another qb will be here in the fall. they mentioned that the starters, esp. the skill players probably won't play much in the spring game, so maybe inoke will get a lot of reps in the spring game.

[Macnut]

Great recap. The way JJ sounds, there is no way Funaki can beat TG as the backup. I hope to see more of Tyler in the games myself. So for that to happen we have to be up at least 4 tds or more and I expect that to happen alot this year.

[seasider]

Great recap. The way JJ sounds, there is no way Funaki can beat TG as the backup

Exactly. With all the accolades heaped on CB and TG by JJ, and not even a passing thought going his way, [barring any injuries] very doubtful Inoki will see any quality time as a QB. As a RS freshman, he may get that chance his junior year--we'll see.

With the great year CB had last season, TG had thoughts of switching to the defense. Will Inoki have those same thoughts? JMHO.

[TemeculaWarrior]

Thanks, Waryor.


TW

[2left]

Thanks, Waryor. Keeps us all in touch and hyped up. NGs need to have "trained killer" mentality? No one can question JG's intensity, that's for sure.

[uhwarriors]

Great recap Waryor. Thanks.

[BRADAHMAN]

Actually Brogan is in camp now... The most interesting comments all morning were McNights. Spoke as an outsider, and said that this team could really be something special next year. Said that the talent level on this team is no comparison with SDSU, especially on O-line. He said no one on SDSU could crack our rotation. He also commented that our linebacker unit looks special. He said that the other year SDSU put 3 linebackers in the NFL, and he knows what a good linebacker unit is. Commented on how well Adam Leonard can move all over the field...

[BigWave96744]

Mahalo Waryor,
I missed it that day so to hear your recap was like I was right there glued to my radio