Bleacher Report - Articles by Mark Sage

University of Hawaii Warriors Roster Breakdown: Offensive Line

Mark Sage — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:31:01 -0400

Penn State is Linebacker U. Southern Cal is Heisman U. I realized that if you wanted to give UH a name, you could call them Offensive Line U. While looking through old media guides and stat books, my realization is that Hawaii has put a lot of offensive linemen into the NFL—not just the school, but also the state itself.

Look at the history. From UH directly, we have Hercules Satele, Samson Satele, Kynan Forney, Manly Kanoa, Brian Smith, Dane Uperesa, Joe Onosai, Jim Mills, Vince Manuwai, Richard Ruppert, Bernard Carvalho, Tala Esera, Bobby Winkfield, Adrian Klemm, Kendall Goo, Dan Audick, Charles Aiu, Ed Foote, Leo Goeas, Mitch Ka'ai'ali'i, Andy Philips, Dustin Owen, Jesse Sapolu, Wayne Hunter, Kani Kauahi, Jack Sims, Kaulana Noa, Larry Price, Curtis Akins, John Gordon, James Kalili, and Jerry Scanlan.

For a school that hasn't been that notable, putting 23 linemen in the NFL is a pretty good number. Not to mention some of these players have had good long careers that included Super Bowls and Pro Bowl appearances.

Hopefully this list will grow by at least one or two this year. With that in mind, here is a look at the offensive line for this year.

Starting with the man snapping the ball, John Estes, a fourth-year junior, will be back under the ball. After his freshman year starting all 14 games at right guard, June Jones switched him to center last year.

Estes started all 13 games and anchored an offense that was first in scoring with 43.4 PPG, second in passing with 439.5 YPG, and third in total offense with 512.1 YPG. Estes was also named to first-team All-WAC and was a Rimington Trophy candidate for top center in the country.

Estes, a 6'2", 290-pounder, came out of St. Mary's High School in Stockton, California. While in high school he was a two-time starter at center and named the league's top lineman. He was a first-team all-section (Joaquin), first-team all-Northern California, and third-team all-State as a senior.

Moving to the guard positions, Keith AhSoon, the 6'1", 315-pound senior from Tafuna High School in American Samoa, missed half of spring training camp with a leg injury, but he showed enough power and technique to make the transition from tackle to guard. AhSoon has beastly power, being able to squat-lift 500 pounds.

On the other side of John Estes is Clarence "Lafu" Tuioti-Mariner, a 6'0", 285-pound senior from Corona, California. Tuioti-Mariner locked up the starting spot by working hard and showed a team-best squat-lift of 610 pounds during team testing.

Moving to the outside at left tackle is Keoni Steinhoff, a 6'3", 280-pound senior from Ewa Beach. Steinhoff had a solid year in 2007 and will continue to dominate.

The backside blocker for the UH signal caller is a battle between Aaron Kia, Ray Hisatake, and Laupepa Letuli.

Kia, at 6'5", 300, is entering his junior year and hoping to finally lock down the starting spot. Hisatake, the 6'3", 315-pound junior from San Francisco, is trying to make his size and technique known. Letuli, 6'3" and 290 pounds, is the most versatile lineman UH has. He has practiced at tackle, guard, defensive end, running back, tight end, and H-back.

Estes, Steinhoff, and AhSoon are the returning starters from 2007, with John Estes being the only returner from 2006, Samson Satele's senior year. When Estes first got to UH, comparisons were already being made to Samson Satele, thought to be the best lineman at UH ever. Scouts, coaches, players, and analysts all said that Estes might be better even than Satele.

Estes has spent the spring and offseason taking the leadership role that he deferred to Colt Brennan last year and Satele two years before. Now is his time to be the leader of the offense. It's time for him to shine.

Hawaii Warriors Ink Deal to Better Protect This House

Mark Sage — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:07:39 -0400

The University of Hawaii has had four different outfitters in the last 14 or so years. It seems that, finally, UH has a good offer.

The school announced on Feb. 25 that Under Armour had signed an eight-year deal including apparel, footwear, and marketing with UH that will provide the university with over $4.1 million in cash and trade.

Over the course of the next eight years, the football team, coaches, and staff will be provided with over $2.4 million in product.

So it's just a uniform, right? Not at all. This partnership is huge for the athletics department because of everything else they will be receiving.

Under Armour is paying UH $1.68 million in cash, including $1.14 million in rights fees, and they will provide a minimum of $540,000 in marketing support as a member of the UH Corporate Partner Program.

So they get this huge deal with Under Armour being only the fifth college football team UA outfits, including Auburn, South Carolina, Texas Tech, and Maryland.

But on to the uniform! No longer will the white, black, and silver colors be on the road. UH is going back to white and green while traveling as it represents Hawaii more. The tattoo pattern is gone from the leg and there will be a single pipe going down the side on both legs. Both sleeves will now have a "kapa" pattern, which represents the old warrior ways. The most notable change is that uniforms will have "HAWAII" going across the chest again as a way to show people who the team is. An identity marker if you will.

The white uniforms will be worn on August 30 for the opener against Florida, and the black home uniforms will make their debut on September 6 versus Weber State. There is also talk of an all-green uniform for future homecoming games, and even possibly throwback uniforms in the years to come.

When Fred vonAppen was coach, Russell Athletics was the outfitter and delivered what it could. June Jones arrived in Manoa in 1999 and got a deal inked up with Reebok and changed the whole design of the uniform.

Dropping the rainbow-piped pants and plain jersey just reading "HAWAII," Jones changed it up to be more fierce, making jersey color a darker green with black cuffs and a collar. The design also got a tattoo pattern on the left sleeve of the jersey, and the numbers underwent a makeover with a Hawaiian style feel to them. The pants were black with the same tattoo pattern on the left leg. A year later, it was updated to have the leg pattern be bigger.

In 2005, UH left Reebok for a lucrative deal with Nike, a new outfitter for the team as well as high-level sponsor. They kept the uniform relatively the same with the exception of making the word "WARRIORS" bigger on the front of the jersey above the numbers. After three years, Nike tried renegotiating, but claimed they would only continue to outfit the team if all of UH athletics agreed to go Nike. However, there are some teams that just won't leave their sponsorships, like the Men's and Women's volleyball teams' agreement with Asics.

University Of Hawaii Warriors: The Roster Breakdown: Running Backs

Mark Sage — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:52:49 -0400

Back for round two of the previews. Now, it's time to look at the backfield of the Hawaii Warrior offense.

Most of you know that during the June Jones era, running wasn't necessarily a strong point. In fact, running was almost completely null and void.

For some of the most avid fans, if you were to ask who the starting running back was, they would look at you puzzled sometimes and say, we have running backs?

It's not as bad as the tight end situation, which I don't even think players know if there is one on the team, but it was never the best situation. Regardless, let's take a look at the running back position for the Warriors and who stands where.

After his freshman year, Damien High School standout Kealoha Pilares flourished in the backfield getting his reps when he did. With 338 yards on 68 touches and three TDs, he was top running dog.

However, it was decided that he should take a stab at the slotback position this year instead. After seeing some practices during spring ball and watching some of the unsupervised workouts, I can say this is a very smart move.

Pilares shows elusiveness and brilliance while moving up field and shows a lot of north-south movement.

Leon Wright-Jackson was a highly recruited four-star athlete coming out of Pasco HS in Washington, and took a scholarship to the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Things didn't quite work out how he wanted there, so he packed up his bags and moved to the islands of Hawaii to get his shot here.

Last year, he didn't see too much action because he was still learning the blocking schemes, and needed time to adjust. When he did touch the ball, he was second in rushing with 219 yards on 33 carries and two scores. His biggest moment was his 47-yard touchdown at Louisiana Tech in the classic overtime game.

When you think about it, his numbers were almost as good as Pilares' were. He had 35 fewer touches, but he averaged 6.6 YPG compared to Kealoha's 4.9.

Leon appears to be the number one guy in the backfield to some, but like most positions, UH is all about rotation, and fresh legs will be the key to victory. Will LWJ carry on the tradition of No. 4 worn by Nate "Nasti" Ilaoa?

Daniel Libre was somewhat of an unknown to most Warrior fans, but to the hardcore group, he was a force to be reckoned with. Appearing in four games as a backup, he had 190 yards on 23 touches.

He showed the best average YPG with 8.9. Rumor has it he'll be moving to a slotback or wideout position also, but he will definitely show that explosiveness on the field no matter where he goes.

Jake Heun is a transfer student coming out of CCSF, helping to lead the team to back-to-back conference and NorCal championships. At 6-foot-1 and 255 pounds, it appears the possible second coming of West Keliikipi is upon us: a beastly fullback with linebacker size.

In fact, he actually played OLB while at CCSF as the second leading tackler, with 52 his second year. He also had 9.5 TFL, three sacks and a forced fumble. He'll provide plenty of good blocking, and if he has the speed as advertised, look for big gains with the Shuffle Play.

Just who will the projected starter be? Well, with Pilares making a move to slotback, it appears he is gone. Jake Heun will show up mostly as a blocking back, but we will definitely see him getting touches because he will be able to run over people.

The race seems to be between Libre and Wright-Jackson, as they seem to be the most pure runners. Stay tuned for the wide receivers breakdown where we look at who will be running patterns and bringing in touchdowns for the 50th state.

University Of Hawaii Warriors: The Roster Breakdown: Quarterbacks

Mark Sage — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:14:56 -0400

So here we are yet again. Coming off the high of the NFL Draft, seeing where all the top college juniors and seniors are going, and more specifically where UH players were going and to be even more specific, where Colton James Brennan was going.

Well, he did get drafted in Round six to the Washington Redskins. I see him with good future figuring that when the season ended the 'Skins signal caller was Todd Collins. Excuse me, who? I feel Colt will have good showing in his career in top-flight football.

But the team of the undefeated regular season is no longer together, and the way the rest of the country sees it, Hawaii won't do much of anything this year. Some are saying the Warriors will flounder, others say it will be a re-building year, and others say we will be decent.

I am leaning towards the last of the three and a hint of the second. Anytime you have a star leave, it’s rebuilding in some way. In fact, you always rebuild. Whenever any player moves position or leaves school, you need to re-train to get things back to the way they were.

While Hawaii does have some "weaknesses," people also probably are not giving enough credit where credit is deserved.

The Quarterbacks

This race between what it seems will come down to Inoke Funaki and Tyler Graunke is probably is hot as Graunke v. Brennan if not hotter. Inoke Funaki was a star QB at Kahuku during the Leonard Peters, Tala Esera era and led the team to the State Title consecutive years in 2001 and 2002.

He then served his church mission for two years in the Dominican Republic. He came in looking just as strong with room for improvement. He has done so over the last three years as well.

In 2007, Funaki a 5-foot-11 195-pounder was 10-of-15 with 136 yards and three TDs with a passer rating of 208.8. His freshman year, he played mostly on special teams as a kick holder, but made appearances behind the center three times.

Most notably, he went 5-of-10 for 120 yards against Eastern Illinois.

Tyler Graunke led Salpoint Catholic High School to back-to-back regional titles in 2003 and 2004. He also set a season record for passing yards in a season and was 193-300 with 38 TDs his senior year.

Sounds like a Colt Brennan to me. He then came in, set to be the Heir to the Timmy Chang throne until the "almighty" Colt showed up on campus. Tyler than took his place as the No. 2 man during Colt's three years of stardom. Graunke has experience however.

The 6-foot 185-pounder appeared in 10 games while making two starts for UH during his junior year in Manoa. He completed 90-of-137 passes for 1,234 yards and 10 TDs including a come from behind win against Nevada on the road, winning 28-26 in which Dan Kelly became known as “The Iceman.”

In his sophomore year Graunke played in seven games, completing 32-of-43 passes for 501 yards and four TDs with a 74.4 percent completion rating and an efficiency rating of 202.99. In his freshman year, he appeared in 10 games making starts against USC and San Diego State.

His most notable games were USC and Utah State in which he threw for 127 yards and a touchdown going 12-of-17 while also rushing for 43 more against USC. Against Utah State, he went 5-of-8 with 74 yards and a TD.

Looking at these two, it is hard to say who fits the system better. Both have done lots of reps during practice as understudies to Colt, and now it is one of their turns to take over. Tyler is entering his senior season, and Funaki starting his junior year.

Under the June Jones mindset, seniority rules, and a senior would be the starter meaning, Tyler would finally get his shot, however, Greg McMackin is coach and just like the Mack Attack which throws it all at you, he did it again by saying no one from last year has a starting spot locked up.

You have to earn it. Open Season. Who has the advantage? Personally, I think Inoke is the man for the job because of the new Run-n-Shoot set up. The way Ron Lee is making the offense look Na Koa will finally start running more than four times a game. Making the run-n-shoot hopefully work to its full potential.

Inoke clearly is the stronger runner between the two evidenced by the 'Ohana Bash spring game.

With more running plays in works, it would seem that Funaki would be the wiser choice because of his legs and his ability to still get a ball on target while moving. But Tyler does have the seniority and more experience in games than Inoke.

Keep in mind, Tyler started two of the games Colt was hurt for this year and started against USC and San Diego State in Colt's first year before Colt made it clear he was top dog.

These two young men have experience wearing a Warrior uniform, but let us not forget about Greg Alexander and Brent Rausch, two top Junior College transfers. Both come in with experience and will definitely provide something to the team.

Here is a look at the two of them.

Greg Alexander measuring in at 6-foot-4 and 240-pounds is a 2005 graduate of Piner High School in Santa Rosa, California, earned two varsity letters in football, and was a two-time all-league selection at quarterback.

After graduating from high school, he attended Santa Rosa Junior College in California. He redshirted in 2005 before earning all-conference honors the next two years. Alexander passed for 71 touchdowns in his two-year junior college career, which is a national record.

He completed 63 percent of his passes going 284-448 for 3,487 yards while throwing for 40 touchdowns and only six interceptions in 2007. He posted a passer rating of 155.6 and ranked second in the state in passing with 348.7 yards per game.

He led the NorCal conference in passing and total offense 369.7 in 2006. Alexander is a two-time first-team all-NorCal conference selection and led SRJC to a conference championship as a freshman in 2006.

He was the nation's top-rated quarterback by JCFootball.com among 152 junior colleges.

Brent Rausch is a 2006 graduate of Desert Chapel High School in Palm Springs, California where he lettered four years in football.

A two-time league MVP and CIF MVP, Greg Alexander led Desert Chapel to two CIF state championships, passing for 2,639 yards and 26 touchdowns as a junior. He cranked up the volume throwing 2,353 passing yards and 46 touchdowns as a senior.

After high school, he attended College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California for two years, while playing one season of football. He was named the 2007 Foothill Conference Player of the Year and completed 201-330 passes for a 60 percent completion rate with 2,653 yards and 28 touchdowns.

He ranked 15th in the state with a passer rating of 152.7 and led the conference in total offense 240.8 yards per game and ranked second in passing yards per game with 236.5.

The 6-foot-4 and 190-pound Rausch helped his team to a 9-2 record, and first-place finish in the Foothill Conference, after winning just one game in 2006.

These are the four front-runners for UH this upcoming year with the game against Florida coming up in four weeks. Fall camp starts Monday for UH, with Alexander and Rausch reporting in today and Graunke and Funaki coming in on Monday.

Coach McMackin has said that he will have a starter named within the first two weeks of practice. Going through a progression by eliminating the first two QBs one at a time. Once at the final two, he will determine the starter. The starting signal-caller will get 75 percent of the reps will the backup will get 25 percent.

It has already been determined that Jake Santos, Kiran Kepo’o and Bryce Kalau’oka’a’ea will be scout team quarterbacks this year helping the defense run the opposing teams plays.

Quarterback coach Nick Rolovich has high hopes for all four top quarterbacks and hopefully his guidance will help lead the Warriors to a prosperous year.

Come back soon for the next of an eight part series on the Warrior Team breaking down into quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, secondary, and special teams.