But today's opening session in full pads at Cooke Field will allow the Hawaii coaching staff to mix and match some phases of spring practice for the first time.
"Obviously, the biggest difference of going to full pads is there will be a lot more intensity and a lot more hitting," Rainbows offensive coordinator Wally English said. "The last part of spring practice will be tougher now.
"Now, we'll add hitting to the mixture and it will make things more intense. It's like making spaghetti. You make the sauce separate from the pasta.
"Until now, we've primarily done seven-on-seven drills with the pass protection down there and the passing over here, so both units can do their thing.
"But there comes a time when you have to put them together to see what you've got."
Getting all the phases of the offense together obviously puts more pressure on the defense. Yes, Don Lindsey's boys will finally be unleashed, but there's more to it than just hitting the player across from you.
"So far, all we've done is work primarily against the pass," Lindsey said. "Now, we're going to have to defend the run, and I doubt we could stop a junior high team right now.
"But the purpose of spring is to get everybody on the same page. The offense already has run its goal-line stuff and we haven't worked on that yet.
"So, we may be a little behind for a while, but we'll catch up. Putting on the pads adds to the intensity. You'd like to tell them to cut loose and go for it, but you can't for fear of serious injury."
Getting someone seriously hurt is UH head coach Fred vonAppen's biggest fear. He only has eight healthy offensive linemen and that limits what he can do in terms of scrimmaging.
"Putting on the pads won't be any big fascination for us," vonAppen said.
"We'll be doing the same kind of stuff, but we may liven up some periods.
"We've got to be prudent how much work the linemen get because as few as we have, the more protracted the periods are the more you expose them to injury risk. We lose a couple of linemen and we have to change our practice structure altogether. We're going to approach it intelligently."
INJURY UPDATE: Kicker Chad Shrout injured his left elbow during a conditioning drill at the end of yesterday's practice.
"I'm not sure what happened to it," Shrout said.
"I was running a drill and my kicking shoe didn't keep me from falling. I slipped and landed on my elbow.
"I can't afford to miss another spring practice. Hopefully, it's just a bad bruise, but I don't know."
Fortunately for Shrout, X-rays proved negative. The UH training staff confirmed last night it was only a strain. Shrout is listed as day-to-day.
Receiver Johnny Macon also went down while diving for a football. He pulled a hamstring, but said he would participate in today's workout.
Center Shane Oliveira also is practicing on a limited basis. He won't see any full contact, but he has been able to center the ball during certain drills.
"This was the first time I was able to run on my ankle and it felt good," Oliveira said. "I'll be at full speed by fall camp."
MAKE-UP DAY SET: Last week's first day of practice that was postponed due to the death of kicker Shannon Smith will be made up on April 21.
"We were supposed to end on Saturday, April 19," vonAppen said.
"We'll just go ahead and practice on that Monday. We have a scrimmage set for Saturday, so I'm not sure what we'll exactly do on that Monday."
The players will take tomorrow off to attend Smith's funeral. He drowned on March 29 after saving the life of vonAppen's youngest son, Cody.
The players will leave at 11 a.m. tomorrow on a Hawaiian Airlines flight and come back late that evening.
Funeral services at St. Catherine's Church in Kapaa begin at 3 p.m.
GOLF TOURNAMENT OPENINGS: There still are openings for the annual Na Koa Club golf tournament set for April 18 at the Hickam Golf Course.
"We still have openings for four or five three-man teams," Na Koa Club president Ben Yee said. "The price is $125 a person or $375 a team."
For more information, call Yee at 956-4513 or 734-6194.