Many are expected to have an immediate impact. Others may have to wait another year before their presence is fully felt. Just what category those players fall in could be determined this week.

Rainbows head coach Fred vonAppen will hold several workouts, beginning Thursday at Cooke Field, before the newcomers join the veterans Saturday afternoon at Barbers Point for the official beginning of fall camp.

On paper, it appears to be a fairly good crop of players, but as any coach will tell you, it's difficult for newcomers to hit the ground running in new offensive and defensive formations.

"It takes a while for new players to learn a system and to be prepared for the rigors of Division I football," vonAppen said yesterday. "There's no substitute for experience.

"We think we have a good group of recruits. How quickly they fall into place will be determined over the next few weeks of fall camp. One reason we signed so many junior college players is because they can adapt a little quicker. They're older and already have a couple of years of college ball.

"It's not always ideal to recruit as many junior college players as we have, but we need to turn things around in a hurry. We've been given a timetable by our administration to work with. And it's not one where you can bring freshmen along at a leisurely pace."

VonAppen expects good things from a pair of California freshmen. Defensive lineman Miles Garner of San Jose and running back Charles Tharp of Mountain View should be in the lineup early and often.

Garner is a 6-foot-2, 320-pound defensive end, who earned high school All-America honors as a senior at Archbishop Mitty. Tharp is a 5-8, 183-pounder out of St. Francis High. In a recent California all-star game, the incoming freshman rushed for 160 yards.

The UH coaching staff also expects defensive lineman Mark Mollner of Orange Coast Junior College to contribute right away. The 6-5, 225-pounder from Newport Beach, Calif., earned all-conference honors last season.

Defensive coordinator Don Lindsey said last spring that he will take a hard look at a few incoming defensive backs as well. Among them are Dwayne Mathis of Ventura, Calif., Clyde Lewis of Oakland, Calif., Brian Maney of Florence, Ky., and Donnell Williams from Palisades, Calif.

New players aren't the only areas where the Rainbows will have a different look. In the off-season, Lindsey decided to shift from the 4-3 look to a 3-4. VonAppen also brought in veteran offensive coordinator Wally English to try to bring Hawaii's offense back to life after a difficult 2-10 season.

"I know some people feel like we left the West Coast offense behind, but the offense we run this year will still be a pro attack," vonAppen said. "It's purely semantics.

"We were woeful offensively last year. We need to improve as quickly as we can. And we plan to give the new guys a good look to see if they can help us achieve that goal."

VonAppen said getting the players adapted to the academic side of things would be the major challenge this week. He said the orientation was scheduled for tomorrow. The Rainbows will then have three newcomer workouts starting Thursday before moving to Barbers Point.

"These kind of practices are overrated," vonAppen said. "We won't really know what they can do until they get in with the veterans. We feel comfortable that everyone is going to be academically sound. There could be some fallout next week when grades from the second summer semester are due, but hopefully, it will be minimal."