Notebook
Friday, October 24, 1997
University of Hawaii cornerback Al Hunter limped around yesterday's light practice at Cooke Field and probably won't be 100 percent for tomorrow night's game with San Diego State at Aloha Stadium. Ankle injury
slows down Hunter"That doesn't mean I won't play," Hunter said. "But right now, it's pretty sore. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't even walk.
"But as long as I don't do some permanent damage, I might take a shot before the game and see how it goes. I want to play, but the sprain was worse than I thought."
Hunter sprained the ankle during the early part of Wednesday's practice. He was covering Echo Charles on a pass play and accidentally stepped on the back of the running back's heal.
If he can't go, Rainbows defensive coordinator Don Lindsey said Blase Austin would draw the assignment of guarding dangerous San Diego State senior Az Hakim in man coverage whenever the Aztecs were in three wide receiver formations.
"I'm ready for it," the confident Austin said. "Bring him on. Everybody who plays this game loves a challenge. That's why you put on the uniform."
Hunter isn't the only injured UH defensive back. Second-string strong safety Ron Wood won't play because two concussions suffered in as many games.
Lindsey said he will go with Chris Shinnick and Eddie Klaneski at safety, and Austin and Donnell Williams at cornerback. Celnell Bobbitt would come in for Shinnick, who also has nursed a variety of injuries the last few weeks.
"We've got to play with the guys available to us," UH head coach Fred vonAppen said. "Al might get to feeling better by Saturday night. If he can go, we'll start him. But you don't know how long he can stay in there."
VonAppen said Tim Carey also is out. The senior quarterback returned to practice this week, but probably won't be 100 percent for another few weeks.
Carey went down with a shoulder injury in the waning moments of the 25-15 loss at Nevada-Las Vegas five weeks ago. He has made some progress, but not enough to spell starter Josh Skinner.
"I'll be disappointed if I'm not ready to play by the Air Force game next week," Carey said. "I'm getting a little better every day."
Despite a variety of bumps and bruises, only Wood, Carey and fellow quarterback Dan Robinson (shinsplints), and linebacker Stephen Gonzales (shoulder) are out.
Defensive linemen Matt Elam and Bob Piggot returned to practice this week after missing last Saturday's game at Brigham Young University, and are available to play. So is offensive linemen Adrian Klemm (ankle) and Shane Oliveira (shoulder).
GRUDGE MATCH: UH offensive lineman Gary Krug has been looking forward to this game with the Aztecs for a long time.
The Kamehameha Schools graduate signed with San Diego State in 1994. He decided to return to Hawaii as a scout-team member before playing a little in 1996.
He was slowed with a knee injury when Hawaii went to San Diego State last year, so this will be the first time he has faced his old teammates in three years.
"It's fun to face your old friends," Krug said. "I'm excited to see them, then kill them. I'm really fired up about it."
Krug isn't the only Rainbow connection with the Aztecs. It also marks the return of assistant coach Ulima Afoa, who recruited Krug during his first coaching stint at San Diego State.
Afoa was a part of former head coach Bob Wagner's old staff, whom vonAppen decided to retain for the 1996 season. Afoa left earlier this year to join Ted Tollner's staff. He was replaced by UH offensive line coach Greg Olejack.
Afoa is the second former vonAppen assistant to coach at Aloha Stadium this year. Fresno State coach Trent Miles returned two weeks ago. He and Afoa left the program because of disenchantment with the direction UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida was taking the football program.
--By Paul Arnett
It's not easy playing for a National Football League team that's on a six-game losing streak. Former Molokai resident Kimo von Oelhoffen can attest to that. Losing’s tough
By Pat Bigold
on Hawaii's Bengal
Star-Bulletin"It hurts," said the 6-foot-4, 300-pound starting nose tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals (1-6). "We play great D at times but we don't play a full game. And we don't take advantage of the little breaks we get, like picking up a fumble. "
This weekend, the Bengals must travel to play a team that's as hot as the Bengals are cold -- the New York Giants, who have won their last four games.
Von Oelhoffen, who played at the University of Hawaii, Walla Walla Junior College and finally Boise State, is doing as much as he can to turn things around in a 3-4 front that has yielded a league-high 165 yards a game.
He is leading the Bengals' defensive linemen in tackles with 29 -- seven for losses. He's fifth on the team in that category.
"We used to have a 4-3 scheme and I wasn't strictly a nose tackle," said von Oelhoffen, a first-year starter who was Cincinnati's 1994 sixth-round draft choice.
"But now that we're going with the three-man front, I'm over the nose guard every play. I like it because I get to make a lot of plays."
His best game was last weekend in a loss to Pittsburgh, when he had nine tackles -- mostly against Jerome Bettis.
"He's a bus," said von Oelhoffen, who hit Bettis for two losses.
Being double-teamed by 600-plus pounds of beef is something that von Oelhoffen is used to now. "It's like running into a wall 50 times a game," he said. "You run into that wall, then you turn around and run."
Von Oelhoffen said his background in basketball and volleyball at Molokai High gave him agility that he uses to get off the double. "Strength can only go so far," he said. "The quickness, technique and will are what make the difference."
He said it's somewhat easier to deal with the depression of the Bengals' current skid because he's married to an athlete -- former University of Hawaii Wahine basketball player Tondi Redden (1986-1990). The couple, who live in Taylor Mill, Ky., during the season, have a little girl named Jalyn.
"Tondi understands, and she gets just as upset as I do about the losses," said von Oelhoffen.
GOUVEIA HAS SURGERY: San Diego Chargers middle linebacker Kurt Gouveia underwent successful neck surgery yesterday.
The former Waianae High and BYU star from Hawaii was injured in last Thursday's 31-3 loss at Kansas City and is out for the rest of the season.
The Chargers said the surgery lasted one hour, 10 minutes. The team described the injury as a herniation between two discs.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
