UH overhauls
punt protection team

Fred vonAppen tinkered under the hood yesterday to fine tune the knocks and pings plaguing punt protection for the University of Hawaii football team in recent games.

Strong safety Chris Shinnick replaced Joey Diieso as the up-man on the right side, and linebackers Doug Rosevold, Rufus Ayeni and Punahou Aina lined up to the right of deep-snapper Tyler Tanigawa during yesterday's live drill at Cooke Field.

"That's the side that's been giving up the blocked kicks, so we felt like we needed to do something to correct it," vonAppen said. "We were able to protect it better today. The last time I checked, that's the general idea."

Rosevold and Shinnick were on special teams during the early part of the season, but when fatigue set in, special teams coach Doug Semones replaced them to keep them fresher on defense.

"But I'd rather be a little tired on defense than give up 14 points on special teams like we did against Air Force," Rosevold said. "Yeah, it's tough to block when you're used to tackling, but I only block for a second and then go down field to do a little head-hunting."

Hawaii was among the nation's best in net punting through the first three games of the season. But that changed at Colorado State five games ago.

The Rams returned punts of 60 and 80 yards for touchdowns. Brigham Young University also returned a punt for a touchdown, and Fresno State and Air Force combined to block three punts for touchdowns.

Punter Chad Shrout is first in the Western Athletic Conference and fourth in the nation, averaging 46.79 yards a punt. But Hawaii is 99th nationally in net punting with a 33.6-yard average.

"We tweaked the formation a little bit this week and had a few more reps in practice to see if we could make some improvements," Semones said. "We looked at it again today and reviewed it, so hopefully we'll do a better job this weekend at San Jose State.

"Air Force ran basically two stunts. Each stunt we blocked correctly one time and didn't the other time, and those resulted in the two touchdowns."

Shinnick was shifted to up-back in an attempt to make sure nobody breaks through up the middle. Once the punt is away, he becomes a cover guy. Yesterday, he said he was surprised by the move.

"Putting Diieso in there makes more sense because he is a big fullback who is used to blocking," Shinnick said. "But I think he's having a problem with his hamstring and isn't as mobile.

"But for cover purposes, I may be better at getting down there than Joey. I was a little surprised because I was the up-man all last year. We got three punts blocked, too, and a couple of those were my busts, so we'll see."

The alignment on the left side remained the same. Tight end Gary Ellison has been the outside man on the left for four years.

"And I haven't given up a blocked kick yet," Ellison said. "I also want to keep my record intact the final three games of my career."

INJURY UPDATE: Cornerback Al Hunter was cleared for duty yesterday and should see some action Saturday at Spartan Field.

Hunter was fitted with a soft cast and said his broken right hand felt fine. He missed the last two games with the broken hand and an ankle sprain.

"I'm ready to go," Hunter said. "This is the last time around for me, so I want to play as much as I can the last three games. I don't think I'll start because I've been sidelined for three weeks, but I can play if they want to use me."

VonAppen said Hunter was cleared to play, but probably won't start. Donnell Williams and Robbie Robinson are the top two corners on the depth chart.

Hunter started the first seven games of the season. He missed the San Diego State game with the ankle sprain and was sidelined with the broken hand against Air Force.

Cornerback Blase Austin will miss his second consecutive game with a knee sprain. Everyone else is probable.

"The bye week got us healthy," vonAppen said. "We needed some time to get players on the mend."

RECRUITING RESULTS: UH recruiting coordinator Don Dillon said the initial phase of recruiting went well for the Rainbows.

He said Hawaii likely would sign several junior college players at midterm so they could practice in the spring.

"We thought that worked out well last year and we plan to do it again with three or four guys," Dillon said. "It could be even more. It just depends on how many scholarships we have and how many guys we want and show interest in coming here."

The UH staff looks to add a junior college quarterback to push Dan Robinson and Josh Skinner. The Rainbows also need several offensive and defensive linemen and defensive backs.

"We've got a lot of areas we need to address," Dillon said. "Hopefully we'll recruit as well as we did last year and have some guys who can step in and play right away."

--Paul Arnett

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http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu