Tuesday, May 11, 1999
Jones trims 20
from UH roster
He needs room for players
By Paul Arnett
who fit into his new style of play
Star-BulletinHawaii head coach June Jones confirmed yesterday that he will release as many as 20 players from the spring roster, including former starters Jovon Jiles and Chuck Thompson.
A majority of those players are walk-ons. They were cut from the team to allow Jones to pick players he feels are better suited to his offensive and defensive systems.
"We had 92 guys in the spring, and we have as many as 30 walk-ons and 25 scholarship players coming in this fall," Jones said yesterday. "We need to make some room.
"Most of the walk-ons joining the team this fall are from here. I think five or six of them are from the mainland. Some of the 20 guys we're letting go are currently on scholarship.
"I won't take away their scholarships. If they don't want to play football somewhere else, they can finish their schooling here."
Most of the players learned of their pending release during a team meeting last week.
"They did it in front of the entire team," a player said, who requested anonymity. "They called out their names and told them they needed to see the coaches after the meeting was over.
"At first, the guys weren't sure what was happening. But once the first one or two were let go, it spread like wild fire. It was a pretty sticky situation last week."
There were also some young scholarship players released, including wide receiver Ray Harrington and defensive back Keith Bhonapha.
Senior wide receiver Jauron Pigg was given his release as well. Pigg, quarterback Tim Carey and running back Quincy Jacobs transferred from Stanford to UH during the Fred vonAppen era. Receivers Echo Charles and Kiavash Badii were cut as well.
"There have been 20 so far and we could release a few more this week," Jones said.
"This was part of our evaluation process during the spring. We were honest with the guys going in. They knew we wanted to see how they would perform and whether they had a future with our team."
