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Full-Court Press
INJURIES are quickly becoming a cause of concern for the University of Hawaii. UH injuries
starting to add upStrong safety Dee Miller pulled his hamstring early in the second quarter and was limited the rest of the night. He tried to play some in the second half, but Warriors head coach June Jones said he could only go a couple of plays.
"That kind of injury could keep him out two or three weeks," Jones said. "And he wasn't the only one. Defensive linemen Chris Brown and Mike Iosua also got dinged a little bit. Iosua broke his thumb and Brown has a shoulder problem. By the end, we had some young guys on the field."
Fortunately for the Warriors, safety Nate Jackson was able to play most of the game on a broken foot. In the first half, he was used primarily as a fifth defensive back. His job was to bracket coverage on tight end Brian Natkin, something that worked well early on.
But in the second half, he was on the other side of fellow safety Jacob Espiau and wasn't able to play the same kind of coverage. As a result, Natkin roamed free through the UH secondary.
"Nate usually plays where Jacob plays, so it's tough asking him to make a shift like that," Jones said. "But if Dee can't go this week, then Nate will play his spot and Jacob will stay at the other safety. It's not ideal."
No QB controversy -- yet
Jones didn't come out and say Nick Rolovich will be the starting quarterback for this Saturday's game against Tulsa University, but it's likely the junior college prospect will get the nod. He was lifted in the second half in favor of freshman Timmy Chang."We had a bunch of dropped balls and Nick was getting the crap beat out of him because we weren't protecting him very well," Jones said. "So I thought it would be a good time if Timmy came in and sparked us. He acted like a freshman early in the game, but he did some good things as the game went on."
Chang said he enjoyed his first Division I experience. He completed 9 of 22 passes for 130 yards, including a 74-yarder to Justin Colbert. Rolovich was a disappointing 6 for 28 for 81 yards. Neither quarterback was sacked.
"It was fun getting out there," said Chang, who had a fumble that led to a safety and was picked two times, both on deflections. "But this is Division I. This is not high school. I thought I was more relaxed as the game went along."
Berryman struggles
Freshman punter Dan Berryman hurried several of his kicks against a strong rush and it showed in his average. He had seven punts for 34.9 yards. Not exactly what he had in mind."And I hurt my team on that fumbled punt," Berryman said. "I was just trying to hurry and took my eyes off the football. There was nothing wrong with the snap."
Special teams coach Dennis McKnight said the same thing of Bronson Liana mishandling the snap on a 37-yard field goal attempt by Eric Hannum. He said it just went right through Liana's hands.
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.