Sidelines
THIS is a spring scrimmage, and so about halfway through, a handful of established starters already have their shoulder pads off and are throwing balled-up wads of athletic tape at each other. Tate still trying to find himself
Coaches know what the starters can do. Coaches need to see new blood. That is what spring scrimmages are about. That is why on this day Keiki Misipeka -- you know, the guy with the hair -- is Hawaii's offensive workhorse.
Misipeka, one of those kickoff team madmen, gets to carry the ball again and again. He even gets in a monster hit, and everyone goes nuts. It is great fun. It's good to see guys like this have their day. And so Misipeka, who only had about four plays on offense last fall and is best known for painting his hair green, standing up on the bench and waving a towel at the Aloha Stadium crowd, keeps barreling ahead. He's loving it. This is his chance. He needs this.
Mark Tate needs this, too.
Mark Tate does not have his shoulder pads off.
Mark Tate is not throwing any tape.
He's still lining up, still playing when the backups do, still laboring through every little thing receivers need to know in June Jones' passing game. One, two, right foot here. Left foot there. Read the defense, get separation, pinpoint the ball. And then catch it. All in a blink.
And this is only a spring scrimmage, but Tate needs every second of it.
"I'm just trying to find myself in this offense," he says.
Tate has teased us for two years now with his size and his speed and his (there is perhaps no crueler word on Earth) potential. It seems his name has come up as a candidate to start ever since he turned down the Big 12 and the Big Ten to come to UH. He was a dazzler out of San Diego, and he would be a great one. But he isn't. Not yet.
First he was overweight. Then he got hurt. And finally, we're all finding out that becoming a run-and-shoot receiver isn't all just speed and potential, it isn't quite as simple as you'd think.
When he first came, "It was like I was in kindergarten all over again," Tate said.
Everything he did was wrong, every habit he had misled him, even down to how to plant his feet on a 5-yard hitch.
"It's complicated until you get it," said starter Justin Colbert, a pads-off guy, who has been every bit as smooth this spring as Tate has been deliberate.
Tate was a hot prospect. Now he's one of those guys who needs every second of the spring.
Two years later, he's still trying to find himself. But he knows it. Tate is upbeat, as if he has found peace by finally realizing this. Spring is about repetitions and details now, and you can see him thinking with each step, and his pass patterns look like work. "He's paying attention now," Colbert says.
The guys see this struggle. They're always yelling his name, defense heckling, offense encouraging: "Come on, Tate!"
They know he needs this spring. They know he could be a much better player than this.
So do we.
So does he.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com