Warriors are set Morning stretches to get the physical kinks out. One-on-one drills to get the mental ones out.
to go back to work
Hawaii returns to practice
and is using this week's
bye to heal some injuriesBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThe Hawaii football team was back on the practice field after four days off following its disappointing loss at Brigham Young last Friday.
The Warriors (1-1) travel to Texas-El Paso on Sept. 21 for their Western Athletic Conference opener, and while having a bye this week is bad by some standards, coach June Jones isn't too unhappy about not playing tomorrow.
"I like byes later in the year," Jones said following yesterday morning's practice. "But we have enough injuries that it's good to have it now. Most of the injuries are minor, but we do have a couple of guys out who wouldn't play this week if we did have a game."
One of them is redshirt freshman Leonard Peters, who suffered a ruptured spleen and torn kidney in practice Aug. 12. The Kahuku graduate and redshirt freshman receiver Nate Ilaoa (left hamstring) did some light exercises on the sidelines yesterday.
"I'm going day to day," said Peters, who still has a bruised liver. "We're being cautious, but I hope to be back next week."
Others taped up with minor injuries were redshirt freshman linebacker Ikaika Curnan (right knee), junior receiver Gerald Welch (right knee) and senior defensive back Sean Butts (left ankle).
On crutches watching practice was senior special teams player Jonathan Kauka, whose season was ended by a freak hit last Friday at BYU. Kauka, who tore his ACL and MCL, is still waiting for the swelling to go down on his right knee. He will undergo reconstructive surgery.
One player feeling worse mentally than physically is sophomore quarterback Timmy Chang, who threw four interceptions in the loss to the Cougars. His broken pinkie finger on his right hand was still swollen, but he threw well yesterday.
"It felt good to practice again," said Chang. "There's still a little pain, but you block it out. You can't let it bother you. We had hoped to come back with a win. Definitely I'd like to have some of them (the passes) back.
"But there's nothing you can do about it now except look to the future. We've got a tough schedule ahead and we have to take all the WAC games real seriously if we hope to win the championship. It starts with the bye week. We need to correct those mistakes and get back on our toes again."
UH secondary coach Rich Miano believes the bye is beneficial.
"These guys are ready to play somebody else and win a football game," Miano said. "These losses and byes don't go hand in hand.
"It's good that we have a bye to correct some mistakes and get ready for the next game. But you almost wish you didn't have a bye because you want to play again and get the mistakes out of your system. You have to get back to the winning ways."
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