[ UH FOOTBALL ]
UH offensive
linemen take
their punishment
Hawaii offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh usually stops after practice to trade smiles and jokes with visitors and fill reporters' notepads. Not yesterday. Cavanaugh was in no mood to talk.
About halfway into yesterday morning's three-hour session, Cavanaugh decided he wasn't getting the effort he wanted from his unit, so he treated his big boys to some good old fashioned grass drills.
The back-and-forth banter the coach usually has with his players was gone. The linemen took their medicine, which included the dreaded bear crawls, in stride.
"You have to come out and be ready to go. Obviously we weren't ready, so coach Cav had us do a few exercises," junior right guard Uriah Moenoa said. "Cav expects a lot out of us. If we don't perform, he gets disappointed. I was getting disappointed in us, too. In the individual and team drills. Cav felt he had to liven us up a little bit."
Right tackle Dane Uperesa said it wasn't fun, but it served a purpose.
"It was punishment. Whenever you get punished you want to learn," Uperesa said. "We came out a little slow and Cav put us to the test. It's just growing pains. We'll learn from it."
Receiver shuffle: Senior Jeremiah Cockheran, the returning starter at right wide receiver, returned to practice yesterday and his tender ankle seemed OK. He and senior walk-on Michael Miyashiro took nearly all the reps, as second-year freshman Daniel Inferrera -- who looked good on Monday in Cockheran's place -- didn't do much because of his nagging hip injury and other aches.
True freshman Jason Rivers returned to action on the other side after resting his hamstring for a day, but junior Britton Komine still appears to be ahead.
Second-year freshman slot Ross Dickerson continues to push hard, but incumbents Chad Owens and Nate Ilaoa are hard to dislodge.
Short yardage: Former UH slotback John Veneri, now a sportscaster at KHON TV-2, has returned to his former position as sidelines reporter for KKEA 1420-AM's radio broadcasts of UH games, joining play-by-play man Bobby Curran and analyst Robert Kekaula. ... Russell Shimooka will produce and host The June Jones Show this fall. It will be taped weekly at Dave & Buster's and shown Sundays at 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on Oceanic 16.
