Warriors making
all the breaks

OUR Dave Reardon keeps track of such things, and so there has been an unofficial report card of all the little things that have fallen into place in Hawaii's favor this offseason. And yesterday, on the first day of football practice, the guys got one more.

It rained.

It rained. And the first day of football practice, as you know, is when Hawaii runs its grueling, no mercy, push to exhaustion first-day conditioning test. And yet there was no blistering sun, no overbearing heat.

It rained.

"It was great, man," senior linebacker Patrick Lavar Harley said. "You couldn't hope for anything better. It's been super hot the last two days. And we were praying for this rain and a little bit of clouds, and we got it. We got what we prayed for."

You know this was true. You just know all those football players were actually praying, heading into their first day of practice -- the power of mass prayer, now -- for it to rain.

"Everybody was praying," Harley said.

And it happened.

This is a good sign.

Yet another one.

So many things are going right for Hawaii. Knees are healed up. UH might lead the conference in reinstatements. And then the topper is the hiring of Mouse Davis, which is definitely the biggest, most significant of them all (and worthy of its own column -- stay tuned).

Everything is falling into place.

"I didn't know the guys were training so hard," quarterback Tim Chang said, after testing was through.

Yes, you have to believe, on the first day of football practice, that June Jones has us right where he wants us. Everybody expects a good season, but we'd be surprised by a great one.

And while Jones refuses to recognize doubt in himself, he feeds off it from others.

Perfect.

"I would think," he said yesterday, "that we've got a chance to be a pretty good football team."

The way things are going, I'd think he's right.

Things are often this positive on the first day of camp, but this is something different, even for that.

"It feels good to be back out here and to be around all the guys," Harley said, "take place in all the activities."

Activities? There are activities?

"Just playing football," he said. "We've had all this long summer break."

And this time they're stuffed together, and at least on the first day, guys don't really seem to mind. Dorms are full and the kings of the school are on mattresses on the floor.

And on the first day at least, loving it.

"It's like a big family reunion every summer camp, you know," slotback Nate Ilaoa said. "Seeing the same old faces. Everybody's come back home. You know, the same old stories. It's a good thing."

"I didn't think," Harley said of camping out in the UH dance studio, "it would be as good as it is."

But it is. Or at least they believe so, and that's all that matters.

Some of them almost feel like they willed rain right out of the sky.