Warrior Beat

Freshman defensive backs Khoury Bethley and Alaka‘i Mashima are expected to earn playing time in Saturday’s home opener against Navy. Both players were used on special teams against Colorado State. “Those are two young players who do a good job,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said. Bethley, who is 5-10 and 200 pounds, is a 2018 graduate of Don Lugo High in Chino, Calif. Mashima is a 2017 Punahou School graduate who joined the Warriors after succeeding at a walk-on tryout. […]

Upon further review, quarterback Cole McDonald had a better opening weekend than first thought. Not only did he account for five touchdowns in his first start in a 43-34 victory over Colorado State, but he also kept perfect his record of never having been sacked in a UH uniform. McDonald was ruled to have been sacked during the game. But the Warriors appealed, insisting that it was a designed quarterback draw. CSU officials agreed, and changed it to a tackle […]

A long, long time ago, the Utah basketball team was looking for a way to defend Chris Gaines, Hawaii’s Harden-esque guard. Gaines was a dual threat with smooth driving lay-ins and an accurate outside shot. Instead of matching eyeball-to-eyeball with 6-foot-3 Gaines, the Utes summoned 5-9 Jimmy Soto. Soto held Gaines in check with hand-checks, swiping moves and just being an irritant. Soto played the man, not the ball, and Gaines never got into a rhythm. The Utes won the […]

FORT COLLINS >> When a considerable underdog pulls off an upset, the way the Warriors did yesterday, it would be easy to blame the oddsmakers for getting it wrong. The thing is, the oddsmakers got it right. The Warriors deserved to be underdogs. They faced survivor’s guilt when they departed the islands while a hurricane approached. They were squished in the back third of a commercial flight. Any other Division I head coach have a seat in the 39th row? […]

FORT COLLINS >> Middle linebacker Jahlani Tavai will not play in today’s game because of what is termed a violation of team rules, school officials confirmed today. Tavai practiced with the scout team this week. He traveled with the team to Colorado, and was in full uniform during pre-game warmups. * * * * * The 2018 season opens with today’s game between Hawaii and host Colorado State. That means there will be answers to these questions: > Will the […]

FORT COLLINS >> In a special and inspiring visit, Kalepo Naotala met with the Warriors at the hotel. Naotala was a freshman defensive tackle when he suffered a spinal injury during an accident off Waikiki in July 2017. Following the accident, he was transferred to Craig Hospital, a rehabilitation facility in Colorado that specializes in spinal-cord injuries. After that, he returned to his home in Virginia. He is in Colorado this weekend for follow-up treatment. “I’m happy to see Kalepo […]

GREELEY, COLO. >> After arriving in Colorado early today, the Warriors rested and then participated in a no-padded workout on the Northern Colorado campus. The intent was to get acclimated to Colorado’s high altitude and adjust from the jet lag. A more thorough workout is planned for tomorrow. The pattern was flipped from the usual schedule in which the Warriors have an extensive practice on Thursday and lighter walk-through on Friday. We took a quick tour of the CSU campus:

On breakaway day, the Warriors played fastbreak football. The Warriors are scheduled to depart this evening in advance of the season opener against Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo. Today, the Warriors practiced at an accelerated pace, punctuated with a 2-minute drill, in anticipation of playing in Fort Collins’ 5,003-foot elevation. It is part of a ritual throughout preseason training in which the Warriors ran “gassers” — sideline-to-sideline sprints — each practice.