Hawaii football: Gene Pryor finds groove at right tackle

Gene Pryor’s first coming-out party with Hawaii football happened a few months ago, when he competed in a dance-off to win possession of the ball for his team in the Rainbow Warriors’ spring scrimmage.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pound Pryor pulled off “The Worm” to defeat Jonah Laulu.

Gene Pryor and Jonah Laulu engage in a dance-off to determine first possession in the #HawaiiFB spring game. pic.twitter.com/ARQtdzXE8H

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— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) April 28, 2019

The offensive lineman’s second breakout is happening right now at right tackle.

Pryor, a left tackle for most of his football career to this point — high school and junior college — has successfully moved to the other edge and held it down through four games, bolstering an already-experienced Warriors O-line.

UH (3-1) expects an especially physical battle in the trenches in Saturday’s Mountain West opener at Nevada (3-1).

“We feel pretty dialed in, to keep it honest,” Pryor said of the O-line Wednesday, a day before the team’s departure for Reno. “We’ve been working hard, working together. We’ve been working as a unit, protecting Cole (quarterback McDonald). In fact we’re going into Nevada with a pretty strong game plan.”

Here’s #HawaiiFB offensive lineman Gene Pryor on making a successful switch from left to right tackle and his assessment of the unit heading into Saturday’s Mountain West battle at Nevada. pic.twitter.com/2LZt5NJqP6

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 27, 2019

UH quarterbacks have been sacked six times through four games — or 1.5 times per game. UH has notched just below that on opposing QBs, with five sacks. Last year, UH allowed 46 sacks in 14 games, or 3.3 per game, compared to recording 30 on opponents (2.1).

Coming out of the College of the Sequoias, Pryor appeared sparingly last season, seeing action in two games including the SoFi Hawaii Bowl. That allowed him to take advantage of the NCAA’s new redshirt rule for players seeing action in four or fewer games spaced throughout the season.

Going into this season as a redshirt junior, he and the coaches decided he would play on the right for the betterment of the unit. Pryor had no idea at the time he came to UH that the swap would be in his future, but it he was “cool with it.” Ilm Manning has locked down the left side since arriving as a true freshman last year.

“Right tackle wasn’t always my spot, but with the help of Coach (Mark) Weber and all the coaches here, they helped me transition pretty easily,” Pryor said. “I’ve been working at it pretty hard, and they’ve been helping me, so I feel a little comfortable at it.”

He said the main differences are “just stance and position and then account for the speed and power of other guys on the other side, and knowing the situation with the quarterback is different.”

Weber called Pryor a “rep guy” for being able to diagnose and correct a flaw from one practice rep to the next. The coach said that Pryor’s stability on the right has helped allow the O-line to go beyond last year’s goal of simply identifying their blocking targets, and now into playing harder and honing fundamentals while they’re at it.

“His addition to the group makes us better, because he’s a talented young man,” Weber said. “He cares a lot. He goes hard. He’s a wonderful young man. So he brings a lot to the table, with his abilities and who he is.”

Besides an affable demeanor and the aforementioned dancing skills, strength is a strength for Pryor. He won shot put and discus regional titles his senior year at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, Calif.

“He packs a punch. He can get movement,” Weber said. “He gives us some physicality up in the front.”

Pryor is anticipating a variety of factors the Wolf Pack — and a potentially rainy gameday at Mackay Stadium — might throw at him.

“It’s going to be a little cold, a little chilly there. They have a pretty good D-line,” Pryor said. “Their team is a bunch of hard-nosed dudes who’s ready to play. So we’ll be ready for it.”