UH football spring practice: Further along but nothing new

From head coach to coordinator to quarterbacks and receivers, the theme of Day 1 of Hawaii football spring practice was the same for everyone.

In Year 2 of the run-and-shoot offense, the Rainbow Warriors are much further along now than they were a year ago when they broke camp in the spring.

But what does this actually mean? Is it an opportunity to add to the offense, make things more complicated for opposing defenses, focus on more sophisticated concepts instead of spending so much time learning the basics?

Not in this run-and-shoot era.

“The run-and-shoot is an execution-driven offense so you’re always striving for perfection in what we do,” associate head coach Brian Smith said. “It’s not a matter of let’s install faster or put in more, it’s let’s get really great at what we do and execute what we do at an extremely high level all the time.”

Nick Rolovich opened his fourth spring practice as head football coach in Manoa echoing the sentiments of his offensive coordinator. What you see is what you get with this offense. The goal every day is getting as close as possible to perfecting it.

As for changing anything?

“I don’t want to,” Rolovich said. “My fear is — and I’m not saying we ended the year on a high note, it’s hard to lose the last game and feel that way — but the way we got eight wins at the end of the year is inches, seconds from being six wins.

“What I don’t want to happen is (for) us to start feeling ourselves a little bit and kind of like — and i’m not seven sure it happened — but i do not want a (2016-2017) combination to come on the back side of last year’s success.”

Hawaii won its last three games in Rolovich’s first year in ’16 to finish 7-7, but the momentum coming off UH’s first bowl appearance in six years ended there. UH suffered a drop off the following season and finished just 3-9.

The two wins at the end of the regular season last year got UH back to the Hawaii Bowl, but that’s not the be-all, end-all of where Rolovich is trying to take this team.

Everything is aligned for UH to continue on a positive trajectory. Quarterbacks Cole McDonald and Chevan Cordeiro began what should be a healthy battle with both shinning on a few deep throws during one-on-one drills. The offensive line is experienced and the receiving corps returns three of its top four pass catchers, plus has added a returning Kumoku Noa, Kamehameha’s single-season receiving yardage record holder who redshirted last year.
 

The excitement is there. Just imagine the possibilities if the offense can make as big of a jump from Year 1 to Year 2 as it did implementing the run-and-shoot from scratch.

“Light years ahead from where we were first day of spring ball last year to now. (It) is pretty ridiculous,” said McDonald, who despite throwing for 3,875 yards and accounting for 40 touchdowns, is embracing the challenge of a competition at quarterback. “I’m confident. Competition is what is going to make this team better, what is going to make you personally better, and I look at it as a challenge.”

Cordeiro, who led the fourth-quarter comeback win over UNLV last year to pretty much clinch a bowl berth and added a touchdown pass against Louisiana Tech while splitting time with McDonald in the bowl game, enjoyed his first spring practice. He was still a senior at Saint Louis at this time a year ago.

“The competition with Cole and Justin (Uahinui) has been fun,” Cordeiro said. “I never got to compete with them during spring and it’s going to be fun joking around with them and competing with them on and off the field.”

For more on Day 1 of spring practice including photos, check out Stephen Tsai‘s Warrior Beat blog.