Business

The Warriors flew to Atlanta last night. Stephen Tsai writes about who went:

The Warriors took 24 players on offense, 33 on defense, and punter Kurt Milne, kicker Daniel Kelly and long-snapper Jake Ingram.

Thirteen defensive backs, 11 linebackers and nine defensive linemen made the trip.

All of the offensive players have spent at least a year in the program. On defense, there are seven first-year Warriors — defensive end David Veikune, inside linebacker Blaze Soares and defensive backs C.J. Hawthorne, Gerard Lewis, Myron Newberry, Jake Patek and Spencer Smith.

Again, there's no big list, but you can pretty much piece together who made the trip by reading the articles over the past few weeks, including this one, written by Jason Kaneshiro, that profiles freshman safety Spencer Smith:

Smith is among five freshman making their first road trips with the Warriors. He and linebacker Blaze Soares are the only true freshmen on the trip. Offensive lineman John Estes, backup quarterback Inoke Funaki, and linebacker Brashton Satele redshirted last year.

Cornerback C.J. Hawthorne and safety Jacob Patek, both junior-college transfers, are expected to start in their first Division I games this week.

Another Jason Kaneshiro article gives us some detail as to how tough it can be to be a walk-on, in an short profile on recent scholarship recipient Renolds Fruean. It also has a (thankfully) short injury update:

Offensive lineman Dane Uperesa was out for the second half of yesterday's practice. Jones said Uperesa had an injury to his toe that "he'll play through."

Kafentzis was sick and missed practice.

With Uperesa out, Keoni Steinhoff, a sophomore from Damien, and junior Larry Sauafea worked at right tackle in the team period yesterday.

And finally, here's an article from The Birmingham News about Bama defensive coordinator Joe Kines preparing for the Warrior run-and-shoot.

Kines knows better than to focus solely on the passing game.

"The first thing you've got to do is stop the run," Kines said. "The last time we were out there, they established the run early, and we were caught in a Catch-22 situation the rest of the game."

Hawaii beat Alabama 37-29 to end the Tide's 2003 regular season. The Warriors, surprisingly, rushed for 134 yards, averaging more than six yards a clip, to foul up the game plan.

This is Bama, so it'll be tough to establish the running game, but one must not discount the inertia, the momentum, the Nasty, The Juggernaut! Three more days!