Captains

Leonard Peters, Ikaika Alama-Francis and Samson Satele have been voted team captains by their fellow players. Here are some quotes from Stephen Tsai's article:

"The guys pick who they want to pick, so I guess I'm a captain," Peters said. "I'm honored. Hopefully, Ikaika is going to be the guy who yells at everybody."

Being named captain, Alama-Francis said, "is something special. When I came over from basketball, I never thought this would happen. The way I look at it, we've got great leaders on this team. Everybody is a captain in his own way."

"He's the king," Brennan said, a reference to Satele's nickname of S-King. "This isn't just his team. This is his monarchy."

Satele said: "It's an honor, and I accept it. It feels wonderful. It wasn't really a shock to me, because everyone has been telling me to be a leader since Day 1, so I'm a leader now."

Congratulations to all three.

Congratulations as well to Renolds Fruean and Tyson Kafentzis, who both earned scholarships.

"They're very deserving," Jones said. "They've worked hard, they've contributed to the team and they're good students."

Just reading articles about how hard they worked on and off the field this summer, this is good to hear!

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There's been a debate on Sportshawaii.com and other places as to whether the UH players should do the haka, which they've been practicing recently, at the Alabama game. I think it would be a cool way to unite and fire up the team, but on the other hand, it could possibly be misinterpreted and be taken as an insult, and fire up the other team. In any case, it looks like the UH players won't be doing it. This is what the S-King had to say:

"Right now, we're not going to do it in Alabama. It's going to be very hot for us to do it," Satele said. "The haka is only for home games. If we do it there everybody's going to start yelling. And 93 thousand? Over our 60 guys that's going to be there? They're going to be louder."

Sounds like a good reason. Guess we'll see it at the UNLV game then!

Dave Reardon also writes that Keenan Jones won't be making the trip, but Ryan Keomaka and Patrick Olcholvy will. Neither Tsai nor Reardon compiled a complete travel roster, but maybe they will later in the week.

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And finally, June, Jerry and Colt have much respek for Alabama.

“They don’t run the same scheme as Southern Cal, but they have the athletes just like SC," Brennan said. “Good football teams keep the tempo up and let their athletes play. They gang-tackle real well, and play with enthusiasm. They are simple in what they do. They love to blitz and bring pressure, and man up their receivers. Every game of theirs last year on tape was impressive."

And here's what June has to say:

“It will be very difficult for us, but at the same time a fantastic experience for my team," Jones said. “A good 30 percent of my team hasn’t been on an airplane and to the U.S. mainland before

Really? I would say it's more like 75%. We're all humble country bumpkins! What is this thing you call "airplanes"? Are you saying man can fly like a bird? And for that matter, what is this sport you call "football"? Is it anything like Capture the Chicken? It's all so new and frightening!