Freshman Estes

Jason Kaneshiro has a profile of freshman offensive lineman John Estes, who's competing to be a starter along the very experienced offensive line.

"He's mature and smart and he's a good student so that probably carries over into learning things," said graduate-assistant Dennis McKnight, who works with the offensive line. "So once you learn and pick up things, now whatever physical abilities you have can just come naturally and faster. For him, he's a fast learner, smart kid.

"He's as good a young guy as I've seen. His leverage, his balance, his recover-ability, he's pretty darn impressive."

Watch out Dane Uperesa, you got competition. And I don't mean along the O-line, wink wink.

Kaneshiro also has more on Chris Camacho's departure. Here's what June Jones had to say:

"You're always surprised when a guy doesn't fight through adversity, but guys have to what they have to do," Jones said.

"I thought he looked pretty good," he added. "He's competitive, and I thought that he was going to be competitive for a job. But obviously he thought maybe the other guys were doing a little bit better and he wanted to play football. Like I said, no matter where you go you're going to have competition. ... He's a good kid, I liked him and thought he had what it takes to be successful."

Stephen Tsai also has more from June.

"I'm disappointed kids make decisions to give up," Jones said. "It's their call. We had a good talk with (Camacho) to make sure that's what he wanted to do, and that's what he wanted to do. ... You try to advise them, try to tell them what's best, but they have to make their own decisions."

Oh well, maybe it's a good sign that he's leaving. Maybe there's so many good players at corner this year, he feels he wouldn't get a chance play. Let's hope that's the case. Again, good luck to Pac-Man.

And cornerback CJ Hawthorne, who FYI, is not leaving the team, will have special teams roles to play with the Warriors.

C.J. Hawthorne is emerging as one of the Warriors' top kick-blockers. Yesterday, he blocked one kick and tipped another.

...

On kickoffs and punts, Hawthorne will be used as the gunner — the player aligned wide who is the first to reach the returner.

Sounds like a really quick guy. Can't wait to see him play. Stephen Tsai's article has a bunch of news and notes on the bottom of the page. There don't seem to be any major injuries, which is good. Jacob Patek is recovering from his dehydration hospitalization, which is also good.