GameDay: Hawaii vs UNLV

It's Saturday! And that means in about 11 hours, the Warriors will suit up against the Runnin Rebels in UH's home opener. To pass the time, here are some news articles to peruse through.

Dave Reardon's gameday preview has a quote from Colt Brennan regarding the UNLV defense.

Brennan's decision-making and accuracy will be put to the test as the athletic Rebels are expected to play quite a bit of man-to-man coverage.

And the pressure will be on.

"One thing I noticed is they're a zone blitz team," Brennan said.

"So even though they do play a 3-3-5, a lot of those guys are coming. Last year they really wanted to keep it underneath their coverage, an umbrella. But there will be some opportunities to go over the top."

Here's a snippet from Stephen Tsai's gameday preview.

For the first time since signing as UH head coach in 1999, Jones is going to platoon the wideouts, making substitutions every other play. "We're two deep there, and all of them have (started) games and been productive, so I feel comfortable doing it," said Jones, who is not concerned the frequent substitutions will hinder the receivers' flow.

"It gives us a chance to always be fresh out there and hopefully wear out the d-backs," Sample said. "We bring different things to the table. It will be a good way to keep (the Rebels) guessing."

I think it's a great idea. Look some long bombs to the wideouts tonight!

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a short preview. Sounds like UNLV will be all business:

"We live in Las Vegas," Rebels tailback Erick Jackson said. "Going out to Hawaii, it's beautiful and whatnot, but when it comes to game time and you see that black and green (Hawaii's colors) come out or we go into that locker room, it clicks on.

"It's going to be all the minds on the game, (rather than) where we are."

Stephen Tsai has another article, which talks about the injuries on both teams.

"We have a lot of hurts, here and there, but except for Solomon, I anticipate everybody will play," Jones said.

UNLV quarterback Rocky Hinds also is expected to play, despite leaving last week's game in the second quarter because of a sprained right knee. Hinds, who transferred from USC in 2005, practiced the past two days.

Great to hear Nate Ilaoa is healthy after suffering a concussion during the Bama game. But the bad news from that article is that Jason Ferguson had another setback.

Ferguson recently complained of soreness in his right knee. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed excess scar tissue.

Ferguson went to Los Angeles Tuesday, and underwent the 45-minute arthroscopic surgery the next day.

"I went back to the bat cave to get my equipment fixed," Ferguson said.

Good luck to Jason as he recovers from surgery and continues to rehab his knee.

Dave Reardon has an article in which Jerry Glanville praises Solomon Elimimian, who will be out with a knee injury, but as reported earlier, should be in the coaches box tonight.

"That's a coach on the field," defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville said. "That's a guy that makes a lot of calls. That's a guy that's so intelligent, he knows the rules better than the officials. Forty-one knows the rules so well, he tells me, in Alabama stadium, in front of 90,000 people, which official doesn't know the rule so I can go talk to him."

I really hope Jerry knows his name.

And from the same article, I like Colt Brennan's confidence, but I'm not sure he should be saying things like this out loud:

"They have good athletes, but Alabama has great athletes. We've seen great athletes," Brennan said. "Their athletes shouldn't worry us in any way. We respect their defense, but it shouldn't be anything that gets us off sync or worried. We should just go out there and do what we do."

I don't think it's meant as a dig, but it can be read by the UNLV defensive players that way, and that's all that matters. Oh well, he's the one who has to play against them, so maybe it's all a part of his strategy!

And finally, Kalani Simpson has an column that starts out profiling Dennis McKnight and his special teams work, but then suddenly stops and goes onto some random news and notes. But they're interesting at least.

Anyway, it's gameday. GO WARRIORS!!!!!!!