D-Line

Stephen Tsai writes about the actions being taken to replace Renolds Fruean, Amani Purcell and Keala Watson along the defensive line.

Laupepa Letuli, a second-year freshman, was moved from offensive left guard to defensive end. Victor Clore, a freshman who was not enrolled in school last year, was told he would receive extended practice time.

...

Watson suffered a torn meniscus, an injury that might require arthroscopic surgery. He will miss at least four weeks.

Fruean suffered a high sprain in his right ankle. He incurred a similar injury last year. He said he will miss at least four weeks.

Amani Purcell has a partial ligament tear and a hyperextension in his right knee.

"I'll probably be out two weeks at least," Purcell said.

Hope they're back for the Purdue, OSU and Hawaii Bowl games. Speaking of which, the Hawaii Bowl is getting ready to invite the Warriors to itself. And it looks like UH won't play OSU twice on national TV.

Since UH closes its regular season with a Dec. 2 game against Oregon State, a Pac-10 spokesman said it is unlikely the Beavers would end up in the Hawai'i Bowl, even if eligible.

ESPN is expected to announce today that it will pick up the UH-Oregon State game on one of its networks. A WAC official said the network has been "leaning to Oregon State" and he would be "shocked" if ESPN chose UH's Nov. 25 game against Purdue instead. ESPN is supposed to decide between the two by tomorrow.

Dave Reardon has more about the changes to the defensive line.

Left end David Veikune (6-3, 258) will likely get more playing time, too. Undersized but scrappy Victor Clore (6-2, 230) is a project who needs to gain weight, but he might be needed.

The Warriors finished the game Saturday with nose tackles Rocky Savaiigaea and Lawrence Wilson at the ends and Kahai LaCount at nose.

"I think everybody in this group has the mentality they have to pull on the rope a little harder now," Reinebold said. "Other guys are going to have to step up. Young guys are going to have to mature faster than maybe we anticipated they were going to have to mature."

Ferd Lewis writes about the possibility of Colt passing for 4500 yards and Nate running for 1000 yards. Even if that happens, he's not voting for Hawaii to be in the top 25. I'm just kidding.

And finally Kalani Simpson writes a profile on rarely used punter Kurt Milne.

"I thought about going for it on that fourth down and we would have finished perfect for the game," June Jones said. "But I didn't think that was quite right."

(Whew!)

"It was nice to get A punt," Milne said. "I think that was only my 12th punt all year, in eight games."

(He was right. Of course he was. He's had so few he cherishes each one. Does he remember the last time he punted? "Yeah," he said quickly. "Fresno.")