Injuries

Yikes, Stephen Tsai writes that Renolds Fruean, Keala Watson and Amani Purcell, who all took turns subbing for the injured Ikaika Alama-Francis, all got injured themselves during the game and won't make the trip to Utah State and may not be playing for a while.

Watson had said he believed he suffered a chipped meniscus in his right knee. If so, he would require arthroscopic surgery to clip the affected area. The recovery period for such a surgery is at least four weeks.

Fruean said he suffered a severe sprain to his right ankle. He suffered a right high-ankle sprain last year.

"Same ankle, probably the same injury," Fruean said.

...

Purcell suffered what is believed to be a tear to the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was scheduled to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging, a procedure in which magnetic fields are used to create a picture of the body's interior.

Head coach June Jones said he is hopeful Alama-Francis will be available to play this week.

That's insane. Let's hope their recovery goes smoothly.

In Dave Reardon's article, Coach Jeff Reinebold talks about the injuries.

"Ikaika was down, Mel (Purcell) was dinged. Fale was out. And we had guys playing all new positions," defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said. "I give those guys a lot of credit because they came out and competed their butts off. I don't know how many yards they rushed for but it wasn't very many (Idaho finished with 141 of its 334 yards on the ground). We hit the quarterback and we did all the things good defensive lines do, and we did it with everybody."

Reinebold refuses to blame chop blocking by Idaho for UH's injuries.

"I don't know if anything can be directly attributed to that," he said. "I have a lot of respect for Dennis (Erickson, the Idaho coach), and that's a philosophical difference, not a rule. It's part of the game and it's a dirty, nasty game."

Dave goes on to write about Colt Brennan's amazing season.

Because he plays in a mid-major conference and his home games are six time zones away from the East Coast, Brennan hasn't received much national recognition. That will change if he continues on his current pace, as early as this week, Jones said.

"This game will probably do it," the coach said.

The Associated Press plans to produce a feature on Brennan this week, and that might provide a little more exposure.

What will help Brennan's profile is if he's still playing at this level when Hawaii hosts Purdue and Oregon State a month from now. Of course that's around the time Ohio State's Troy Smith will be playing against Michigan and Notre Dame's Brady Quinn against USC.

Pretty cool. I'll link to the AP article whenever it comes out. Because linking is what I do best!

Dave Reardon also has his Warrior Replay post-game feature. Here's an excerpt:

5. Knock out

The Setup: Hawaii 41, Idaho 10; 6:33 remaining, third quarter; Idaho ball, fourth and 10 at Hawaii 36.

The Play: Idaho QB Steven Wichman drops back, but quickly decides his best chance for a first down is to scramble. Strong safety Jake Patek, sitting in a deep zone, sees Wichman cross the line of scrimmage. Patek rushes forward, avoids a blocker and crashes into Wichman with a high but clean hit that puts the quarterback on his seat and knocks the ball out of his hands. UH linebacker Micah Lau recovers at Hawaii's 27.

The Impact: Patek's hit took away Idaho's last chance to make a game of it. Ian Sample scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Brennan four plays later, and Wichman never returned, becoming the sixth quarterback Hawaii's defense has knocked out of a game this year.

Patek: "The quarterback tried to cut outside. I changed directions and hit him and it felt great."

And since someone posted the video of Patek's hit online (which I linked to yesterday), here's a taste of what Warrior Replay would look like if it had video clips to go along with it:



Ouch! Wouldn't that be a great addition to Dave's excellent breakdowns?

And finally, Ross Dickerson is the WAC Special Teams Player of the Week for the second straight week!

You know why he won the award? Oh my goodness, take a look!



Pretty cool. I hope people post more highlights like this. For example, Michael Malala's kung fu tackle from a few weeks ago:



GO WARRIORS!!!!