Lane and Manes

Dave Reardon writes about raw true freshman receiver Malcolm Lane and grizzled veteran 6th year senior receiver Ian Sample. Both of their families will be in town for upcoming games.

Lane wants to make sure he can play against the Spartans, because his mother, Catherine Baldwin, is coming a long way to be at the game. The recently retired Army sergeant and Lane's stepfather arrive this week from Germany, where Lane graduated from high school last spring.

...

Sample will have another chance to play well in front of family. His parents and brother will be here for the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl.

"They'll be here for the game and Christmas in Hawaii," he said. "It'll be great. It'll be a real good gift."

"I feel great," added Sample, who suffered through injuries most of his UH career before this season. "These last four games are going to be good ones."

Let's hope they can impress!

Reardon also writes that Renolds Fruean should be able to play, while Keala Watson may need a little more rehab. Also, Ross Dickerson is among 18 semifinalists for the first Randy Moss Return Man Award. Cool deal!

Stephen Tsai has an amusing article about the abundance of long flowing manes, among other hairdos, that the hirsute Warriors are sporting.

Marissa Bonilla, the senior manager, said she spends most of pregame downtime braiding players' hair.

One of her regulars is center Samson Satele, who, like his Biblical namesake, finds strength in long hair.

Bonilla ties a braid in Satele's hair for each UH victory. The Warriors entered last week's game with a 7-2 record, but Satele wore eight braids. A prediction? No, Satele said, "I had eight rubberbands."

Running back Nate Ilaoa grew out — actually, grew up — his hair because of an old-fashioned reason. He made a bet with his cousin, Adam Iloilo, a former UH linebacker.

"Whoever cuts his first owes the other 100 bucks," Ilaoa said. "It's continuing. He's growing his hair out. Ol' bald Adam is looking like a Conquistador."

Man, I still wanna hear Nate rap, because he's definitely funny.

Dave Reardon also has another installment of "Colt Following" with a quote from FOXSports columnist Peter Schrager.

"Is it too late for me to get on that Colt Brennan bandwagon? Hello? Anybody?

"Speaking of Colt Brennan -- the Hawaii quarterback's yardage totals, by game, this year? 350, 296, 388, 409, 419, 409, 330, 333, 413, and 406. Not impressed? How about the touchdown numbers? Game by game, Brennan's thrown: 2, 2, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, and 4. OK, OK, big deal, right? Stats mean nothing. How about Hawaii's record, you ask? 8-2, 6-1 in conference. Colt Brennan's as legit a Heisman Candidate as there is this season. If he doesn't at least get the invite to New York, the system's flawed."

Amen! Here's a link to Schrager's article.

And finally Ryan Grice-Mullins, or Grice-Mullen, is profiled by T.J. Berka of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, which I believe is RGM's hometown paper. Here's a pretty big excerpt, but it's definitely worth reading the whole thing.

Grice-Mullen signed with Hawaii in Feb. 2004 over Fresno State, Idaho and Idaho State as a cornerback, but was quickly switched to wide receiver during his redshirt year of 2004.

"Coach (June) Jones came up to me and asked me if I wanted to switch," Grice-Mullen said. "I said if it would get me playing time earlier, I'd do it. It was quite an adjustment, considering the timing that you need to have in this offense."

It's an adjustment that Grice-Mullen has made really well, not only on the stat sheet but on the Internet, as well.

A fairly popular video on YouTube.com has Grice-Mullen and Brennan connecting on a long pass against Utah State on Nov. 4. Grice-Mullen, who caught four passes for 135 yards and two scores on the game, almost got a third, carrying a throng of Aggie defenders approximately 25 yards before being tackled at the Utah State 3.

The play is now immortalized in cyberspace, although Grice-Mullen still thinks he should have scored.

"I was so mad that I didn't get in," Grice-Mullen said. "I really thought that if I kept moving my legs I would get it but I didn't. It was a heck of a play, though."

If Grice-Mullen keeps working as hard as he did on that play, he'll succeed more often than not.

Ryan Grice-Mull(en)ins is such a great receiver. And here's the YouTube video this article is referencing.



GO RYAN!!! GO WARRIORS!!!!