Seniors

Stephen Tsai profiles the graduating seniors, including senior team manager Marissa Bonilla. It's a nice tribute to all of them. Here's an excerpt:

RENOLDS FRUEAN

Position: Defensive lineman.

Hometown: Kapolei.

Schools: Waipahu High, Washington State.

Graduation day: May 2007 (sociology).

Fun fact: Earned the nickname "GEICO" after defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville said his long hair made him look like a caveman.

Best UH football memory: "The road trips and the games."

Renolds Fruean: Dramatic recreation

Kalani Simpson profiles the special teams, specifically the kickoff team.

It's like jumping out of a plane, this job. It's exhilarating. It's insane. You will crash back to Earth. That's coming, and everybody knows it, they all do. The only question is how hard -- and who you're taking with you, along the way.

"We gotta go down with a vengeance," Saole says.

Yes, but then come the collisions, crazy ones, full speed, at the end of a 40-yard dash. Galdeira, he's -- what? -- 5-7, 163? (Maybe.) He's crushed and been crushed, been on both ends of it, both windshield and bug. Malala once spectacularly leapt over the return team's "wedge," flipping in midair, taking out the ballcarrier with a foot to the head on a flying kick. It's crazy, out there.

And yet they use words like "discipline," and "responsibility" and "job." Malala is such a nice, polite, pleasant young man. Galdeira was on the honor roll at Kamehameha. So was Saole at Waipahu -- he was in the Dr. Seuss Reading Club!

This is football. They are psycho and cerebral both.

In case you haven't seen Malala's kung fu tackle yet:



Dave Reardon writes a great profile of UH receiver Davone Bess, who nearly became a Beaver. Bess talks about his early season struggles:

He's one of the team's hardest workers, but Bess figured something out this year that goes against his rise-before-the-sun ethic.

It is quite possible to try too hard.

Nine games into this season, it seemed he was doomed to the sophomore slump syndrome. The normally sure-handed Bess dropped more than his share of easy passes and wasn't getting open as often as he did as a freshman All-American in 2005. Although he had three 100-yard receiving games early on, Bess had a four-game stretch in which his receiving yardage decreased each game, down to 35 yards on three catches at Utah State on Nov. 4.

It wasn't a major crisis because Hawaii was winning. Other receivers were emerging, and it wasn't like Bess was playing terribly. He was just trying to make a big play every time the ball came his way, and sometimes it led to drops or more sideways and negative yardage than positive.

After a talk with Jones, Bess began to relax and let the game come to him.

"I think it was just a matter of me concentrating on my routes and my reads in general. I think early in the year I was just a little anxious, a little overanxious, trying to do too much, trying to make things happen instead of letting things happen on their own," Bess said. "Coach sat down with me, had a talk and told me stop trying so hard. He told me just settle down, let things come to me. I did that in the second half of the season and I'm getting better."

Tombo's prediction: 125 yards and 2 touchdowns against OSU.

In today's edition of Dave Reardon's Colt Following, Dave finds a great quote from ESPN analyst Jim Donnan.

"I've been impressed not just with Colt Brennan, but the way that entire team has developed over the season.

"We hear a lot about the system. The system's good, but this guy has the ability to make it in any system and has a chance to go to the next level. We hang out and talk with guys like Ron Jaworski a lot, and he likes him.

"Every defense knows he's going to throw the ball, but they still can't stop him. If I'm another team, I don't want to play him. I've got him No. 3 on our Heisman Trophy watch. He's made a quantum leap from the start of the season.

"I think right now the short list for 2007 is (Arkansas running back Darren) McFadden, him, (West Virginia quarterback Pat) White and (West Virginia running back Steve) Slaton. "

Speaking of ESPN, Ferd Lewis talks to the ESPN commentators in town to cover tomorrow's game.

This will be their only national cable showing and they draw ESPN's "A" team, Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Dr. Jerry Punch, here to do it.

...

Seeing has been believing for Franklin, who concedes he's become a Brennan and UH admirer even before seeing them at UH practice yesterday for the first time.

"Like I told (analyst) Ed Cunningham, 'You know what? This is a very good Hawai'i football team. They're really fun to watch, on both sides of the ball,' " Franklin said.

Before yesterday, Franklin was probably like a lot of voters, unsure how much Brennan is for real. "I really didn't know what to think because you look at the system that June (Jones) runs and your first reaction (to the statistics) is you might say, well, it is because of the system. But this kid is not a result of the system. He's gonna be even better because of the system. I'm serious with you, I think ... if he's not the No. 1 pick next year (2008) as far as quarterbacks coming out, he won't be far from it."

Franklin said, "(Yesterday) was the first time to see Colt in person and, you know what, I can understand now why June said this may be the best quarterback he's ever coached.

"When he (Jones) mentions him in the same breath with (Jim) Kelly and Warren Moon, you know this kid is really special. He might be the most accurate kid I've ever seen throw. ... This kid, even at full speed, completes virtually everything. He's absolutely amazing."

The hope is that Heisman voters will stay up long enough tomorrow to come to the same conclusion.

Let's hope Colt and the seniors can lead UH to a big time victory over Oregon State tomorrow!

SELL OUT! GREEN OUT! LIGHTS OUT! WARRIORS!!!!