Praise for the Defense
Dave Reardon writes that Coach Glanville and Coach Lumpkin hear good things from other coaches about the UH D. And Jerry's not job-hunting, which is excellent news.
During a phone interview yesterday with Jerry Glanville at the AFCA annual convention in San Antonio, a reporter tried to sum up the conversation to that point.Jerry also talks about possible position changes.
So you're not job hunting, but you're imparting wisdom?
"You said a truth, but then you followed it up with something not quite true," Glanville replied.
His main priority seemed to be getting his fill of good Tex-Mex food, but Glanville is also working at the coaches' convention (and not distributing résumés). On Sunday, he and outside linebacker coach George Lumpkin spoke at seminars.
Glanville said he was overwhelmed by his colleagues' reaction to UH's improvement on defense.
"There's 7,000 coaches here, and everybody's talking about how Hawaii hustles and hits. Not fans, spectators, this is coaches," Glanville said.
"It makes me very proud of the kids that every coach knows how hard they play. I told George I wish the kids could hear that."
One thought is to move strong safety Jake Patek to free safety.With Jerry sounding like he's coming back, with Sol and the Manimal forming a solid ILB core, with Keenan Jones able to play, with Keomaka and Galdeira on the rise, this defense is gonna be AMAZING next year. I know I said similar things yesterday, but I just feel the same way about the defense as I felt about the offense before the 2006 season started. They're gonna be fun to watch in 2007.
"We discussed it and may take a look at it," Glanville said. "But his coverage ability is so good, slotbacks can't get away from him. If we move him to free we lose that strength. After what he did, it makes you say don't move him. He and Mike Malala took two excellent tight ends out of the (Arizona State) game."
If Patek stays put, junior Dane Porlas, freshman Spencer Smith and sophomore Kirk Alexander become the top returning candidates at free safety.
"But Alexander's up to 226 pounds, so he might be growing into a linebacker," Glanville said. "Desmond Thomas has been working out at strong, but we could look at him at free."
posted by Tombo Ahi @ 1/10/2007 08:04:00 AM HST permalink
6 Comments:
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 9:47:00 AM HST,
Anonymous said…
eh tombo, i hope i got this right. i now i mentioned somewhere, probably at ST's blog that i would try again to post on your site. hope it goes through.
after we pick up seau-tyler, j. leonard, reynolds, and hopefully, hardin and mouton...i say the defense rests. then if we can pick up a oline man or two. we could be set for the 2007 class.
did you know that we will end up with more 3-4 star athletes this year than the last 2 combined?
reload baby!
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 10:01:00 AM HST,
Tombo Ahi said…
hey al,
it worked! thanks for posting. yeah, the D is looking awesome for 2007 and beyond! june says we're pretty set at o-line but a couple of pick-ups would be great! thanks again.
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 12:15:00 PM HST,
Anonymous said…
Tombo,
Who do we have on D-line for next year? I know our linebackers will be the strength of the D, but w/out 3 big boys to anchor them, things will be difficult.
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 12:55:00 PM HST,
Tombo Ahi said…
Hey Niall,
Michael Lafaele will be back at nose, which is crucial. Dave Reardon mentioned incoming JC transfer Ray Hisatake will also compete at nose along with, I think, Fale Laeli and Keala Watson. Also returning will be Amani Purcell, Victor Clore, Rocky Savaiigaea, David Veikune, Elliott Purcell, and the papers mentioned John Fonoti would be on the line as well. Incoming grayshirts will be Clayton Laurel and Alasi Toilolo and incoming recruits will include Chris Leatigaga and Vaughn Meatoga. I'm probably forgetting a couple too.
It'll be hard to replace Ikaika, Mel, Lawrence Wilson, Renolds Fruean, Kahai, etc. but we got a lot of great players with a lot of game experience and some monsters coming in. We'll find out more in the spring, but it's looking like it should be an awesome D-line!
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 3:20:00 PM HST,
Anonymous said…
Tombo,
You made my day. Wow, if another Purcell is in line, you know we are going to be tough. And I didn't know that Lafaele is coming back!!!! He is awesome!!! Ok, I am already getting psyched up for 2007. I know Patek will lead a good group of DBs so all we have to do is make sure that our corners play tough again and we will have a defense to match our offense.
It really looks like that all we have to do is make sure that Jerry Glanville comes back.
Do you know how I can contact Glanville so I can send him a letter asking him to coach the Warriors again??? Maybe we should start a petition to make sure Glanville comes back. If I knew how to do one of those internet petitions I would circulate it.
I just remembered a good story I have to share w/ you. My father, brother and I all went to Tuscaloosa to watch the Warriors play Bama. Bama was expecting Darby to run all over us. Glanville's boys shut their running game down. I was sitting in the back row of the UH section w/ the Bama fans 12 inches behind me. Everytime the Warriors shut their running game down, all you could here them talk about was how good Glanville was and how much they needed him as their coach!!!
Glanville is the MAN!!!!
At Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 6:49:00 PM HST,
Tombo Ahi said…
Hey Niall,
Just reading the newspapers and the Warrior Beat, it sounds like Jerry is probably coming back, which is awesome! But we won't know for sure until later. I don't know his e-mail, but I found his office phone number here:
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/directory.html
And that's a great story! Glad you got to go to Tuscaloosa. Too bad we couldn't pull out the win, but the experience probably helped the Warriors in the long run!
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