June / Graunke / Hercules! Hercules!

Stephen Tsai has a lot of quotes from Coach Jones' roundtable with reporters. Here's an excerpt:

On the possibility of an unbeaten UH team qualifying for a BCS berth:

"That's somebody else's decision. We don't ever talk in those terms. We speak only about each one at a time.

"Every year I break up the season into three phases, and the first phase is probably the most critical this year because of the two games on the road back to back (Sept. 8 against Louisiana Tech and Sept. 15 against Nevada-Las Vegas). Fortunately, we're opening at home (Sept. 1 against Division I-AA Northern Colorado). ... Those two (road) games ... I think, will really make us who we are. ...

"It's hard to win on the road, especially when you just took off of our football team 11 players that signed (pro) contracts. ... Any team that lost 11 (pro) potential players, there are some things you've got to find out about yourself."

There's a lot more from that article. June talks about the offensive line, C.J. Hawthorne, Kealoha Pilares, Leon Wright-Jackson, etc.

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Ferd Lewis writes that June will try to get backup QB Tyler Graunke a lot more playing time this year, even if it means Colt won't be piling on the stats.

So it is reassuring to hear Jones reason that the statistics and records will accumulate on their own. That if Brennan is going to have a 600-yard game, it won't be because UH poured it on some overwhelmed victim or let Brennan linger dangerously.

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Jones maintains he is looking not only at this season but the future in deciding how long of a leash Brennan will play on. "He (Graunke) gets a lot of time, period, but he's going to be the guy next year (2008) and he's got to know how to do all those things under game conditions," Jones said.

"How do you start your first game (in three seasons) at Florida (the 2008 opener)? He's gotta be ready."

Tyler's a great QB who's thrown some really awesome passes these past couple years. Glad he'll be getting more playing time this year.

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And Dave Reardon writes a great profile of Hercules Satele, who's set to be the only returning starter at his position along the Warrior offensive line. An excerpt:

Satele and sophomore center John Estes are the only returning starters on the Hawaii offensive line. Their unit is where people look when searching for potential flaws in the 2007 Warriors.

Satele uses this as fuel as he toils in summer workouts.

"Everyone has questions about our O-line. We have to replace three starters, and the running back," said Satele, who was a regular starter for the first time last season. "But that's what makes us work harder, to get rid of those question marks, and just play football and get this offense ready to roll. Last season John and I were considered question marks. That made us work harder and by the end of the season it erased that."

And from that article, the rest of the starting O-line going into fall camp:

According to offensive line assistant Dennis McKnight and head coach June Jones, the rest of the front protecting Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Colt Brennan lines up like this with the opening of fall camp next month: Keoni Steinhoff (left tackle), John Estes (center), Larry Sauafea (right guard) and Keith Ah-Soon (right tackle).

Sounds like the front five will be solid!