Jake Heun, Jason Rivers, Next AD

Note: I posted links to yesterday's news in the previous post.

Stephen Tsai writes that running back Jake Heun will become a Warrior.

The Hawai'i football team broke ground on a new era, receiving a commitment from a gritty junior-college running back.

"I'm a Warrior," said Jake Heun, who was raised in Alaska and attended City College of San Francisco the past two seasons.

Heun is 6 feet 2, and weighs between 245 and 250 pounds.

Heun has bench pressed a maximum 435 pounds. He also has benched 225 pounds 26 times. In a test measured by laser, he ran 40 yards in 4.56 seconds.

"Right now, I'm in decent shape, so I think I'm in the 4.6 range," he said.

Most important, Heun brings a linebacker's attitude to running back.

"I love blocking," he said. "I love knocking people around on that side. I think you can lay more of a hurt on somebody from the offensive side than on defense."

Tsai also writes about Jason Rivers' performance in yesterday's East-West Shrine Game:

Former UH wideout Jason Rivers said it was a "good experience" to play in yesterday's East West Shrine Game in Houston.

Rivers started, and caught a pass on the game's first play from scrimmage. He finished with three catches for 16 yards in the West's 31-13 victory.

Here a couple reviews from the game and earlier Shrine practices. From the Chicago Tribune:

Another player trying to show he could make the transition to a conventional offense was Hawaii wide receiver Jason Rivers. He impressed potential employers with his ability to run all the routes. Rivers' toughness and competitiveness also stood out.

From Niner Insider:

His main target was Hawaii receiver Jason Rivers, who's trying to prove he's more than a run-and-shoot receiver. He got open on the drive, made one catch over his head, but dropped another in the middle of the field that would have been a first down. Rivers is a projected sixth-rounder. At 6-1, 186 with 4.5 speed, he can work the middle zones.

The Star-Bulletin has some info on today's Parade of Champions.

The event will honor the UH football, women's soccer and women's volleyball teams, all of them 2007 champions in the Western Athletic Conference, along with intermediate and high school football champions.

Marching bands will accompany them.

New UH football head coach Greg McMackin will be grand marshal.

The parade begins at Fort DeRussy at 4 p.m. and will head down Kalakaua Avenue to the "Sunset on the Beach" stage, with entertainment by Imua starting at 5:30 p.m. and a program at 6 p.m. Performances by Na Leo and Willie K. will start at 6:30 p.m. with highlights of the 2007 season projected on the 30-foot "Sunset on the Beach" movie screen.

And Ferd Lewis writes that the next UH athletic director needs to be more involved in the business community.

Now, as UH prepares to start the search for a new athletic director, the school needs to seek out someone who both understands and can sell that vision. What it requires in Herman Frazier's successor is someone who can wade into the business community and, using 2007 an example, build a financial partnership to grow the entire athletic program.

That's something the former AD was either unwilling or unable to do. How lacking it became was underlined when a frustrated group of local businessmen, pledging $1,000 each on their own, raised more than $100,000 in a little more than a day last month to donate to the football program.

P.S. It was announced at last night's basketball game that Hawaiian Airlines will give Coach Greg McMackin and his staff free round-trip flights to recruiting destinations. That's cool.