Mana Silva, AD, Audit, Brian Smith

Stephen Tsai profiles UH safety Mana Silva.

Silva joined the Oregon State football team in August 2006. He moved to wide receiver, and redshirted that year.

Although he enjoyed his stay in Corvallis, Silva said, "I wanted to be closer to my family. I decided to come back."

He secured a release from Oregon State, then contacted the UH coaches. He also decided to move to safety.

"I felt, maybe, this is the ticket to the field," Silva said.

Mel deLaura, who is coordinating the off-season conditioning program, praised Silva's athletic ability.

"That guy is a stud," deLaura said. "He can do a lot of things."

Ferd Lewis praises the transparency and openness of the AD selection process.

So it is encouraging that people involved in the process are touting it as not only "fair" and "open" but as one of the most equitable searches they have been involved in. People who took part say that not only were all nine committee members encouraged to ask questions of the finalists and take part in a spirited exchange of views afterward, but that when a member was unable to be present for an interview, sessions were videotaped and played back. Moreover, Manoa Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw, who ran the whole thing, appeared to be both a strong leader and as open as anyone. She proved that the two qualities need not be mutually exclusive.

Dave Reardon writes that a state audit of the UH athletic department's finances is one step closer to reality.

Takai and other lawmakers want the state auditor to take a thorough look at UH's books. Yesterday, the House Higher Education committee passed a resolution to request such an audit for the years 2003 through 2007 (in its original form, it was for 1999 to 2007).

The resolution was passed unanimously by the nine members of the committee present, and now goes to the legislative management committee.

And Stephen Tsai's Warrior Beat will be hosting a chat with UH offensive line coach Brian Smith at 3pm 3:30pm HST today.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the chat.

UPDATE 2: Here's a great question and answer from the chat:

Comment from: Brian Smith [Member]

Comment from: al [Visitor]
so coach brian, how will this work with coach gerke and you both handling the oline?

will you be the one in charge of the line, sort of like the oline coordinator, you know, who starts, who plays where, what technique will be taught, and the like with coach gerke to assist you and handle the running backs as well?

Coach Gerke will first be the running backs coach. Because we spend so much time with the running backs in practice it only makes sense to have a coach that has the experience to help with Line during practice. If I can steal him for a few minutes in individual to help with the large number of lineman that I have then that will be great. Coach Gerke will help me as an extra set of eyes during group and team periods and will be a huge help with game preparations and being my eyes from the booth on game days. So far we have been working very well together and are on the same page with scheme and fundamentals.

03/12/08 @ 16:59