Spring Continues, Ryan Keomaka, JJ, WitP

Today is the 4th spring practice (if it's not rained out). Check out UH Sports Extra and the Warrior Beat, which may have live updates. Stephen Tsai writes that Davone Bess and Ryan Grice-Mull(en)ins are expected to attend.

UPDATE: Here's a report from Dave Reardon. Some excerpts:

*A svelte (300-pound) Rocky Savaiigaea was nearly unstoppable. He is rapidly approaching “beast” status.

*Jason Kaneshiro reports that the defense was dominant early, but Clayton Laurel, and in particular, Lafu Tuioti-Mariner was a stud. Tuioti-Mariner was able to stone Savaiigaea on a rep.

UPDATE 2: Reardon adds some news about a player who will join the Warriors next year.

David Garness, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound offensive lineman from Bartlett High in Anchorage, Alaska, said he will join the Warriors as an invited walk-on next year. Garness was also courted by UNLV and New Mexico.

UPDATE 3: Here's a video from today's practice from the Advertiser's Leila Wai. It includes interviews with Greg McMackin, Solomon Elimimian and David Veikune.

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Dave Reardon has a great profile of Ryan Keomaka, who despite lack of playing time this past year, is drawing interest from NFL teams after a strong Pro Day performance.

After running a 4.35-second 40-yard sprint, bench pressing 225 pounds 20 times and excelling in agility tests, Keomaka went from nowhere to a potential NFL free-agent signee, nearly as fast as he gets in the face of kickoff returners.

Scouts who saw his bench press performance said Keomaka's reps were all good ones.

"Actually, I had a cramp in my back at 18, or I could've done 100," said Keomaka, who then, as he often does, began to laugh.

But those who saw his act in Carson are serious about his potential.

"What he did is rare, such a good all-around workout," said Jon Nielsen, a consultant who has helped place several UH players in the Canadian Football League. "We were thinking CFL for Ryan, but he definitely got the attention of NFL people."

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There's two more articles from Mark Wangarin about JJ at SMU. The first one is about the coaches that came before Jones, and the other is about how former UH assistants like Jeff Reinebold, Dennis McKnight and Dan Morrison are adjusting to Dallas.

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In some Warriors in the Pros news, Jeff Ulbrich participated in a charity GoKart race, and kinda got a little too much into it.

Ulbrich made the biggest splash with his daring driving. He sent himself and others careening into the barrier.

"Well, I'm the best athlete out here," Ulbrich announced in a bit of trash talk.

"Hey, whatever," Banta-Cain shot back.

Later, Young said that Ulbrich was driving "dirty."

All the players and former players had a blast.

And the Sioux City Bandits, a UIF team with former UH player Chad Kapanui at QB and Chad Kalilimoku at DL, got their third victory of the season, beating the Colorado Ice. I can't play it right now, but this link might have video highlights from the game.