LWJ, Back to the Beat, Helmet-to-Helmet, KHS

Jason Kaneshiro profiles running back Leon Wright-Jackson, who is a lot more confident going into this season.

Now, after a sophomore season spent spinning his wheels much of the time, Wright-Jackson still finished second on the team in rushing and hopes to build on those numbers this fall.

"I think I have the confidence back that I was looking for," Wright-Jackson said.

Wright-Jackson enters fall camp sharing the top line of the depth chart with senior Daniel Libre in the Warriors' one-back offense and has packed on 10 pounds in the offseason to add more power to the speed he displayed in tantalizing flashes in his first season at UH.

Stephen Tsai is back posting at the Warrior Beat after the two-day hiatus. He writes that there may be an extended stoppage of the blog if there's little progress in contract talks with the Advertiser and the unions. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. In the post, Tsai has notes about college football rule changes for this year, Jim Leahey's move from staff to contract worker for KFVE, and players stepping up in offseason workouts.

Training camp opens in two weeks, and everyone is buzzing about the play of the quarterbacks.
Inoke Funaki has been the most polished. But Tyler Graunke, who has met all of his academic obligations, has been impressive in recent weeks. He has cut his hair, lost weight and assumed a leadership role.
JC transfers Greg Alexander and Brent Rausch have been here all summer. They have not missed any unsupervised 7-on-7 drills.

Dave Reardon writes about one of the changes in college football -- more emphasis on penalizing helmet-to-helmet hits.

The zebras have been put on notice; targeting ball carriers and initiating contact with the crown of the helmet is not to be tolerated. Hits like the ones Fresno State's Marcus Riley leveled on Brennan and Oregon State's Al Afalava on Locker are more likely to be met with penalties and suspensions.

Neither was ruled illegal; both defenders were judged by the game officials to have led with their shoulders. But that was heavily debated in the following days as June Jones wrestled with whether to play Brennan at Nevada and the brawny Locker shook off the clocking from Kahuku grad Afalava.

The refs are instructed to lean the other way this year and come down heavily on anything even resembling head-hunting. If they don't, the conferences will.

And KHNL's Jason Tang has a report about Kauai high school players participating in the youth football camps held at UH.