Fall Camp: Day 2 Wrap-Ups

Stephen Tsai has news and notes from the second day of practice. He highlights the competition to replace Dan Kelly at kicker, John Fonoti's improved endurance, and cornerback Lewis Walker dealing with a serious family matter.

Walker's mother recently suffered an apparent heart attack in Salt Lake City.

UH officials helped make arrangements for Walker to return to Utah to be at his mother's side.

But his mother told him to remain in Hawai'i, where the Warriors are in their first week of training camp.

"I'm staying," said Walker, a second-year freshman cornerback who did not compete in drills yesterday.

"He had a discussion with his mom, and she told him she wanted him to stay here," cornerback Jeramy Bryant said. "Everybody respects their mom's word."

UH head coach Greg McMackin said: "He's going to be with the team. His mom wants him to be here, to be strong. This is his family, too. But we had it set up so he could go home."

Jason Kaneshiro has some notes about Walker, Kainoa LaCount, Malcolm Lane, and receiver Jovonte Taylor.

Taylor, a junior, sat out most of last season due to an illness and was granted a medical hardship. He returned at full strength in the spring and was the leading receiver in the Warrior Bowl with five receptions for 135 yards and the decisive touchdown.

He stayed in Hawaii the entire summer, working on improving his speed and strength.

"Track workouts, running routes, going at it the whole summer," said Taylor, who ran a 10.4 100-meter dash in junior college. "I'm a lot stronger than I was before, that's for sure. I feel a lot faster and I feel a lot more confident in my routes going over it the whole summer. I'm a lot more precise with my cuts and catching and all of that."

Billy Hull profiles safety Mana Silva.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior opens fall camp for the second year in a row running with the starting unit. But unlike last year when he came in out of shape and struggled picking up a new defensive scheme, Silva is showing off an improved understanding of the defense to go along with an impressive physical frame.

"(Last year), I was kind of complacent and took a couple of weeks off and it got out of hand and I got out of shape and stuff," Silva said. "(This summer) I trained every day, only went home (to Hilo) on the weekends to see my wife, and just worked hard."

And Dave Reardon notes that the UH defensive backfield is very green.

Hawaii is losing two defensive backs now in NFL camps, as well as seemingly everyone else with any Division I starting experience in its secondary.

I usually focus on what’s coming back rather than what’s gone, but it doesn’t matter how you look at it, the Warriors DBs are green. To me, that is the biggest concern for UH this fall. This group — which was bombed in the spring game — must come together quickly.

UPDATE: kapakahi added a day 2 practice report to the SportsHawaii fall camp thread last night.

As of now, 1st team Oline is as follows...
LT Kia
LG Hisatake
C Estes
RG Ieru
RT Letuli

2nd team Oline is as follows....
LT Laurel
LG Hansen
C Lefiti
RG Uperesa
RT Thomas

As of now Brett Leonard is running with 3rd team Oline at LT, while Kainoa LaCount is 3rd team RT. Both Leonard & LaCount are some definitely some big boyz...with some height too.