WARRIORS FOOTBALL
UH coaches turn defense loose
By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com
Full-speed tackling, a rare sight at a Hawaii football practice, made an appearance at the grass practice field yesterday morning.
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While the Warriors linemen and most of the projected starters did some running after the 2-hour workout, there was a full-contact 7-on-7 period with linebackers and defensive backs taking down receivers.
"Our offensive and defensive linemen go full speed all the time," UH head coach Greg McMackin said. "We wanted to make sure we can tackle in the open field and we can catch the ball in the open field. We had some really good hits and some really good catches. The good thing is we didn't have a lot of missed tackles and there were very few dropped balls. So we got out of it what we wanted."
The Warriors defense had already had a spirited practice, coming up with a few big hits even before the tackling period, which featured primarily backups.
"It was good, everyone just flying to the ball and trying to make plays," safety Mana Silva said.
And as offensive coordinator Ron Lee pointed out, "best of all nobody got hurt."