Photos of Colt at Practice today:"I do not like you Kyle Boller and I hope you throw a pic 6!"

"Hey Coach - I can't see the play!"

Here's Colt in his Raiders uniform......oh wait a minute...

Raiders.com and San jose Mercury are reporting that Colt had a VERY impressive practice today.  Threading the needle and a nice long bomb over Michael Huff for a 50 yd pass in the air!  Nice Cannon!

Join us at Ryan's Grill tomorrow as we will be specail guests of Bud Light celebrating Happy Hour from 3pm-6pm!

 Congrats to Colt Brennan - signed with The Raiders and assigned #4 Jersey. It will be an uphill battle. Campbell, Boller, Gradkowski and Frye all have starting experience in the NFL, and all but Campbell are already familiar with the system. My question is, with the Raiders vertical game - is it a good fit for Colt? Maybe Samson Satele can sabbotage some snaps to the other guys and block extra good for Colt!

I will see you at UH Football Practice tomorrow morning at 8:30am.  It's open to the public.  I saw some foootage on the news tonight - the boys seem to be in high gear already - hopefully we see the same hustle in day #14 or 15.

Coach Mac says D-Line looks really good.  I hope so.  If we can pressure the passer and stop the run, that will be golden!  Just as important as good O-Line play this year.

Who should be team captains?  Obviously Vaughn Meatoga on Defense, but who else?  What do you think?

Gary and I talked to Leroy Lutu today on the show.  He is leaving the B-Ball program to join the Warriors.  Leroy is 6' 3", 210 lbs.  Looks to redshirt this year and play safety next two years.  If he gains another 20-25 pounds he could play linebacker!  40 inch vertical and quick... if he can hit like his Dad - could we be talking NFL prospect?  Funny thing is during the interview, Gary and I looked at each other with our mouths hanging wide open... He sounds exactly like Colt Brennan!  Very funny!  Someone with the last name of "Lutu" should sound differently! 

Join us tomorrow at Buffalo Wild Wings for the NAPA Ultimate Sports Trivia Challenge Finals.  We will broadcast our show at 3pm followed by the Finals at 5pm, then the Celebrity Challenge, then the Chevron Team Challenge and finally the Blazing Wings Eating Contest!  $1 for 4 hours of Validated parking in Discovery Bay!

Make a note to yourself to stop by uhfootball.blogspot.com for all the latest info on UH and former UH Warriors.  This is the site many journalists go to to get their leads...  For example, check out the latest onIkaika Alama Francis:

...Miami’s new linebackers coach, Bill Sheridan, wanted to try a little experiment. Alama-Francis was given a number of snaps at outside linebacker to see if he could handle making the transition and provide a different look for opposing offenses.

Apparently, the experiment worked as Sheridan was able to convince Head Coach Tony Sparano to make the position switch a permanent one before the start of training camp. Alama-Francis was about 11 or 12 pounds heavier than he is now in the spring and was impressing Sparano with how he moved during certain drills. He was asked to drop his weight in order to increase his speed and quickness and he responded.

``'Whatever I can do to help the team -- you want me to go free safety, strong safety, what do you want?'' Alama-Francis said, a laugh running through his recollection.

Linemen who make this conversion, such as Matt Roth with the Dolphins in 2008, usually feel at ease when they have to drop into coverage against running backs.

``[It] Feels good,'' Alama-Francis bubbled. ``They're a little bit faster. I'm light on my feet now. I'm 275 now. I can dance a little bit with them. But I can't run down the field with them. That's a little different story.''

Alama-Francis loudly popped running back Lex Hilliard so hard during a pass rush in team drills, the sturdy Hilliard appeared shaken and rested during the remainder of that portion of drills.

Apparently, acording to an Animal Nation caller on today's show, the staff in Miami is having trouble pronouncing Ikaika's first name so they just call him "Ike." - LOL! 

Morning:   We had a guest speaker in church today.  Wow lots of big words I didn't understand. But he must have been good - because it was really crowded and about 30 people stayed after service for a question and answer time.  Nice worship time too...

Noon:  Nap

Afternoon:   Was raining pretty steadily here in Aiea, was bummed that our Tennis date got cancelled (yes tennis), however sitting on the lanai, rain falling with a glass of wine and a scrabble game was super nice this afternoon... Being married is so cool.

Evening:    I have grilled alot of chicken in my time... Char Siu Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Italian Chicken, chicken with Sugoi's Garlic sauce... grilled 'em all! Except tonight, for the first time Oyster sauce chicken... It is absolutely the best! Super Da Kine Shaka Braddah Ono L'Dat!

Coming tomorrow - Wall to Wall Football!

Just 32 Days till USC comes to Aloha Stadium to face our Warriors...

1) What is the status of our O-Line?  This used to be a strong point of the program, will it be once again?  So many new names, however Laupepa Letuli and Bully Ginlack amongst others have been chomping at the bit to get more playing time on the field.  There is much experience (from practice) lining up for UH - it's just not alot of playing together.  But trust me these boys are tough and feel like they have something to prove.

2) D-Line - Coach Tony is tough and should pass that on to his boys on the D-Line.  We hear all kinds of depth however, this unit needs to STOP the RUN! and pressure the QB - two things we did not do last year.  If they do - UH wins 8 games this year - "Stamp It!"

3) DB's are awesome - period.  However, if they don't get help from the front 7, they'll all be making tackles 8 yds. from the line and never be able to show their true value to this defense. 

4) All Skill positions - Loaded. (Even QB)

5) We have two coaches who are taking first crack at being coordinators... I am not worried about that at all.  Coach Rolo is bright and Mouse is there to help.  Dave Aranda is a genius (That's what everybody keeps saying) and his work ethic is matched by none...

So let's see what happens... I can't wait, it'll be here sooner than we think - I say we win one we aren't expeted to and lose one we should have won, however this year Coach Mac's Warriors finish 8-5 and go to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl!

Time for more behind the scenes stuff for Animal Nation...

OMG!  I hate to hang up on listeners, however, during our last caller of the show segment we warn Animal Nation that you "have to keep it entertaining so you can hopefully be on the line when the show is over to win the prize. If you run out of things to say or are not iteresting, we will hang up and move on to the next caller.  Just like musical chairs - whoever is on the phone when it's time to end wins."

So a guy calls, has a good conversation going, but thenm starts to try to introduce us to new info regarding Jeremiah Masoli.  We explained to him that we have been covering that same info the last two days and hang up and move on to the next caller.  He understood the contest because he started the conversation with "okay, I hope I can keep this going until 6 'oclock..."

After we hung up and award the prize to the next caller... Gary and I are waiting for the elevator to go home and Gary's cell phone rings... It's the guy from the contest!  He calls Gary on his cell phone (How did he get Gary's cell #?) and rips Gary a new one!  Gary was so polite, trying to re-explain how the contest works etc...

Caller was lucky!  If he called my cell, I would have said "sorry - not interesting!" and hung up again!     

University of Hawaii Athletics needs a STAR!

If you think about the different programs and their biggest crowds and buzz, they all had stars.

Baseball - Billy Blanchette, Tyler Cheff, (of course our own Kenny Harrison and Matt Apana)

Volleyball -Kahumoku and Kamanao (even though she was a setter) 

Football - Colt Brennan, Timmy Chang, Chad Owens, Bess/RGM, Al Noga

Basketball - Anthony Carter and Alika Smith

These guys were the face of their programs and are remembered log after they are pau at UH.

I'm sure you can think of many more.  In fact, the mega stars from UH you can identify with just one name:  Colt, AC, Lilly etc...

Greg Salas was a guest on the show today.  He is obviously a great athlete, a team leader, and pretty good on the air - everything you need for a star!  UH just built a website to push him as an All American Candidate (catchgregsalas.com).  That is great.  BUT - is it too little too late?  Salas will be a senior this year - can "mainstream sports fan" latch on to him as a star?  Not yet anyway.

The last few years Rocky Savaiigaia was great on the air, volunteered in the community, loved kids, was a bigger than life guy in person.  But, because he was an interior defensive lineman and was often hurt thruought his career, he never quite became the star that I think the media was hoping for.

In fact, UH Softball's Kelly Majam is the only true star I can think of on campus right now.  So, who's job is it to develop stars?  UH?  The media?  Both?  Either way - "I'm holding out for a hero" - we need one... and fast!