Warriors feel the heat on first day of practice

When the University of Hawaii football team gazes into a crystal ball — a Nike one, of course — it envisions a future that is hot as heck.

A month ahead of the Aug. 23 season opener against Stanford, the Rainbow Warriors opened training camp on Wednesday with a practice that bookended high noon. The following week’s game will be played against Arizona in Tucson, where the average high is in triple digits this summer.

“It’ll be hot here,” UH coach Timmy Chang said of the Stanford game at the Ching Complex. “So we want to make sure we give our guys the best opportunity to face what they’re going to see and put them in the elements. We figure the first two games — here and in Tucson — will be pretty hot for us.”

Safety Peter Manuma said: “Whoever came up with this idea, it’s a great idea, but it’s a bad idea at the same time. … I definitely feel it’ll get us ready. Last season, we played UCLA at the same (1:30 p.m.) time. It was way hotter than (on Wednesday). Shoutout to the coaches and support staff for coming up with this idea ahead of Week Zero.”

The Warriors sweated through drills in the first helmeted practice since the event to close spring training 136 days ago.

“It’s exciting to come out here and see everybody’s excited to finally put on a helmet and put on the cleats and actually play football now,” Manuma said.

Under new strength/conditioning coordinator Bobby Thomas, there was an emphasis on speed. During summer drills, the Warriors wore Catapult vests that featured a tracking device to measure straight-ahead speed and lateral quickness, and endurance.

For Wednesday’s practice, the two-fold emphasis was on playing fast (the snap-t0-throw goal of 2.2 seconds or quicker) and starting fast. Against 10 FBS opponents last year, the Warriors managed only 10 first-half touchdowns, including four in the second quarter.

“Starting fast is a big emphasis for us this year,” UH quarterback Micah Alejado said, “and it’s great that we brought in Bobby Thomas. He’s been emphasizing that (early-start mentality) in the locker room. The way we start every lift and the way we start every run, it’s a big emphasis for the whole team.”

Alejado added: “Last year, if you look at our games, we came out really slow in the first quarter and first half, but we always ended up somewhat strong in the second half. We’re trying to find out what kind of team we can become if we play strong (for) four quarters. We think we’ll be better off this year than last year if we start off strong.”

In the first session of practice, the Warriors rotated two huddles. After the first group went through their offensive progressions, the next 11 hurried onto the field for the snap.

“I thought they looked pretty good today,” Thomas said. “We had a big day. But for the timing we’re at, in the middle of the day, it is hot. We did have a hard practice. I thought the guys handled it really well. They ran well. The guys were moving well. You have those cramps where you have to do a better job outside the building taking care of our bodies and making sure we’re ready for the next day.”

While Thomas handled the conditioning during the offseason, the Warriors honed their offensive and defensive schemes with player-run practices. That eased the transition from the offseason to training camp.

“Everybody took the offseason seriously,” Alejado said. “That was big for us because a lot of leadership took place this offseason. If we could skip fall camp and go straight to Stanford, we would.”

Chang said: “Everything that we’ve done in the offseason to this point now is about starting fast, being ready, being prepared, being available.”

Chang helped out during drills, offering tips on blocking and demonstrating techniques to special-team players.

“For our first practice in helmets, coming out here we really wanted to be detailed in our fundamentals and our techniques and the simple things that are going to win us games,” Chang said. “We have a slogan: Be great at simple. And that’s what we wanted to do today, paying a lot of attention to the littlest things: their stance, their first two steps, their eyes, their feet, their hands. Those are the little things in the battle they’re going to need.”

2025 HAWAII FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT TIME SITE

Aug. 23 Stanford 1:30 p.m. Ching

Aug. 30 at Arizona 4:30 p.m. Tucson, Ariz.

Sept. 6 Sam Houston 6 p.m. Ching

Sept. 13 Portland State 6 p.m. Ching

Sept. 20 Fresno State 6 p.m. Ching

Sept. 27 at Air Force TBA Colo. Springs, Colo.

Oct. 4 Bye

Oct. 11 Utah State 6 p.m. Ching

Oct. 18 at Colorado St. 1 p.m. Fort Collins, Colo.

Oct. 25 Bye

Nov. 1 at San Jose St. 4:30 p.m. San Jose, Calif.

Nov. 8 San Diego St. 6 p.m. Ching

Nov. 15 Bye

Nov. 21 at UNLV 5:30 p.m. Las Vegas

Nov. 29 Wyoming 6 p.m. Ching