SYDNEY Three key University of Hawaii football players – linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams, safety Daniel Lewis and tight end Tui Unga – will not play in today’s season opener because of disciplinary reasons, UH officials confirmed today.
Advertisement
Television: Live nationally on on ESPN with Allen Bestwick (play-by-play), Mike Bellotti (color) and Warren Smith (sidelines).
Hawaii’s Rainbow Warriors stretch during a training run at a field in Sydney, Australia, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. Hawaii has a history of being conservative on defense, but their new coaching staff wants to apply more pressure. This will be the first meeting on a neutral site between the teams. Not unsurprisingly, Dykes went back to his old stomping ground, and holy land for the Air Raid offense, Lubbock, Texas to snag Texas Tech transfer Davis Webb.
Woolsey, the senior quarterback, said he and other team leaders had also conveyed one hard-earned piece of wisdom to younger players: “Sleep in when you can”.
Establish a hard-nosed running attack behind the veteran offensive line. They have claimed the last three Ray Guy Awards for best college punter, two from Tom Hackett (Utah) and one from Tom Hornsey (Memphis). Given the fact that Hawaii’s closest conference rival, San Jose State, sits more than 2,400 miles away, the school gets crushed with travel costs and concerns with any away game. However, like Cal, they will have a new quarterback under center in Ikaika Woolsey, who replaces Max Wittek. CB Darius Allensworth is one of our defensive stars previous year and reports are that he’s only become better at turning pass deflections into interceptions.
Hawaii was led by wide receiver Marcus Kemp with four receptions for 73 yards and one TD.
They will operate behind a veteran offensive line that returns 12 lettermen including four starters from past year. They have the experience but they were not that great past year and Cal will exploit that. ESPN Pick Center gives Cal only a 45 percent chance of covering the spread. While the team lost Jared Goff, they did gain Davis Webb at QB. He is on the Doak Walker Award watch list.
But the quick turnaround wasn’t entirely the byproduct of stellar Cal play.
The Bears are not being picked by many to represent the Pac-12 North Division, but they have a number of notable home games against quality opponents to prove themselves worthy: vs. Texas (9/17), vs. Utah (10/1), vs. OR (10/21), vs. Stanford (11/5) and vs. Washington (11/19).
Muhammad has 1,246 yards and nine touchdowns on 209 rushes for his career.
Cal will have an opportunity to make a big move with Texas in a few weeks in the eyes of the National Media.
Advertisement
CAL LOSES IF: The Bears beat themselves. Hawaii has a strong slate of running backs, so he’s unlikely to get a start on Saturday but could feature on the special teams. Borrayo is a preseason candidate for the 2016 Outland Trophy and Vince Lombardi Award. Sanchez also recorded 14 touchbacks on 22 kickoffs and tacked on 23 extra points. Only two of his 74 punts went for touchbacks, and he put 28 of them inside the opponents 20. He recorded 89 tackles in 10 games with 3.5 tackles for losses and 1.5 sacks in 2015. In the past eight years, Hawaii has only once finished above.500.
