UH’s Kemp improves by leaps and bounds

There are times in a football game’s fourth quarter when University of Hawaii wideout Marcus Kemp remembers those humid Manoa mornings and chilly Utah afternoons.

Since 2013, Kemp has trained in Hawaii during the summer and spent the holiday season working out with friends near his family’s home in Layton, Utah.

“Those workouts helped,” said Kemp, who sprints more than 60 plays each game.

Kemp plays a receiver’s position — Z — that does not allow Zzz. Like a baseball player who throws every pitch with the same motion, Kemp is required to run full speed whether he is running a deep route or sprinting across the formation on a jet sweep or being used as a decoy. The slightest change in effort could tip off defenses to Kemp’s role in each play.

“By the fourth quarter, it gets really tiring, and it’s hard to push yourself,” Kemp said. “A few times, I catch myself feeling I’m running a little slower, and I have to pump it up.”

But Kemp said the offseason workouts and the Rainbow Warriors’ rat-a-tat-paced practices have helped his endurance. This season, Kemp is averaging 28.8 yards per catch in the fourth quarter, a significant improvement over the 15.6-yard average in the first three quarters. He has made three fourth-quarter plays exceeding 25 yards.

“We emphasize tempo in practice,” Kemp said. “We go a lot faster in practices than in games, and it makes the games a lot easier.”

Kemp’s role and physique have changed the past few years. As a 6-foot-4, 180-pound freshman in 2013, he was on the left side as X receiver Chris Gant’s primary backup.

“My job was to go in there and block when Chris was tired,” Kemp recalled. “A lot of it was going in there and hitting the safety.”

Since then, Kemp has gained 25 pounds and now weighs 205. As a freshman, he said, “I wasn’t pushing my weight.” He now can back squat 335 pounds and power clean 286 pounds.

With UH’s new hybrid offense, Kemp was moved from the left to the right side. “That’s where the best guy has been primarily,” receivers coach Kefense Hynson said of head coach Nick Rolovich’s decision.

In the previous years, Kemp had a two-route menu: Deep patterns and slants. In the new hybrid offense, Kemp has expanded options on pass routes.

Because he is difficult to tackle — he averages 8.19 yards after catches and 4.81 yards after contact — Kemp often draws double teams. The Warriors try to take advantage of those double coverages, sometimes motioning Kemp on jet sweeps to open running lanes. Kemp has mastered the run-off block — “blocking” a defender by running away from him — to free teammates.

“If you’re running a route that drags a defender and some other people with you, that helps another receiver, and it helps the running back and the linemen not having to block those extra guys,” Kemp said. “It’s all about helping the team.”