Game time becoming Cole time for Warriors

Like many college students, Hawaii quarterback Cole McDonald spends his free time playing Fortnite.

After leading the Rainbow Warriors to two high-scoring victories this football season, McDonald has proven to be a gamer.

“Something Mouse had always said,” UH offensive coordinator Brian Smith said of legendary coach Mouse Davis, “was a lot of times you never quite know (about a player) until you get into a game. Once the light goes on, two things happen. Either you get better or you get worse. When he gets into a competitive situation, Cole gets better.”

During spring training and training camp, the UH quarterback is off limits to being hit. A stop-play whistle is sounded when a defensive player gets close to a quarterback in scrimmage-like sessions.

“The biggest thing for Cole — when he’s able to play real football, when there’s no quick whistle — he’s able to do all the things he naturally can do well,” quarterbacks coach Craig Stutzmann said. “He trains hard on the field. He trains hard in the weight room. He watches tons of film. When it’s game time, he’s able to see what he needs to see, and he’s able to react to it pretty well. … The good thing about him is he’s a little bit of a gamer.”

In two games, his first two starts as a Warrior, McDonald has completed 71.2 percent of his passes (56 of 78). There have been five drops. He is the national leader with 846 passing yards; UH is fifth nationally with 427.0 passing yards per game. McDonald has nine touchdown throws and has not been intercepted during his two-season UH career.

“Cole is doing really well because of the work he puts into being good,” Smith said. “Being a great player has been extremely important to him. He’s really competitive. It shows through the time and effort he’s put into becoming a great player.”

Stutzmann said the restrictions in spring training and training camp have been helpful in McDonald’s development. Because plays are called “sacks” whenever a defender approaches whispering distance, “it trains him to get the ball out on time,” Stutzmann said. “It trains him to play quarterback in the pocket. The things he’s doing from the pocket, he’s getting better and better with every rep he’s taking and every game he’s playing.”

McDonald also has been quick in self-analysis.

“When he’s coming off the field, he passes on the information he sees on the field and then applies it to the next series,” Stutzmann said. “Yes, there are some throws he missed and, yes, there are some reads he missed. Right when it happens or at halftime or the end of the quarter, we’re able to talk. He’s like, ‘Gosh, I missed that. I tried to do too much.’ He’s self-reflecting in real time, which has been huge for his development. He puts his ego aside and says, ‘I should have done this,’ and he goes out and does it the next series. That’s pretty special.”

Smith said the offense has embraced the return of the run-and-shoot following a six-year hiatus.

“They really believe in what we’re doing and they’re having fun with the offense,” Smith said. “They all got a taste of the success of what it could be, what it could do. A lot of kids who were in the program, they heard about the run-and-shoot almost in a mythical form. A lot of them were excited to learn more about it, get more involved with it. Once you start getting success with it, you really start believing in it, and you trust it, and it can kind of snowball.”

This year’s offense has nine new starters.

“We have a young team,” Stutzmann said. “Sometimes they don’t know any better. They’re just playing football and having fun.”