The University of Hawaii football team’s evaluation period will extend another day, with Saturday’s Spring Fling viewed as another spring practice.
NCAA teams usually arrange their limit of 15 spring practices to 14 workouts and a spring intrasquad game. But with not enough available players for two full teams, the Rainbow Warriors’ final day of spring training will conclude with a controlled scrimmage — instead of a game — with no more than 25 plays per quarter.
"Saturday will be basically another game or scrimmage," coach Norm Chow told reporters after Thursday’s practice, the 14th of spring training. "We need another day’s worth of practice. It will be very similar to what you saw today."
Chow said the goal is for Saturday’s scrimmage to be played with the same energy and temperament as any other practice session.
"Our whole philosophy is you’re going to practice just like you’re going to play," Chow said. "The game comes on Saturday; all we’re doing is taking out the balls and going through another practice session. If you have to do more on Saturday than you did during the week, it means you haven’t been honest with yourself, you haven’t given yourself every chance to do well in practice. We try not to make it a big deal, other than the fact Saturday is just like Wednesday or Thursday, if you’re honest with yourself."
QBs continue competition
By several measurements, it appears Ikaika Woolsey has been the No. 1 quarterback this spring. But Woolsey was yanked from an 11-on-11 session on Thursday after misidentifying an assignment.
"He didn’t do what he was supposed to do," Chow said.
Jeremy Higgins, meanwhile, was 6-for-6 for 120 yards and two touchdowns in his two possessions. Higgins threw a 35-yard scoring pass to Vasquez Haynes and then teamed with Keith Kirkwood for a 33-yard touchdown.
"That’s what’s nice about this spring," Chow said. "For the first time in three years, we get to compete a little bit at a lot of different positions. A lot of guys are returning guys, but there are a lot of positions to get better at."
Once again, Chow maintained a No. 1 quarterback has yet to be named.
"We evaluate every single play," Chow said. "Do we have to make a decision (now)? Probably not. Should we make a decision? Probably so. We’ll see. We’ll know."
Woolsey did re-enter, finishing 7-for-15 for 77 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown to Marcus Kemp.
On his place on the depth chart, Woolsey said: "I’m not worried about that. At the end of the day, I don’t make the decisions. Neither does Jeremy nor Taylor (Graham). Coach Chow makes the decisions. Wherever he goes, we’ll run with it. Whoever is that No. 1 guy, we’ll be supporting each other. That’s one thing I like about our quarterback group. We’re close-knit. If somebody does something good, we’re the first ones to congratulate each other."
More than a hoops player
With an extensive basketball background, it would be easy to regard the 6-foot-5 Kirkwood as a post-up receiver. But in scrimmage-like sessions this week, Kirkwood has been impressive in his post-catch running.
"When the (UH) coaches looked at my (recruiting) tape, they saw a couple of plays of me jumping up (for catches)," Kirkwood said. "They thought of me as just an end-zone type of player to go up and get balls. I wanted to come here to work on my speed, agility, things like that, so I can become an explosive player."
