With Tomey, special teams have always been special

Understated and less than artistic at times, but extremely effective.

Hawaii’s special teams made a solid if not always eye-catching contribution to UH’s season-opening 34-17 victory over Colorado on Saturday.

But for special teams coordinator Dick Tomey and his players, it’s like one of those movies where on a later viewing you find the little mistakes … the boom shadow, the scene in a restaurant that hadn’t opened yet.

For special teams, it’s like the rest of football: small things like being out of position by a foot, or big things like a guy not realizing he’s supposed to be on the field.

When I tell Tomey I think his group — which he has dubbed Strike Force — completed its mission with flying colors, he’s quick to identify five mistakes the Warriors made on special teams — mistakes that prevented some huge kicking-game plays in Hawaii’s favor.

They seem minor, since UH won the game handily and special teams played a large role in it. But I can see where he’s coming from. It made me think of some winning poker sessions; you walk away with more than you sat down with, but also with regret for a couple of bad reads on monster pots.

"There were a lot of good things. But when you break it down and look at individual technique there are so many things we can do better," Tomey said Tuesday after practice. "As you know, coaches are never satisfied completely."

I was satisfied because Hawaii decisively won the field position battle and made no crucial errors. And we could rarely say that last season.

ON SATURDAY, Kenton Chun’s first field-goal try was an adventure, but it eventually went through. I’m impressed if he called the bank shot. He and Tyler Hadden made all their kicks, and the platoon thing might work out OK.

Punter Alex Dunnachie consistently boomed them high and deep and the coverage allowed no returns. The kickoff team was also solid. Mike Edwards and Scott Harding did the job returning kickoffs and punts, with Edwards nearly going all the way on one.

One more block and he would have broken it. You hear that often, but in this case it was true — Edwards settled for a 48-yard kickoff return that shifted momentum back to Hawaii after Colorado had taken it in the third quarter.

"I was ready to explode, go all the way," Edwards said. "We saw it on film and we’ll take care of it this week."

That tells you how much this group has progressed under Tomey. Last year the special teams had to worry about correcting mistakes to avert disasters, now it’s about a little tinkering in order to totally ruin the opponents’ day.

JOBS ARE EARNED, not handed out, and evaluation is continual.

"Every day is a competition day for Strike Force," said Kamalani Alo, who is on all of the special teams. "It only takes a day to lose your spot."

Special teams were a source of pride for UH when Tomey was head coach in the 1970s and ’80s. They were as disruptive as they were efficient.

"Coach Tomey’s got us working like pros," long snapper Luke Ingram said. "I’ve never been around a coach who was so much about fundamentals."

"A big difference from last year," Alo said. "Schemes and techniques about attacking. We’re the hammer, not the nail now."

Reach Star-Advertiser sports columnist Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com, his "Quick Reads" blog at staradvertiser.com and twitter.com/dave_reardon.