Often, on the first day of University of Hawaii football practice you have to be careful where you step. No such problem Thursday at Ching Field, even after an extensive set of conditioning runs on a hot afternoon at the end of the Warriors’ first official workout of fall camp.

"Nobody did the first-day barf," noted Jason Kaneshiro, who has covered these since the turn of the millenium.

Greg McMackin was pleased. "And those guys running are the ones who aren’t in the best shape," the head coach said.

Some bad body language was the only part of the conditioning that got McMackin fired up. No hands on knees allowed. No panting.

"Don’t EVER show anyone you’re in a weakened state," he growled.

Quarterback Bryant Moniz was among the runners. He barely missed the 90 percent attendance of offseason workouts cutoff point for exempt status. But he and most of the others clearly had not misspent the time since the end of spring ball.

The participation of the team’s most high-profile player shows there’s no leniency for Heisman Trophy candidates, and that’s the way he likes it. "You don’t want to separate yourself just because you get the most attention. You’re no different than the rest of the team," Moniz said.

Here’s the only important stat at the conclusion of Day One: 0 CIU — zero crutches in use. That’s a very good sign.

Linebacker Aaron Brown looks like he spent the entire offseason in the weightroom. Former Tennessee corner Mike Edwards passes the eyeball test.

Overall, this team is in shape, and that’s the first step. You might still see a pulled hamstring or two in the coming weeks, but not many.

IF YOU LOOK hard enough, you’ll still see a few players who were brought in before McMackin was head coach.

Vaughn Meatoga, Kenny Estes, Jett Jasper, Sila Lefiti … not many others. Some fifth-year seniors remain, the last few who practiced and played under June Jones.

Defensive tackle Meatoga and safety Estes are starters. Jasper, a walk-on (like Meatoga and Estes, from Kauai), has a lot of fans who hope he gets some playing time this season. Lefiti, who redshirted in 2007, is expected to play a big role in the re-forming offensive line as starting center.

The rest are McMackin’s guys. If you ask the holdovers, they’ll say it doesn’t really matter; seniors play for themselves and their teammates as much or more than for their coaches. And while McMackin and Jones both are fanatical about the run-and-shoot offense, they represent football yin and yang, two coaches with distinct perspectives.

"I’m a defense-oriented guy, that’s my personality," McMackin said. "We want to attack in all three phases. And we’ve added speed and depth to help us do that. You attack on offense, you attack on defense and you attack on special teams."

Of course, Jones’ defenses were about creating turnovers, too. But last fall the Warriors led the nation in takeaways … a nice pairing with being at the top of the list in passing yards. It added up to 10 victories.

"It’s a goal of ours to come up with three or more turnovers a ballgame," McMackin said. "That’s what we did last year. You win when you do that."

Said Moniz: "I like how we attack on defense, too. And special teams. (Special teams coach Dick) Tomey said there’s a lot in words, and that’s why he changed the name from special teams to strike force. That’s what we all want to do, attack."

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