Unable to reach a verdict, the Hawaii football team will use both Tyler Hadden and Kenton Chun as place-kickers in Saturday’s opener against Colorado.
“The competition was too close to eliminate one guy,” said Dick Tomey, who coordinates UH’s special teams. “We’re going to play both of them.”
Hadden and Chun have competed since spring training to serve as Scott Enos’ successor.
Hadden, a second-year freshman, is considered to have the stronger kicking leg. He will be used on kickoffs and long-distance attempts. Hadden and Chun will rotate on extra-point kicks and field-goal tries up to 40 yards.
“I want to make all of them inside of 40,” Tomey said.
In February 2010, Hadden was set to sign with New Mexico State when he received a time-sensitive offer from the Warriors.
“They wanted to know by a certain time,” Hadden said. “I signed at, like, 1 in the morning, and sent the papers. It was definitely a long, stressful couple of weeks. I had a lot of offers. Hawaii was the best offer at the time.”
Hadden moved to Hawaii that June. He suffered an injury to his hip-flexor muscle, groin and “pretty much everything in my right leg I could pull.”
He said he has fully healed.
Chun, a 2007 Saint Louis School graduate, was at Southern Oregon for two years. He moved back to Hawaii, enrolled at UH and tried out for the Warriors in 2010.
“It wasn’t my best day,” he said of that audition. “The coach (Chris Tormey) was looking for something different at the time.”
In February, he participated in the walk-on tryouts.
“New coaches, new ideas,” Chun said. “I happen to fit into what they want to do this year.”
“Tyler is a little stronger,” Tomey said, “but Kenton might have been a skosh more consistent since last spring. It’s still up in the air.”
Guard feeling right again
Right guard Chauncy Winchester-Makainai said he is at “95 percent” after missing the past two practices because of a stomach virus.
“It’s way better from Monday’s dilemma,” he said. “I had a stomach problem. I just had to sleep it off. It must have been something I ate from the weekend. It was really bad (Monday). I was throwing up.”
Ingram out of sling
Long-snapper Luke Ingram was not wearing a sling Thursday.
He expects to play against Colorado.
Beau Yap has made most of the long snaps the past two weeks.
