The best cross-generational passing combination at the University of Hawaii on Friday?

Darrick Branch to Lance Samuseva, a svelte 270 pounds, down 30 from his playing days. Good for two touchdowns.

Who knew?

Apparently the wide receiver and defensive tackle were playing out of position during their UH careers. Same for Jameel Dowling, a defensive back as a Warrior, a slick quarterback and receiver for this occasion.

And Marques Kaonohi and Tala Esera — offensive linemen in college, but ferocious, relentless, flag-grabbing defensive linemen now. Kaonohi even managed to keep his sunglasses on throughout one of his two sacks at UH’s first alumni flag football game, a prelude to the current team’s final spring scrimmage.

“Throw it to Ashley Lelie,” Leonard Peters says on the PA. “Coach Jones isn’t here to protect him anymore.”

“I used to love that (no-contact) rule,” Ryan Grice-Mullen says.

Lelie laughs, moves to quarterback and engages in some Hawaiian-style football, mixing in any number of laterals and forward passes.

When’s the last time you played quarterback, Ashley? “High school. One play. We ran option and I didn’t like getting hit.”

His Radford High team probably set some kind of record his senior year. Zero wins, but two players to the NFL, Lelie and Wayne Hunter.

“I had a nice little 20-loss streak,” Lelie says, noting his first year at UH was the 0-12 season of 1998. And then along came June Jones, and three years later Lelie was a first-round draft pick. Now, his NFL career done, he’s working toward becoming a history professor and runs a wide receiver academy (hawaiichamps.org).

These are good guys to ask: Which UH team was the best?

“Well, of course I’d be a little biased,” says Randall Okimoto, a freshman running back on the 1992 team.

OK, then … you can’t pick your own team. “Then I gotta say 2007. They won them all. Plus they had two guys we coached (at Farrington), Mike (Lafaele) and John (Fonoti).”

Lelie: “I’m biased because of Coach Jones, but (2007) was the first team to go to a BCS bowl, and they were undefeated, so you kind of have to give it to them.”

Branch is getting diplomatic as he ages: “They (2007) made it work, we (1992) made it work. They were a tight group, we were a tight group.”

They happily recount the past, but are optimistic for the future.

Lelie, a graduate assistant for the Warriors, says new coach Norm Chow’s practices remind him of the NFL because of their organization and tempo. Branch recalls asking Chow to help at a clinic on the Big Island several years ago, and Chow quietly going beyond the call, bringing in sponsors on his own.

“Coach Chow was giving back and helping kids here even back then, and he wasn’t even coaching here,” Branch says. “That’s what it’s all about.”

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.