Former Utah wide receiver Quinton Pedroza is joining the University of Hawaii football team.

Pedroza, who is 6-foot-2 and 216 pounds, has been accepted into UH. He will arrive in town on Friday.

He must redshirt this season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules. After that, he will have two years to play two seasons.

Pedroza was named the Mount Baldy League’s most valuable player as a senior at Chino (Calif.) High in 2010, his only season of high school football. Greg Salas, a former UH receiver now with the Philadelphia Eagles, is a Chino alumnus.

Pedroza was used mostly on special teams in his first two seasons at Utah. He exited spring training as a starting receiver and the leading candidate to return kickoffs and punts. But this summer, Pedroza, 20, was dismissed from the Utes reportedly because of an incident of under-age drinking.

Pedroza contacted UH. After an intensive vetting process, he was allowed to transfer.

Get to the punch

In football, the two-handed thrust to a defensive lineman’s jersey number is known as the "punch." Line coach Chris Naeole believes in the hands-on approach to teaching proper techniques.

"After you have a coach who played in the (NFL) for 12 years (wants) you to punch — not by telling you but by punching you — it kind of gives you incentive to get that punch out there," offensive lineman Kody Afusia said.

Naeole said: "It was a demonstration. I had to show him."

Of the UH linemen, Afusia has one of the quickest and most forceful punches. An adherence to fundamentals has kept Afusia on the first-team line as a guard on the left or right side.

"Kody is very consistent," Naeole said. "He can play all three (interior) positions. He can make the change, going from right (guard) to left (guard) to center."

After each practice, the players are required to run gassers — a series of 60-yard sprints — in a time specific to the position they play.

Despite being "tired as heck," Afusia usually is one of the first to complete each segment.

"I try to work my hardest," Afusia said. "If I jog in the back of the pack, it only hurts myself. If I can make better time, it’ll get me in better shape. The gassers after practice have helped me out in practice."

In past years, Afusia has been reserved.

"I was trying to be humble, sitting back, and doing my thing," Afusia said.

This camp, he has been more vocal. In Monday’s practice, he implored teammates, in HBO-appropriate language, to hustle.

"Sometimes it comes out and I get angry," Afusia said. "If I have to yell, I’ll yell."

Head coach Norm Chow said: "He’s one of our leaders."

Checking out

On Tuesday afternoon, the Rainbow Warriors checked out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where they lived and trained for six days, and moved into their dorms and off-campus housing.

The Warriors had installed their offense and defense before moving on base. Chow said this part of the camp was to further evaluate the depth chart and add some wrinkles to the schemes.

"I thought it was productive," quarterback Taylor Graham said. "I thought we did well."

For the first part of camp, the players lived in the UH dance studios. On base, they had double-occupancy accommodations.

"Having a little alone time," Graham said, "is going to be weird. I’m going to have to get used to it."