Eager to face old foes

Kaiwi Crabb is no stranger to going head-to-head against fellow football players from Hawaii.

On a daily basis, the starting left guard at Colorado finds himself up against senior Juda Parker, a Saint Louis alumnus who recently moved inside to defensive tackle.

This Saturday, Crabb will again match up against former high school adversaries when the Buffaloes host Hawaii at Folsom Field.

The 2010 Punahou graduate will stare across at a UH defensive line that features Kamehameha’s Beau Yap, Saint Louis’ Moses Samia and Waianae’s Kennedy Tulimasealii, who are all listed as starters on the UH depth chart.

"We just started watching the first couple of (film) clips (on UH) today and it got me excited," Crabb said. "Kennedy is a couple of years younger than me, but I definitely played against Beau and Moses, who I know from high school, and it’s going to be fun."

Crabb redshirted in 2010 when Colorado beat Hawaii in Boulder, 31-13.

A year later, he got his first collegiate reps when the Buffaloes opened the season at Hawaii, losing 34-17.

Flash forward to 2014 and Crabb is now a leader on the Buffaloes line and will start his 16th consecutive game.

"Every week we play it’s obviously a big game, but for me personally, it’s always fun playing UH," Crabb said. "I’ve been looking forward to this since I was a freshman."

Listed at 6 feet 3 and 295 pounds, Crabb has flourished under second-year coach Mike McIntyre.

He missed the entire 2012 season with a back injury and was still working his way back when McIntyre was hired to replace Jon Embree, who was fired after two seasons.

That created an open competition at every position and Crabb made the most of it, earning a starting job at one of the two guard spots.

He continued to improve over the offseason, winning the team’s Iron Buffalo Award for his work in the weight room. He’s still starting at the guard position but has the ability to move over to left tackle, where he’s listed second on the depth chart.

"Definitely when this new coaching staff came in, that was kind of my opportunity to prove myself again," Crabb said. "I worked pretty hard to get back into shape, and by the time the season started I was feeling back like my old football self again."

Healthy and motivated, Crabb’s focus now is to lead the Buffaloes back into prominence in college football.

Colorado won the national title in 1990 and had six 10-win seasons from 1989 to 2011.

Since Crabb’s arrival on campus in 2010, Colorado is only 14-36 overall. The Buffaloes are 4-24 in league play since joining the Pac-12 Conference for the 2011 season.

"It’s kind of been a roller coaster in terms of coaching staffs and conference and everything like that," said Crabb, who has played under three different head coaches. "For me, I would love to end my career with a bowl game. We’ve fallen short a couple of years and way off the mark a couple of years and so that’s kind of been the goal ever since I got here."

The season got off to a rough start when in-state rival Colorado State upset the Buffaloes.

The team bounced back with its first road win since 2012 when it beat Massachusetts 41-38.

In that game, Crabb was flagged for being illegally down the field on a pass play. It was the first penalty he had been whistled for as a starter.

"I want to be the best I can be this year," Crabb said. "I’d like to not have another penalty again the rest of the season, and last year I gave up two sacks, so hopefully I can keep that at zero this year."

Colorado has four players from Hawaii. In addition to Crabb and Parker, who has made 10 tackles and assisted on a sack this season, reserve linebacker K.T. Tu’umalo (Punahou ’11) also assists on special teams and freshman cornerback Jaisen Sanchez (Saint Louis ’14) is expected to redshirt.