During the University of Hawaii football team’s grueling workouts under an unforgiving sun this summer, the question was: Why?

The answer came in the Warriors’ 38-28 comeback victory over Wyoming this past Saturday. Inside linebackers Simon Poti and Benny Fonua played all 63 defensive snaps.

"Those guys played their butts off for 60 minutes," defensive coordinator Kevin Clune said. "Shoot, it was what was called upon, and they stepped up."

The Warriors were short-staffed at the two inside-linebacker positions in the base 3-4 scheme. Jerrol Garcia-Williams is lost for the season because of a knee injury. Julian Gener will need about a month to rehabilitate his surgically repaired ankle. Tevita Lataimua was held out because of an ailment. Freshman Malachi Mageo was available, but the preference was to hold him out to preserve his redshirt status.

"Coach (Clune) got us prepared," Poti said. "We took a lot of reps during the week. I felt that prepared us for playing the whole game on Saturday."

Fonua, a junior, was making his first UH start. Fonua is a top special-teams player. But he was pulled off every unit except punt coverage to focus on linebacker.

"It’s all a mind thing," Fonua said of the whistle-to-whistle workload. "We were all tired. At the same time, we had to pull it all together and keep our minds strong and keep going."

Head coach Norm Chow said their effort could be traced to the offseason conditioning program.

"Every gasser they ran, every weight they lifted, is all for 13 opportunities," Chow said of the regular-season schedule. "We couldn’t afford not to take advantage of that."

Fonua limited ball-carriers to an average of 1.7 yards on his eight tackles. Poti limited them to 2.8 yards.

Lataimua is expected to play in Saturday’s road game against San Diego State. The Warriors appear to be prepared for additional injuries or situations requiring immediate substitutions, such as an inside linebacker’s helmet becoming dislodged.

"We’ve talked so many times about the contingency plans if this happens or that happens," Clune said. "We’ve got to be able to handle all those situations. That’s what defense is. You have to be able to handle every situation. Offense gets to choose what plays they want to run, what packages they want to run. We have to be able to cover every base than an offense can throw at us, that a game can throw at us."

Poti said the players will be ready for extended work.

"We practice at a pretty high tempo," Poti said. "When we play the game, it slows down for us a little bit."