The vicious cycle ends at wide receiver for Ewaliko

It’s called the man-hands drill.

The University of Hawaii football team receivers have borrowed it from the Green Bay Packers. Basically, the players place their hands inches from the mouth of the JUGS machine and try to catch balls spit out at around the speed limit on the H-1.

The good news is no broken fingers yet.

And with this kind of training, maybe next time Keelan Ewaliko will catch the ball in mid-air off a punter’s foot instead of merely blocking it, like he did against Colorado last year. The junior from Baldwin High on Maui nods and smiles, remembering the season-opening 28-20 win as one of the year’s rare highlights.

With his speed and athleticism, Ewaliko has always had roles on UH’s special teams; he also returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown against Air Force last year.

But, inexplicably, one of the Warriors’ few breakaway threats never got the ball on offense last year as a sophomore. It was regression from his freshman season, when he was sprinkled in and two of his six catches went for more than 50 yards, and he averaged 6.7 yards on seven rushes.

The previous coaching staff couldn’t figure out where to put him. It was said by some that Ewaliko didn’t learn plays quickly enough.

That seems an unfair assessment of the Academic All-Mountain West team member. Maybe six position changes in less than three years had more to do with not mastering the schemes. In a vicious circle, Ewaliko went from slotback to cornerback to safety to nickelback to running back and finally to slotback again.

Someday when and if he becomes a coach all that moving around might be an asset. But for a player in the here and now, it was just frustrating.

“It’s been pretty tough,” Ewaliko said. “I wouldn’t say it’s been a waste of time, but a lot of time was used jumping around. I learned a lot, on both sides of the ball. But it ate up my clock.”

UH’s new head coach Nick Rolovich and his staff discussed Ewaliko’s role for his final two seasons and decided on one last move, to wide receiver.

“Rolo said I’m home now,” Ewaliko said after yesterday’s practice. “I like it a lot.”

He’s behind senior Marcus Kemp on the depth chart, but passing game coordinator Craig Stutzmann said wideout is probably Ewaliko’s fastest route to the field.

“He’s got good linear speed and he catches the ball well in traffic,” said Stutzmann, who insists Ewaliko has made his final position switch. “It’d be a disservice to him to move him anymore. … It’s like school. You don’t switch your major four times and expect to be an expert at anything.”

Ewaliko said he’s confident the new coaching staff can turn around a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2010.

“They connect a lot with the players, and the schemes they bring fit the players. They’re all engaged, they want to be here,” he said, noting that four coaches are former UH players. “They’ve been in our shoes, so they don’t try to BS us. They’ve all suffered losing seasons, and they’ve all played in bowl games. So they know what it takes.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.