In a world without a pandemic, the Hawaii football team would have had 14 practices, played its spring game this past Saturday, and constructed a depth chart.
But these are not normal times, and head coach Todd Graham and his staff have been working feverishly to evaluate players, teach schemes, and prepare for whenever training camp will be held. For more than a month, the Manoa campus has been closed, classes have moved to online, and the coaches’ interactions with players have been through Zoom sessions, FaceTime calls, and video programs.
“We didn’t have spring training,” said Graham, who was hired in January as successor to Nick Rolovich. “We can’t do anything about the fact we didn’t get to evaluate, didn’t get to practice. We were basically around our players for six weeks (during the offseason program) and now we’ve been away from them for six weeks. That’s been a challenge.”
Until notified otherwise, Graham is optimistically preparing as if training camp will start on July 30 in advance of the Aug. 29 opener at Arizona. Graham said a depth chart will be crafted entering training camp to maximize the drills.
“We can’t have spring training in the fall,” Graham said. “We can’t be repping three or four different people at a position. We can’t do that. You only have so many reps. You can rep a first team and a second team. That’s about it. You don’t have time. You have to do a great job of evaluating in a hurry and putting people in the right spots. That’s why we have to take the things we’ve done well (last season), make sure we continue to do those things. There can’t be a huge learning curve where you’re making a lot of mistakes.”
Graham and his assistant coaches have pored over videos of UH’s games and practices from the past two years to help evaluate players. The certainty is that quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, a third-year sophomore, is atop the depth chart.
“He’s clearly our starting quarterback,” Graham said.
In 2018, Cordeiro led the Warriors to comeback victories over Wyoming and UNLV. Last season, Cordeiro was 3-0 as a starter and came off the sideline to rally the Warriors against Arizona and San Diego State.
“I love that he elevates people around him,” Graham said. “I love how our players look at him and respond to him. He is, no question, a leader. I like the fact he doesn’t say a lot. He just leads. He leads by his actions. I think he’s extremely poised, very talented. Great arm talent. He has great feet. He makes really good decisions. All he needs is reps, reps, reps. I love the intangibles about him.”
Graham said Cordeiro fits into the offense being implemented. Graham said the scheme will take elements of the run-and-shoot, which UH ran the previous two seasons, and the Air Raid, a rhythm attack that meshes a smash-mouth run game with wide-open passing.
“I want a quarterback who can hurt the other team with his legs and can extend plays, but, man, he slays them with his arm,” Graham said. “I think that describes Chevan. He does a great job of extending plays.”
