In Hawaii coach Todd Graham’s hopeful vision, the Rainbow Warriors will be playing football games this fall.
“I don’t make those decisions and know any of that stuff that is about to happen,” Graham said, but “we’re working like we’re on time to start the season. … I’m confident about that. I think the season will happen. I’m a positive thinker. I think things are looking good.”
UH and Arizona are set to kick off the season on Aug. 29 in what is referred to as “week zero” on the NCAA’s football calendar. Both schools announced they will have in-class instruction in the fall.
“We’re proceeding as if there’s going to be a regular schedule,” Graham said. “That’s what we’re hopeful of. Until somebody tells us different, that’s what we’re working toward.”
Graham was hired as UH’s head coach in January. The Rainbow Warriors conducted offseason conditioning drills, but the pandemic led to the campus’ closing in March and the cancellation of the 14 spring practices and the annual spring game.
Graham belongs to a sub-committee working on a “return-to-play” model for the Mountain West Conference, of which UH is a football-only member. After reviewing various scenarios, Graham said, “we came up with a six-week model to return to play.” All the recommendations will be forwarded to the NCAA for an overall ruling.
With limited or no spring practices and restrictions on team workouts during the offseason, the wide-spread recommendation is a football team would need six weeks of training in advance of the season opener.
“Obviously, you can get it done in four weeks,” Graham said. “But there are two components. There’s the conditioning, the physical, part of it, as far as preparing and running and lifting and being in shape to play football. But you also have to have time to teach the safety. Football is a contact sport. You’ve got to be able to teach the safety and the fundamentals of being able to contact and block and tackle and all that stuff. Pretty much throughout the country, the information I’ve gotten back and read in the different conferences, is (a) six-week (camp).”
Through the spring semester that ended this past Friday, Graham and his staff have kept in constant contact with the players through Zoom, FaceTime and other video-chatting formats. Graham has implored his players to remain physically active.
“Some of our players have workout facilities available, so they’re able to lift and train,” Graham said.
“And as things are starting to open up, they’re able to go and run and exercise and things like that. Some of them don’t have facilities to do that. They’re doing push-ups and and pull-ups and being able to adapt to those kinds of things. They’re pretty anxious to get back where they can lift and run and train — and train together. That’s something. We miss our team.”
Graham said exercise also fosters good mental health. He said he also encourages his staff to exercise.
“You need to exercise to be healthy,” Graham said. “And not just physically healthy, but mentally healthy. We’re talking to our players on Zoom, talking to our players on the phone, talking to our players on FaceTime, and saying, ‘man, make sure you’re getting out and exercising. Obviously, you have to follow the rules and do what you’re supposed to do. But they’ll let you run and exercise. Make sure you do it.’”
The players also are encouraged to share inspirational stories.
“We give them inspirational things to read, and also we give them structure and teach them: you can’t just operate by how you feel every day,” Graham said. “What goes in, comes out. What goes in a man, comes out of a man. We tell them: read. I call it ‘speak in victory.’ Read inspirational things. I personally read the Bible. I call it the book of victory. … And also for us to talk. One of the things we do for their mental health is building relationships. People are made to be in relationships with others. We work hard on the personal one-on-one relationship and making sure (every day) our players are talking to our staff and their position coach and, most of the time, with me.”
