Each school day, University of Hawaii kickoff returner Keelan Ewaliko carries around a reminder on the proper high-and-tight way to hold a football.
“He carries a football around campus,” said Mayur Chaudhari, who coordinates the Rainbow Warriors’ special teams.
Ewaliko, who sometimes runs with the ball held away from his body, fumbled during a kickoff return in the Warriors’ season-opening loss to California last month. Since then, Ewaliko has displayed better ball security following video sessions and Chaudhari’s threat to “start tying a football to him.”
“We remind him every day,” Chaudhari said. “He’s making an effort to be better at it.”
Chaudhari, who was hired in February, has vowed to correct the various leaks in the special-team units. In three games this season, the Warriors relinquished two 45-plus-yard kickoff returns, were penalized twice on punt returns, and were torched on a 79-yard punt return for a touchdown. In Saturday’s game against Tennessee Martin, the Warriors missed six tackles on kickoff and punt coverages.
In practices, Chaudhari said, “you try to simulate as many looks as you can. The moment gets too big for some of our guys. They don’t fit in the right spot, or they’re five yards too tight, or five yards too wide. Special teams are big open plays somewhere. You need to be exact on your assignments.”
On the 79-yard punt return that gave UT Martin a lead briefly, the Warriors were not aligned correctly on the coverage. “Then we had some effort issues,” Chaudhari said. “Effort can erase a lot of mistakes with schemes or when you’re not aligned right. Effort can fix a lot of things. Bad techniques or missed assignments plus effort issues, you’re fighting an uphill battle. The biggest thing is effort first on that play.”
Chaudhari said all of the breakdowns are treatable. During each two-hour practice, 25 minutes are spent on special-team plays and five minutes are used for tackling drills. Head coach Nick Rolovich has granted permission for starting players to participate on special teams.
“The truth is you want your best players playing football,” Chaudhari said. “Rolo is great about that. He understands it’s all about field position.”
Wideout Marcus Kemp, who doubled as a safety in high school, made a tackle on punt coverage. Wideout Ammon Barker recovered a punted football that glanced off a UT Martin player.
“I was just running down the field and I saw the ball drop,” Barker said. “It bounced right up into his left shoulder pad. Right when I saw it, it triggered me to go down and get it.”
Chaudhari said: “We have to make winning decisions all the time. We have to keep reinforcing that. It’s great when I hear on the sideline the players who aren’t in the game or aren’t part of the play, saying, ‘You’ve got to make winning decisions.’ We’ve got to keep fighting the good fight, and get them to become better football players.”
Arizona football player arrested, dismissed
TUCSON, Ariz. >> Arizona running back Orlando Bradford has been arrested on domestic violence charges and released from the team.
Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Pete Dugan said the 20-year-old Bradford was arrested on seven felony charges Wednesday. He is being held at Pima County Jail without bond.
Dugan said he couldn’t go into details about the arrest but said police got a call about a woman who had been assaulted multiple times over the course of several days. Police investigating the call saw obvious injuries on the woman.
Coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement that Bradford had been dismissed from the program “as a result of his actions.”
Bradford faces three counts of domestic violence kidnapping and four counts of domestic violence aggravated assault. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney.
