Coach Nick Rolovich, who often references Disney’s “The Lion King,” made it clear that the University of Hawaii’s football practice field was not the happiest place on Earth.
“I wasn’t happy,” Rolovich said following Thursday’s practice, the fifth of this spring training. “I think we’re better than what we’re doing right now. It looks more like Fraggle Rock than Pride Rock.”
Rolovich was particularly peeved at the quarterback competition that has yet to materialize. Rolovich said quarterback Dru Brown, who was 6-4 as a starter in 2016, is “doing fine.”
“Somebody’s gotta chase him,” Rolovich said. “Somebody’s gotta be hungry enough to take this job away from him. Right now, it’s not even close.”
Cole Brownholtz and Cole McDonald redshirted in 2016 and have alternated taking reps with the No. 2 offense this spring. Kyle Gallup, who redshirted after transferring from Marshall in August, and Hunter Hughes are walk-on quarterbacks.
“I’m going to keep the pressure on them,” Rolovich said. “I don’t think it’s that hard to execute the base offense. We put in some stuff (Thursday) that maybe got them thinking. But they’re not doing stuff right, and that’s unacceptable. That’s on me as the head coach. That’s on the coaches. And that’s on them and their teammates. They’ve got people counting on them.”
The Warriors struggled offensively in a scrimmage-like session on Thursday. Asked about the backup quarterbacks’ problems, Rolovich said, “Whatever you want to name, they’ve done wrong. It’s not like they’re god-awful. It’s that they’re not up to the standard of playing quarterback at this university right now. And I’m not going to tell them anything different. This is an important deal that they’ve chosen.”
Rolovich joked he should suit up Shawn Withy-Allen, a former UH teammate and now the Warriors’ character coach. Rolovich also mused he would line up former high school quarterbacks — slotback John Ursua and wideout Keelan Ewaliko — as wildcats.
Rolovich acknowledged that Brownholtz, McDonald and Gallup spent most of their redshirt year working with the scout offense instead of running the Warriors’ plays.
“They didn’t get a lot of the coaching,” Rolovich said. “Some of it is to be understood. But, still, we can’t give them excuses. … Right now, they’re not doing enough to make us feel good about the quarterback situation.”
Rolovich said the backup quarterbacks are dedicated to learning. “They care,” Rolovich said. “They just need to process the information and translate it to the field. I just expect more, and they will get more. But I’m not going to sit here and say that was a good practice offensively.”
