This season, the Hawaii football team’s asset has been its depth.

When right tackle Luke Felix-Fualalo suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter of the Aug. 11 game against UCLA, James Milovale stepped in for nine mistake-free snaps.

Milovale and Christian Perry, who helped Riverside City College win a junior college national title last season, are expected to continue on the right side if Felix-Fualalo is unavailable for Saturday’s road game against San Diego State.

Milovale and Perry have been fast learners. Milovale, who is most comfortable as a left tackle, had been practicing as a guard in the weeks leading to the UCLA game. In prophetic pre-game advice, offensive line coach Derek Fa‘avi told Milovale to “be prepared as a right tackle.”

“I was doing my sets on the sideline and I saw Luke go down,” Milovale said. “It was a shock, honestly. I got out there, I was nervous a bit. You just have to live it out. I blocked and protected (quarterback) Brayden (Schager). That’s all I was thinking about.”

After a bye week, Milovale opened at right tackle against Sam Houston. “I felt the nerves a little bit more because it was my first start, but I felt I did decent enough to fill my role,” he said.

Milovale did not allow a sack in 60 snaps in the Rainbow Warriors’ 36-7 victory over Northern Iowa. “I felt I excelled at my game,” he said.

Milovale, who is 6 feet 6 and 320 pounds, said he learned his craft from older brother Mike Milovale, a former UH O-lineman who started 21 games in 2012 and 2013.

“Best advice?” the younger Milovale said. “He told me to ‘give it your all’ every day. It’s really simple. I know a lot of people say that. But he’s told me that my whole life, and that it would be easier for me.”

Growing up, the brothers often had one-on-one blocking sessions. Mike Milovale would repeatedly demonstrate the O-lineman’s two-handed shove onto a defender’s jersey numbers.

“I definitely can take it now,” James Milovale said. “As a kid, I’d fly back like seven feet. He would take it hard on me, but I think it made me more resilient.”

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Perry, who grew up in Temecula, a 59-mile drive from San Diego. As a Temecula Valley High senior, Perry suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the regular-season finale. “That set me back,” said Perry, who eventually enrolled at Riverside City College. He helped the Tigers average 42.6 points and 522.6 yards per game last year.

A day after making an oral commitment to UH last December, Perry received an inquiry from Boise State. “I always told myself I was going to listen to everybody and make my own decisions off of that,” Perry said. “Just listening, listening.”

He decided that Boise was not the best fit. He was enamored with the Warriors’ program, and Hawaii’s beaches. Growing up in Southern California, he went to beaches in Oceanside and Carlsbad three or four times a week — sometimes to body surf, sometimes to enjoy nature’s peace.

“Something about the vastness and openness of the ocean, the calmness of hearing the waves,” Perry said. “Laying on the beach and tuning out everything except the sound of the waves, something peaceful about it.”

Perry, who is 6-8 and 293 pounds, also embraced the leg-strengthening benefits of running in the sand. The Warriors had a beach workout on Saturday.

The initial intent was for Perry to utilize a redshirt rule that would allow him to play up to four games this season. “I thought I’d use the redshirt to get stronger and faster,” he said, “and get my body well, and I’d play my last two years here, ball out the last two years.”

But last spring, he learned he did not have a redshirt year available, leaving him with the 2024 and 2025 seasons. “Finding out I didn’t have a redshirt year, that’s how I ended up accelerating my development process,” Perry said. “It is what it is. You have to roll with the punches.”

Perry had been a left tackle since playing in Pee Wee leagues. Under Fa‘avi’s guidance, he has mastered the right tackle’s stance, footwork and angles. “I think now I’ve gotten it down and I can play both left and right side now,” Perry said.