John Lister is the first to acknowledge a particular mistake or shortcoming as a football player. His Hawaii coaches love him because there’s never a need to do it twice.

The sophomore running back is making a name for himself in fall camp with gritty play and a capacity for assimilation near that of a Borg from Star Trek.

That ability comes in handy when, in addition to duties of blocking and running in the backfield, you’re expected to chip in on four of the main phases of special teams: kickoff coverage, kickoff returns, punt coverage and punt returns.

"He listens to the coaching points, and goes out and executes them," special teams coordinator Chris Demarest said. "If he doesn’t do it right, he’s coached up on film. One time. And the next time he’s got it right. That’s so valuable, because you don’t want to waste time. He picks it up right away, so that’s something that John brings to the table in all phases of the game."

Lister was lightly used as a redshirt freshman last year in the run-and-shoot offense, rushing seven times for 17 yards with two receptions for another 7 yards. He also notched 14 tackles on special-teams duty.

With the implementation of the pro-set offense under Norm Chow, Lister and his fellow running backs figure to see vastly increased usage.

Lister smiles at this. It helps that he ran a similar offense at Thousand Oaks High in California and piled up close to 5,000 career yards in it.

In other words, pounding away 3 yards at a time and throwing backfield blocks works just fine for the 6-foot, 210-pound Lister.

"It’s kind of back to the roots a little bit there," Lister said. "It’s more downhill, it’s more my style. You know, I’m not a flashy guy. I’m athletic, but I’m not going to burn-around-the-corner kind of thing. It’s more downhill, it’s more hard yards, and you just get chunks every now and then."

Running backs coach Keith Uperesa said the position will be by committee. However, returning starter Joey Iosefa has gotten the most looks in camp among five players.

"They’re all going to play about an equal amount of time. I think the heavy burden will go to Joey, John and Will Gregory," Uperesa said, adding Sterling Jackson and Steven Lakalaka also merit opportunities.

But Lister is earning a special place at the table thanks in part to his retention rate.

"I tell you what, he’s Mr. Reliable right now," Uperesa said. "He’s a young man in our system who can do everything. He could be a featured running back for us. He can be a blocking back for us. … You can push his limits, I strongly believe that. … I love him to death."

When asked of his role among the backs, Lister deflected individual concerns and went big-picture.

"On the field it’s a lot more responsibility," he said. "We put more of the weight on our shoulders as a group, we gotta all be better and work from where we were last year. We gotta be solid in all areas, pass pro(tection), running the ball downhill like this scheme is designed to run."

He’s also seen time at fullback and in onside kick drills. Demarest extended a word of caution that they would have to pace his usage so as not to wear him down for his primary job.

"If I had 11 John Listers on special teams, I think we’d be awesome," Demarest said. "But the thing you want to guard against is using him too much and wearing him out."

John Lister might have experienced that once. It’s doubtful there was a second time.