Here’s the dirt on the University of Hawaii football team’s spring practice on Thursday: Quarterbacks Ikaika Woolsey and Jeremy Higgins had clean performances.
For the full-padded practice, the offense broke out the all-white uniforms from 2008. The quarterbacks also were in white, meaning they were allowed to be tackled if they left the pocket. For nearly every practice, quarterbacks wear red, the jersey color for players who are not allowed to be hit.
Despite the muddy conditions, Woolsey and Higgins went through scrimmage-like drills without a smudge.
"I’m clean because my boys up front did a good job of protecting me and giving me time to make plays," Woolsey said. "Hat’s off to those guys."
Coach Norm Chow assessed the risks and rewards before deciding to remove the tackling restrictions on quarterbacks outside the pocket.
"We needed to find out how they would do," Chow said.
Woolsey said: "That’s football. I’ve got pads. They’ve got pads. It doesn’t matter if I’m a quarterback. I’m going to get tackled in a game. As my high school coach used to say, ‘This game isn’t for the scared and timid.’ You have to come out with an attitude you’re going to win every time."
In the regular phase, Woolsey scrambled for first downs on runs of 10 and 13 yards.
"We’re going to look at the tape, but I thought he (scrambled) too early a couple of times," Chow said. "That’s the tendency when you don’t have as much experience. You have a tendency to leave (the pocket) too early."
In the red-zone drill, Woolsey was 6-for-8, including two touchdown passes. On one play, he rolled to the far right, pirouetted and raced to the left hash, then turned and ran to the right before throwing to tight end Jordan Pu‘u-Robinson for the touchdown.
"The line did a good job of helping me keep the play alive," Woolsey said. "Also, the receivers did a good job of practicing our scramble drill."
Pu‘u-Robinson said: "I was supposed to stay home and block on the boot(leg). In the scramble drill, I saw some open field and tried to roll out and help (Woolsey) as much as I could. When you’ve got a quarterback who can scramble, it extends the play. You have to run a little bit more to find an opening for him."
On another play, Woolsey had to out-race linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams.
"I definitely could hear his footsteps," Woolsey said. "Like Coach (Chow) said, ‘You can’t take sacks or negative plays.’ I had to get away."
Higgins also did well, throwing a scoring pass to tight end Tui Unga. Chow said he wanted quarterbacks coach Jordan Wynn to call more designed runs for Higgins.
"We didn’t run him enough," Chow said.
Higgins said there was a play where he had the option of faking a handoff to running back Joey Iosefa and running to the left on a bootleg. But Higgins noticed a linebacker shifting to the perimeter, and decided to hand off to Iosefa, who gained 8 yards on an inside run.
With no out-of-pocket problems, Chow is considering using the same format for Saturday’s practice.
In all, said Chow, who is in his third year at UH, "This is the best six days of spring since we’ve been here."
