Defensive tackles Kennedy Tulimasealii and Ka‘aumoana Gifford are suspended for the remainder of the University of Hawaii football team’s spring training following their arrests on Tuesday morning.
Both Waianae-raised players will remain on scholarship and may continue to attend classes and participate in study hall, but are indefinitely restricted from team-related activities.
Coach Nick Rolovich said “further decisions” will be made after more information is collected.
Tulimasealii, 21, was arrested on accusations of two counts of domestic abuse and a count each of harassment and resisting arrest. He will be arraigned on the domestic-abuse charges April 26 and the other two charges May 10.
Gifford, 20, was accused of obstruction for interfering with Tulimasealii’s arrest. He will be arraigned May 10.
Rolovich has tried to foster a family atmosphere since being hired in December. While maintaining support for all his players, Rolovich said: “It’s not our job to talk about innocent or guilty. It’s our job to grow these young men as good as we can. There (are) a lot of people (who have) jobs that will deal with (the legal aspect) that are better than us at that.”
This spring, the Warriors switched to a 4-3 defense that employs a nose tackle and a defensive tackle. There were four healthy interior-line players available for Thursday’s practice. Kory Rasmussen, who finished 2015 as the No. 1 nose tackle, did not compete in contact drills while recovering from a knee injury.
“We’re just going to practice as well as we can (and) as hard as we can,” Rolovich said. “If you’re ‘next man up,’ we’re going that way.”
Rolovich said he is “looking at all possibilities” to address the depth concerns on the defensive line. An option would be to move an offensive lineman to defense.
Rolovich said he might sign another defensive tackle.
“There’s the extra scholarship we’ve got,” Rolovich said. “I’m glad we held one.”
The past two practices, Samuel Acute, who missed the 2015 season because of a foot injury, and Zeno Choi, a walk-on, have practiced at both nose tackle and 3-technique tackle.
Rolovich said the players have “responded really well” to this situation.
“This is what happens in life,” Rolovich said after Thursday’s practice. “You’ve just got to face a little adversity and move on. I think what we talked about is this team, in the face of adversity, hasn’t always responded with the right mind-set, and I thought they did this morning.”