It is a leaner, stronger and quicker Freddie Holly III on the practice field for the University of Hawaii football team this spring, but the biggest difference, his coaches will tell you, isn’t measured solely in the running back’s 40-yard dash time.

Instead, it is the burst in grade-point average.

Holly has gone from a 2.7 GPA to a 4.0 in public health-heavy course load over the past year, figures reflective of his overall maturity and dedication to school and sport.

Two years into his stay at UH, Holly, who will be a redshirt sophomore in the fall, has come to see it as “my time” on and off the field for the Rainbow Warriors.

After sitting behind the record-setting Diocemy Saint Juste for two seasons, Holly has painstakingly gone about investing in his future.

“What he has done in the classroom shows how serious he is, how committed he is and that carries over to football,” head coach Nick Rolovich said.

Off the field, Holly has worked to become a more diligent and productive student. On it, he has sought to embrace the move to the run and shoot offense. “If I wanted to help my team I knew I needed to have a productive offseason,” Holly said. “I felt like becoming leaner was smarter for me, for what I wanted to do.”

What he has wanted to be since arriving from Riverside, Calif., was to become a playmaker who could make a difference. He was one of the most heralded players — “the prize of the 2016 Hawaii recruiting class,” according to one recruiting outlet — as a three-star prospect with 69 touchdowns and 5,752 yards in his high school career.

But behind Saint Juste, Paul Harris and Steven Lakalaka in 2016, he was redshirted. In 2017, between Saint Juste’s record binge and Ryan Tuiasoa’s short-yardage specialty, there was scant work to go around and Holly carried the ball just nine times (for 27 yards) all season.

“It was disappointing,”Holly said, “But I used it as motivation to learn from them, to get better.”

Brian Smith, UH offensive coordinator and running backs coach, said, “That was probably the best room (of running backs) I’ve been around, just the way they encouraged each other, supported each other and played their roles.”

To expand his opportunities this season heading into the run and shoot, Holly signed on for extensive work with strength and conditioning coordinator Bubba Reynolds, changing his diet and working on increasing explosive speed while dropping fat.

“You can see a difference,” Smith said.

Holly has embraced the move to the run and shoot offense, drawing on his friendship with former UH running back Alex Green (2009-10). Green, a third round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2011 NFL Draft, served as a UH manager in 2016, Holly’s redshirt season, while finishing his degree. “I watched his (video) clips and how he ran,” Holly said. “I still watch them at home.”

When the switch in UH offenses was announced, “I just thought about Alex Green. I just pictured the big holes and the way he ran right up the seams,” Holly said. “I thought, maybe, that could be me.”

To get that opportunity, Holly has redoubled his efforts to become a solid blocker.

“He’s got all the tools,” Smith said. “And, he’s showing what kind of a student and what kind of a player he wants to be.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.