Raising decibels and UH linemen
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Diminutive offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh had a point to make to a player who had missed an assignment and he wasn't about to let the nearly 11-inch height difference keep him from it.
So, the 5-foot-6 3/4 Cavanaugh struggled to the tips of his toes and, while balancing at face mask level, delivered the lecture on proper blocking technique in full roar.
Another day, another challenge for the man whose unit faces the biggest, most visible one on the team this season.
How far UH goes this year will have a lot to do with how the rebuilding of the offensive line comes along. And with three starters having moved on to the National Football League and a fourth, Uriah Moenoa, having shifted from right tackle to right guard, there is definitely an "Under Construction" feel to the unit.
Some days — like yesterday, when Moenoa was sidelined by an ankle injury and another projected starter, left tackle Samson Satele, was out of action with a strained left shoulder — the task takes on additional complexities and concerns as more freshmen are worked into the mix.
Not for the first preseason in his five years in Manoa is there an import and urgency to Cavanaugh's pivotal mission.
Yet, with rapidly dwindling days until the Aug. 30 opener, the Warriors' most animated, decibel-driven coach shows no signs of succumbing to the pressure. Nor is there any inclination to change his approach.
The coach who, at the top of his lungs, demands that his players "trust their technique" above all, has put his abiding faith in his own time-honored system of reliance on fundamentals. It is the method behind his seeming madness.
The more the faces change along the offensive front and the stakes rise, the more Cavanaugh preaches his familiar message and holds to its proven ways. Over time it has seen the Warriors through a series of transitions and on to a string of victories.
"He hasn't changed; he is his same, usual self," observes guard Shayne Kajioka, whose five years in the trenches have made him the resident voice of experience in such matters. "The first couple of days the new guys say, 'Wow! This guy is really mad,' " Kajioka said. "And, I tell them, 'Nah, that's how he is every day. You'll see. He doesn't change.' "
Moenoa says: "That's the thing about Coach Cav, he never changes at all. He preaches the same things over and over: technique, technique, technique..."
Said Cavanaugh: "It is what we do and as long as we do it right, we're gonna be ready and we're gonna be fine."
