Cockheran, Alapa planning to play through injuries
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
After competing in yesterday's moderate-contact drills, starting wide receiver Jeremiah Cockheran and outside linebacker Keani Alapa declared themselves fit for Saturday's game against Fresno State.
Cockheran, a co-captain, is recovering from a sprained right ankle that prevented him from playing in last week's 27-16 loss to Tulsa. He originally suffered the injury in a moped accident in July, and has aggravated it three times since.
"One of Coach (June) Jones' rules is if you don't practice on Wednesday you're not playing in the game," Cockheran said. "I wanted to go out there and compete."
Just in case, left wideout Britton Komine has practiced on the right side.
Alapa, a senior linebacker, said he has recovered from a knee injury, which UH did not announce publicly. In the walk-through practice last Friday, he suffered a hyper-extended left knee after landing awkwardly. Chad Kapanui replaced Alapa at strong-side linebacker for the Tulsa game.
"I wanted to play through it, but coach put me out," Alapa said. "It's feeling good now."
Defensive tackle Isaac Sopoaga, who is recovering from a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee, said he does not expect to play Saturday. He said he is unable to run laterally without pain.
Middle linebacker Chad Kalilimoku's availability is in question because of a bruised left rib. Kalilimoku did not compete in contact drills yesterday.
If Kalilimoku cannot play, weak-side linebacker Lincoln Manutai will open in the middle. Manutai played middle linebacker at Kahuku High and in junior college. Even in UH's 4-3 base alignment, an outside linebacker slides over to cover one of the two inside gaps, easing the workload of the middle linebacker.
"There's a lot of help," said Manutai, who is a non-scholarship player.
With Watson Ho'ohuli out for the season because of a torn knee ligament, Kapanui becomes the top backup to Manutai.
Slot is back: Chad Owens, who completed a two-game sentence for violating team rules, is fighting to regain his starting job at left slotback. Ross Dickerson started the past two games, but Owens has practiced in the first-team rotation the last two days.
"I'm hoping to be the guy," said Owens, who showed no signs of rustiness. "It's like riding a bike. ... I'm trying to spark the fire in this team and create that feeling we're unstoppable and we're going to win games from here on out."
Quarterback Tim Chang said: "This morning, I told him he looked kind of hungry. He said, yeah, he hasn't eaten for two weeks. He's hungry to play."
Surfing with the enemy: It was not unusual for backup quarterback Kainoa Akina to take a Mainland visitor surfing last spring — except the guest was Matt Hill, son of Fresno State coach Pat Hill.
"Yeah, I was hanging out with enemy," Akina said, smiling.
In fact, their fathers were assistant football coaches at Arizona in the 1990s.
"The Hills and the Akinas go far back," said Akina, whose father, Duane, is now an assistant at Texas. "Back in the day, they used to come to our house. It used to be me, Matt, his brother and my little brother, and we'd have mean football games in our backyard while our dads were chilling inside the house."
Akina said Matt Hill, a junior in high school who loves to surf, has expressed an interest in joining the UH football team in two years.
Such a thought has his father's blessing. "If he wants to do that, I'm all for it," Pat Hill said.
What's my line? "The Rock" — former UH defensive lineman Ma'a Tanuvasa — attended practice yesterday, reuniting with 1992 Holiday Bowl champion teammates John Veneri and Doug Vaioleti. Veneri is KHON-2's sports director and Vaioleti is K5's football color analyst.
Tanuvasa, now a Mililani High football coach, was a member of one of UH's best defensive lines. In 1992, UH punctuated an 11-2 season with a victory over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl.
Tanuvasa, who played professionally with the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, said Ta'ase Faumui is a Pearl City police officer and Junior Tagoai works for TheBus.
Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.
