To understand that this is indeed a new Hawai'i football era is to see star linebacker Blaze Soares in the spin cycle.

At the end of the first practice of training camp yesterday, Soares, the No. 1 left-side linebacker, was ordered to roll the length of the field — twice — as punishment for failing to meet a team requirement.

"We needed to set the tone," Greg McMackin said of his first training camp as UH head coach. "We run a business-like practice. Everybody is treated the same here. It doesn't matter if you're an All-American quarterback or an All-American linebacker or the last-string kicker or last-string receiver, you'll be treated the same."

After completing the discipline, Soares was summoned. McMackin then put his arm around Soares.

Tough practice.

Tough love.

"This is going to help us," running back Leon Wright-Jackson said of the scheduled 2-hour practice that started 30 minutes early and finished 30 minutes later.

"It's a little more uptempo," cornerback Ryan Mouton said. "We're moving around all of the time. It's going to be good for the team. We're going to be conditioned and ready to go when we go down to Florida (for the Aug. 30 season opener)."

Unlike the previous nine training camps under June Jones, now head coach of Southern Methodist, yesterday's practice was a vision of perpetual motion.

The rapid-fire reps were a rude awakening for day dreamers.

"If you go on the field, you're learning," McMackin said. "They're all getting repetitions. They're not standing around listening to someone orate."

McMackin, to be sure, was mindful of the heat during the late-morning practice. The players were required to take water breaks — hydration periods, in the new UH parlance — every 15 minutes.

But McMackin also maintained a hurry-up practice. At the midway point, he called for "sudden change." During games, a sudden change is the result of a turnover, when a team has to adjust quickly to the new situation and mentality. In McMackin's practices, a sudden change requires players to go from workout drills to sprints of 10, 20, 30 and 40 yards.

"We're doing a lot of things we did last year and a lot of different things," McMackin said. "The main thing is to get these guys ready to play."

McMackin managed to spice the competition for the starting quarterback's job. Fourth-year junior Inoke Funaki, and junior-college transfers Greg Alexander and Brent Rausch received the main snaps. Tyler Graunke, who started two games last season, is being withheld from team activities until he resolves some academic issues.

McMackin and quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich implemented the "mental-ab" session. While the quarterbacks are doing sit-up crunches, they are peppered with questions about strategies.

"Oh, man, it's tough," Funaki said. "They've got us doing crunches while (Rolovich) is asking us about our reads. You're trying to think about the play. But what you've got in your mind is how painful it is, and how you want to put your leg down."

Rolovich said the drill has a two-fold purpose.

"I think abs are important in throwing motion," Rolovich said.

He said giving a pop quiz mirrors game conditions, in which quarterbacks need to be alert despite fatigue and physical discomfort.

"It's pretty hard," Rausch said.

Funaki said: "I've never been in the military, but it reminds me of those movies when someone has to do pushups while being yelled at. We're trying to do abs, and (Rolovich is) asking: 'You've got 80-Z, what are your blitz breaks? They're coming. What have you got?' You have to be mentally tough when you're exhausted and tired and your mind is not all there. As they say, 'It's mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.' "

Rolovich gave good reviews to the three quarterbacks. Alexander said he lost 20 pounds since arriving in town in late May, and now weighs 225.

"Maybe I'm 215 after this practice," he said, smiling.

Rausch is 187 pounds after losing six pounds because of sickness last week. "I want to get up to 195, 200 pounds," he said.

Alexander and Rausch said they are adjusting to the accelerated pace of Division I-A football, particularly in deciphering defensive coverages.