Quotes from Spring Practice, Week 4 Day 1

About his injured right (throwing) hand, Graunke said:
"It's not feeling so good, it hurts a lot. It's just a bummer stuff like that happens. If it's got to happen, it's not a bad time for it. But I'm going to fall behind on throwing and lifting." (HSB)

"It still hurts. It feels the same as when it happened. It's not good at all. I can move my fingers a lot more than this morning, but I can't make a fist and I can't shake a hand or do the things you need to do to throw a ball." (HA)


About what happened when his right hand followed through and hit Siave Seti's right hand, Graunke said:
"It instantly got black and blue and it was numb and stuff.

Note: The injured area is between the thumb and index finger.


Graunke said that X-rays on his hand were:
"inconclusive." (HA, HSB)


Graunke sasid that the doctor did not:
"see a certain break, but he saw something. He wasn't sure if it was a bad picture of the X-ray." (HA)

Note: Graunke will get an MRI today.


Graunke said that his hand is:
"not really black and blue (anymore). It's swollen, but not that severely swollen." (HA)


About how he'll be better before Fall camp opens in August, JJ said:
"This won't be a problem. It won't affect the season." (HA)


About Graunke's injury, JJ said:
"It just wasn't pretty on the tape. And Tyler's one of our toughest kids. So if he says it hurts, it's probably bad." (HSB)

"It's too bad he hurt his hand. Tyler is having a good spring. He was working hard. But he's a tough guy. He'll be all right." (HA)

HA noted that Colt had left practice to attend class so Graunke was scheduled to take all of the repetitions with the first team.


About how Graunke's body fat was 10% it was last year as compared to 6% when he reported his first UH camp, JJ said:
"He was a little heavy last year. I think it was too much partying." (HA)


About how eating too much at McDonald's and Jack-In-The-Box resulted in his weight gain, Graunke said:
"I was a little fat last year. I had a little belly. My diet wasn't very good. I had to improve my diet." (HA)


Graunke said that he now eats a lot of salads and:
"a lot of meat. I'm going grocery shopping instead of eating fast food every meal. I've been working out a lot. I'm doing a lot of running." (HA)


Graunke went from 202 last year to 182 now (7% body fat) and said he hopes to add:
"five or eight pounds of muscle" (HA)


Praising Graunke, JJ said that he is one of their:
"two starting quarterbacks. He's a very good quarterback. He's going to get his chance, obviously, when Colt gets out of here. He'll put up a lot of wins for us, too." (HA)


About how they had the same 5 people start on the OL last season, DM said:
"The biggest thing we had going for us last year was we were lucky. We had the same five guys start every game and nobody got hurt." (HSB)


Planning to set the starting OL at the end of Spring Practice, DM said:
"I think when we leave spring ball they should know who's going to be No. 1 coming in and it's your job to keep." (HSB)


Experimenting with different combinations at OL this Spring, DM said:
"We're still experimenting with guys playing left or right, see who feels comfortable and can fit in and play multiple positions. The last couple of days we had (Steinhoff) play left tackle and Keith play right. They're kind of back and forth and bouncing around." (HSB)

HSB note: "Two juniors -- Keoni Steinhoff and Keith Ah-Soon -- have been first in the rotation at the tackle spots. The center spot has rotated, with Lafu Tuioti-Mariner, Aaron Kia and Larry Sauafea seeing action. Sauafea has been one of the team's more versatile linemen, playing both guard spots as well as center."


About the competition for the 3 open starting spots on the OL, Keith Ah-Soon said:
"Everybody's trying to fight for a spot, there's some good competition going on. John Estes and Hercules Satele are pretty much locked. At the two tackles and in the middle, everybody's trying their best, everybody's trying to improve. ... Everybody's getting a chance to get in there and show what they've got." (HSB)


John Estes, who earned his starting G spot as a Freshman last Spring, said:
"Last year I got better as the season went along, and even this spring I'm getting better and I know these guys are getting better each and every day." (HSB)


About adjusting to playing center, Aaron Kia said:
"It's completely new to me. It's not easy since I never played center. It's kind of hard, but I hope I get it down before fall." (HSB)


About this year's OL, I'm not sure who said this but I'll assume it was DM:
"It's going to be more of a 15-round fight this year, where last year those guys (the seniors) were knocking people out early. It's going to be different, but the bottom line is as long as we get the job done they don't ask how pretty it is. I know we've got quality kids that want to do well. They're a tight-knit group. They want to protect Colt, they want to have a great offense again and they've got a lot of pride and they're going to get it done." (HSB)


About how he entered UH as a WR, Desmond Thomas said:
"When I came here, playing receiver was my passion. But things happen. You have to go with the flow." (HA)


About switching Thomas from WR to safety at Thomas' request, JJ said:
"Just looking at our receivers, I thought he had a better chance of getting onto the field (as a safety). He played free safety in high school. He was a big hitter. He works hard. I thought he would do well there." (HA)


About all of the other candidates at safety he has to compete with for playing time, Thomas said:
"I had to work my way up the depth chart. There's a lot of competition. It's not going to be easy when you're competing at the highest level." (HA)

Note: At the start of Spring Practice there were 12 players competing at safety. Patek earned one starting spot, and last week there were 4 players competing for the other starting spot.


JJ said that Thomas is now:
"on top of the depth chart right now." (HA)


Praising Thomas, GM said:
"He goes to the football. He's really good at knowing where the ball is. He's a fierce competitor." (HA)


Defensive secondary coach RM said that Thomas:
"made a whole lot of plays last week. He's conscientious." (HA)


Knowing that his first team spot is not set in stone, Thomas said:
"I'm grateful for the opportunity I have right now. But it could turn around tomorrow. I'm trying to live for today." (HA)


RM said that the battle between Thomas, Porlas, and Monteilh:
"will continue. We're looking for a guy, when the lights go on, is going to play well. We're not going to know until that first game because they've never been there when the lights go on. Some guys think better in games. Some guys shy away. We've still got to continue to evaluate that position. It's going to come down to who makes the fewest mistakes, who makes the most plays, who's technically the soundest, who tackles the best. There are so many variables. We want to make sure the decision is based on the performances in practice. The reason those three guys are playing so well is they're all competing to be that guy." (HA)


Thomas said that the key to competing for the starting spot:
"is to have a positive attitude. I always spoke positively that one day I would start, one day I would be a player. I'm working hard to fulfill that goal." (HA)


About how Patek's mother Gay cooked spaghetti for some of their teammates, CJ Hawthorne (who appears to be leading the competition for a starting wideout spot) said:
"It was great. I'm loving wideout and spaghetti. Life is great." (HA)