Quotes about training camp

About how he suffered a sprained left elbow in Monday's practice when he landed awkwardly, Estes said:
"I didn't put out my hand to brace myself." (HA)


About Estes' injury, Colt said:
"John has a little boo-boo. We don't need to push him. It's early in (training camp). John will be back in a couple of days. It's good. We're going to need some depth at center. John could suffer an injury (during the season). It's good to get the guys behind him — Aaron and Lafu — in there. They both did really well in there. It was a good thing to let the guys get some reps on the first team." (HA)


Kia, who is described by JJ as "our jack-of-all-trades" (playing C, G, and T), said about his film work:
"I used to watch film with Samson (Satele). He would help me with everything. He knew every position. I figured I might as well know everything. It's working to my advantage." (HA)


Coach McKnight says that Kia needs to improve on some:
"technique things, getting his big head out of there. He tends to lean on people sometimes. When he does that, he gets in trouble. When he keeps his head out of there, he's a good player." (HA)


Praising Kia's attitude, JJ said:
"I like his 'want to' — he wants to be good. He's young, and he has to learn some things, but he's a good player." (HA)


About his varied work on the OL, Kia said:
"I have no idea what I'm going to do each day. It's whatever comes up. I'm happy to be able to do different things." (HSB)


About how his injury is not serious, Estes said:
"If it was a game, I'd be out there." (HSB)


About practicing as the #1 center, Kia said:
"I'm just happy to fill in, happy to be in there. It's good to get practice snapping with Colt." (HSB)


About his snap that was off in practice, Kia said:
"I don't know what happened on that one." (HSB)


About how the reserves need to be ready to play at any time, JJ said:
"You never know, in this business, you're one play away from getting your chance and you gotta be ready when it happens." (HSB)


About being a backup C after being the #1 C for most of spring practice, Lafu Tuioti-Mariner said:
"I'm fine. I have no regrets. I'm having a fun camp, supporting my brothers. I think Estes is one of the best linemen we have. I'm willing to support him. If he goes down, I'll try my best to make us recover." (HA)


About how Tuioti-Mariner practiced yesterday at LG for the first time every, McKnight said:
"He had as good a practice as anybody (on Monday). He played well." (HA)


About practicing at LG, Tuioti-Mariner said:
"I'm trying to do my best." (HA)


About how Kia and Tuioti-Mariner benefitted from practicing against GM's aggressive defense, DM said:
"I like practicing against our defense because right now they're so fast. They blitz so well. Their timing and their coordination on blitzes are really tough. To me, right now, practicing against our defense is harder than the games we're going to see. I think it's a plus right now the way everything is going." (HA)


About how he's working on going more north-and-south instead of trying to run horizontally too much, Bess said:
"That's one of the main things I spent my time on this offseason: making one guy miss and getting vertical, getting north and south." (HA)


Praising Bess' improved running after-the-catch, JJ said:
"That's the Davone I used to know." (HA)

"He's making some unreal plays. He's a player. That's all I know." (HA)


About how it is hard to break his old habits, Bess said:
"You can't teach a player how to run. It's all instinct. But you can always tell a player to remember to stay north and south. I make sure I remember that." (HA)

Note: Bess will play in the NFL, and in the NFL the sideways running and juking will not work nearly as well as it did when he was in high school.


About being allowed to return punts from the start of the season, Bess said:
"This could be a big year." (HA)


About the big hit he took from Blaze, LWJ sid:
"I figured it would be Blaze, if anybody, to knock me down. That's part of practice: the game speed. That's what makes him so special." (HA)


About Blaze's hit, coach McKnight said:
"It looked worse than it was. Blaze has one motor, and it's full speed." (HA)


About how he declined to block Blaze yesterday, Colt said:
"I went up to block Blaze, and I got out of the way because I figured he might take it seriously. That's Blaze. He's a kid who has blind ambition to hit people. You can't really get in his way. If it were a real game, I would have definitely blocked him. Since it's in practice" — Brennan started to smile in jest — "I figured I'd lay off him, take it easy on him." (HA)


Praising Blaze, DM said:
"Blaze is going to be a great one. Blaze is a man. He reminds me a lot of Pisa (Tinoisamoa, a former Warrior now with the St. Louis Rams). He's athletic. He can run. He's big. He's strong. He's got that smile to him, that you know he's going to kick your (butt) and there's nothing you can do about it." (HA)


Not happy with the offense despite the 16-22 passing (Colt was 10-11), JJ said:
"I've seen a lot of positive things but I see a lot of bad things, too. You've still gotta take care of the ball, you know, can't give the ball away, fumbling or bad snaps, those kind of things. We've done pretty good the last few years in that area. They struggled in the spring and we gotta get it better now." (HSB)

Note: The injury to Estes was probably a big reason for the snap problems, as unfamiliar center-QB pairs occurred when the depth chart was shuffled.


About keeping Brashton Satale at LB instead of moving him to RB, JJ said:
"We're going to keep him there." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Satele is behind Solomon Elimimian, Timo Paepule and Rustin Saole. Satele played running back and linebacker in high school for Pac-Five."