Quotes about the Warriors not on the road trip

About watching the La Tech game with other Warriors at the Eastside Grill, freshman QB Shane Austin said:
"We were biting our fingernails, for sure." (HSB)


About the reaction when Lewis broke up the 2-pt conversion for the win, Austin said:
"We went crazy. I was on the phone with my dad. I was like, 'He drops back, he throws it ...' and he didn't hear anything after that. All he heard was screaming." (HSB)

HSB Note: "With the Warriors' travel roster capped at 65 players for last Saturday's game at La-Tech, the 40 or so still on campus during the 11-day trip keep in shape with mandatory 7:30 a.m., conditioning and weight lifting sessions under the unrelenting watch of UH strength coach Tommy Heffernan and his staff. Some will also show up in the afternoon to run through plays to keep sharp between practices."


About their training sessions while the rest of the team is on the road trip QB Jake Santos said:
"A good thing about it is you get to bond with some of the other guys you don't bond with during regular practice. It's just fun. We wish we were there, though. I definitely do." (HSB)


About how Tommy Heffernan won't accept any yawns in their morning workouts, Santos said:
"Tommy makes people do push-ups if they yawn," . I got called out the first day for yawning right when I walked in the weight room." (HSB)


About how there is no sitting or lagging during their workouts, Heffernan said:
"If I'm in there, it's constant movement. There's no standing around, there's no sitting down at all once you enter this gym." (HSB)

HSB Note: "With the Warrior football team's travel roster capped at 65 for Saturday's game at UNLV, the back end of a rare two-game road trip, it's Heffernan's duty to make sure the 40 or so players who remained on campus put the 11-day gap between practices to productive use.

In place of the morning practices, there's mandatory workouts from 7:30 to 9. Instead of coaches running drills, they've got Heffernan and his staff pushing them through a non-stop session of weight lifting in the Waterhouse Training Facility or running sprints out on the practice field."


About how they are being worked hard, Austin said:
"I think this week has been harder than just normal practices." (HSB)


Praising the attitude of the players working out under him, Heffernan said:
"They want to be on the trip, but they also see this as an opportunity to get better and make some gains while the team is away. Some of them might be a little discouraged, but they also see it as a chance to get better." (HSB)

HSB Note: "While the mornings belong to Heffernan and graduate assistants Steve Englehart and Dujuan Hathaway, the players show up on their own after classes to run through plays while they await the team's return. That's when most will resume their roles on the scout team or trying to work their way up the depth chart in hopes of perhaps making the travel list for the next trip."


About how they work hard for the scout team and hope to earn playing time through their work, RB Camron Carmona said:
"A lot of us that are left behind, we play an important role on the team just making the team better. If we're doing a good job we could actually earn a position and that's what some of us came here to do. It's a lot of guys who just want to work hard and not only want to make the team better, but themselves." (HSB)


About how they have to stay motivated despite being on the scout team, Austin said:
"Everybody who's redshirting, everybody who's a walk-on, they have to look at it as our practices are our season. It's hard to be motivated when you know you're on the scout team, but if you're trying to make the other guys better the coaches will notice." (HSB)