Defense dominated the Warrior Bowl

HSA Note: "From whistle to whistle, it was apparent the defense dominated in the Hawaii football team's Warrior Bowl last night at the Ching Athletic Complex. The box score will show there were eight sacks — three by Art Laurel, two by George Daily-Lyles — and two interceptions."


About how they turned the offense around on one drive, leaving them 15 yards from a TD instead of 85 yards from a TD, Dave Aranda said:
"They turned it around. Instead of going out, it was going in." (HSA)


HSA Note: "The defense made two stops for negative yardage, then forced an incompletion. The offense settled for Kenton Chun's 38-yard field goal for the first points of the scrimmage. (Later, Tyler Hadden's 40-yard field goal completed the scoring.)"


About stopping the offense when they started at the 15, Aranda said:
"We held them to a field goal, and that was good to see. That was the whole scrimmage right there. We showed our stuff right there." (HSA)


About how their defense dominated the Warrior Bowl, George Daily-Lyles said:
"We came togethe. We wanted to prove ourselves. We went out there and did what we had to do." (HSA)


About how Aranda passed out a 418-page playbook after becoming defensive coordinator last year, Aaron Brown said:
"It was a stack of pages." (HSA)


About how Aranda taught the plays in phases instead of simplifying the playbook, Brown said:
"He broke it down step by step." (HSA)


About how the defense understands their defensive system now, Daily-Lyles said:
"We spent hours and hours on one coverage. It's paying off now. We're getting it. The concepts are really easy to us now. It's pretty simple: See the ball. See the man with the ball. Tackle the man with the ball." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Aranda said he added only one concept to the playbook — the elephant package. The elephant is a position fusing the pass-rushing of a defensive end and the pass coverage of an outside linebacker."


About playing the elephant position in addition to Darryl McBride, Art Laurel said:
"I've been waiting for this moment. It's been a long time. I'm glad to get this opportunity." (HSA)


About using sprint moves and his hands to fend off OL trying to block him, Laurel said:
"I try to beat them with speed and, if not, with strength." (HSA)


About how they didn't add much to the defense this spring aside from the elephant position, Aranda said:
"Outside of the elephant, we didn't add new blitzes or exotic this or exotic that. We spent a lot of time on being sound and comprehensive. Our guys understand their roles." (HSA)


About how their defenders were teaching other defenders a few hours before the Warrior Bowl, Aranda said that:
"we had our defensive guys upstairs (in the football offices) watching video cutups from spring practice. And we had guys coaching other guys. We've always encouraged that, but this was the first time since I've been here when that's actually happened. We had pretty much the entire defense coaching each other, helping each other. That's a good sign of how far we've come." (HSA)

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