Tuesday, August 18, 1998
Tough times
for UH offense
Coordinator Don Lindsey wants
By Paul Arnett
to see improvement, and soon
Star-BulletinDon Lindsey saw enough bad blocks, poor passes and wrong reads to last him a lifetime.
In fact, the University of Hawaii offensive coordinator was so upset during yesterday's morning workout, he stopped practice and had his players gather around him in the far end zone of Cooke Field.
There, he gave a 15-minute sermon that would have made a Puritan proud. He asked the players to practice what he preached. If they didn't, the University of Arizona would come here in two weeks and stomp the life out of them.
His speech wasn't for the faint-hearted. And he promised more of the same at last night's team meeting, just in case his message didn't get through.
"I told them they were going to get the living you-know-what kicked out of them," Lindsey said. "I told them I wasn't going to lie to them or say something to soften the blow.
"This morning was a wasted practice. I didn't see anything out there that was good, did you? I talked to the older guys and told them to stop living off of the Notre Dame game.
"Notre Dame couldn't touch Arizona's defense. Arizona's defense is unorthodox. It's a defense you'll see in the Canadian Football League, and Arizona has very good players running it. To tell you the truth, I'd much rather be playing Notre Dame."
Lindsey's main complaint was bad practice habits. He's a firm believer players play the way they practice. Even Hawaii head coach Fred vonAppen questioned the offense's intensity, prompting Lindsey to hold his impromptu session.
"Practice is habits," Lindsey said. "It's like learning to count. One, two, three, four. Now, how did I learn that? Because I had to count to four lots of times.
"Now, granted, I sat down in Arkansas and never got past 12, but I did learn from my teacher that two comes after one, three comes after two and four comes after three. Your muscles are the same way. It's called motor learning.
"What are we trying to do out here in practice? We're trying to get down in our stances, come off right and use the correct technique time after time.
"The body physically learns as well as our mind. You come out here and mess around and somebody knocks you on your butt, and you think, 'Well, it's just practice.' Then you're teaching your body to fail."
Lindsey is looking for leadership as well. He knows he can only twist and shout for so long. There has to be a player willing to grab the face mask and hold on.
"We don't have anybody who can persevere through the difficult times," Lindsey said. "If something bad happens, we just hang our heads. I want somebody who can fight through adversity and get the other players to follow his lead. We have to have that."
Other areas of concern for Lindsey are lack of depth in the offensive line and a continuing parade of injuries to experienced quarterback Josh Skinner.
Not only did he miss most of spring with a concussion, but the junior from Colorado may be sidelined for the rest of two-a-days because of a hip pointer he suffered last Saturday.
"Josh is a tough kid," Lindsey said. "He's the kind of guy I like having around because he wants to play no matter what. He even volunteered to take a shot yesterday to stop the pain.
"I told him I didn't believe in that kind of thing, but it showed me he has a desire to get on that practice field and play through it."
The quarterback position remains a question mark, although it appears Skinner and Dan Robinson will likely get the majority of snaps in the opener with Arizona.
"I'm not as concerned about that as I am what happened out here today," Lindsey said. "We're running out of time and we're preparing to play a Top 25 team on national television.
"I don't want to be negative, but I do want to impress upon these young men that they need to be mentally tougher. This is a tough game played by tough men. We're not there yet. And we have a lot to get done to reach that goal."
