Jake Ingram’s deal with the Patriots is expected to be finalized soon

About Ingram’s contract negotiations, an NFL source said Thursday night:
“the two sides have exchanged numbers, and are hoping to make more progress later this week.” (WEEI)

WEEI Note: “No contract details were provided, but it’s reasonable to think that Ingram will receive something in the neighborhood of a four-year deal — 23 of the 25 players taken in the sixth round who have signed so far got four-year contracts. As for total dollars, Ingram’s worth may be skewed a bit because he’s a special teamer, but a player taken two spots after him — cornerback DeAndre Wright of New Mexico, who went at No. 200 overall to the Giants — got a four-year deal for $1.83 million, which included a $93,009 signing bonus.”

About why they drafted Ingram, Bill Belichick said:
“He’s an athletic guy, a little bit smaller than some of the snappers in the league, but a little bit more athletic than most of the snappers in the league. [He’s] an experienced guy. He’s done that. He can block. He can cover pretty well. His snaps are accurate; they had good velocity. So I think that he will be competitive for that position. I felt like he was a top player for his position in the draft.” (WEEI)

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/patriots/christopher-price/2009/07/16/picks-keep-piling-pats-three-more-sign-two-are-c

Warrior Beat Q&A with Zach Masch

About how he loves the Ricky movies, Masch said:
“You’ve got to love Rocky Balboa. When he fights the Russian (in ‘Rocky IV’), that has to be one of my favorite movies of all time, which has given me so much inspiration.” (HA)

About not being able to enroll at UH in January because they did not have an available scholarship, Masch said:
“I stayed home and worked out at my local high school. I tried to get ready and get into the best shape I could.” (HA)

About his daily weightlifting, Masch said:
“Basically, I do a lot of super reps. I do three different (weightifting) workouts instead of just bench. I do bench, inclines and pushups. I do 15 benches of 225 (pounds). Then I do the incline machine. l do 10 with my right arm, 10 with my left and 10 together. Then I do 50 pushups. I do three (sets) of them.” (HA)

About how he weighs 280 pounds and is trying to put on weight, Masch said:
“Right now, I’m on my own for the second (summer) session. I eat Pastaroni or pizza every night. In the morning, I eat a lot of corned beef hash because there’s a lot of fat in there. And a lot of rice. I make eggs all of the time. I love eggs. I make it over easy so I get all of the ooze stuff all over the rice. It tastes really good. What I love the most is Portuguese sausage under the rice with the egg yolks on top. That’s my favorite thing.” (HA)

About his love for puka shells, Masch said:
“I’ve been wearing puka shells ever since I was in the sixth grade. They used to call me ‘Puka’ on the baseball team. I wore them at my Nike combine. I’ve always had puka shells. I visited here a long time ago. I bought three. Over time, they break. Even at Arizona, I started the beginning of the year with one, and it ended up getting ripped off. I usually play with it on me.” (HA)

About how his last name lends itself to great nicknames, Masch said:
“My junior year in high school, (my nickname) was Monster Masch. My senior year, it was Smash Masch. It’s been a great last name for nicknames.” (HA)

http://warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com/2009/07/15/lofton-transfers-monster-masch

Daniel Lofton to transfer to Hardin-Simmons

About transferring to DIII Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas, Daniel (son of Hall of Fame WR James Lofton) said:
“I just felt it would be a good fit for me. I have family on both sides in Houston and Dallas. I wanted to be somewhere close.” (HA)

HA Note: “Lofton said he will compete in both football and track. He will have two seasons of eligibility in each sport. He does not have to sit out this year.”

http://warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com/2009/07/15/lofton-transfers-monster-masch

Michael Carter is Centurians #15

HSB Note: “Then a sophomore quarterback, Carter played nearly the entire 1991 season with a painful rib injury, and whether he’d play in Hawaii’s finale against Notre Dame was in doubt. Carter did indeed start against the Fighting Irish, and with the Rainbow Warriors trailing early in the fourth quarter, he rolled to his left and found open field ahead. Only a safety camped just outside the end zone separated him from six. Carter opted for the direct route, and the crunching collision left him doubled over and forced him out of the game. But not before he took the ball — and the defender — over the goal line.”

About the hit he took in the Notre Dame game, Carter said:
“It felt like a big dagger. That was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever taken. That was a stalemate. He was going full speed from about 10 yards back and I was 20 yards away and we just met at the goal line.” (HSB)

About how the Notre Dame game to end their 1991 season set up their WAC championship run for the 1992 season, Carter said:
“That whole game gave a lot of the young players the inspiration and the belief that we could play with national-level teams. I truly do believe that it did carry over into the next year. It brought all the guys that were coming back a lot closer and willing to work for a common goal.” (HSB)

About all the punishment that Carter took, WR Darrick Branch said:
“He’d get smacked just about every play. He had a lot of bumps and bruises and time and time again we’d see Michael Carter get up and go back to the huddle and lead the team. That’s how he’d always been. Even before he came to UH that’s what we heard about him: He’s a tough guy and he’s not afraid to play ball the way it’s supposed to be played.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Carter finished his career in 1993 and still owns the UH record for rushing touchdowns with 39 and is the second-leading rusher in school history with 2,528 yards, trailing only Gary Allen.”

About how he played QB with a LB’s mentality, Carter said:
“I was a quarterback and a linebacker from my Pop Warner days all the way up until high school. I kind of played with a linebacker’s mentality. … And a lot of my time was spent practicing with the running backs, so I actually learned how to deliver blows instead of taking them.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Carter signed with UH out of Long Beach Poly and backed up Garrett Gabriel his first year. He took over as a sophomore in ‘91 and rushed for 214 yards in his first start, a season-opening win at Wyoming. He first suffered the rib injury in that game, yet he set a single-season school record with 221 rushing attempts. The last of those carries, his touchdown against Notre Dame, summed up Carter’s competitive streak.”

About Carter’s TD vs. Notre Dame, then-UH head coach Bob Wagner said:
“That kind of epitomized the team effort in that game and it epitomized the kind of person he was. He could have slid or something like that, but that wasn’t his nature. He was going to try to get everything he could.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Still, Carter’s job was far from secure going into 1992. Ivin Jasper won a tight competition for the starting assignment in the season opener at Oregon, while Carter began the season as a slotback. Both Jasper and Carter suffered ankle injuries the next week and Rodney Glover piloted UH to a win at Air Force. A combined effort led to a rousing win over BYU and Carter’s ankle allowed him to reclaim the starting spot the following week at Utah.”

About how he got the starting QB spot back in 1992 because his ankle got better quicker than Ivin Jasper’s ankle, Carter said:
“I just happened to be the guy that got totally healthy first and was able to go. The longer the season went, the better we got as an offense.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “After wins over Tulsa and Pittsburgh, Carter capped the landmark season by running for 105 yards and throwing a clinching 53-yard touchdown pass to Branch in a 27-17 win over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl. Carter was named the Outstanding Offensive Player of the Game.”

About their WAC-championship team, Carter said:
“I came from winning traditions. I won a lot of football games, but I’ve never felt as close to a group of guys on the football field as I did with that team. We had a lot of confidence, almost a little bit of arrogance, which you need sometimes to get you over the hump.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Carter, now a stevedore, enjoyed a stint as an assistant coach at Kapolei, where he coached two quarterbacks who went on to Division I football careers, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada (Navy) and current Hawaii receiver Jon Medeiros.”

About how he’ll go back to coaching football someday, Carter said:
“I don’t think there’s any way I wouldn’t get back in it.” (HSB)

http://www.starbulletin.com/sports/sportsnews/20090716_Carter_still_has_his_bruises.html

Kenny Patton has been serving as an offseason volunteer at Ching Field

HA Note: “Patton, a former Warriors cornerback, has been helping the current defensive backs with their offseason training, leading drills and providing structure to their voluntary workouts.”

About helping out as a volunteer, Kenny Patton said:
“Any way I can help out, I’m happy trying to give back to these guys. I’m happy these guys are coming out and working hard and are hungry for it. It makes it a pleasure.” (HA)

About putting together a program combining drills he learned from UH and from his NFL experiences with the NY Jets and Oakland Raiders, Patton said about his NFL experience:
“It was a brief stint, however I did learn a lot. I just tried to soak up as much as I can and break things down, add to it and be creative and just motivate these guys.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Patton is now a special education teacher at Radford High School and got involved with the Warriors this summer when senior safety Spencer Smith gave him a call asking him to help with the training sessions. He initially started with two players, but the group had grown to close to a dozen for Tuesday afternoon’s workout.”

Trying to help the DBs with their footwork and quickness drills to give them an edge, Patton said:
“Football’s a game of inches. If your foot is pointed out just a little too much, that’s going to mess with their acceleration and that’s the difference between a pass-break and a completion. Every little thing helps.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Among the returnees who turned out on Tuesday included cornerback Jeramy Bryant and safeties Kenny Estes and Mana Silva. They were joined by newcomers such as junior college transfer Aaron Brown and freshman Mike Wadsworth.”

About having their DBs work out together in the offseason, Mana Silva said:
“We’re all young and we have to grow together, so it’s going to help us with our chemistry on the field.” (HSB)

http://www.starbulletin.com/sports/sportsnews/20090716_Patton_returns_to_field_as_offseason_volunteer.html

Lametrius Davis worked out with Alex Green this offseason

HSB Note: “Lametrius Davis returned to Hawaii last week and has been taking part in the workouts. The transfer participated in spring practice and was back home in Portland for the early summer. He said he worked out regularly with incoming running back recruit Alex Green, a teammate at Butte (Calif.) College and a close friend since middle school.”

About his workouts with Alex Green, Davis said:
“We did a whole bunch of running, cardio, yoga, stuff like that to get more flexible.” (HSB)

HSB Note: “Davis practiced at both free safety and cornerback in the spring. The post-spring depth chart has him listed as a cornerback, but he said he’s open to contributing at either spot.”

http://www.starbulletin.com/sports/sportsnews/20090716_Patton_returns_to_field_as_offseason_volunteer.html

Concern that having PPV in HD will reduce UH attendance

HA Note: “Even last year some people involved in PPV privately conceded a concern about what an introduction of HD might do in what was seen as a rebuilding season after the Sugar Bowl. “Part of this partnership is trying to (keep) people in the stands, too,” a party to the deal acknowledged.”

About how more than 80,000 of Oceanic’s 420,000 subscribers have HD, JD said about HD:
“It has now become the expectation.” (HA)

About how HD TV hasn’t hurt attendance for pro basketball or football, JD said:
“The NBA and NFL haven’t seen a massive increase in ratings for their broadcasts or (dramatic) drops in their attendance.” (HA)

HA Note: “But UH is neither of those and draws its fans from a smaller population base. In this economy, with local fans searching for options, getting the price right is going to be the bottom line. That much is already digitally clear.”

http://sports.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090716/COLUMNISTS06/907160359/1142&template=UHSports

Fred Smoot gave Colt the idea to donate uniforms to the Ko’olaulea Red Raiders

HSB Note: “The Ko’olaulea Red Raiders Pop Warner football players will all have brand new uniforms this season, thanks to a hanai son of the North Shore. Colt Brennan made a donation to sponsor the Red Raiders, and through an NFL program, the Washington Redskins’ quarterback’s donation is matched by the league.”

About how Fred Smoot gave him the idea to donate uniforms to a Pop Warner team, Colt said:
“One of my teammates, Fred Smoot, was talking one day about how he had a team in Mississippi. So that gave me the idea to do it here.” (HSB)

About how Gerald Welch got him in touch with Pop Warner teams on the North Shore, Colt said:
“Gerald got us in touch with the people we needed to in the Red Raiders’ Pop Warner and we got the ball rolling. Now it’s all official. All four teams will have new uniforms. When you think of this tiny little community, and what they do with what little they have to produce so many NFL players, that says something special.” (HSB)

http://blogs.starbulletin.com/quickreads/?p=364

Colt Brennan and the NFL donated the money for uniforms for the Koolauloa Red Raiders

HA Note: “Colt Brennan’s wish was completed when the Koolauloa Red Raiders received money to pay for new uniforms for their four Pop Warner teams (ages 8-15). Brennan and the NFL donated an equal share to the Hau‘ula program.”

Proud that he was able to help the Koolauloa Red Raiders, Colt said:
“They got both checks this week. Of all of the things I’ve done, this is something I’m most proud of and most stoked about.” (HA)

HA Note: “Brennan learned of the NFL’s matching-donation project from a Redskin teammate. He chose Koolauloa because of his friendship with Gerald Welch, a Hau‘ula resident and former UH slot.”

About how Hau’ula has one of the highest per-capita rates of developing NFL players, Colt said:
“That’s awesome for a tiny community. Pop Warner is where I found my love for football. I wanted to help, and it was a place that could use the help.” (HA)

Asked what he wants in return, Colt said:
“Updates. And a picture of the teams.” (HA)

http://warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com/2009/07/15/couple-of-minutes-with-doe-henderson