HONOLULU — The ball went up high and came down in the hands of a diving Jonah Panoke in the Ewa end zone of the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
Panoke stood up and chucked the football into the air, underhanded, as white-shirted members of the UH offense cheered and green-shirted members of the defense trudged back to the huddle.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ian Shoemaker was impressed, but not at the ball put up by sophomore quarterback Brayden Schager, or even by the catch by Panoke.
After practice, UH’s new O.C. told Spectrum News, “That was a great play by Jonah in a 1-on-1 situation. He made a great catch. But it was the three plays after, (Schager) being super efficient, making great decisions, throwing hitches, taking the (run-pass option). He made all completions in that session and we operated at a high level. So that was the best thing. When those four plays ended, that was a great set.”
Shoemaker, who was used to seeing gaudy numbers as the offensive coordinator at Eastern Washington the last few years, has his eye on the long game this spring.
UH doubled its installation of concepts from Day 1 to Thursday’s Day 2 of practices, and it will add more material still going into Day 3 on Saturday, when fans can attend for the first time. Practice begins at noon at the Manoa Lower Campus.
The mistakes doubled from the first practice to the second, Shoemaker said.
Upon his initial hiring announcement, Shoemaker said he’d work with head coach Timmy Chang on an offense that included elements of the run-and-shoot as well as RPO concepts. UH recruited tight ends among its first Chang recruiting class, something that would have never happened under the classic run-and-shoot of the June Jones era.
This spring is all about experimentation for the Rainbow Warriors, their new coaching staff, and a rotating group of seven quarterbacks.
“We’re going to try things,” Shoemaker said of these 15 practices. “We’re going to have a base core of things we’re going to do: We know we’re going to run certain things in the run game, do certain things in the RPO game, there’s certain things in the drop-back and quick game that we’re definitely going to have. But now we’re going also to see how those things all go together across the board. How do we make them fit together really well?”
From there, the team will decide what to take into fall camp.
It is Shoemaker’s first job at the FBS level after being a head coach at Division II Central Washington, then heading to FCS Eastern Washington as a coordinator.
EWU was first in the FCS in total offense per game (524.8) in 2019. In 2020, it was a top-three team in scoring and total offense. And through nine games of 2021, the Eagles’ offense averaged an FCS-best 48 points.
At that point, he resigned from EWU for what was termed “a personnel issue.” The Eagles would go on to finish 10-3 in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.
Shoemaker told Hawaii media upon his hire, “It was a mutual separation. We decided after those first couple of losses that it just wasn’t going to work anymore.”
UH running back Dedrick Parson said Thursday he researched every new coach to come into the program, and that Shoemaker’s football mind lived up to his reputation.
Parson said that Shoemaker has been generous with his time as he tries to get the team up to speed on the new concepts.
“It’s more of a variety. Pass, run, RPO, we’ve got a lot of different schemes that we can run,” Parson said. “There’s no just base thing that we run here. He brought in a lot of different aspects of offense; he’s got a great mind as an offensive guru. Just what he’s done is amazing.”
UH averaged 28.8 points and 405 yards of total offense under Todd Graham in the "run and gun" scheme in 2021 en route to a 6-7 season. Starting quarterback Chevan Cordeiro is gone, having transferred to Mountain West rival San Jose State.
Shoemaker said he and the similarly offensive-minded Chang — the two were not acquainted prior to Shoemaker’s hire — have been in frequent communication about what the new offense will look like even as the quarterbacks vie for the vacant starting job.
Shoemaker has been a vocal, animated presence on the field through the two practices.
“He’s been awesome to me. Really provided me the space to do what I do,” Shoemaker said of Chang. “Even in the quarterback room, which I know can be hard — a quarterback guy letting somebody else kind of take the reins and coach those guys. But he’s really leaning into where his biggest help is going to be, which is Coach (Jared) Ursua with the receivers and overseeing everything that we’re doing, and what that combination of schemes looks like. He’s done a great job putting his input in of, ‘this is what I want to see,’ and I’m trying to live up to those things with my structure, things I have to bring to the table.”
Ursua, UH’s final hire to round out the staff, came from FCS Weber State, where he was the receivers coach for the last three years and competed against EWU in the Big Sky Conference.
Ursua spoke to Hawaii media for the first time Thursday. He was clearly excited about the possibilities.
“He is a football mind. He is an excellent teacher,” Ursua said when asked about Shoemaker. “The ability to communicate, to simplify, and focus on fundamentals, and you combine that with Timmy Chang, who is one of the most extraordinary quarterbacks who’s played here, guys, I’m not trying to build some buzz and talk about how hot this will get burning, but we’re confident.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.