From the start of the spring football schedule on March 29th till the end of the annual spring game on April, 27th, Eric Mathews of the University of Hawai'i athletic department's media relations office, will provide weekly written content from his perspective in regards to the Rainbow Warriors football squad. Read, enjoy, share, and like on all forms of social media, while using the hashtag #HawaiiFB.

HONOLULU—In the professional world, certain jobs stick out as thankless. Often, they're done by blue collar workers who show up every day, punch in their time cards and take on a set of unenviable tasks, Glamorous they are not, but if their job goes undone, everyone notices.
 
No position on the football field comes as close as comparison to the underappreciated blue collar worker than that of an offensive lineman. The days can be grueling.  The work puts a strain on backs and hands. And while the masses hardly acknowledge stellar play, one missed assignment can result in a close-up camera shot and the memorization of a player's number for all the wrong reasons.
 
In 2018 the University of Hawai'i football team took a promising step forward, and some credit can be divvied out to the role of the offensive line in the overall success of the run-and-shoot offense. On paper, the 2018 offense line was a mystery. When the season opened at Colorado State on August 25th the guys in the trenches had a combined eight start amongst them – seven of those coming from junior J.R. Hensley. The two-deep chart didn't feature a single senior and included three freshmen.
 
While the line was young and in many ways inexperienced, their offensive line coach was not. Mark Weber came into the program as a well-established offensive line whisperer as he spoke the language of a trench general for 36 years including stops at 10 different schools where he served as the offensive line coach.
 
An immediate impact was made as the line stayed intact throughout the season. In protecting quarterback Cole McDonald and eliminating a large number of penalties. the line helped UH get off to a remarkable 6-1 start and an eventual postseason berth.
 
"Blocking is all about your feet, if you don't block with your feet then you're setting yourself up for a holding penalty, "said Weber. "Last year we cut down on our penalties significantly to a fraction of what it was the year before."
 
Building off the success of 2018 into the spring of 2019, the offensive line is no longer a hovering question mark, but instead, it appears to be a strength for a high-powered offense. Hensley returns as a senior anchor, but his counterparts to his right and left are now also mainstays. Senior Kohl Levao, along with sophomores Ilm Manning and Solo Vaipulu joined Hensley in starting all 14 games last year. Meanwhile, redshirt juniors Taaga Tuulima and Joey Nu'uanu-Kuhi'iki combined for 14 starts throughout the year, serving at center and right tackle, respectively. Amongst this group of protectors and position battlers is a common theme of trust.
 
"The chemistry is here, and we've meshed together," said Hensley. "It's easy to trust the guy next to you when you've been fighting alongside of them for an entire season. This spring is the most excited I've been, and it's because there's a certain drive, a certain 'want to' from the players and not just the coaches."
 
As the spring progresses and the excitement for Saturdays begins to creep from April to late August, the stability of the offensive line and what to expect is present on this year's unit, even if the names don't grab the headlines. The numbers will begin to add up, and the attention will be focused in on names like McDonald, Cedric Byrd, JoJo Ward, Fred Holly III, and Dayton Furuta. But like the blue-collar worker coming to work every day to make the machine run, it's not about flash or recognition for the offensive line, it's merely about the pride of winning.
 
"The offensive line is the most prideful position on the field," said Hensley. "You wake up every day knowing you're not viewed as the most important person in terms of fame on a football team, but that's not what we're about. We're about going out and whooping some tail for four quarters. We take pride in winning those wars."