Throughout the course of fall camp, HawaiiAthletics.com will provide a breakdown of the 2021 Rainbow Warrior football team, position-by-position, as the team prepares for its home season opener at UCLA on Saturday, Aug. 28. 
 
The UH special teams takes on an added significance this season with head coach Todd Graham taking a more active role with the unit. While numerous members of the staff coach up the unit, Graham now serves as the de facto special teams coordinator. 

"I think it's the most important thing that I do," Graham says. "I want to make sure that our special teams unit understands the priority of their job. I just felt like last year we missed a lot of opportunities. We turned it on late in the year, but I felt if we were good early in the year it could have made a big difference." 

Graham exhibited the unit's worth when he awarded special teams standout Noa Kamana a scholarship this summer. "Noa is not on our two-deep on offense or defense," Graham says. "But he started on every special teams unit last year. We actually put him on scholarship a few weeks ago because he started more plays than anyone on our team. That's a statement on how important we think special teams is."


Returnees
 

Name	Pos	Ht	Wt	Cl	2020 Stats
Adam Stack	PK/P	6-2	180	Jr.	43.4 yards per punt
Ben Falck	PK/P	6-6	220	So.	Did not play
Matthew Shipley	PK/P	6-1	175	Fr.	8-of-14 FG; 26-26 XP-A
Wyatt Tucker	LS	5-10	215	Jr.	9 starts

                              



2020 specialists lost: Stan Guadion (P)

Newcomers
 

Name	Pos	Ht	Wt	Cl	Hometown (Last School)
Keola Downing	P	6-0	175	Fr.	Honolulu, O'ahu (Boise State)
Kyler Halvorsen	PK/P	6-0	175	Fr.	Honolulu, O'ahu (Kaiser HS)

The Placekicking Battle: Two young players are battling it out for placekicking duties. Matthew Shipley started as a true freshman last year and put out a solid effort. The native of Liberty Hill, Texas went 8-of-14 on field goals, including 6-of-7 on attempts under 40 yards. He also made good on all 26 of his extra point attempts. "Shipley is very polished," Graham says. "He's very fundamentally sound and is extremely disciplined in what he does." 

Pushing Shipley is true freshman Kyler Halverson. The Honolulu native was a two-time all-state kicker at Kaiser High School where he went 10-of-13 with a long of 53 yards during his junior season. "Kyler's got a big leg...actually a huge leg," Graham notes. "He's a really talented kicker. He's just got to refine the details, mechanics and discipline of kicking."
 
While the competition will go down to the wire, the incumbent Shipley is the starter with Halverson needing to beat him out according to Graham.
 
The Punting Battle: Another heated competition is at punter where Shipley is battling it out with Adam Stack. Stack took nearly every single punt last year and finished third in the Mountain West, averaging 43.4 yards per punt.  The Oregon transfer and Kailua native did not have a single touchback in 44 attempts last year and had season-long 61-yard punt vs. San Jose State.

Shipley did not take any punts last year, but is capable in his own right at the position, handling punting duties during his all-district career in high school. "A big competition there," Graham says of the punters. "Obviously Adam started last year, but both of these guys are competing. It's back and forth."

Snap Judgement: Long snapper Wyatt Tucker has been as reliable as it gets. In the last two years, he's made good on all 205 of his attempts. Kamuela Borden moved to tight end this year, but can also be called on for snapping duties. It's not a surprise. Borden continues a family lineage of Rainbow Warrior snappers that includes his older brothers Kawika (2011-13) and Noah (2015-18).

Happy Returns: Calvin Turner Jr. will add punt return duties to his resume after already lining up as a running back, wide receiver, wildcat quarterback and kick returner last year. Not surprisingly Turner is on the watch list for the Paul Hornung Award given to the nation's most versatile player. 

The Savannah, Ga. native was also named to the preseason All-Mountain West team as a punt returner, despite having yet played the position. It makes all the sense considering the kickoff return talents he showcased last year, which included a 92-yard touchdown in UH's New Mexico Bowl win over Houston. "He needs to be back there," Graham says. "He needs to be the guy returning the punts, returning the kickoffs. He's a dynamic returner."

Others in the mix to return kicks are Dior Scott, Jalen Perdue and Koali Nishigaya. 
 
Number To Know: UH has one of the longest streaks in the country at 152 games without allowing a blocked punt. The Rainbow Warriors last had a punt blocked against Notre Dame in  the 2008 Hawai'i Bowl.

Graham's Last Say: "Special teams makes up 25 percent of the plays in a game, so that's something. We're gonna use our best guys on special teams but we also want 12 guys – our "Dirty Dozen" –who that's their primary thing. And that will improve us."