PENN CLAIMS LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE!...

BJ Penn won the vacant UFC lightweight belt in his third attempt, breezing past a bloody Joe Stevenson in the second round tonight.
The Hilo, Hawai'i mixed martial arts star, who picked up the welterweight title in 2004, joins Randy Couture as the only two-division champions in UFC history after dominating and finally choking Stevenson (33-8) to take the 155-pound crown.
Stevenson was pummeled from the start, with Penn taking just 5 seconds to land a right uppercut that sent the Californian crashing to the mat.
"I thought I would ice him right there. I thought that was it," Penn said. "But he came back stronger."
With chants of "Easy! "Easy!" booming around the Metro Arena, Stevenson offered little resistance, with futile elbows.
"I was trying to put him away," Penn said. "He stayed strong and he was punching me real hard from back and punching hard from back.
Penn tried to finish off the former reality TV star off with a flurry of hooks, and a right elbow drew blood from Stevenson's hairline.
With blood splattered across the octagon, Stevenson — on the back of a four-win streak — adopted a dogged approach.
The wound partially cleaned up, Penn, who defied the critics who doubted his fitness, was biding his time before landing the fatal blow. Stevenson remained on his feet for 2:40 until he was sent crashing down with a left uppercut.
Both fighters were soaked in blood by the time Penn grabbed Stevenson's neck and put him in a choke hold at 4:02 at the climax of a brutal beating.
In 2002, Penn lost to Jens Pulver in a five-round bout, and the following year, nothing could separate him from Caol Uno.
Penn (13-4-1) immediately vowed to defend his title against Sean Sherk, who is serving a six-month ban after being stripped of the lightweight belt for a positive steroids test.
"He's not a bad person, there's nothing personal," Penn told reporters. "This is my life, this is my dream and I was just disappointed when all that went down .... he will be back stronger than ever."
That bout is likely to take place in Las Vegas in May when the California State Athletic Commission ban will have expired.
Sherk earlier entered the cage to say: "I don't have any respect for BJ."

On the undercard, Maui's Kendall Grove lost to Jorge Rivera of Massachusetts by TKO in the first round of a middleweight (185 pounds) bout.
Rivera scored a takedown of Grove early in the bout, then unloaded a series of punches. Grove got back to his feet, but then got dropped by a left-hand punch from Rivera.
The referee stopped it, 1:20 into the first round.
Grove, who won The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality television series, dropped to 10-5 with his second consecutive loss in the UFC. Rivera improved to 15-6.

FRIDAY FORECAST!...

Another Week, Another Edition of Friday Forecast...
Here's the Rundown:

1. UH Hoops vs Fresno State
2. Kevin Love vs. OJ Mayo (Who score more on Saturday?)
3. Pearl City vs. Mililani (OIA Red Division Soccer Championship)
4. BJ Penn/ Kendall Grove in UFC (Record on Saturday)
5. NY Giants vs. Packers
6. Chargers vs. Patriots

Jim: UH, Love, Pearl City, Hates MMA!, Packers, patriots
Kanoa: UH, Mayo, 2-0, Mililani, Giants, Chargers
Rob: UH, Mayo, 2-0, Mililani, Packers, Chargers
Felipe: FSU, Love, 1-1, Pearl City, Packers, Chargers

Reinebold leaves for SMU

Hawai'i defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold yesterday accepted a job on June Jones' coaching staff at Southern Methodist.
Reinebold said he will depart for Dallas today. For now, his wife and children will keep their rental unit in Waimanalo.
Reinebold is the fourth assistant from last year's UH staff to join SMU, following Dan Morrison, Wes Suan and Dennis McKnight.
Reinebold recruited nearly the entire 2007 UH secondary — safety Jacob Patek, cornerbacks Myron Newberry and Gerard Lewis, and nickelback Ryan Mouton.

Courtesy: honoluluadvertiser.com

Norm Chow Fired by Titans

Norm Chow was fired today by the Tennessee Titans after three seasons with the team, despite earning their first trip to the playoffs since 2003. The former offensive coordinator at USC, BYU and NC State was a name mentioned for the vacant head coaching job at the University of Hawaii, though he never officially applied for the position. Had the Titans fired Chow three or four days earlier, it may have had an impact on the decision for the universities search for the next head coach.

Chow ran the 21st overall offense in the league with the Titans with 311 yards per game and nine touchdowns during the regular season.

McMackin and Lumpkin Final Two Candidates

Veteran assistant football coaches George Lumpkin and Greg McMackin were scheduled to interview today as the finalists for the Hawaii head coach position vacated by their former boss, June Jones, a source close to the situation said.
McMackin, who was Jones' defensive coordinator in a 9-4 season in 1999 and 12-1 this past year, is widely considered the leading candidate.
Lumpkin has coached at UH 35 years. The associate head coach handled the Warriors defensive ends last season. He has previously served as defensive coordinator at UH twice, and was acting head coach for several months in the offseason when Jones nearly died in a 2001 car accident. UH will likely announce a choice tomorrow.

Courtesy: starbulletin.com

Life After June: Reasons to be Optimistic in 2008

By: Joe Udell

Joe is a friend of leaheyradio.com and his column will appear in the January 18 edition of The Hawaii Herald

It has been one week since University of Hawai'i head football coach June Jones, displeased by 11th hour contract negotiations and the program's meager budget and deteriorating facilities, left the islands to become the new head football coach at Southern Methodist University. Seven days have passed since the entire state, upon hearing news of Jones' departure, bolted upright from the peaceful trance of a dream football season. And yet, contrary to initial doomsday reactions, life does go on. UH football lives on. That's not to say that Jan. 7, the day Jones' announced that he was defecting to SMU, wasn't a terrible day for everyone in Warrior Nation. The thousands of fans who were captivated by the team's perfect run to the Sugar Bowl could only shake their heads at the team's sudden fall from grace. Had Jones been offered a contract extension after the 11-and-three 2006 season, or even prior to the team's Sugar Bowl appearance this year, the Warriors would be gearing up to defend their Western Athletic Conference title, not scrambling for a new football coach. 'How could this happen?' the entire state wondered, shocked by the drastic turn of fortunes. 'What will happen to the program?'Fast forward through the protests at Kahala Mall and Bachman Hall, beyond the innumerable, scathing criticisms towards the university, past the heckling of former athletic director Herman Frazier and there is a pulse. UH football fans share many qualities: passion, cynicism and, sometimes, doubt. But their most endearing trait is their resiliency. After all, this is a group of fans that endured 10 straight defeats at the hands of Brigham Young University and 18 consecutive losses from 1997 to 1998. Ask any die-hard UH fan and he will tell you that if he can survive through the Fred vonAppen years, he can survive through anything. And that's precisely what Hawai'i fans are doing right now: Surviving. If the Jones snafu has reaffirmed anything, it is that rainbows still do appear after a rain storm (a slightly ironic thought considering it was Jones himself who abolished the endearing Rainbow moniker). It may have taken a fortnight for the UH faithful to realize it, but it has become apparently clear that the football program is not a team in disarray.This is not 1998, when the school was praying for a football savior in the wake of a winless season, and it is a far cry from the debate on whether or not the program should drop down to the Division II ranks; rather, the Warriors are coming off a Bowl Championship Series game and a full season as a nationally ranked squad. Quarterback Tyler Graunke and receivers Malcolm Lane, Greg Salas, Michael Washington and Aaron Bain are ready to take over the offense. On the other side of the ball, linebackers Blaze Soares, Adam Leonard and Solomon Elimimian will anchor a defense that was ranked second last season in the WAC. Jones, the architect of the Warriors, may be gone, but the team he built is still in a position to be successful.However, in order for the UH program to continue improving, the next head coach must follow the blueprint that Jones developed for winning in Hawai'i: Embrace the local culture, hire assistants with strong Hawai'i connections, recruit heavily in the islands and American Samoa and continue to court players with local ties as well as high character, second-chance athletes on the mainland. Mix in a handful of talented recruits who followed the team during its national television appearances and there is no reason why Hawai'i can't compete for the WAC crown on a consistent basis. For the moment, it seems that the university is following that strategy. The list of candidates for the vacant head coaching position are all qualified suitors with strong ties to Hawai'i: UH defensive coordinator Greg McMackin, former San Diego Chargers head coach Kevin Gilbride, assistant head coach at the University of Texas Duane Akina, offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans Norm Chow and UH linebackers coach Cal Lee. Along with Jones' assistant coaches Rich Miano, Ron Lee, George Lumpkin and Jeff Reinebold, who will likely remain in the islands, the 2008 Warrior squad should have every opportunity to maintain a strong semblance of continuity from the Jones-era. Of course, as Herman Frazier proved this year, having a talented coach amounts to little if the athletic director is not proactive enough to fill out a football schedule and extend coaching contracts. What is encouraging, at least, is that UH looks like it has learned its lesson from Frazier's disastrous reign. Unlike Frazier, who never acclimated himself to Hawai'i during his five-year tenure, all the candidates for the AD position are prominent Hawai'i sports figures who understand the local dynamics: former UH head coach Dick Tomey, Hawai'i High School Athletic Association executive director Keith Amemiya, Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl executive director Jim Donovan, KGMB senior vice president and general manager Rick Blangiardi and Hawai'i Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas. Any of those candidates could guide UH's athletic programs into the next level and still operate seamlessly within the island culture. Whoever the future AD is, he will have a prime opportunity to restore credibility to the athletic department. Frazier's mishandling of Jones' contract, the 2007 football schedule and the Sugar Bowl ticket distribution alienated so many fans that his successor need only communicate with the media and display both competence and pro-activity - traits which should be no problem for the list of AD candidates - to regain the trust of Warrior Nation. Most importantly, the football program's slim budget and outdated facilities - issues which contributed mightily to Jones' exodus and have been the bain of the program's recruiting efforts - caused such an outrage among the fan base that it would be disastrous for the school administration and the state lawmakers not to address them. In what should be seen as a beacon of hope for Hawai'i, Jones declared in his widely-read farewell email to Frazier that 'the next guy will get everything that I have wanted as it will wake up those that have to make those decisions.' Because public sentiment is almost unanimously in favor of undoing Frazier's missteps, the tasks of the next AD will be markedly easier. The combination of a new football coach and a new athletic director will undoubtedly change several aspects of the football program. Understandably, many UH fans are concerned about the continuation of the program's tradition. Will Villi the Warrior remain in place during contests at Aloha Stadium? Will the program retain the Nike-sponsored uniforms? Will the haka and ha'a continue to be performed before kickoff? Indeed, Jones carved out a unique football culture which is now in jeopardy. While the answers to those questions still remain in limbo, whatever the atmosphere is like in the post Jones-era, the mood of Warrior Nation will be determined on the field. As long as UH continues its winning ways, which, as discussed earlier, is completely realistic, it is safe to say that whatever traditions are carried over and formed in the coming years will be met with approval by the Hawai'i faithful. Anyone who is still skeptical of the future of the Warrior program need not look further than one of Jones' lasting lessons at Manoa: Change can be a good thing. After all, Jones was the one who barred the UH fight song after Hawai'i touchdowns, who introduced the 'Warriors' to the public and who reconstructed the school logo and team uniforms. These changes may not have carried the same uncertainty as the head coaching vacancy does, but they were met with an equal amount of shock and outrage by the UH fan base. Eventually, time and winning paved the way for acceptance as Jones' Warrior culture earned a nation of believers. If history has proven anything, it is that UH football will live on. It may not live on in the same aerial, run-and-shoot form that Jones championed, but it will survive nonetheless. There is talent thriving in Manoa, lessons to be built upon and an entire state ready to offer support. Now that Hawai'i has proven that it can reach college football's brightest stage, there is no reason to believe that history can't repeat itself.

Question of the Week

Carl Clapp was named as Acting Athletic Director of the University of Hawaii replacing Herman Frazier amid public outcry for Frazier’s removal from his post. The pressures on as Clapp and the administration are expected to announce a new head coach soon, reviewing over 30 applications for the job. Add to that, the fact that the facilities have been under a microscope and Clapp certainly has his work cut out for him.
We got a great deal of responses for Theo Jones’ blog, concerning the AD position, “The Other Side” with most (if not all) people calling for the head of Herman Frazier. So, since everyone had strong feelings about the recent events at UH and (as Theo put it) the community seems to have some AD experience, we pose the question of the week:

What would be your first major move if you were named the University of Hawaii’s Athletic Director?

McLACHLIN OPENS 2008 WITH TOP 10 FINISH...

Honolulu's Parker McLachlin birdied his final hole for an even-par 70 today and finished tied for 10th in the Sony Open in Hawai'i at Waialae Country Club.
McLachlin, in his second season on the PGA Tour, finished at 6-under 274. K.J. Choi shot a 71 to finish at 266, three strokes ahead of Rory Sabbatini (68).
After a roug start — a double-bogey on the par-4 No. 3 and a bogey on the par-3 No. 7 — McLachlin settled down to birdie the par-5 No. 9 and the par-4 No. 12. He sank a four-foot birdie putt on No. 18.
McLachlin, a Punahou School and UCLA alum, was the only golfer with Hawai'i ties to play the weekend.
McLachlin's best finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for fifth at the Turning Stone Resort Championship at Verona, N.Y., last September. It was his fourth start in the Sony Open after finishing tied for 59th in 2006 and missing the cut in 2000 and 2007.
Courtesy: honoluluadvertiser.com

D-LOW GOES OFF...COUGARS LOSE

Iolani-Grad, Pre-Season All-American-Guard Derrick Low and his 4th-Ranked Washington State Cougars, were handed their first loss of the Season today, falling to Number 5 U-C-L-A, 81-74.
Pride of the Islands, Straight-Up BALLED in the 2nd-Half-Though...D-Low, held SCORELESS in the FIrst-Frame, Dropped a Team-High-24-Points, including dropping 16 straight at one point in the 2nd half.
Cougz fall to 14-1, Bruins are 16-1.

Leaheyradio.Com Question:

Is Derrick Low "good enough" to play in the NBA?

UH Releases Letter to Coach Jones

The University of Hawaii released a letter sent by the administrators to June Jones as an attempt to keep him with the Warriors football team. Sources say the letter was written after a meeting between Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, President David McClain and the former Warriors coach. Jones announced he would coach the SMU Mustangs in Dallas next season.

Here is the letter from the administrator’s to Jones:

Dear June,
We want to assure you that the ability to address your concerns quickly can be accomplished at this time - the "Manoa Moment" is real and it is now. The community, from the business sector to the government to the Board of Regents and most importantly to all the citizens of our State, has never been more supportive, thanks to the remarkable success of this year’s Warriors, and your leadership for the past 9 years.
The Chancellor, President and AD are committed to making change happen that fulfills your vision. We understand and respect your frustration over the years of the slowness, and even absence of change, but this truly is a new time for UH Manoa.
Let us give you some examples of our commitments:

1. Your office renovations are already supported by AKA and will be done quickly via the UH Foundation approach, similar to the approach used by Jay Shidler at the business school, to accomplish a quality project rapidly. Your success and this different approach offer a great window of opportunity that hasn't existed in the past but does now.

2. The overall facilities situation is now more addressable than ever in that the legislature and the community are supporting our efforts. Moreover, facilities repairs are the top priority for the chancellor. This would include, of course, renovation of the football locker room. The AD has already been instructed to initiate replacement of the turf on Cooke field so it can move forward this summer. The legislature is most likely at this moment to remove barriers that have challenged the university, including the football program, in the past.

3. Generating new resources - efforts are currently underway to manage Aloha Stadium in a different way to generate new resources for the Athletics Department. A different approach is on the table with regard to the licensing opportunities that can definitely be more fully realized for the benefit of athletics.

4. Your team has been a success because of you and your coaches -- so we are committed to reviewing the salaries of your team to ensure they are competitive as well.

5. Recruiting – additional resources will permit a major expansion of the recruiting budget.

6. Your vision of the Asian connection and its potential to leverage us into greater regional and national prominence is exciting to the chancellor and she wants to work with you on developing that approach. With the expertise and connections at UH Manoa, this is a natural and valuable extension for our campus.

7. Streamlining processes is a passion you share with the chancellor. This is again a time this agenda can be moved forward. One idea she has is an Athletic Board with alumni, faculty, staff and supporters in one body that focuses on the financial, academic, staff issues and considers new approaches so that issues can move forward more quickly and be considered by more minds.
We appreciate the professionalism with which you and Leigh Steinberg have conducted these discussions, and we sincerely believe that by remaining in Hawai‘i and fulfilling your vision you will have the opportunity to transform the lives of thousands of student-athletes and create a Paterno-esque legacy known across the nation and around the world.
We realize this decision is a momentous one, and stand ready to elaborate and clarify this commitment, either by phone, email or when you return to Honolulu.

With best wishes and Aloha,
David McClain, President, University of Hawai‘i System
Virginia Hinshaw, Chancellor, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
Herman Frazier, Director of Athletics, UH Manoa

Courtesy: starbulletin.com