In its first practice since returning from Michigan, the University of Hawai'i football team was without head coach June Jones.

"It's not the same, for many reasons," defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville said. "Practices have no organization, he'd better get back in here or we'll have this so screwed up nobody can fix it."

Jones is in Portland for personal reasons and is expected to return today. He flew straight to Portland from Michigan, where UH played Michigan State Saturday. UH returned home Sunday, then took yesterday off.

It helped that UH has a bye this week — it plays next at Idaho Sept. 24. Many of the players nursed their injuries by not participating at yesterday's practice.

"Anybody that isn't practicing wouldn't have practiced even if we didn't have a bye week," Glanville said.

Nose tackle Renolds Fruean was still on crutches because of a sprained ankle, and right tackle Dane Uperesa (sprained ankle), cornerback Kenny Patton (knee/shoulder), defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis (ankle), linebacker Tanuvasa Moe (hamstring), nose tackle Tony Akpan (sore back), linebacker Brad Kalilimoku (hamstring), and quarterback Colt Brennan (sprained shoulder) dressed out but did not practice.

"Everything is fine, my shoulder is a little sore, but I'm fine," Patton said. "My body is a little tired, and we have a couple of days off, so I figure I might as well not make it worse right now. If there was a game today, I would be playing."

Brennan's right (throwing) arm was in a sling, which he said he would likely be wearing for one or two more days.

"It's fine, they put it in a sling so people don't come up and slap me on the shoulder, and they want to keep it immobilized for a couple of days," Brennan said. "It's nothing serious, it's more of a nagging feeling in my shoulder. I should be throwing by the end of the week."

He said he was taking "mental reps," and that a lot of the practice was geared toward giving some of the players a chance to catch up.

"They got a lot of the (quarterbacks) and younger receivers running more routes, so everybody had a lighter load today and because of that I decided to take a couple of days off," Brennan said.

MAUIA REMORSEFUL

Nose tackle Reagan Mauia, who was flagged for two major penalties on successive plays in the fourth quarter — one for a late hit on Michigan State quarterback Drew Stanton and the other for unsportsmanlike conduct — practiced yesterday and said he was sorry for his actions.

Mauia said he and the coaches spoke about incidents, and they know "I was really sorry for what I did. He told me if I did it again, it's going to result in a really bad ending for me.

"What happened in the past is staying in the past, I'm just trying to focus on Idaho now."

Mauia said his wife, Rebekah, was supportive. "She was more worried about me getting in trouble from the coaches."

"I called her on the way home from the stadium and I asked her what happened," he said. "She couldn't really see it because the TV antennae was messed up. She knew I did something bad but she didn't know exactly what it was."

Glanville said it has all been "rectified."

"I said the next time he gets that penalty he should go immediately to the admissions office and get his transcripts so he can transfer," Glanville said. "We won't have that."

Glanville said he thought Mauia was taken out of the game after the first penalty.

"He should have been out of the game then," he said. "I thought we (took him out), but we did not."

CATCHING ALOHA SPIRIT

Jones' absence wasn't the only change for the football team. Glanville, previously steadfast in his decision to wear all black attire during practices and games, said he might consider wearing an aloha shirt for games.

"We'll have to see," he said. "They had a nice shirt last week, so we'll have to wait and see the shirt."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.