Boise State safety Nawahine finds his groove after eventful first football season

After needing the better part of a football season to shake the rust off, Boise State sophomore safety Kekoa Nawahine is finally feeling comfortable.

The Rocky Mountain graduate spent his first two years after high school on his LDS mission. As a freshman in 2016, Nawahine made 21 tackles and started the Cactus Bowl against Baylor.

Though he saw plenty of playing time last season, football didn’t come back easily.

“Coming back, the conditioning was definitely the hardest. That was the biggest thing,” Nawahine said. “Mentally, just getting back into the playbook was really hard, to adjust to that mental side of the game.”

With a year under his belt, Nawahine is in the mix with a deep group of safeties for spot atop the depth chart. Safeties coach Gabe Franklin has seen Nawahine blossom.

“For him, it was kind of getting the game to slow down for him as the season went on,” Franklin said. “As the season went on, he got more and more confident and started making plays for us in practice.”

Boise State continues spring ball this week before taking off next week for spring break.

The annual spring game is 5 p.m. April 8.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Boise State safety Nawahine finds his groove after eventful first football season."