Training Camp Q&A with Hawaii Football OL Dean Briski

Dean Briski enters his final season with the Hawai‘i football team taking on a new challenge along the offensive line.

The 2022 Samoana High School graduate and Pago Pago, American Samoa, native played 783 of his 788 total snaps at the left tackle position in 2025. This season, the 6-foot-5, 305-pound redshirt senior is moving to right tackle, where he will protect the blindside of left-handed quarterback Micah Alejado, the Mountain West Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

Briski is one of two returning offensive line starters for the Rainbow Warriors, joining center Ethan Spencer. Hawai‘i lost guards Zhen Sotelo, Kuao Peihopa and right tackle James Milovale to graduation after going 9-4 in 2025 and winning the Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl.

Briski has also shown his versatility in the past, seeing action as a backfield tight end off the line of scrimmage in Hawai‘i’s 34-13 victory over Nevada in 2024.

Hawai‘i Sports Radio Network caught up with Briski during training camp to discuss his move to right tackle, his final season and the expectations surrounding the Rainbow Warriors in 2026.

Note: The text for some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

Dean Briski lines up at left tackle in Hawaii Football’s 2025 season opener against Stanford. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

HSRN: How do you feel like right now and what do you feel like the mood of the team is right now?

Dean Briski: “Just super blessed to be out here, doing this for a long time. We’re also just very confident in our offseason. Coach (Bobby Thomas) got us right in our bodies and how we move. It’s really exciting to see what it does to us on the field. It’s just about putting it all together.”

HSRN: You’re one of the returning starters on the offensive line, but you guys did lose couple big pieces in Zhen (Sotelo) and Kuao (Peihopa). How do you feel that unit is looking especially with some of the newcomers coming in?

Briski: “Zhen and Kuao really held a big point in our group, especially with our mentality and stuff, but the O-line is building a new culture with a new group of boys. It’s more of just work and alignment kind of so the younger boys know who to follow, who to listen to and it’s just following your leaders kind of thing and knowing your role.”

HSRN: You talk about work and alignment — you’re moving from the left side to the right side. Maybe stance is a little bit different, arms a little bit different. Talk about the transition moving to the right side?

Briski: “I’m right hand dominant so I feel like I can really strike something. It’s just getting more repetition, repetition, we still got couple more weeks till first game so it’s just doing it over and over again until you get confident and doing it. It’s just all reps.”

HSRN: Talk about what you bring to the table as an offensive lineman.

Briski: “I feel like I got a fire. I just want to be like that guy they need to open up a gap or do this, do that. I just want to be that person to light someone up, open the hole up. I just really like the aggression part of being an O-lineman. I like being savvy too.”

Dean Briski plays TE in the Hawaii Football game against Nevada in 2024. | Photo: Michael Lasquero

HSRN: I want to talk to you about the offensive transformation — talk about the changes on the offense that you’ve seen over these past two seasons.

Briski: “Definitely a lot when coach (Anthony) Arceneaux came in and coach Winterhawk (Leighton) really helped us too in our run (game). It’s just the pieces we have too. Micah (Alejado), it’s a whole different thing now. Our running backs, Cam Barfield. It’s just so much elevated when I first got here and I feel like our offense is just more electric now.”

HSRN: Who are some of the young bucks coming in on the offensive line that you’re really seeing them taking a step and we’re probably going to know their names by the time the season is over?

Briski: “I’m going to go with Uluaki Taukiuvea. Uluaki is a right tackle from Utah, but he was kind of in the same position as me. He played quarterback in high school. He trusted our coaches that them telling him he would be a better offensive lineman, he trusted it and he put it in all his effort into his work. He’s our second string right tackle. I feel like teaching someone who’s more raw how to play, because they don’t have any bad habits so the coaches did a good job teaching him good fundamentals and how our offense moves and how the plays go. He’s just really coachable.”

HSRN: You guys were so close to making it to the championship game last year in the Mountain West so what do you guys have to do better or differently to make sure that you guys are in that game?

Briski: “Probably starting fast. I think that’s something that we didn’t really do a good job last year. But this year we’re trying to start fast, start fast in our plays. It just all starts in practice. We have to start fast in practice, before practice, activation. When we wake up, it’ has to be a whole mentality flip a whole new thing because whatever we did to get to where we’re at, we have to do it like times two now.”

HSRN: Share about your Polynesian background and how much does that mean to you?

Briski: “It means a lot. I got recruited from Samoa and I’ve been here for a long time and I just love seeing them pouring out to my islands, still trying to recruit kids out there. It’s good hearing my language in the locker room again. When I first got here it was Penei (Pavihi), Blessman (Ta’ala), Maurice (Ta’ala), JT (John Tuitupou). We were all speaking it. Now it’s a new group of boys, I can hear them saying stuff. It makes me happy they still bringing in people who still have the language, the culture, the humor, all that it’s still in the locker room.”

HAWAI’I FOOTBALL COVERAGE ON HSRN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY