Vince Manuwai hears the Bowl Championship Series buzz.

He can't miss the talk of an undefeated season for the University of Hawai'i and excitement of a Heisman Trophy candidacy.

To all of it he says: "Remember 1998."

The year the Warriors went 0-12?

"Exactly."

As the Warriors went about unofficial, unsupervised workouts on a grass practice field yesterday afternoon in Manoa, one of the stakeholders in what the program has become was asking the current players to "not to take anything for granted and keep working to make it better."

Manuwai, five seasons into an NFL career as a guard with the Jacksonville Jaguars, said he relishes the level the program has risen to. So much so there is a visible pride in how he relates that Jacksonville teammates, who once dismissed his alma mater, now have a growing familiarity with the Warriors' success.

Manuwai remembers once-upon-a-not-so-distant time when that wasn't the case. When there were questions about whether UH should drop football. A time when, Manuwai recalls, "the Prep Bowl was drawing more people" and coaches were beseeching recruits like him to come to UH "and build something."

Manuwai was a freshman when the Warriors were coming off the embarrassment of an NCAA-record-tying season for futility. In Manuwai's stay UH went 9-4, 3-9, 9-3 and 10-4, a history-making turnaround for the program and a base for the success it now enjoys.

So, Manuwai puts that hard-earned experience and his imposing 6-foot-2, 325-pound frame behind his message for the players who come around to shake his meaty hand and ask about life in the pros. "I tell them what it is like in the NFL and how they do things," Manuwai said.

And he reminds them to keep their focus and hunger. "There are a lot of things in front of them (the 2007 Warriors), like the Heisman Trophy, and I tell them to work hard and just to let it come to you. I tell them you've got the program to a good place but don't think you can just win automatically now. It takes a lot of hard work to keep it going."

It is a message quarterback Colt Brennan says the Warriors have reason to heed. "There's no reason for us to be complacent. We're working hard and we have to because it is not like we have everybody back and we can take anything for granted. We have a lot of positions to fill. We had a good season last year and all the accolades and acknowledgements of the preseason should give us extra incentive to work hard."

Said Manuwai: "When everything's going so good, sometimes you have to remember where it (the program) came from, too."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.