Head Coach: Timmy Chang is entering his 4th season with the Rainbow Warriors with a 13-25 record. He’s a former legendary QB with Hawaii in the early 2000s, and has a few records that stand to this day. He returned home after Todd Graham essentially burned the program to the ground so he’s been given some time to rebuild this program even though last season didn’t go as planned.
Program Outlook: Hawaii is one of the most universally loved programs, everyone remembers staying up late to watch Hawaii football as part of growing up, and tries to stay up to watch them as adults (known as the “Hawaii Test”). It’s a program literally placed in paradise, should be easy to recruit right? Not quite. The program has a lot of financial constraints to deal with, and it’s a little more difficult to pitch to recruits not on the island when their visit is a minimum 4 hour flight and they’ll have that 6 times a year. Most of their recruiting is based on the island, and player development. It’s been more challenging because they had a pay-per-view TV deal in their home state for a lot of home games, add in the smaller temporary stadium and it becomes more difficult to connect with your home state. Not to worry, the TV deal should be more accessible starting in 2026 and eventually the new Aloha Stadium will be built. There’s hope for the future and that’s good for all of College Football, this is truly a program where the sport is better when they are good.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Hawaii ranks 45th in the country returning 59.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players at Hawaii always has to start with the QB and there’s a lot of excitement around Micah Alejado after he played the last 2 games in 2024. His accuracy and ability to move really energized the offense. This program always has receivers, Pofele Ashlock returns after a challenging 2024 due to injuries but he will be the star. Hawaii will have some portal help at the position too. The defense is led by safety Peter Manuma who proved to be a star in 2023 before battling nagging injuries last year, and corner Virdel Edwards II missed all of last year but is back as well. Safeties Elijah Palmer and Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen stepped up last year so it’s great to have them back as well. They’re loaded at linebacker too with last year’s leading tackler Jamih Otis back along with Logan Taylor and Jalen Smith. The question marks for Hawaii on defense starts with the Dline, they have Elijah Robinson and Tariq Jones back but they need to apply more pressure on opposing QBs, and while the portal helps on the interior they are undersized. The offensive line is the biggest question mark on the team, they lost some starters and overall it’s a unit that couldn’t pass protect and RB Landon Sims had very little room to work.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Hawaii’s schedule is really tough, but the bright side is that there isn’t a game they can’t win either. The non-conference is headlined by games against Stanford, Arizona and a Sam Houston team that won 10 games last year. Their FCS foe is Portland State who has given FBS teams a challenge in the past but has fallen on tougher times lately. The Mountain West schedule isn’t great, you’d like to see Hawaii get games against New Mexico and Nevada, but there is no Boise State at least. The road slate is rough but the plus side is that a lot of the most winnable games are on the island. Hawaii needs to win at home to reach a bowl.
Final Thoughts: There’s some hope that this is the year Hawaii returns to a bowl, it won’t be easy but if the offense finally clicks it can happen, this is especially important on 3rd downs a 37% conversion rate might be one of the worst I’ve ever seen for a Run and Shoot Offense. The other key will be avoiding shooting themselves in the foot, penalties were a problem and they need to improve upon a -8 turnover margin.
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