Paul Brecht, play-by-play & color commentator and multimedia sports journalist for Hawaii Sports Radio Network, has been kind enough to collaborate with me once again on a set of 5 questions about Utah State’s sixth opponent of the 2025 season, the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. The Aggies face the Rainbow Warriors on the road tonight to kick off the Aggies first true road game of the 2025 Mountain West Conference portion of the schedule. Huge shout-out to Paul for joining me this week!!
Question #1
Head Coach Timmy Chang returned to coach the Rainbow Warriors in 2022 and while the first three years were a little rough and his career record at Hawaii currently sits at 17 and 27, the Rainbow Warriors are sitting pretty at 4 and 2 in 2025 and appear to be much improved. How much has Coach Chang coming home meant to the community and what has he done differently this season that has led to what seems to be an uptick in winning for the program?
When Timmy Chang took over Hawai’i four years ago, it provided a lifeline to the program that was needed in the worst way. Coming off a tumultuous end to the Todd Graham era that saw a mass exodus of players (including Graham’s own son) hitting the portal, Chang took over a mostly barren roster. He also was making a massive leap in his own coaching journey, forgoing an opportunity to become a coordinator at Colorado State to return to the islands and go from position coach to head man at his alma mater.
The excitement was palpable, even if the circumstances weren’t great – Aloha Stadium had been condemned, the program was playing in a makeshift stadium on campus, and he was getting the job with an empty roster that was too late into the cycle to truly build a competitor for the next season.
The hype around Chang’s return did not take away from the clear fact that it was going to be a slow climb. He brought in his own recruits from the high school ranks to develop and cultivate a pipeline with national prep football powerhouse Bishop Gorman, with the addition of associate head coach and leader of the linebackers, Chris Brown. As young players developed, Chang set his culture (the Braddahhood) and foundation with QB Brayden Schager while settling on the Run-N-Shoot offense, which was not exactly an offense that Schager’s abilities were best suited for.
Enter QB Micah Alejado, a redshirt freshman that came to UHvia the Bishop Gorman pipeline but grew up on O’ahu. The RNS offense seems to be an excellent mesh with the young southpaw & there’s an immense amount of talent in the wide receiver room, even with preseason all-Mountain West selection Nick Cenacle still banged up and questionable for Saturday’s contest. When healthy, Alejado has shown flashes of greatness in an offense that’s seen many arms put up video game numbers.
The defense deserves a shoutout as well. The Hawai’i defense allowed opponents to post nearly 35 points per game in Chang’s first season running the program, but has improved tremendously since then. The addition of veteran defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman before the 2024 season kicked the unit into another gear and this year has arguably been the more consistent group when compared to UH’s offense.
Overall? The team has started to learn how to win football games because they’ve grown up together. Hawai’i has had a solid retention rate in the transfer portal, allowing the players to actually grow together and build the rapport needed to run the RNS effectively.
Question #2
For those fans out there who may not be familiar with the Timmy Chang’s run-and-shoot offense, please do your best to try and describe how it works and what can make it so successful in today’s era of college football.
The RNS offense is a funky one, and that’s part of what makes it able to find success. Clearly not your usual ground-and-pound attack or west coast setup, it can be difficult to stop simply because teams don’t see it all that often. Think similar to Syracuse basketball’s heyday with the zone, something about an unusual look that is executed very well makes teams overthink and go haywire.
More, it’s an offense that sets up the run with the pass. Hawai’i will run the ball in the first half, but the ground game picks up in the second half when all things fire correctly in the first 30 minutes. It’s a scheme that screams “death by a thousand papercuts” with short passes to get into manageable distances to move the chains, but then suddenly hits you with a deep shot to one of the multiple speedy pass catchers.
While the running game won’t make anyone’s eyes pop out of their heads, it’s an effective one with plenty of delayed handoffs that force the defense into a tough position. Look for the Rainbow Warriors to also use the pass as an extension of the run game with some quick out routes to get the ball to playmakers in space.
Question #3
Redshirt Freshman quarterback Micah Alejado is the field general on offense. He currently completes 65.9% of his passes and has thrown for 1,043 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. Talk about Alejado’s growth thus far as a quarterback, and just how far do you think he can take his team?
The hype around Alejado has been loud since he committed to the Rainbow Warriors. A three-star recruit from Bishop Gorman, he won three Nevada state championships, compiled 9,233 passing yards, 125 pass touchdowns, and threw only four interceptions in four years of varsity football as he became the top-rated QB prospect in the state by the time he was finished.
With experience against the highest level of high school competition that one can face, the southpaw came to college a bit more advanced mentally than a lot of high schoolers do at the Division I level. While Alejado had fans clamoring for his starting debut as early as the 2024 preseason, Timmy Chang and company did the right thing to preserve a year of eligibility and redshirted the left-handed signal caller while still getting his feet wet at the D1 level.
He’s a quick processor and rarely makes mistakes with the ball. Fresno State used some deception and strange looks at him as he turned in the worst game of his career on September 20 with three interceptions, but he hasn’t typically put the ball in harm’s way otherwise through five career starts.
USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall knows Alejado well – he watched the lefty’s first career start while on the opposing sideline in UH’s 2024 season finale against New Mexico. Alejado lit up the Lobos to the tune of more than 500 yards of total offense (469 pass, 54 rush).
He’s also just got a moxie that is hard to teach. Players will follow his lead because of the swagger and confidence that he presents himself carrying every day. Alejado expects to win every time he steps on the field and the rest of the program is following his lead.
In terms of how far he can lead the Rainbow Warriors this year? Well, that’s where the matchup with Utah State comes in. The talent on this UH team is arguably enough to make a sneaky run at a berth in the MWC Championship game, thanks in part to a more favorable schedule remaining, but that’s the case for a large portion of the conference currently – including the Aggies, in my opinion.
Beating USU, who has owned the Rainbow Warriors since the two became Mountain West rivals with seven wins in seven meetings, would be a massive step forward for a somewhat young UH squad looking to take a step back to relevance after half a decade of rebuilding. With Alejado at the controls, it feels more likely than in previous years that the team can compete with the big boys of the league.
Question #4
Junior wide receiver Pofele Ashlock is hands down the leading receiver for the Rainbow Warriors, with 38 receptions for 355 yards and 3 touchdowns. What makes Ashlock stand out so much in this offense? And do the other receivers feed off him once he starts to attract added attention from opposing defenses?
I’ve adored watching Pofele play since he got his first chance as a redshirt freshman receiver, co-starring in the return to the Run-N-Shoot as he earned Freshman All-American honors. He burst onto the scene with 83 receptions for 832 yards and nine touchdowns in his debut season, showing off a natural ability to make the spectacular a normal occurrence each weekend.
He’s only gotten faster and stronger since then, though injuries slowed down his production last season. He’s caught a pass in all 30 career games that he’s played in and hauled in multiple receptions in his last 21 appearances. Simply put, Pofele pops open a few times and just helps the team move the chains consistently.
While he’ll get plenty of opportunities, the WR room is LOADED for Hawai’i. Against Air Force, a season-high ten different players recorded a catch for the Rainbow Warriors as Jackson Harris exploded for seven receptions, 144 yards, and two touchdowns while Brandon White got his first college TD on a pretty stop-and-start move and pulled in six other passes.
Utah State should know something about having multiple receivers that help each other – the Rainbow Warriors and Aggies are tied for the longest active streak among FBS teams for consecutive games with a player recording five or more receptions (22 games). Sometimes it’s Ashlock getting active early, sometimes it is other guys stepping up to ease the attention on Ashlock.
Question #5
Senior safety Peter Manuma has been a man among boys this season defensively. He’s racked up 33 tackles, 1.0 tackle-for-loss, 1.0 sack, 1 quarterback hurry, and 4 pass breakups. Talk about what he brings to the table for the Rainbow Warrior defense. Also, is it concerning at all that a safety is currently your leading tackler?
Manuma is a massive wild card for Hawai’i. A hometown hero of sorts, the long-haired, hard-hitting safety is a three-time all-Mountain West honorable mention and made an impact right away as a freshman in 2022. He’s consistently finished towards the top of the tackles leaderboard for the Rainbow Warriors throughout his career, getting involved in different ways defensively but always finding himself near the ball.
Early in the season, it felt as though Manuma was struggling to finish tackles and wasn’t quite as sharp as fans had seen in previous years. Over the past four games, however, the senior safety has turned back into a more sure-handed tackler when opportunities arise.
When he’s operating at his best, Manuma is a game wrecker who loves contact and occasionally gets active with hands-on passes. His coverage has not been as impressive as of late, but that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of it. He’ll need to be the best version of himself on Saturday if the Rainbow Warriors want to slow down a potent Aggies attack.
I wouldn’t say there’s much of a concern over a safety leading the team in tackles because of the amount of rotating that the UH defense does. A gander across the stats will show four players with 20+ tackles this year, Manuma being one. He’ll be an impact player, but the defense does not rely on him putting up gaudy numbers to be successful.