1-15! That is the mark that the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors have put up in their first two years in MWC play. Im not sure this year will be a whole lot better, even with 48 lettermen back including 13 starters. The seat is getting hot under norm chow as his team in yet another rebuilding year. Preview & schedule are below.
The Rainbow Warriors averaged a modest 27.4 ppg last year, but they do lose QB Schroder and their top WR from last year’s offense. Ikaiki Woolsey won the QB job in spring, but should he falter then look for Taylor Graham to take over after being the starter last year, but was lost for the season after game 3. The running game for the Rainbows looks to be solid with Joey Iosefa back, after rushing for 590 yards and 5 TDs last year. He will be joined by Steven Lakalaka, who ran for 468 yards and 4 TDs last year. They will run behind an average offensive line that has good athletic ability, but also will be starting 2 redshirt freshmen. WR could be a problem as they have to replace Chris Grant, who was their top wideout last year. Scott Harding does return after grabbing 56 balls for 631 yards last year. The rest of the WR corps is pretty inexperienced. The defense is where this team must make great strides, after allowing 38.8 ppg last year. 22 lettermen, including 6 starters do return to this side of the ball so improvements should be made. Hawaii does lose its top 5 tacklers from last year, but they have a couple of standouts to watch in DE Beau Yap, who had 5.5 sacks and 6 more TFL, NT Moses Samia, who and 6.5 TFL and 3 PBUs, and DB Ne’Quan Phillips, who had 2 TFL, 6 PBUs and 2 INTs last year.
Hawaii hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2010 and it looks like it’ll be a few more year before they can even sniff one. It is very hard to recruit for Hawaii and actually recent reports have stated that Hawaii is going through financial troubles and may have to drop their football program. This is a team that is a mess. The offense will take a step back, while the defense still looks bad. Now let’s look at the schedule. 3 games vs Pac 10 teams in the first 4 weeks of the season, plus a road game vs Rice and MWC road games vs San Diego State, Colorado State, San Jose State and Fresno State, plus they have tough home games vs Nevada, Utah State and Wyoming. This is a team with 3 win talent at best, but the schedule will not allow them more than 2 wins this year. KEY TREND: 1-7 ATS in the 2nd of BB road games.
2014 Hawaii Football Schedule
Aug. 30 Washington
Sep. 6 Oregon State
Sep. 13 Northern Iowa
Sep. 20 at Colorado
Sep. 27 OPEN DATE
Oct. 4 at Rice
Oct. 11 Wyoming
Oct. 18 at San Diego St
Oct. 25 Nevada
Nov. 1 Utah State
Nov. 8 at Colorado State
Nov. 15 at San Jose State
Nov. 22 UNLV
Nov. 29 at Fresno State
Info gathered From Phil Steele's CFB Preview and Athlon Sports
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