Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 2022 College Football Preview
July 14, 2022
2021 Recap
Record – 6-7
ATS – 5-7-1
The Rainbow Warriors had an up-and-down campaign to be sure. They finished with seven losses (bad). But they won six games (sorta good). And two of those victories were impressive (good). They took down Fresno St as double-digit underdogs and destroyed bowl-bound Wyoming on the road in the season finale to garner bowl eligibility. The Hawaii Bowl was canceled on the account of a sniffles outbreak and Hawaii was denied a shot to get to .500.
Former Hawaii QB Timmy Chang takes over the reins as head coach. Let’s see what he has to work with in 2022.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 2022 Outlook
OFFENSE
Hawaii was decent on offense LY (#6 MW rushing offense, #4 passing offense) and they owe most of their success to the departed QB Chevan Cordeiro who’s now leading the San Jose St offense. They bagged Washington St transfer Cammon Cooper to orchestrate the run-and-shoot / Air Raid / pass happy offense, and while he has very little game experience, he should be a good fit. Unfortunately, they suffer massive losses in the WR group which means it’ll almost certainly take a bit of time to get the THROW GAME revved up. Dedrick Parson is back at RB (618, 8 TD, 28 receptions) and he should have a big season in terms of yards from scrimmage. Three starters return up front including LT Ilm Manning but they’ll need to clean up pass protection BIGLY (39 sacks allowed, #115 FBS).
DEFENSE
AHOY, MATEY! Trouble lies ahead as the Rainbow Warriors will have to improve on their dismal defensive performance from 2021 (#113 FBS total defense, #100 scoring defense) with just a pair of returning starters. It’s very rare to see a team lose their seven (!) top tacklers so it’s anyone’s guess in terms of how things go on this side of the football. Our best guess is, “not well”. It’ll be up to new DC Jacob Yoro to put all the new pieces together. The task will be tough but at least there are LOADS of Power 5 transfers on the roster.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There’s good news to report as punter AND PK Matt Shipley returns for his sophomore season. Shipley was excellent in the role of PK LY (18-21 FG, 42-42 XP) and was average from a punting perspective. They’ll need to find new starters at PR and KR.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – Fun facts. Hawaii plays three of their first four games at home and engage in 13 contests (!) from August to the end of November. The non-conference schedule is soft other than the BODY BAG game at Michigan. Note that they miss Boise St from the Mountain division. The schedule shapes up pretty well.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – September 10 – at Michigan
Yikes. That’s a LONG trip from Hawaii and Jim Harbaugh is enough of a jerk to run this baby up.
Season Win Total
per BetOnline July 14
Over 4.5 +110
Under 4.5 -140
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Under
Ya, they play 13 games, but it’s hard to find five wins on that schedule.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Hawaii has an ATROCIOUS record vs the point spread over the L10Y (49-74-4, 39.8%) and they’ve only booked one winning season vs Vegas over that time horizon (2013, 7-5).
MEGALOCKS Outlook:
We’re glad to see one of the all-time greats get a shot as HC where he dominated for a long time. For the YOUNG SPARKIES out there, Timmy Chang is the #2 all-time FBS passing leader (17,072) behind Case Keenum. It’s a clear rebuilding project this year, particularly on defense, so Hawaii seems destined for a long season. Hopefully, they can pull an upset or two along the way.
Want more Hawaii Football ?
WEBSITE
https://hawaiiathletics.com/sports/football
FORUM
http://www.sportshawaii.com/sh/viewforum.php?f=3
https://247sports.com/college/hawaii/Board/WSN-Ohana-102452/
NEWS
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/category/football/
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/sports/ncaa/hawaii/
https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/62/hawaii-rainbow-warriors