In Week 1, Michigan football took care of one Mountain West team in Colorado State with relative ease. The Wolverines defeated the Rams last Saturday, 51-7.
Next on the docket is another Mountain West team, but Hawaii has had a very rough start to the season.
The Rainbow Warriors are 0-2. The worst part? Those losses came to Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky by a combined score of 112-17. Hawaii is ranked 125th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 56 points per game.
It’s one thing if you allow a ton of points, but if the offense can’t score against middling defenses it’s going to be hard to win games. Hawaii coach Timmy Chang noted on Wednesday that it had been a rough start to the season, but he said he is trying to get a lot of players in on the offensive side of the football. He plans to keep plugging new players in and throwing them into the fire to see what he truly has.
“Right now, we’re trying to get a lot of people we’re really – especially the offensive side of the ball – we’re really young in some areas,” said Chang. “So you want to keep plugging guys in as much as you can and throwing them into the fire. All of these games are added experience to these guys. It helps but at the same time you want to try and hone in and you know we don’t have that luxury right now.”
PFF ranks Hawaii toward the bottom of the country in almost every category. The Rainbow Warriors rank 71st in both run blocking and pass blocking though, which is their best ranking from PFF. Coach Chang said his offensive line is the biggest strength of his team. He believes that his unit will be up to the challenge against Michigan. Even against a team that sacked Colorado State seven times.
“The strength of our offense is on that offensive line, and I thought they played well,” said Chang. “But as far as implementing and putting a lot on top of them it definitely helps because they played a lot of snaps. They have that experience and I expect them to be ready to go up to the challenge come Saturday.”
Senior offensive lineman, Micah Vanterpool, who is on that experienced line, couldn’t contain his excitement about playing at Michigan Stadium. He said these are the type of games you live for, playing with 110,000 fans watching. He said his teammates and himself will go to Michigan with no fear, but with respect.
“Oh man, nothing but pure excitement. These are the games you really live for, like if you’re a college football fan, and you get to play in the Big House – like come on now, it’s the Big House. Show no fear, we respect everybody, but fear nobody. We’re going to go in there with confidence and we’re gonna try to do what we do.”
The former Hawaii quarterback star, now head coach, knows it’s going to be a tough game for his team. The Wolverines are favored to win this game by 51 points. Chang wants to see Hawaii have a clean, mistake-free game on Saturday. He wants to see his defense force a few three-and-outs against the high-powered Wolverines’ offense and he wants to see his offense find a way to score some points.
“It’ll be a tough game, right, they got a lot of good players on that side of – on the team. They are well-coached. I want to see my guys execute and try to be – try to win their one-on-one battles. Again, just stay – clean up turnovers, clean up things that we can control; penalties. Again, try to get as much three and outs as we can. Try to stop them on defense, try to play clean on special teams. Try to find a way to put points on the board.”
Michigan and Hawaii with kickoff Saturday in Ann Arbor at 8 p.m. EDT on Big Ten Network.
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