A struggling Hawaii defense enters Autzen down a key linebacker

Hawaii will enter Autzen down a man as linebacker and team captain Logan Taylor is out with a torn ACL.

Even at full strength, the Hawaii defense was going to have a difficult time stopping the Oregon offense.

But it was announced Tuesday that linebacker and leading tackler Logan Taylor was diagnosed with a torn ACL is and will be out for the season.

According to head coach Timmy Chang, his team will just have to adjust and move on.

“I think those guys in that room want to play and are hungry to play. I love that they compete and it stings when they don’t play,” he said of the other linebackers. “If we had guys that were just comfortable being backups and guys that didn’t want to start, we would have a problem.”

Perhaps it’s a good time for the Rainbow Warriors to play some new names on defense because in the first three games, they have been less than impressive.

They are giving up over 30 points a game and two of those opponents, Stanford and Vanderbilt, aren’t exactly scoring juggernauts.

Losing a key cog on the defense is something Hawaii has had to deal with before. Last season, another linebacker, Isaiah Tufaga, missed the last seven games of the year.

“The sad thing about it is that you lose your spiritual, emotional, and team captains on this defense,” Chang said. “But we have some good players in that room and we’ll coach them up.”

Having Tufaga in there will help Hawaii’s cause as he leads the team in tackles for loss and has 17 total tackles. Chang says expects to come to Oregon, compete and win.

“Don’t back down. We’re going up there to play a good football team. We’re excited about the environment, but you don’t back down” he said. “We’ll do what we need to do to go and win this game.”

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5 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors the Ducks need to know for Saturday’s game

These 5 Hawaii players will have to be accounted for in order for the Ducks to go 3-0 on the young season.

By any measure, Hawaii has had a tough beginning to the 2023 season with losses to Vanderbilt and Stanford, but it’s not because they refuse to throw the ball.

Quite the opposite.

Hawaii likes to throw the ball and then throw it some more. Head coach Timmy Chang was a prolific passer when he played for Hawaii and his offense reflects it. The Rainbow Warriors are going to test the Oregon secondary and it should provide good experience for some of the later Pac-12 games the Ducks are going to have to play in.

Hawaii’s defense isn’t quite up to par as they should have a difficult time stopping Bo Nix and the rest of the Oregon offense. But they do have a pair of linebackers the Ducks are going to have to account for.

Here are the five Hawaii players to look out for during Saturday’s game at Autzen.

Hawaii’s offensive attack will put Oregon’s secondary to the test in Week 3

Hawaii is going to pass the ball early and often. Oregon’s secondary is going to need to be up to the task on Saturday.

Hawaii will enter Autzen Stadium Saturday night as five-touchdown underdogs against the No. 13 Oregon Ducks. If the Rainbow Warriors do lose by 35, it likely won’t be because they failed to put points on the scoreboard.

Head coach Timmy Chang, once a Heisman candidate when he played for Hawaii, installed an offense where options 1 through 3 are to throw the ball; option 4 might be to throw the ball deep.

Fortunately for Hawaii, they have a quarterback seemingly up to the task in Brayden Schager. The junior from Dallas, Texas is your prototypical pro-style quarterback at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds. He is averaging 325 yards through the air and has 10 touchdowns. But Schager has been known for throwing a few interceptions. He has five so far in just three games.

“Their quarterback has probably the strongest arm as far as getting the ball down the field that we’ve seen so far this year and they connect on deep shots,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I know that (they’re) looking for more balance, but they create explosive plays with those throws down the field and they have some guys that can really stretch the field.”

One of those guys looking to stretch the field is receiver Pofele Ashlock. The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder from Euless, Texas is having a nice beginning to his career after redshirting last season. Ashlock is averaging 105 yards receiving and has three touchdowns. His best game came against Stanford where he caught eight passes for 114 yards and two scores.

The other main target for Schager is Steven McBride, a senior who is a transfer from Kansas. He has already surpassed his stats in Hawaii in his three years as a Jayhawk. McBride leads the team with five touchdowns.

Hawaii’s offensive line won’t be the biggest Oregon will see this season, but they do have 6-foot-8, 310-pound Luke Felix-Fualalo, who transferred in from Utah. He played in 12 games for the Utes, mostly as a reserve lineman and on special teams.

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Updated FBS all-time passing leaders after 2022 campaign

Sam Hartman and Holton Ahlers climbed the all-time list after the 2022 campaign.

Following the 2022 college football season, our look back at the record books showed two new passers joined the top 25 in FBS history.

Eastern Carolina’s Holton Ahler threw for 3,708 yards to jump all the way to No. 11. He missed out on the top 10 by 146 yards. Likewise, Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman joined the top 20. He checked in at No. 19 with 12,967 yards knocking Ryan Lindley out of the top 25.

Hartman completed his fifth year at the collegiate level and will return for a sixth, but will suit for Notre Dame in 2023. In five seasons, Hartman has averaged 2,593 yards per season. That output in the upcoming season would move him up to No. 5 overall.

Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel is another quarterback to observe this upcoming season. Gabriel checks in at No. 69 with 11,205 yards. If he can reproduce his 2022 outcome, the southpaw could climb into the top 25 and land at No. 9.

The top 25 career passing yardage leaders are courtesy of Sports-Reference.

Timmy Chang’s First Mountain West Media Day

New University of Hawaii head football coach touched on a litany of topics at Mountain West Media Day.

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Timmy Chang‘s first Mountain West Media Day


The new University of Hawaii head football coach touched on a number of topics at media day


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Chang ready to get the season rolling

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“Now it’s go time.”

Words from Timmy Chang’s first Mountain West Media Day signal one thing: the 2022 college football season is nearly here. The newly hired University of Hawaii head football coach answered a litany of questions about his program including the new Aloha Stadium, recruiting challenges and his own growth. Here’s what Chang had to say:

Chang on being Hawaii’s head coach

“It’s unbelievable. You know, never thought I would be here sitting in this position. As an 18-year-old, I made the decision to stay home and play and represent the state of Hawaii and 22 years later, I’m here as the head coach. It’s a surreal moment for me but very thankful, very grateful.”

Chang on Hawaii being picked sixth in the West Division

“Yeah, you know, expected—right. When you lose as much production as we did to the transfer portal or graduation—you know—so we got a lot of inexperience or guys that haven’t proven themselves on the football field yet. But, that’s why you play, you know. I’m the same way right—we just talked about us being, you know, first timers here and so the only way we’re going to get experiences is going through this process together. No different for these guys. We got guys in that locker room that we think that can play now. It’s just getting their minds right, understanding game plan, understanding situations and then putting them in the best situation to succeed.”

Mountain West Football: 2022 Media Days Central

Chang on the new Aloha Stadium District budget being approved

“Yeah, it does (feel good). It does and knowing that you’re going to have something to play in—in the future—and something to sell to these recruits, sell to these families and sell to our state. Not only is the University of Hawaii football team going to be able to play in there, but we’re going to hold events that, you know, that we’re going to be proud of. I know other sports want to hold events—Max (Holloway) keeps asking for the UFC to come down—what a better place to play it in our new brand new stadium. Hopefully one day the Pro Bowl can come back. We want all of our state to enjoy that stadium, not just the University of Hawaii football team but that it’s there for everybody. Again, we’re all in this together. I tell those guys, man when you make a block when you make a tackle and you’re catching that ball man, when your throwing it, you know you’re doing it for the state, you’re doing it not only for the guys in the locker room, but for this community and for this state.”

Chang on recruiting to the on-campus Ching Field

“You know, I’m really excited and this is why I’m really excited: Because for the first time, you know, it’s on our campus and we have one of the most beautiful campuses in the world. And, you know, just getting the university and having the buy-in from the president—you know—from the special people that are above my paygrade. And these people are—you know—talking to them and telling them, ‘Hey, we have an opportunity to do this, can we do this? Can we do that?’ It’s special, because it’s the first time we’re on our campus and we have so many beautiful athletic facilities on campus and a beautiful upper campus that we can still get some of those things. We can get the family environment that we want during those games, you know, we’re still pushing the concerts and the entertainment before and just creating some different things that people can just spend a whole day watching and being around the campus and then watching our football game. Tickets will be hard to come by that no doubt. No doubt. It is what it is this year.”

Chang on his own growth since being named head coach

“Oh, I mean it’s hard to talk about yourself and grade yourself. But—you know—every day is a different challenge and a lot of problems need to be solved. As much as I can solve them in a 24 hour period, I’ll wake up and do it again the next 24 hours and there’ll be new challenges, there’ll be something else that comes up. But you know, the game is still the same, it’s played with 11 guys—its’ played with a locker room full of guys that need to care about each other.”

Chang on his first media day

“Now it’s go time, you got your team waiting for you back home and you have to get them ready to play August 27.”

The Rainbow Warriors will welcome Vanderbilt to the island to open the season later next month.


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