NFL
By: Brock Vierra
When the preseason Mountain West standings came out, many Hawaii football fans were appalled when voters ranked New Mexico above Timmy Chang’s Hawaii Warriors. The New Mexico Lobos, a team that is 10-29 did not have the roster or coaching staff to field a team that should be ranked over Hawaii. That was the consensus.
Oh, how foolish we looked when New Mexico defeated Hawaii 42-21 on October 21st. Hawaii is 2-7 on the year with one win being against an FCS team. They are 0-4 in conference play with a 21.75 average point differential in those losses. Three of those opponents have losing records. If these poor results continue to plague the team on Saturday in Reno, Timmy Chang might not be on the flight home.
It’s Not Timmy Chang’s Fault
I do not blame Timmy Chang for this result. Yes if he did some things differently, maybe the results would’ve changed but we have to stop and recognize that the university gave an inexperienced head coach the hardest FBS job in all of college football. Hawaii has geopolitical and economic barriers towards recruitment, they have very little to offer in terms of NIL and the home state’s top talents are continually plucked by top programs across the country.
Chang came into this job with little in-game play calling experience and a limited network to fill his staff. Most of his coaching staff is best described as inexperienced or below standard. Hawaii’s offense has been a sputtering mess, players are entering the portal and Hawaii is once again eliminated from bowl contention. The problems Chang faced were so massive that only an experienced head coach could climb over them. Hawaii isn’t a job that you can have growing pains in.
The Offensive is Awful
When Timmy Chang went with a QB carousel to close out the Warriors 35-0 loss on homecoming to San Jose State, it was the icing on the cake to one of the most embarrassing losses in program history. Not since Fred Von Appen in 1998 had Hawaii gotten shutout at home. What made it worse is that they honored June Jones, the greatest coach in Hawaii history and the man former AD David Matlin passed over for Timmy Chang that night.
The offense is bad. It lacks rhythm, tempo and motion, all the hallmarks of a traditional Run N Shoot offense. The offensive line is easily bypassed by pass rushers, the receivers can’t make contested catches and the core principles of the Run N Shoot offense looks lost with Hawaii and Chang’s own version of the pass happy offense. A version that mirrors the spread, an offense Hawaii can’t run.
By staying in the spread offense, Hawaii has suffered. That’s how it’s always been. When Nick Rolovich was head coach, he ran the spread during his first two years in charge. He went 10-16. When he went back to the Run N Shoot, he went 18-11 with a 10 win season over the next two years. Chang has yet to make that adjustment.
Nevada is a beatable opponent
As far as I’m concerned, Timmy Chang is coaching for his life this Saturday. Back up in Reno, a place he spent years as an assistant, he plays Ken Wilson. Wilson, another longtime assistant who got the head job is also under scrutiny for not being successful in his first two years. However while Hawaii is on a four game losing streak, Nevada is on a two game win streak.
The task is not easy but quite frankly, this is Hawaii’s last winnable game left on the schedule. If Chang can’t get it done here, he may still have his job but he would have without a doubt lost the locker room. This game is for the team, the staff, recruiting and for the state of the program. If Hawaii loses, we will see multiple players enter the transfer portal, we will see commits reopening their recruitment and we will see the cracks beginning to get too big to seal.
Only time will tell if Timmy Chang makes it to 2024 but quite frankly, he shouldn’t have been hired in 2022. This job is too much for a first time head coach. With a new AD at the helm in Manoa, perhaps he believes Chang isn’t the answer as well. Anyway. Go Bows!
For more college football content, watch The College Football Forecast. New episodes every Saturday.
