The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and together a nice debut season for head coach Nick Rolovich. The Rainbow Warriors finished off a 7-7 campaign with a 52 point outburst over Middle Tennessee State in the Hawaii Bowl.
This year, the goal is to finish above .500 in the regular season and he has most of that offense back to work with. On the other side of the ball, the defense will be led by another new coordinator. Then again, there are playmakers returning that the familiar face in town can depend on.
Hawaii’s schedule works out nicely if everyone can stay healthy for the entire year. They do have to travel to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA in week two but should be 1-0 after facing Western Carolina. To their benefit, Hawaii’s last part of the schedule has four or five winnable games. With some luck, year two could turn out to be better than 2016.
Offense
For the first time in a while, Hawaii knows exactly who their starting quarterback will be. Dru Brown returns after taking over the full-time duties in week five. The junior college transfer directed the Rainbow Warriors to a winning record in their last nine games. In 2016, the quarterback tossed for 2,500 yards with 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions. In addition to that, Brown went off in the Hawaii Bowl. He tossed for 274 yards and four scores.
The first priority for the Hawaii offense is to keep Diocemy Saint Juste healthy again in 2017. Last season, the Rainbow Warriors used bruising native Steven Lakalaka for short yardage and red zone attempts. He responded by scoring 13 touchdowns. Somebody will have to fill that role this season as Lakalaka graduated.
Diocemy Saint Juste showed the ability to move the chains in the middle of the field for Hawaii. Throughout last year’s campaign, the shifty tail back recorded over 1,000 yards on over 160 carries. His 6.1 yards per carry, proves how elusive the smaller run can be behind a good sized offensive line.
Slot catchers John Ursua and Dylan Collie hope to bring some color to the Rainbow Warriors passing attack. Last season, Ursua notched 53 catches for over 650 yards and three scores. Both will be counted on now that Marcus Kemp has moved on. Kemp was easily the Rainbow Warrior’s leading receiver. His 73 catches for 1,100 yards and eight scores will certainly be missed.
Hawaii’s big boys up front are in good shape. Dejon Allen, a second-team All-Mountain West pick comes back at left tackle. The return of the Rainbow Warrior’s starting guards John Wa’a and J. R. Hensley will only make matters better.
Defense
The word to describe Hawaii’s defense is anything but consistent. Once again, the Rainbow Warriors are turning to a new coordinator to help shore up the stopping department.
In steps Legi Suiaunoa, who is the fifth coach to hold the defensive coordinator position over the last five years. The hope is that because Suiaunoa was the defensive line coach and plans to keep the 4-3 base, that the transition will be smooth.
The constant rotating isn’t the only thing Hawaii has to worry about. Last year, the defense struggled against the run and the pass. The under-sized front and slower linebackers surrendered 234 yards per game on the ground. To add to the problem, the secondary gave up 227 more. The Rainbow Warriors had to rely on the offense to save the day in shootouts if they were going to walk away with the win.
Other than defensive tackle Samuel Akoteu, Hawaii doesn’t have much size in the front four. Three linebackers are back in the mix, including Jahlani Tavai. Tavai might be the Mountain West’s best defender. The 6′ 4, 235-pound maniac was a beast in 2016, stacking up 129 tackles with seven sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss with a pick.
The secondary has a few run stoppers, but they are young and inexperienced. Consider this, even with games on the schedule like Air Force and New Mexico, who run all day, the Rainbow Warrior’s secondary was still statistically disastrous. When it was all said and done, they allowed close to 3,200 yards on the season with 29 scores and 11 picks. They must get better in this department or they are doomed in 2017.
Prediction
Hawaii finally ended a five-year string of losing seasons. The expectation for Nick Rolovich in his second year is to capture the first winning season since 2010. The goal can be accomplished because the Rainbow Warriors’ schedule isn’t so demanding. Hawaii traveled over 46,000 miles in 2016, double that of most pro squads.
Working against Hawaii is their porous defense. Fixing that side of the ball is a must for the Rainbow Warriors. Defensively, Hawaii will have to shore up a defense that yielded an average of 37.3 points per game and play much smarter. They accumulated too many stupid penalties that cost them stops and ranked 127th in the nation.
Linesetters don’t have a whole lot of faith in the Rainbow Warriors. They have placed their team win total at 4.5. I think that Hawaii is better than that and the over is playable at -135. Especially if you’re a parlay type bettor. Also, the odds adjusters have them at 40 to 1 (+4000) to win the Mountain West Conference. We won’t go there. Getting back to the .500 mark will be hard enough for Hawaii.
Schedule
Aug. 26: at UMass
Sept. 2: Western Carolina
Sept. 9: at UCLA
Sept. 16: OPEN DATE
Sept. 23: at Wyoming
Sept. 30: Colorado State
Oct. 7: at Nevada
Oct. 14: San Jose State
Oct. 21: OPEN DATE
Oct. 28: San Diego State
Nov. 4: at UNLV
Nov. 11: Fresno State
Nov. 18: at Utah State
Nov. 25: BYU
The getmoresports.com NCAA College Football Throwdown Podcast will be returning to the air on August 24th. We will be highlighting the first five games on August 26th of the 2017 NCAA College Football season. That will be the first of three installments leading into the first week of the season. We also we will be covering our expectations for the Heisman Trophy front runners as well as predictions for conference winners and team totals.
Our second NCAA College Football Throwdown is penciled in for August 29th. In that installment, we will be discussing all the games that will be played on August 31st and the 1st of September.
Our third segment will officially be airing on August 31st. In this addition of the NCAA College Football Throwdown, we will be covering all the relevant games for Sept 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
Keeping with tradition, EJ the Rainmaker and Erik the Hun will give their predictions for the contests. On top of that, we will be providing our dog play of the podcast as well as cash money plays for the week. Join us for all three opening episodes and improve your college football knowledge while increasing the size of your sports book betting account. Come join us and help everyone make it rain. #moneytreesgrow
