Micah Alejado Wants Hawaii Football to Bring Back the Energy of the Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan Eras

LAS VEGAS — Micah Alejado understands what Hawaii football looks like when the entire state believes.

He has watched film of Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan, studied the offense they commanded and heard the stories about the energy surrounding the program during its most memorable seasons. Alejado is not trying to recreate either quarterback, but he wants Hawaii to reach the point where meaningful games once again feel larger than the team playing them.

Asked what it would mean for Hawaii to host a Mountain West championship game with a possible College Football Playoff berth at stake, Alejado did not begin with the trophy or his own role in reaching it.

“I think the state would break almost,” Alejado told The Scarlet Standard during an appearance on Rebel Daily Drive at Mountain West Football Media Days. “It would be crazy. We haven’t had that kind of energy in a while, since Timmy’s years, Colt Brennan’s years. That’s our mission, to bring back that energy.”

Hawaii moved closer to that standard last season. The Rainbow Warriors finished 9-4, won the Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl over California and produced their most successful season since 2019. Alejado emerged as the Mountain West Freshman of the Year after passing for 3,106 yards and a conference-leading 24 touchdowns in his first season as the starter.

That success changed the expectations surrounding Hawaii entering 2026. The Rainbow Warriors are no longer asking whether Alejado can lead the offense or whether Chang can produce a winning team. The question is whether the program can turn one breakthrough season into sustained championship contention.

Alejado will carry much of that responsibility. He was selected as the Mountain West Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, becoming the first Hawaii player to earn a preseason conference player-of-the-year honor since Bryant Moniz before the 2011 season. Brennan and Chang are the other Hawaii quarterbacks who previously received that recognition.

The comparison creates an obvious amount of attention for a sophomore quarterback. Alejado’s answer is to prevent the recognition from becoming larger than the work required to justify it.

He said the challenge is not making the award, the season or the outside expectations too important. The distinction reflects what he accomplished last year, but it does not complete anything Hawaii is trying to accomplish in 2026.

Alejado completed 66.3% of his passes and ranked eighth nationally with 282.4 passing yards per game. He became the only Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback to record at least 300 passing yards in four consecutive games during the season and finished the year by throwing three touchdowns in Hawaii’s 35-31 bowl victory over Cal.

Those numbers placed him within the tradition he grew up studying, but Alejado recognizes the physical differences between himself and the quarterbacks who came before him. The value comes from understanding how they processed the offense, managed games and made difficult situations easier for themselves.

Alejado has access to Chang every day. He can ask what the coach saw within the run-and-shoot, why certain concepts worked and how a quarterback should respond when defenses begin changing their approach.

That relationship gives Hawaii something more valuable than a player imitating an old offense. Alejado is learning directly from one of the quarterbacks responsible for creating the expectations he is now trying to restore.

The connection to Hawaii’s past is only one part of what makes the current team unusual.

Alejado and senior linebacker Jamih Otis are among 13 former Bishop Gorman players on Hawaii’s 2026 roster. The group allows Alejado to experience college football alongside players who already understand his personality, preparation and expectations.

“It’s like high school again, just at the college level,” Alejado said. “We’re kind of spoiled in life right now to be able to have all this and be able to play with our best friends on the college level.”

That familiarity matters in an era when rosters change every offseason. Hawaii still has to welcome transfers, develop younger players and replace contributors who leave, but the Bishop Gorman group gives the team an established foundation that does not need to be created through a few summer workouts.

Alejado and Otis learned the same basic standards before arriving in Hawaii. They described Bishop Gorman as a program built around discipline, professionalism and understanding the purpose behind every part of the schedule.

Otis credited Gorman coach Brent Browner with preparing players for the amount of time and attention Division I football requires. Their high school days included early mornings, classes and long hours inside the facility, but Otis said Browner also made the demands easier to accept because players understood that he cared about them.

That lesson has carried into the type of leader Otis is trying to become during his final season at Hawaii.

He has spent the offseason trying to push himself beyond comfortable limits and believes that example has affected the rest of the linebacker room. Otis does not want Hawaii’s defensive players preparing only hard enough to complete a workout. He wants them to become comfortable operating while physically and mentally strained.

“My thing is to be uncomfortable every day to the point where, when it’s time to perform, being uncomfortable becomes comfortable,” Otis said.

That perspective became more personal after Otis missed the final two games of last season.

He started Hawaii’s first 11 games and finished third on the team with 59 tackles despite the absence. Otis also recorded 3.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, an interception and a fumble recovery while earning All-Mountain West honorable mention recognition.

The injury removed him from the field while Hawaii completed its nine-win season and defeated Cal in the bowl game. Otis said the experience taught him that no practice, game or individual play is promised.

He returned with more appreciation for time inside the facility, interactions with teammates and opportunities to participate in the work that can become routine during a long season.

“I didn’t have any thought in my mind that I wasn’t going to finish that game,” Otis said. “Now, every time I get to practice and every time I get with my teammates and coaches, I’m taking a lot of intent in it because I may not get it back.”

That gratitude adds another layer to Hawaii’s leadership structure.

Alejado is the quarterback expected to control one of the conference’s most productive passing offenses. Otis is an experienced defender who understands how quickly a season can be taken away. Their positions and responsibilities differ, but both believe the team must remain connected to something larger than individual production.

Otis repeatedly described Hawaii as a faith-driven program. Players come from different schools, cultures and backgrounds, but he believes their shared faith gives the roster a common center when football becomes emotional or uncertain.

“When you have that black and green on, you’re a brother,” Otis said. “This team is led by God. When you have God at the center of everything, he becomes the main focus, and he naturally brings everybody together.”

Faith is also how Otis protects his own mental health during the season. Football can become loud, emotional and difficult to separate from the rest of a player’s identity. Otis said staying close to his faith allows him to regain perspective and remain composed enough to help teammates when circumstances turn against them.

The program supplements that connection through the advantages of living in Hawaii. Players go to the beach, surf, bodyboard and spend time together away from the demands of the facility.

Those activities are simple, but they allow relationships to grow without a coach directing them. Alejado described the result as a connection that cannot always be seen but becomes apparent in how the team responds to one another.

That chemistry will matter because Hawaii’s roster and schedule will challenge the idea that last season’s success can simply continue.

The offense returns Alejado and veteran receiver Pofele Ashlock, who caught 76 passes for 827 yards and eight touchdowns last season. Hawaii averaged 29 points and 393.8 yards per game, including 290.6 passing yards, but produced only eight rushing touchdowns.

Alejado’s growth must make the entire offense more efficient rather than merely increasing his passing totals. Defenses have a full season of film on Hawaii’s quarterback and will enter 2026 with more specific plans for disrupting the run-and-shoot.

The familiarity within the quarterback room should help. Alejado’s backup, Maika Eugenio, also played with him at Bishop Gorman. Alejado remembers Eugenio as a quiet younger player who has become more vocal and comfortable since arriving in college.

Their relationship allows the quarterbacks to compete and learn without creating unnecessary distance between the starter and the player preparing behind him. Alejado expects Eugenio to continue developing and be ready when his opportunity arrives.

Hawaii is also asking its returning players to help another group of newcomers understand the program quickly.

Otis praised the competitive nature of Hawaii’s younger receivers and said the defense includes several transfers who could become recognizable once the season begins. The names may be unfamiliar outside the program, but the expectations are not.

That becomes especially important on defense because the Mountain West presents a different style almost every week. Hawaii could face an option-based offense, a heavy running team or an opponent willing to spread the field and throw throughout the game.

Otis believes that diversity forces the defense to expand its own understanding. The Rainbow Warriors cannot prepare for the same personnel groupings or concepts for half the season.

“When you’ve got different variations of offenses, it makes us think a little bit and expand our playbook,” Otis said. “It shows the competitiveness of the conference as a whole.”

Hawaii will begin learning how prepared it is immediately.

The Rainbow Warriors open Aug. 29 at Stanford before hosting UNLV on Sept. 5 in the earliest meeting between the programs. The matchup with the Rebels will also begin Mountain West play against a team that shared the regular-season conference title last year.

That opening gives Hawaii little time to grow into the expectations created by the bowl victory and Alejado’s preseason recognition. The Rainbow Warriors will face a Power Four opponent on the road and then return home for a conference game that could influence the championship race before most teams have established their identities.

The rest of the schedule includes road games at Arizona State, Wyoming, Northern Illinois, UTEP and Nevada, along with home meetings against San Jose State, New Mexico and North Dakota State. Hawaii will play the Mountain West’s three new members in succession during the second half of the season.

Alejado is intrigued by the new environments, particularly the eventual opportunity to play at North Dakota State. He has watched the Fargodome atmosphere and understands how rarely a Hawaii player expects football to take him to North Dakota.

Those additions give the Mountain West a different geographical identity and create matchups that previously would have seemed unlikely. They also increase the difficulty of building toward a championship because Hawaii must travel farther and prepare for programs bringing different traditions into the league.

The Rainbow Warriors believe they are ready for that challenge because last season gave them more than nine wins. It showed that Chang’s program could produce a complete season, win away from home and finish by beating a Power Four opponent in Honolulu.

The next step is not proving Hawaii can be relevant again. It is determining whether relevance can become the standard.

Alejado represents the possibility. His first season placed him alongside the quarterbacks whose names still define Hawaii football, and his preseason recognition ensures every opponent will treat him accordingly.

Otis represents the responsibility. His injury reminded him that the opportunity can disappear quickly, and his leadership is built around making every practice and relationship matter before it does.

Together, they describe a program that believes talent alone will not recreate the energy surrounding Chang and Brennan. Hawaii needs its quarterback to handle the attention, its veterans to establish the daily standard and its roster to remain connected as expectations grow.

Alejado already knows what the result would feel like.

If Hawaii reaches the Mountain West championship game with a playoff opportunity attached, the attention will extend far beyond the locker room or the stadium.

The state would feel it again.

Watch the full Rebel Daily Drive interview with Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado and linebacker Jamih Otis: