LAS VEGAS — Hawai‘i spent most of its opener against Stanford trying to settle into an offense that never looked completely comfortable. Micah Alejado was working with a receiving group that had changed around him, routes were not always where he expected them to be and individual mistakes kept disrupting plays. Hawai‘i had 122 yards through the first three quarters and trailed 23-7 late in the third.
Then it clicked. The Rainbow Warriors scored touchdowns on three consecutive possessions covering 80, 63 and 90 yards, gained 200 yards in the fourth quarter and turned a 16-point deficit into a 27-23 lead with 4:06 remaining before Stanford answered late and won 37-27.
Hawai‘i pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Jared Ursua said the problems earlier in the game were not coming from the entire offense at once. “It wasn’t everyone,” Ursua told Hawai‘i Sports Radio Network. “It was one person here and one person there, but that makes a play messed up. And so we needed to clean that up.”
Ursua said Hawai‘i spent the offseason trying to prepare for Stanford, but there was only so much the Rainbow Warriors could simulate before playing against a new coaching staff and defense in a road environment. “We had too many errors,” Ursua said. “And that’s what we had to face. We had to face that we weren’t ready for that moment.”
The response started with a 16-play drive that began at Hawai‘i’s 20 late in the third quarter. The Rainbow Warriors converted a fourth-and-1 before Sitani Mikaele scored from 5 yards out, and Tama Uiliata added the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 23-15.
Stanford went three-and-out on its next possession, and Hawai‘i answered with a five-play, 63-yard drive. Kainoa “Kaikai” Carvalho gained 32 yards on a completion to the Stanford 6, and Alejado found Uiliata for an 11-yard touchdown two plays later.
Another Stanford punt gave Hawai‘i the ball at its own 10 with 7:18 remaining. Alejado completed six passes on the ensuing drive, including gains of 19 yards to Devon Tauaefa, 14 to Uiliata and 17 to Carvalho. DeVon Rice finished it by turning a short completion over the middle into a 29-yard touchdown that gave Hawai‘i a 27-23 lead.
“What was awesome was seeing a 20-point fourth quarter and them catch fire,” Ursua said. “And that confidence has bled into our practices where it’s like, wait a minute, we can do this. This works. This is what I have to do.”
Stanford eventually went back ahead with 1:41 remaining. Alejado fumbled on Hawai‘i’s next possession, and the Cardinal returned it for the touchdown that produced the final margin. The ending did not erase what Hawai‘i had found before it.
Alejado finished 30 of 50 for 269 yards and two touchdowns. He completed 13 of 20 passes for 168 yards and both scores in the fourth quarter after Hawai‘i had managed 108 passing yards through the first three.
According to PFF, Alejado completed 19 of 24 passes between 0 and 9 yards for 156 yards and a touchdown, including 13 of 16 for 118 yards and a score over the short middle. The ball also came out quickly, with Alejado averaging 1.95 seconds to throw from a clean pocket while Hawai‘i finished with 132 yards after the catch.
That fit what the Rainbow Warriors began doing late. Carvalho finished with five catches for 72 yards, Uiliata had eight for 62 and Rice added four for 25. Uiliata, Carvalho and Rice combined for seven first-half touches and 14 yards before combining for 21 touches and 180 yards after halftime.
Hawai‘i did not need Alejado waiting for deep routes to develop. The offense began moving once he could get the ball out, find receivers underneath and let them work after the catch. UNLV already knows what can happen when those plays are not finished.
The Rebels allowed several explosive gains in their 27-21 loss to Memphis, and safety Jake Pope pointed to them afterward. “We let up some explosives,” Pope said. “That really is what it came down to, on the defensive side.”
Hawai‘i can create them without repeatedly throwing deep. Carvalho’s 32-yard reception against Stanford came after a shorter completion, and Rice caught the ball near the Stanford 26 before finishing the 29-yard touchdown himself. The Rainbow Warriors can force UNLV to make tackles across an entire possession rather than rely on Alejado holding the football for one long throw.
Stanford was more successful when it forced him to do that. Alejado’s average time to throw increased from 1.95 seconds from a clean pocket to 3.96 when pressured, and he completed five of nine passes for 72 yards in those situations.
For UNLV, disrupting the timing can matter before a pass rusher ever reaches Alejado. If he can take the first read and throw in less than two seconds, pressure coming a second later will not affect the play.
Dan Mullen pointed to Timmy Chang’s understanding of Hawai‘i’s offense when discussing the matchup this week. Chang played in the run-and-shoot under June Jones before eventually returning to lead the program.
“They have a head coach that not only played in their offense, not just coaches it or believes in it, but is one of the most successful players ever in that style of offense,” Mullen said. “I think that the familiarity, the comfort, his ability to make changes in it and really knowing every in and out of what they’re doing makes it a huge challenge.”
UNLV could be trying to handle that offense with changes on defense. Defensive lineman Poe Purcell has been ruled out after playing 40 snaps against Memphis, while Cohen Fuller remains out indefinitely as UNLV works through his waiver for a fifth year of eligibility. Cornerback Avery Helm and safeties Tre Fulton and Quandarius Keyes are questionable.
Hawai‘i also has a change developing in the backfield. Chang said Cam Barfield is dealing with an ankle injury, while Rice took on more work after Barfield left against Stanford.
Chang had already noticed Rice during the offseason. “We saw some of the things when he touched the ball, how dynamic he was,” Chang said. “You put the ball in his hands and he can do some special things.”
Rice finished with 60 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns against Stanford. Hawai‘i rushed for only 46 yards as a team, but Rice became more involved as the offense improved.
Chang expects that to continue. “I expect Devon to kind of take off where he left,” Chang said.
UNLV has already given Hawai‘i plenty to study. The Rebels held the Rainbow Warriors to 10 points in a 38-10 win at Allegiant Stadium last November, and Chang remembered UNLV changing its defensive looks throughout the game.
“They threw a lot of different looks,” Chang said. “It was seven-man, it was six-man, it was three-man, it’s four-man. I mean, there’s a lot of different looks that they threw at us.”
Ursua remembered the same game for the way UNLV disrupted Hawai‘i before it could settle into its offense. “They created a lot of smoke and they blurred up some things,” Ursua said. “They made some really good adjustments based off of their early season issues that they had had.”
Hawai‘i has had months to go back through it. “We’ve had a lot of time to watch this,” Ursua said. “We’ve had a lot of time and we haven’t forgotten what happened.”
The Rainbow Warriors are not planning to solve it by becoming a different offense. “We’re a system,” Ursua said. “We’re always going to run our system.”
What Hawai‘i wants is the offense that finally appeared late at Stanford. The Rainbow Warriors went from 23-7 down to 27-23 ahead with three consecutive touchdown drives, and by the time they returned to practice this week, Ursua could see that stretch had stayed with them.
“It was a totally different Monday and Tuesday,” he said. “So we’re excited.”
