Hawaii Football head coach Timmy Chang Q&A with VSiN

When in Vegas, you sit down with VSiN.

At least, University of Hawaii head football coach Timmy Chang always makes time for Tim Murray and Matt Youmans during the annual Mountain West Football Media Days at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The fourth-year leader of the Rainbow Warrior program sat down with the hosts of “Money Moves” on what serves as a pseudo-opening ceremony to the college football season in the Mountain West Conference.

The 10-minute conversation consisted of topics ranging from Chang’s confidence entering his fourth year leading his alma mater, his new starting quarterback in Micah Alejado, how the team has tried to build off the ending off the 2024 season and the season-opening home matchup against Frank Reich and Stanford along with other topics during the first of two days in Las Vegas.

(**Please Note: This transcript has been edited for brevity.)

Tim Murray: “Year number four for you Coach. I know it was a full rebuild for you, going back to your alma mater, how special it was. We’ve had you on a couple of times. Where do you feel this program is at now, entering Year 4 of your tenure?”

Timmy Chang: “Yeah, well, you know, you get guys in at their freshman year. You watch them grow in front of your eyes, you know, 18-year-olds, and that natural maturity starts to happen and you start to get a team where they understand what they need to do.  

This Mountain West Conference is a great conference, and the teams go in and battle day in and day out. Last year, we’re so close to winning some of these games. So, the off season, since January, just the mindset moving forward is where do we close the gap in those one to two plays a game that really make the difference? And all the details and all the things, and so when you have those guys thinking that way, you have a player-ran team, you know, you’re excited about going into Year 4.“

Matt Youmans: “I was in Honolulu for two games last season. One close game you lost, to UNLV, and one that you won, you beat Nevada in that game. But you gave the Rebels a hell of a fight that night. You’ve got back-to-back five-win seasons.  What’s it going to take for you to get over the hump? What’s your quarterback situation look like going into the season?”

Chang: “Yeah, you know, again, the Mountain West Conference is really tough. Watching Barry [Odom] do in two years doing what he did here at UNLV was very impressive. You know, building the culture, having a standard, his defense being tough. You could see, he put the team together and his linebacker, you know, he just led that team.  You kind of have that same feeling with what we’re starting to do. Our defense is being led by Jamih Otis [and] Peter Manuma on the back end. You start to give them the leadership and have it move forward.

I think on our offense, you know, we’re excited about Micah Alejado. You know, he’s a Bishop Gorman kid here in town and in Las Vegas. Hawaii-born and Hawaii-raised. And you know, he’s a different type of leader for us. And so he had a great, great game last year against New Mexico and I think moving forward, you know, we’re just excited to watch him play.”

Youmans: “Quick follow-up. I watched that game against New Mexico. High scoring, very entertaining game.  He played really well. What’s the identity of your offense going to be with him at quarterback this season?“

Chang: “Yeah, going back to that game – you might want to look it up, Tim. I mean, he threw for 470 [yards], he went 35-of-55, five touchdowns, took no sacks. It might be a true freshman starting record.  And for him, he’s a pocket passer, but he has the legs and mobility to get out and to make plays on those.

He just continues to make great decisions. I think one of the biggest intangibles he has, though, is just leadership. Leading a Bishop Gorman program out here to a national title. And he’s playing with a lot of great players on that team, but he’s the guy that they go through. It’s the same way in the University of Hawaii, where he’s the guy that we lean on and everything goes through him.”

Chang chats with Murray (middle) and Youmans (right) about various pressing topics on the Rainbow Warriors’ football team for his fourth season. | Photo Credit: Ku’ulei Agbayani, HSRN

Murray: “Coach, I know you guys want to get the bowl games. That’s what you did as a player. That’s what Coach Jones did so regularly and you were so close a year ago. That said, I want to go back to that New Mexico game. As you mentioned, Micah was phenomenal and New Mexico came in with five wins and there was a lot of discussion of ‘they’ll win this game, they’re motivated’ and you guys went out there and you took it to them.

How much can you build off of that? Even though it wasn’t a bowl game, almost you look at that New Mexico game. Can you look at it almost as a bowl game building ahead for this upcoming season?”

Chang: “I just remember going into that game last year, we both had bye weeks. They came off a good win, a really good win at home against Washington State to set themselves up to go to a bowl game.

We were coming off of a big loss at Utah State in snow and we really had to kind of lick our wounds a little bit, reframe our mindsets and just be very confident in what we can do and what we can bring moving into the next season. You know, for us, it was our bowl game, but it was a game where we can kind of show what we have the potential to do.

“Brayden [Schager] got hurt that [USU] game, we knew Micah was going to have two weeks to get ready for this next game. It was two weeks for him to start to prepare with the rest of the offense. As you can see, we got some really special receivers and so they just kind of really started to gel within those two weeks. And, you know, going back to when we played, I played the three Hawai’i Bowls. I had the opportunity to play very special games and stuff.”

Murray: “Wasn’t there a fight in one of those?”

Chang: “Yeah, against Houston. Yeah, Coach Art Briles, the great Coach Art Briles. You know, it was one of those June Jones-Art Briles, drag-out, knock-out games on a Christmas day. I think we put up, I don’t know, 100 points or so.

But it was one of those games. But, you know, those games are special and they’re special on the island. And I think our fans in Hawai’i have a lot to be excited about with what we have on defense, offense, and also special teams.”

Youmans: “Two-part question for you. So when you were quarterback for June Jones and you had those great Hawaii offenses, do you feel like you’re close to bringing that back? I know that’s a lofty goal, but that’s your goal, I would assume, is to produce the same type of offense this year.”

Chang: “Yeah, I think so, I think so. I think our brand of football in Hawaii, like you go to different places across the country, they have a brand of football. You go to Iowa, they’re not afraid to punt on fourth down. You know what I mean? (laughs) So it’s just one of those things where people have their identity.

Hawaii has an identity of throwing the football, and that’s just what it is. We play some really tough football. There’s a lot of Polynesians with their hair flying around and hitting people when they come to the island, and we throw the ball on that rock. And so there’s just things, traditions, that you kind of just follow with teams, and Hawaii has a throwing background with some tough play.”

Youmans: “Second part: how pivotal is this game against Stanford to open the season? I know you don’t want to put too many eggs in one basket, but Stanford opened the two-and-a-half-point favorite. I always like Hawaii as a home underdog. Now you’re a one-and-a-half point home underdog.

The Stanford program is, let’s say, in transition.  There’s a lot going on here. So at this point when you’re looking ahead to the season opener, you feel like it’s a pick ’em sort of game? It’s a very important game. You feel good going into it?”

Chang: “Yeah, it’ll be a game where we’ll be at home, we’ll be used to all the different things that Hawaii has to represent and bring to the table. So, there’s a comfort level there for us.

Stanford, what a unique situation. They get their quarterback leading the helm with Andrew Luck, their former quarterback and general managing. He’s going to start to put together a whole list of items that has to get done to take his team back to where they were in those Orange Bowl days. And it’s the same way in Hawaii. We’re taking the team back to the days of 2000 and 2007 when we had a great run.

But the game itself? It’ll be a hard fought game. They’re going to be physical. They’re going to be tough. They’re going to play their brand of football. And we’re going to welcome them to the island and have some fun.”

Murray: “Is it challenging to prepare for Stanford because, to Matt’s point, the transition that they’re dealing with. A lot of pieces leaving with Troy Taylor, you know, being let go. Frank Reich, a former NFL quarterback, now running it.

So for you prepping for this game, is there a unique challenge for you guys?”

Chang: Yeah, I think there’s always challenges in preparing for games because there’s, especially early on in the season, because there’s a lot of unknowns that go into it. So are you going to see this? How do you prepare your guys for this? 

So really, you’re trying to prepare for everything, right? And making sure that you cover your bases, whether you’re trying to protect three-down, four-down fronts, or a type of style of 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 21 personnel, how they run the ball, what type of play actions they’re going to have, screens off of it. So it’s just one of those things where it happens in Week 0 and Week 1, where you’re kind of getting the feel out for what teams are about to do.”

Murray: “This is the 9th Island, here in Vegas. What do you make of being back here at Circa? We’ve talked a bunch about about this place. We get these games blasted on the big screen behind us late at night. So what do you make of being back here at Circa?”

Chang: “Oh, we love it. We love Circa, obviously the Hawaii folks love Las Vegas, and so we love being the late night game here and being on this TV screen on Stadium Swim. So anytime our fans across the country can watch us late night, we enjoy it. We love being that six o’clock Hawaii kickoff game and we love for fans to tune in and make us your team.”

Murray: “Well, we can’t wait for Week 0… Maybe something in the works. We’ll see what comes down the pipeline. Final thought with you, Timmy, bringing back those Nike black uniforms this year?”

Chang: “We’re excited about it, you know, new deal with Nike and I know our guys are fired up. I got some new gear that I get to rock tomorrow at our head coaches media day and gonna look sharp.”

Murray: “Yeah, looking good. He’ll be putting up those big numbers like you did back in the day.

Timmy Chang and the Hawaii Warriors open up the season, Week 0, CBS, national television, not too shabby. They’re out on the island. Coach, appreciate it.”