Mountain West Football Media Days: Hawaii LB Jamih Otis Q&A

The new leader of the Lion’s Den.

Las Vegas is a familiar environment for Hawaii junior linebacker Jamih Otis, who spent his four-year prep career just down the road at Bishop Gorman High School. A 2023 high school graduate that came to the Rainbow Warriors with a three-star recruit pedigree, the soft spoken but hard-hitting heat-seeking missile quickly made his way onto the field as a reserve during his true freshman year despite multiple experienced bodies in the room ahead of him.

His sophomore year was another learning experience as he took tutelage from NFL great Dennis Thurman, who signed on to become the new defensive coordinator of the Rainbow Warriors back in January of 2024. Already absorbing knowledge from his former high school coach and current associate head coach Chris Brown, Otis took every chance he could to listen and learn while using older veterans like Logan Taylor and Isaiah Tufaga as sounding boards during his first two seasons at the college level.

Taking the next step as the “Green Dot” for the defense, Otis was tabbed as one of Hawaii’s two player representatives for the 2025 Old Trapper Mountain West Football Media Days at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Alongside Pofele Ashlock, the junior linebacker spoke to conference media about the upcoming season and his time with the program.

Hawaii Sports Radio Network’s Ku’ulei Agbayani caught up with Otis on Day 1 of Mountain West Media Days to discuss what it meant to represent the program at the event, what it’s been like learning from great defensive coaches, stepping into a bigger leadership role and much more.

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

Ku’ulei Agbayani: “How does it feel to represent the Rainbow Warriors here at Mountain West Media Days this year?”

Jamih Otis: “It feels good, honestly. I’m blessed to be here. Grateful, honestly, just to be here with my brother, Pofele. And I’m thankful my teammates and my coaches allowed me to represent us and the whole UH and the state of Hawaii. So I’m blessed.”

Agbayani: “Yeah, and how much does it add to being here in the fact that it is your hometown?”

Otis: “It’s crazy. When I hopped off the plane, I couldn’t even really process that I was home.

So just seeing that, and getting to see my parents as well because they came, it was really big. Just having that support here in my hometown, Media Day and bring and you know, my brother Pofele coming down with me, showing him the city. It was fun.”

Agbayani: “Getting into some of the football questions now. Specifically earlier today, your head coach Timmy Chang had talked about you taking on a bigger leadership role this year. Talk to us a little bit how that makes you feel and going into this season, having that big of a role as a leader on this team?”

Otis: “It feels good. It’s been a long time coming, for sure. A lot of hard work, just staying down, learning from the guys above me in my room, the linebacker room. Isaiah Tufaga and Logan Taylor, just being the older guys, Noah Kema and Nalu Emerson. Those are just the guys I was learning from and just watching them, their growing pains, their wins and their losses and just learning from that.

I feel like that shaped me to be the best leader I can be today. I’m just ready to take on the accountability of just leading the Hawaii defense and the Hawaii team as a whole into another bowl game.”

Agbayani: “Talk to us a little bit about the jersey number switch. You were wearing 54, now we see you got 11. Tell us a little bit about the meaning and the reasoning behind that change?”  

Otis: “Coming in, I took on 54. 54 is a historic number. My coach, Chris Brown, he wore it, too. So I think it was really significant just to put that 54 on. I feel like a lot of greats wore that and just to play in that, I wore it two years.

But I called him, and I feel like Year 3, being an older guy, just making my own way, paving my own name. I felt it was time to reimburse the 11, just make my own name in it and just make 11 great like it already has been. My brother, Nalu Emerson, wore 11. So I’m kind of just keeping things going. 11 was like my starter number, so I want to go back to it just to end things off.”

Agbayani: “Can you tell us a little bit more about your relationship with the other linebacker that is projected to be one of the starters as well in Jalen Smith?”

Otis: “When I first came in, we were more of the younger backers when I came in. He was a year older than me. So, me just coming in and him playing and understanding how things go, just learning from him, it was really good. 

I was really grateful to him because he’s a great player, on and off the field. I love to say he’s my brother. He set the bar day-in and day-out. We’ve competed against each other this whole offseason and just setting the bar for each other, just having that brotherly love to where we competed against each other and then also play together on the field. So I think I’m grateful to have that chemistry with him to where we’re on the field and we know how each other is thinking without even saying anything. I kind of just have to give him that look and he already knows.”

Agbayani: “We kind of heard a lot about this offense. We saw what happened in that New Mexico game offensively. Obviously, you only went through spring, fall camp is starting up next week, but tell us a little bit about what it’s been like going against that offense, especially with Micah Alejado at quarterback now.”

Otis: “It’s been great. Honestly, I mean, this offseason, we’ve been going against the offense in [7-v-7s]. They look good, like I can’t sit here and lie to you.

Like, there’s some weeks where they tear us up.  They tear us up.  But I mean, as a defense, you like to see that your offense is progressing and growing.  So it’s always a good thing to see.

As far as Micah, he’s leading that offense. You know, and other QBs as well, they’re great. They’re great role models, great guys. So they hold the standard in that QB room. And you know, Micah’s just keeping the offense going to make sure everybody’s in line. He has big things ahead for the offense.”

Agbayani: “Now on a personal note though, how would you describe how maybe you have improved during the off season?”

Otis: “In the offseason, I think I’ve just matured, IQ-wise. I think this year is going to be real crucial for me, just in the film room. So I think that’s my main thing, just being in the film room, being a film junkie this offseason, understanding and knowing where the play is before it happens.

I think that those are some of the things I’ve kind of grown at and just me being a veteran and knowing things, how they’re going to happen, when they’re going to happen. I just want to be that voice for my team and just kind of make every move calculated this year.”

Agbayani: “Speaking of being a veteran, also another year under defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman. Can you just tell us a little bit more about your DC and maybe if we could expect anything different defensively from last year to this year?

Otis: “Yeah, Coach Thurman. I mean, he’s a great dude, man. He crazy, man. He’s a crazy dude. Funny, man.

But in all seriousness, Coach Thurman, I mean, he’s one of the greats. I like to say he’s one of the greats. He’s played with greats, and just his knowledge alone for the game is just interesting. Just being upstairs with him and picking his brain and what he sees, he’s played a lot of ball. Just having that behind our defense is a blessing for sure.

I think this year, you guys can expect a lot more flying around from us. A real technical-based defense, a lot coming out of offenses. But really, just, I mean, you’re going to get the same thing every year, and that’s fast and physical.”

Agbayani: “Couple more for you here. We talked about this being your hometown. How excited are you and how much are you looking forward to playing UNLV back here in Las Vegas?”

Otis: “Oh, man, I’m itching for that game. There’s a lot of history with that. I mean, these past two years since I’ve been here, 2023 traveled down. We lost, took a hard one. Last year, lost by two. But I think just the game for the pineapple is always a big one and I feel like it’s time to come back to Hawaii.”

Agbayani: “Alright, last one for you.  Have you played the new CFB26 yet?  And if you have or if you haven’t and you’ve just seen the videos, how is it how is it now that we finally see our home stadium in the video game this time around?”

Otis: “I think it makes the gameplay 10 times better to play in T.C. Ching because I feel like last year we just played in the animated stadium that we don’t even play in. People couldn’t get live action of you know, what we play in. Yeah, I think college football – they got it down to the tee of what we’re in, so I love it. I love playing at T.C. Ching in the game, it just makes it like I’m playing there so I love it.”