Three players to watch as Hawai’i hosts New Mexico for Homecoming

HONOLULU – It’s not your typical homecoming game.

The University of Hawai’i football team returns to the friendly confines of Clarence T.C. Ching Complex this Saturday, hosting conference leader New Mexico (4-1, 2-0 Mountain West) for Homecoming Weekend in the islands.

The annual Homecoming Weekend has been kind to the Rainbow Warriors in the past, regardless of the results throughout that campaign. Seven of the last eight HoCo games have resulted in victories and head coach Timmy Chang is 7-1 combined on Homecoming as a player and a coach at UH.

Hawai’i has also seen recent success against different iterations of the New Mexico program, winning three of the last four meetings against UNM – most recently meeting in 2024 when QB Micah Alejado made his starting debut and led UH to a 38-30 victory in the season finale to deny bowl eligibility for the Lobos.

Chang and the rest of the Rainbow Warrior faithful hope those trends continue on Saturday night when Jason Eck’s powerhouse Lobos squad lumbers into town. New Mexico ranks among the top defensive teams in the nation in points allowed per game (10.6 PPG allowed, 3rd-best in FBS), interceptions (12, 1st in FBS) and overall takeaways (19, T-1st in FBS).

It’ll be Eck’s first time heading to Hawai’i in his two-year tenure with the Lobos, not seeing the Rainbow Warriors during the 2025 campaign. He’s become the darling coach of the Group of 6 after racking up a 13-5 record across his first year and a half as the head man in New Mexico, leading to plenty of speculation about potential poaching by a Power 4 school in the near future.

Chang and the Rainbow Warriors will get an up close and personal look at why the Lobos have turned around recent fortunes under Eck on Saturday. Before the season, multiple prognosticators wondered if this matchup would have Mountain West Championship game implications after both teams went 9-4 last year.

It’s turned into a battle of the bottom versus top of the Mountain West instead as Hawai’i has struggled dealing with injuries, poor play and questionable decision making throughout the first half of the 2026 season while New Mexico dominated everyone but a nationally-ranked Oklahoma squad.

So, who can help Hawai’i turn this matchup of David and Goliath into the start of a storybook turnaround? Here are a few guys who would need to show up in big ways for a Rainbow Warrior win.

QB Micah Alejado

Yup, we mentioned him already. The 5-foot-10 gunslinger lit the college football world ablaze the last time these two programs matched up, setting program records for a quarterback’s starting debut in passing yards (469), passing touchdowns (5), total completions (37) and total offense (523).

That iteration of the Lobos is long gone though. The head coach, starting quarterback and practically the entire roster has changed over since 2024. The hype around Alejado going into this season matched that of his starting debut, seeing the sophomore received Preseason Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year honors ahead of the 2026 campaign.

Alejado hasn’t quite lived up to that billing as the Rainbow Warrior offense has struggled mightily, scoring 10 total touchdowns across six games so far. A lot of that has to do with the revolving door at wide receiver for Hawai’i, some putrid offensive line play and brutal play calling/execution within the red zone.

New Mexico will be without Preseason Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year LB Jaxon Eck after he was listed on the midweek availability report as OUT for Saturday. With one of the most impactful players in the entire conference set to miss the action, Alejado and the rest of the Rainbow Warrior offense will have a prime chance to put up points against a defense that has dominated inferior opponents up to this point.

DT Geoffrey Speight Jr.

Another unsung hero on a Hawai’i defense that’s played above par for a large part of the season, Speight has been among the most consistent Rainbow Warrior defenders week-over-week. He’s been especially effective against opposing rushing attacks and didn’t miss a tackle for the first four games of the season before being charged with one missed tackle in each of the past two games.

The Lobos enter the weekend averaging nearly five yards per carry and have run the ball more than twice as much as they’ve passed it. In all four of their wins this season, New Mexico has eclipsed the 200-yard mark on the ground while the lone loss at Oklahoma saw the rushing attack only account for 69 yards across 38 attempts (1.8 yards per carry).

With Luther McCoy listed as OUT on the midweek availability report for Hawai’i, Speight will continue seeing a large role in the trenches for the Rainbow Warriors. Against a potent New Mexico ground game, it’ll be important for the 6-foot-1, 280-lbs senior defensive lineman to fill up space in the middle and return to the surehanded tackling presence on the interior that he was throughout the opening month of games.

ATH Titan Lacaden

Lacaden is coming off the most productive game of his young career, posting seven catches for 43 yards at Arizona State while also receiving the first carry of his career. The 5-foot-6 wide receiver also had the biggest special teams return of the season against New Mexico State, taking the opening kickoff of the second half back 69 yards to start Hawai’i deep in plus territory.

To beat a New Mexico team that takes pride in suffocating opposing offenses, the Rainbow Warriors will need to be efficient in short-yardage situations, on third downs and will likely need to get some sort of boost from the special teams. Lacaden has proven that he can be a player that helps with all three categories.

Lacaden seems to always find himself open when he’s on the field for passing downs and demonstrated all throughout training camp how dangerous he could be when fielding kick returns. If New Mexico gives him a chance to try and house one on specials, it could be the energy boost that Hawai’i has needed for a long time.

He also should have a little less focus on him as the wide receiver room gets healthier for Hawai’i, potentially allowing for the Rainbow Warriors to weave the dynamic playmaker into some situations that opponents wouldn’t be able to key in on him as much for.

HAWAI’I FOOTBALL COVERAGE ON HSRN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY