HONOLULU – Welcome back, college football. 

The Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors opened the 2024 season with a 35-14 victory over visiting Delaware State on Saturday night, starting the year with a win for the first time since the 2020 season. Brayden Schager tallied four total touchdowns (2 pass, 2 rush), Tylan Hines provided Hawai’i’s first punt return touchdown in more than a decade and Dennis Thurman’s defense got home five times as all three phases had some fun in CFB’s opening weekend. 

It wasn’t all pretty for the Rainbow Warriors, but Saturday provided plenty of glimpses into some of the key figures for UH’s 2024 slate. Here are three takeaways following Hawai’i’s Week 0 win against Delaware State: 

The ST unit has taken a noticeable jump from last season – and not just in the return game 

How about some love for the special teams? 

Fans don’t need reminders on the shakiness of the third phase of the game over the past couple seasons for Hawai’i (hello, ‘23 Vanderbilt game), but UH gained a pair of impact makers in the offseason that changed quite a bit for the unit’s ceiling. Combine that with two seasons of foundation-building for others on special teams and something special is born. 

First, former RB-turned-WR Tylan Hines made his long-awaited return to the field for the Rainbow Warriors after dealing with injuries last season that forced the dynamic playmaker to redshirt. He wasted little time showing off what his recovery could mean for Hawai’i in the return game, ending the opening quarter with a 44-yard punt return touchdown to open up a two-score lead. 

The Rainbow Warriors celebrate in the end zone after Tylan Hines (2) punt return TD gave Hawai’i a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

While the TD was exciting (it was UH’s first punt return score in 12 years), Hines showed off good instincts in the swirling winds on when to field punts and when to leave it alone. The wideout fielded three punts, averaging over 20 yards on his returns, while letting the other nine DSU punts settle without the risk of muffing them. Of the 14 drives for Hawai’i, only four started inside its own 25-yard line. 

The same could not be said for Delaware State, who was constantly starting drives with poor field position due to the combination of new UH punter Lucas Borrow’s elite placement on kicks and the unit’s gunners doing an excellent job getting down the field on punt coverage. The Hornets started all but three drives inside the team’s 25-yard line and three times started from inside their own 10. 

Borrow drew the praise of special teams coach Thomas Sheffield earlier in the week because of his ability to place the ball consistently and continued racking up compliments after the game from head coach Timmy Chang. 

“I thought Lucas [Borrow] … there was a lot of good pinning down the opponent down inside the 10 and that’s a huge factor,” Chang said of the punter from down under following the game. “He plays holder [for kicks] as well so you know, he’s double-duty-ing … [in the first half] when we needed to back guys up and make it challenging for them to come out [on a return], his field position really helped us.” 

His partner in kicking, Kansei Matsuzawa, went a perfect 5-for-5 on extra point attempts but did not attempt a field goal in the season opener after winning the kicking contest during fall camp. 

The unit as a whole left Chang pleased, seeing the head coach state postgame that his belief is that “special teams is going to help us win games.” 

The defense has a new DAWG – and he is only one piece of an aggressive front 

While much of the national discussion around Hawai’i revolves around a typically potent Run-N-Shoot offense, conversations in Honolulu have continued to trend towards the defense under the direction of longtime football veteran Dennis Thurman. With the return of most of the starting defense along with leader of the Lion’s Den’s player conglomerate in senior linebacker Logan Taylor, buzz had risen regarding the point-stoppers rather than the point-scorers. 

Saturday, it was a different face from last year’s main contributors. Sophomore linebacker Jamih Otis, one of the products of the Bishop Gorman-Hawai’i football pipeline that associate head coach Chris Brown has helped formulate, dominated on night one of the season to the tune of a team-high 11 tackles (8 solo), 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack in his first taste of extended run for UH. 

It was confirmation of what multiple coaches had been saying throughout fall camp: while Taylor may be the present and Otis may be the future at linebacker for Hawai’i, the talent of Otis has shown the future might be here already. 

UH sophomore LB Jamih Otis celebrates a fourth down during the ‘Bows 35-14 victory against Delaware State. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

The rest of the defense showed out throughout the evening, too. Five different defenders registered a full sack on Saturday for Hawai’i while the defense racked up 11.0 TFLs and forced a fumble for good measure while shutting out DSU over the final 26 minutes of game action. 

While Delaware State looked more talented than the unit was a year ago, the Hornets are likely to be the worst team on Hawai’i’s schedule. There were plenty of positives for the defense, but competition turns up quickly as UCLA comes to town next week to play the Rainbow Warriors. It will be about posting consistency against higher quality opponents next. 

Hawai’i’s offense needs 2nd receiver to emerge to reach desired heights 

Given the circumstances, Hawai’i’s passing game on Saturday was better than the numbers would indicate. 

Brayden Schager finished the night completing 50 percent of his passes (17-of-34) for 203 yards as Hawai’i struggled to get the deep game going with the intense winds and on-and-off rain from Tropical Storm Hone approaching the islands. Outside of Pofele Ashlock (5 rec, 81 yards), there was a significant lack of returning receivers with chemistry and production for Hawai’i after the suspension of star WR Steven McBride. 

Kentucky transfer Dekel Crowdus attempted to fill the gap left behind by McBride’s absence, enjoying a solid debut with three catches for 49 yards, highlighted by his 29-yard touchdown catch at the start of the 4th quarter for the first “Schager Bomb” score of the year. 

Even Crowdus looked off at times though, taking a couple of quarters to connect with Schager after the two looked to be on different pages on a couple deep ball tries in the first half. Outside of Ashlock and Crowdus, not a single UH player tallied more than two receptions. 

It was a bit obvious at times as well. Hawai’i punted eight times in total and six times in the first half. After scoring only seven offensive points (Tylan Hines had a 44-yard punt return touchdown for the other score) in the first half, Schager addressed the team about the mediocre performance. 

While the running attack helped buoy the offense through drops and misthrows (Landon Sims totaled 58 yards across 10 carries), it would be fair to have concern with the passing attack’s ceiling in 2024 without McBride after seeing the unit struggle against a lackluster DSU defense. 

Some of the performance can be written off due to some extreme weather conditions with the winds but not the entirety of it. Schager looked to be on a different page than some of his targets at times and UH was unable to get playmaker Tylan Hines into the offensive mix outside of a jet sweep that was called back due to a penalty. 

Hawai’i got away with a sloppy offensive performance and lack of chunk plays against an inferior Delaware State team out of the FCS but won’t be as lucky against UCLA or the Mountain West’s best. For a team looking to return to bowl game contention in the Rainbow Warriors, Week 0 is an excellent lesson in winning while understanding improvements are needed.