HONOLULU — Timmy Chang is one of the most prolific passing quarterbacks in the history of college football. Strikingly, through four games of the 2022 season, his Hawaii football team still has not thrown a passing touchdown.
However, for the first time under their new leader, the Rainbow Warriors found other ways to get it done on Saturday night in a 24-14 win over visiting Duquesne at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. A homecoming crowd of 8,991 witnessed Chang pick up his first career victory as a head coach.
Given the Rainbow Warriors’ multiple mistakes along the way, Chang, 40, wasted little time afterward turning toward the Rainbow Warriors’ next opponent, New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M., next weekend.
“It feels good to win. Being 0-3, the confidence that your team has, you can feel it, being 0-3,” Chang said. “It’s the coaches, it’s the players, it’s our equipment staff, our training staff. We needed this win. I told the guys, ‘I’m going to be hard on you Monday, because we still gotta correct a lot of things.’”
It spoke to the team’s ongoing offensive woes that 24 points was a season high, and its 184 yards of offense was the program’s lowest output since 2015. UH again split time between quarterbacks, with Joey Yellen making his third straight start but giving way to Brayden Schager in a run-heavy fourth quarter. As had been the case in losses to Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and No. 4 Michigan, neither player appeared to have a firm command of the job by the end of the night.
But the defense came up big with a fourth-quarter pick-six by linebacker Penei Pavihi, and two end-zone interceptions of the Dukes by nickelback Malik Hausman, including the game-clincher with 1:40 left.
UH extended its winning streak over Football Championship Subdivision teams to 19, but the Dukes still managed to make things interesting late with a 29-yard Dwayne Menders Jr. touchdown pass from backup quarterback Darius Perrantes.
The Dukes recovered an onside kick when Parson couldn’t corral it and Hausman was in the right spot again — he made his team-best third pick of the season without much movement, like he did in the third quarter against Joe Mischler.
“The offense struggles sometimes, and we can’t control that,” said Hausman, a Las Vegas native who spent five seasons as a reserve at Arizona before transferring to UH this season. “We’re trying to control our individual jobs and our unit jobs. … We’re trying to get the job done for the whole team.”
Special teams also contributed, jump-starting the team with a punt block by Kaulana Makaula and a 58-yard kickoff return by Jalen Perdue.
Senior running back Dedrick Parson overcame an early fumble that UH recovered and had two first-half touchdowns to help stake his team to a 14-6 halftime lead.
But there was very little success through the air, despite Yellen completing 13 of 20 passes (65%). Those hookups went for just 86 yards and Schager’s only pass resulted in a gain of 7.
Even in victory, the team acknowledged that it wouldn’t have been enough on most nights. Duquesne dominated time of possession, 37 minutes to UH's 23.
Parson, who split duties in the backfield with Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei, said, “We can’t be just one-sided when it comes to offense. It makes it easier for the defense. As you can see today, they stacked the box a lot and ran me across the field. So some of the receivers gotta make plays, and when it’s our number we gotta make plays.”
Pavihi provided a big one, a 50-yard runback of an ill-advised Mischler toss that was the first for the senior captain since he was an eighth grader in American Samoa.
“It was a pretty huge moment for me,” Pavihi said of running. “Grateful for (fellow linebacker) Isaiah Tufaga for getting the pressure on the quarterback and everybody doing their job at the end of the day. Good things happen when you do our job.”
UH allowed Duquesne (1-3) to move the ball via the ground game on the Dukes' opening drive, resulting in a 3-0 lead for the visitors. But the UH defense stiffened and forced punts on the FCS team's next three drives.
The UH receiving corps took another hit when senior Jonah Panoke exited before halftime with what was later said to be a broken collar bone. The Rainbow Warriors have missed Zion Bowens, one of their first-string receivers, since a Week 0 leg injury.
Dior Scott led the receivers with seven grabs for 53 yards.
“There’s your two veteran receivers in the room not being able to play significant time,” Chang said. “We go to the babies now, the young freshmen, guys who’ve been here since June and July. That’s the way football goes. When I look at the numbers, I think they need to improve and we’ll discuss those things.”
Chang and special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield brought the house on the Dukes’ punts all night. It resulted in two roughing-the-kicker penalties, but also the team’s first punt block since Andrew Choi got one against Nevada in 2019.
Makaula was one of five players all over it and Hugh Nelson returned it to the Duquesne 14.
“Coach Chang just emphasized all week that the way they line up is head-up,” Makaula said. “It could have been anyone. At the time the play happened, it was me. … I was able to get my hands on it.”
After a penalty backed UH up, Parson ran it around the right edge and in from 17 yards for a 14-3 lead.
For the second time in three games, UH lost a player to a targeting call.
After an officials’ review in the final minute of the first half, safety Meki Pei was disqualified for a close play on airborne wide receiver Abdul Janneh. As Pei ran at Janneh, Pei’s helmet appeared to make contact with the receiver’s head and shoulders.
The Dukes got a 30-yard field goal out of it and UH took a 14-6 lead into intermission, its first halftime lead of the season. Chang did not dispute the call.
By rule, Pei will miss the first half against NMSU (0-4). The Aggies lost 66-7 to Wisconsin on Saturday.
Note: The last player UH lost to a targeting call, defensive back Ty Marsh, is reportedly no longer a member of the team. Freshman defensive lineman Sonny Semeatu, a Mililani High alumnus, also indicated this week that he has left the team.
Some more shots from the night:
And a couple more video clips:
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.