HONOLULU — The talk around fall camp was that the Hawaii football team had some legitimate speed at wide receiver to pair with the return of the run-and-shoot offense. But for most of camp, it was difficult to tell if the ball-catchers were getting the kind of separation and rhythm against the defense for the read-and-react system to really take off.

On Saturday, it became clear that the connection was well established between quarterback Brayden Schager and his top options. Two players making their UH debuts, senior Steven McBride and redshirt freshman Pofele Ashlock, combined for 14 catches, 225 yards and three touchdowns, accounting for the majority of Schager’s career-best 351 yards in the air in the 35-28 season-opening loss.

Schager’s surprise 45-yard touchdown bomb to McBride on fourth-and-4 in the second quarter represented a watershed moment to the team.

“It just screamed, the run-and-shoot is back,” Ashlock said in recalling the moment he watched Schager fire directly over the top of the defense and on target to his teammate. Ashlock would grab his own deep ball, a 50-yard haul in the second half, to help UH rally from 21 points down and gain a chance to tie the game late. Vanderbilt ultimately intercepted Schager to end the threat with two minutes left, but the Rainbow Warriors left FirstBank Stadium with newfound belief in themselves.

Ashlock, with his seven grabs for 127 yards and a touchdown, was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week.

“It really built my confidence up more. It’s been a long time coming for me,” said McBride, a Kansas transfer who totaled 128 yards receiving in three years as a Jayhawk. “Been through ups and downs, twists and turns. That’s something I really wanted to show myself and let people know who I really am and prove to myself that I’m worth being here. So, it was a blessing to be in that position.”

Ashlock, a slotback from Euless, Texas, and Trinity High School, was an unknown entity locally entering his first college game. He redshirted last season while serving on the scout team.

Mirroring McBride, Ashlock said Saturday was “a long time coming.”

“To go out there and just put on the performance I felt like I’ve been holding in since high school … I got to go out there and portray to everybody what I’m really about, and (we) put the whole Hawaii state on our back,” Ashlock said.

UH flew back to Honolulu via charter on Sunday and got in a late practice — they finished around 9 p.m. — Monday night at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. The Rainbow Warriors were on an accelerated timetable because of their Friday home opener against Stanford during the short week.

In 2022, when UH’s offensive identity was tough to discern, the ‘Bows had a total of three players surpass 100 yards receiving in a game: Jonah Panoke’s 101 against Vanderbilt; Caleb Phillips’ 138 at New Mexico State; and Zion Bowens’ 108 at San Diego State.

UH nearly had two players do it in the first game. McBride finished with 98 after catching both of his touchdown passes in the first half.

Another speedy wideout, redshirt freshman Alex Perry, caught four balls for 51 yards. Tight end Greyson Morgan caught five for 33 yards.

Second-year coach Timmy Chang, the former UH quarterback who has talked repeatedly about his high bar for the offense, called plays in an FBS game for the first time against Vanderbilt. Chang’s fiery postgame locker room speech was posted on social media and widely viewed.

He acknowledged Monday he wanted a couple of do-overs on some key plays, but he was pleased with the passing game.

“I’ve got a good corps of receivers, and no one knows none of ‘em until they start playing,” Chang said.

Wideout Jalen Walthall, last season’s second-leading receiver, is third on the depth chart at his position behind McBride and Perry.

“Over the years you’ve seen different receivers (produce),” Chang said. “They can be on one week and next week the ball goes somewhere else. Some of the really special ones have had consecutive weeks of really good lines and stats and those type of things. At this point where we are, we just want them to get better at doing their job.

“I think we’ve got a lot of depth in there, but the depth always has to be consistent so the quarterback always knows they’re going to be at the places they need to be.”

As of early Tuesday afternoon, UH was a 3.5-point underdog to Stanford — down from 7.0 from before the Vanderbilt game. The Cardinal, likely in their final season as a Pac-12 member, are playing their first game under former Sacramento State coach Troy Taylor.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.