UH football coach Timmy Chang feels he has the QB and pieces to make a title run

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LAS VEGAS — Entering his fifth season as Hawaii’s head football coach, Timmy Chang believes he has collected the parts for a championship drive.

Athletic director Matt Elliott has finalized plans to provide the Rainbow Warriors with chartered flights for all six road games.

Elliott also detailed a plan in which the football program will receive at least $2.5 million in revenue sharing.

Last month, several members of Chang’s staff — including the associate head coach, coordinators and long-time coaches — received two-year contracts and a bump in pay.

And the Warriors hope to ride quarterback Micah Alejado’s golden left arm.

“I think he gives us a chance,” Chang said. “I think Micah is awesome. I think he’s a big-time player. He’s the centerpiece of our roster and how we build it.”

After the 2025 opener, Alejado played the rest of the season with fractures in his right ankle. During this week’s Mountain West’s Football Media Days in Las Vegas, Alejado was voted as the conference’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

But there are factors that might impact the Warriors, who were football-only members of the Mountain West from 2012 through this past June 30. After 15 UH sports moved from the Big West, the school became a full member of the Mountain West.

But Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State relocated to the Pac-12 this summer.

“It’s one of those things you don’t want to be here, you don’t want to be here,” Chang said. “I’m happy in the direction we’re headed and what we’re about to do and get excited about that.”

Chang, now second in seniority to Air Force’s Troy Calhoun (20 years), said there are opportunities for the holdovers and newcomers. The Mountain West added the Northern Illinois and North Dakota State football teams.

“I think the conference is open for teams to come in here and play the best ball,” Chang said. “Whoever plays the best ball week in and week out, can stay healthy, can keep their team together, are going to do well. It’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and win.”

But while the Warriors went 9-4 last year, it is a continuing challenge to remain competitive in an age of transfer accessibility and the lure of money from name-image-likeness usage and profit sharing.

“I think in college football, there’s a bidding-war aspect,” Chang said. “There’s a money presence for players. To keep your guys, you’re going to have to fight off schools that are looking at your guys. Recruiting and retaining are both the same thing.”

Chang added: “I don’t know what the price will be for some of our guys at the end of the season. There is no cap on the market. I think we lost some guys because they knew they were going to get paid a lot more (elsewhere). We weren’t going to try to match a price we wouldn’t be in a conversation for.”

Chang indicated the Warriors have enough weapons.

“The level is championship-caliber football,” Chang said of the Warriors’ goal. “Are we going to be there? I think we have a chance. We’ve given ourselves a chance with the guys we have in the building and the way we’re working hard. It’s really going to come down to those Saturdays and how we handle ourselves and how we execute and how we handle adversity and how we put ourselves in position to win games and not lose games. We’re starting to get pieces and put them together. I think it’s the continuity and development of our guys that matter most. Getting the right pieces into place, that means everything.”

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