Hawaii Warriors

Head Coach

Greg McMackin	1st year
07-08	12-1
WAC	8-0
FCR	9

Previous Season Wins

Head Coach - The Warriors of Hawaii come into this season off a big blowout loss, but it was Georgia and it was the Sugar Bowl. What is the player’s mindset going into this season? Oh Yeah, there first games is against Florida and they lost Head Coach June Jones and Heisman Finalist Colt Brennan. New Head Coach Greg McMackin comes into this season taking over the reigns from June Jones. McMackin was Hawaii’s D-Coordinator last year; they were a talented and well coached unit. Can McMackin make Hawaii WAC Champs again, only time will tell?

Quarterback - No Colt Brennan to lean on, this year for Hawaii. Hawaii will have to either go with Tyler Graunke or Inoke Funaki, neither one has officially been given the starting spot but Graunke did back up Colt last year and won all of the games he started. With a new offense Graunke seems to be the perfect fit with his speed and throwing ability.

Running Backs - When you think of Hawaii offense you think of passing yards and passing TD’s. Most people would be surprised to know that Hawaii has a running game and this year Hawaii will turn to the running game more often. This means Leon Wright-Johnson a Nebraska transfer will be gunning for the spot but Daniel Libre will not give it up so easily.

Receivers - Hawaii has to replace not one, not two, but three 1,100 yard receivers this year. This year there will be four new starting wide outs for the Warriors. Pillars, Bain, Lane, Salas, Washington, Avery and Taylor all want to start; the four who click the most with the QB will get the staring nod. Even though so much was lost due to graduation and the NFL, Hawaii still has talented receivers.

Offensive Line - John Estes is the man on the O-Line this year for the Warriors. He is the starting center and a returning All-WAC player. The O-Line will also have some familiar faces with Keoni Steinhoff and Keith AhSoon, but who knows what position they will play. The O-Line is going to be physical and tough but may not be as dominant as last year.

Defensive Line - David Veikune will be the one this year on the Warrior D-Line who will get most of the double teams from the opposing O-Lines but he will still wreck havoc again this year. The only other returning starter will be Fale Laeli who had 2.5 sacks last year. The D-Line like many other Warrior positions will have a lot of new faces. Nasty and very physical the Warrior D-Line will be a big part of the Warrior Defense.

Linebackers - The Linebacker position will be the best area of the Warrior Defense and has two very good returning starters in Solomon Elimimian and Adam Leonard. Both are very athletic and experienced players. Blaze Soares will be the other starter and the depth at linebacker is the best it’s been in years.

Defensive Backs - This will be the biggest problem area for Hawaii on there defense and on their team. Two new corners and little depth in the secondary is not a good thing in the pass happy WAC. Thomas and Monteilh are the returning starters hopefully they can help the inexperienced secondary out.

Special Teams -

Schedule - The Warriors will not win the WAC with away games against Fresno and Boise, 3rd place may be the best case scenario in the WAC. Hawaii will take a big fall, middle of the pack in the WAC and only 6 wins.