Hawaii head coach Norm Chow is now three games into his fourth season since arriving from his alma mater, Utah. In his first three seasons, Chow and the Warriors have struggled finding success, finishing with a combined 8-29 record.
However, this Hawaii team appears to be his most talented in his four-year stint in Manoa.
The only constant of the Hawaii program in the past five years has been change, especially at the quarterback position. When senior USC transfer Max Wittek took the Warriors’ first snap of the season in Week 1, he became the fifth quarterback to open for Hawaii in the last five seasons. Wittek, though, has provided the Warriors with a newfound sense of stability. In three games he has performed quite well, especially considering the fact that Wittek was forced to sit out all of last season because of NCAA regulations. Wittek threw three touchdowns in the Warriors 28-20 opener against Pac-12 foe Colorado and has five touchdowns on the year.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback is surrounded by a veteran group of receivers led by redshirt junior Marcus Kemp and redshirt sophomore Quinton Pedroza. Junior running back Paul Harris won the starting job with a strong spring and has performed well as Hawaii’s lead back.
On the other side of the ball, most of the teeth of Hawaii’s defense are seeing their first snaps this season, as it lost five starters from 2014, yet has performed quite well against superior competition. In Hawaii’s 38-0 loss to Ohio State two weeks ago, the Hawaii defense pressured Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones six times, forcing three sacks.
The 38-0 result from two weeks ago does not tell the story of Hawaii’s potential. Against the reigning national champion Buckeyes, the Warriors trailed 17-0 after three quarters, and if not for an early fourth-quarter turnover halting a possible scoring chance, the Warriors could have potentially cut the lead to a mere 10 points. Hawaii allowed a touchdown in both the first and second quarter and held the Buckeyes to their worst quarter of football in 12 months, limiting them to only three points in the third.
Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said that Hawaii “played their tails off,” when asked about the Warriors’ performance.
After a 47-27 win last week against UC Davis, the Warriors come into Camp Randall with plenty of confidence, hoping to knock off their second power conference opponent in four weeks.
The Badgers will likely find success running the football against a Hawaii defense that is giving up 172.3 yards per game on the ground thus far.
Though the Badgers are facing the Warriors in Week 4 of the season, Hawaii is one of only two FBS schools that is playing a full 13-game schedule. Its date with Wisconsin also comes in the midst of their gauntlet stretch of games versus the aforementioned Colorado and Ohio State, as well as conference foe Boise State in Week 5. And last week against an inferior opponent, Hawaii’s defense was on the field for almost 40 minutes of action, surrendering more than 400 yards.
If the Warriors are able to escape with a 3-2 record, meaning they upset either Boise State or Wisconsin, then Wittek and Coach Chow will likely end the season with a winning record for the first time in four years.
If they struggle and post another mediocre record, then Chow will likely have coached his last season in his native homeland and Hawaii will have yet another coach and quarterback to open next season.
OhioStateBuckeyes.com contributed to this report.
