MĀNOA — Life without Micah Alejado was silent.
In the University of Hawai‘i's season-opening victory over Stanford on Saturday, a hush fell over the sellout crowd at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex when Alejado, the team's starting quarterback, went down for several minutes.
It was the first possession of the third quarter when the redshirt freshman was dragged down with a hip-drop tackle. Prior to that, Alejado showcased his talents with a first half in which he completed 17 of his 24 passes for 116 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. All of a sudden, those who saw Alejado on the ground for a prolonged period of time were dreading the worst, that the two quarters he played were all he'd be able to display in 2025.
Backup quarterback Luke Weaver entered on the next play, his lone pass attempt batted down. Alejado reentered the game a compromised version of himself on the team's next possession, limping and favoring his right ankle the rest of the way. The ‘Ewa Beach native still managed to lead the 'Bows down the field for two field goal drives, including Kansei Matsuzawa's game-winning field goal as time expired. When Alejado celebrated after the game, he was doing so while hopping on his left leg.
All eyes were on Alejado at the beginning of Tuesday's practice, the team's first on-field session of the week. Alejado was in uniform but was a sideline observer, giving tips and encouragement to his teammates. The Rainbow Warriors will take on the University of Arizona for a game that kicks off at 4:30 p.m. HST on Saturday, departing for Tuscon on Thursday morning.
Following Tuesday's practice, Hawai‘i head coach Timmy Chang said he expects Alejado to be ready to go.
"Micah is trying to heal that ankle injury, so it's day-to-day right now, but he's expected to go play," Chang said. "I think he felt better (after Saturday). There's a lot of great people in Hawai‘i, by the way, that want to help and have reached out. And so Micah is just, he's been kind of aggressive on his rehab process.
"And then again, there's a gameplan that has to go in. He's dialed in. He's been here all day Sunday, all day Monday. And so now Tuesday, he's got a process he's got to go through. And so as long as it continually gets better, we're expecting him to go."
Weaver took the bulk of the first-team reps on Tuesday, with the remainder going to UCLA transfer Dermaricus Davis.
"Luke was brought in for this, for this very thing, in case something happened. He's got to go, and so I'm very confident in Luke," Chang said. "He's a gamer, so I'm excited to watch him play.
"Micah takes a lot of the reps during the week. The more reps that we can give Luke, we just plan on him continuing to get better. We're going to help him. We're going to make sure that he's comfortable and give him the best chance to go out there succeed. We got work ahead of us until we get to Saturday, but I'm pretty confident in Luke."
When Alejado wasn't on the field on Tuesday, he was on a stationary bike, his right ankle in KT tape. Although a handful of Rainbow Warriors were walking around in a boot, he was not one of them.
Regardless of who takes the field behind center on Saturday, the Rainbow Warriors know they must start better than they did against Stanford. Hawai‘i started its first offensive possession on its own 1 yard line after kickoff returner Brandon White called a fair catch on a ball that bounced. Alejado was sacked and fumbled on UH's first offensive play from scrimmage, allowing Stanford to take a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
"We got to start fast," starting left guard Zhen Sotelo, one of the team's two captains alongside Peter Manuma said. "We got to come out with great discipline. We had a lot of unforced errors this past game. We had eight penalties. We got to minimize that, and that'll play a big factor in the game. That obviously set us back a lot throughout the game, it killed drives. We had a lot of turnovers. So as an offense, we got to minimize that, and we got to continue to start fast and be disciplined."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
