For each of Timmy Chang's four years at the helm, the University of Hawai‘i football team has chased the goal of reaching a bowl, one that's generally accomplished when a team wins half of its regular season games.
Reaching a bowl game is a common measuring stick of a program's success in the sport. On top of 15 extra allotted practices, each bowl has a week of festivities where teams can enjoy the reward of a season's work.
Under Chang, the Rainbow Warriors have crept closer to bowl eligibility each year, winning five games each in 2023 and 2024. In both of those seasons, Hawai‘i's fifth win came in the season finale, when reaching a bowl was already out of the question.
Through seven games in 2025, the 'Bows are 5-2 following their most recent win over Utah State. With five regular season contests remaining, UH just needs one win to reach the bowl eligibility benchmark. For a program that hasn't been selected for a bowl game since the 2021 Hawai‘i Bowl, reaching six wins would check a major box under Chang, though the team has bigger aspirations than that.
"We have a team goal to host the Mountain West championship, and it's always been about that," running back Landon Sims said during the team's bye week. "So, on a week to week basis, you play Saturdays, and 24 hours after that, it's in the past."
Hawai‘i's first opportunity to clinch a bowl berth comes on Saturday at Colorado State, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. HST.
"I think it's easy to get distracted," Chang said of the team's win-loss record. "We gotta be in the moment and have the guys ready to go. We gotta have them taking care of their bodies, gotta have them hydrating, because it's gonna be a challenge going to Colorado State."
On Saturday, the Rainbow Warriors will hope to draw from their road win at Air Force on Sept. 27 in Colorado Springs, located approximately 120 miles south of Canvas Stadium, the site of Saturday's game.
"Just the travel, the distance, all these things that require us to be on the road," Chang said. "It's going to be a homecoming game for them. . ... There are no surprises, and we're ready to go play the game and just really focusing on what we have to do. Lots draw from the Air Force game, as well as what we did, and then just try to tweak ways on how we can get better."
Saturday's matchup will also serve as the final matchup for the foreseeable future between Chang and one of his mentors in Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell. The Rams are one of five Mountain West teams departing for the Pac-12 next summer.
In 2017, Norvell, the head coach at Nevada at the time, gave Chang his first opportunity as the receivers coach for the Wolf Pack. Norvell and Chang are 1-1 against each other, with Colorado State winning in 2022 and UH winning the season finale between both teams in 2023.
"He's a mentor. He's a brother. He gave me my opportunity, and guys that give people opportunities, or me personally, I'm very loyal, and so I love and respect him for that, and I did a lot of growing when I was with him," Chang said. "I told him, we're gonna hug, and then we'll go to battle."
The Rams enter Saturday's matchup 2-4, but most recently routed Fresno State on Oct. 10, the same Bulldogs squad that defeated the Rainbow Warriors to begin conference play on Sept. 20.
"We can't be complacent," UH standout receiver Jackson Harris said. "We got some new stuff going in this week, so you got to just be as detailed. You got a tough one on the road here, big conference game.
"I do just feel that the energy in the building, we're all just excited, but we're just trying to stay disciplined, because complacency can cause you to go down, but we're going up."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
