MĀNOA — Tuesday morning's practice for the University of Hawai‘i football team ended with a special announcement from UH athletics director Matt Elliott.
Elliott broke the news that the team's head coach, Timmy Chang, was named the American Football Coaches Association's Region 5 Coach of the Year, the only Group of Five representative among a list that includes Indiana's Curt Cignetti, Texas Tech's Joey McGuire, Georgia Tech's Brent Key and Vanderbilt's Clark Lea.
Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Rainbow Warriors are 7-4 overall and 4-3 in Mountain West Conference play and will play in their first bowl game since 2020 in December, the Hawai‘i Bowl the most likely destination although a formal announcement has yet to be made. Under Chang, the Rainbow Warriors have enjoyed one of the country's most notable turnarounds from a team that went 3-10 with 53 newcomers in 2022.
When it was Chang's turn to speak to the team following Elliott's announcement, he deflected praise to the team.
"It's not me," Chang told the Rainbow Warriors, "it's us." Chang then led the team in prayer before members of the team went about the rest of its respective days.
In addition to the news of Chang getting his first major accolade as a head coach, Hawai‘i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa was also named one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the country's top kicker. Matsuzawa, the famously self-taught kicker, has made all 23 of his field goal attempts in 2025 thus far, as well as all 34 of his extra point tries.
Matsuzawa, like Chang, deferred to the rest of the Rainbow Warriors.
"This is not just me, this is all the team's success," said Matsuzawa, who credited long snapper Jack Mowrey and holder Caleb Freeman.
On the field, the Rainbow Warriors held a spirited practice on Tuesday despite being knocked out of the Mountain West race in a loss at UNLV on Friday. Although the Rainbow Warriors are among the teams that could finish in a tie for second place at 5-3, they would lose every Mountain West tiebreaker scenario.
With a bowl game spot clinched and no conference title to play for, motivation was still abundant for the Rainbow Warriors, who play against rival Wyoming at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on Saturday at 6 p.m.
The rivalry between the Rainbow Warriors and Cowboys is for the Paniolo Trophy, which Wyoming has won two straight times in the series. The Cowboys come to town with a record of 4-7 overall and 2-5 in Mountain West play.
"We love trophy games," Hawai‘i safety Peter Manuma said. "We're fully motivated. We'll take out all our emotions from the UNLV game to this game. We have a great opponent coming in Wyoming, and they'll try and play spoiler on us, and we just got to come out and play our game."
Although Saturday's game for the Rainbow Warriors is not the season finale for the team, 25 seniors will be honored following the game. As a program, the 'Bows have not lost a senior night game since 2017.
"I remember speaking to my dad that one of the reasons that I committed here was seeing his senior night photo, and you couldn't even see his face, because he had a stack of lei up to here," said running back Landon Sims, motioning to the top of his head. "And I wanted that. Hopefully I get to experience that. Win or lose, I'm so proud of these guys and this journey that we've had."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
