As he enters his fifth season overseeing linebackers for the University of Hawai‘i football team, associate head Chris Brown believes his position group is in a great spot.
The "Lion's Den," as Brown calls his unit, is set to start a pair of seniors in Wynden Ho‘ohuli and Jamih Otis. Ho‘ohuli will play middle linebacker, while Otis, just eight and a half months removed from a torn ACL, is set to roam the field at the outside linebacker spot. Led by the leadership in his seniors and the talent behind them, Brown says the "Lion's Den" is the deepest it's ever been.
"I'm very, very impressed with 'the Lions'," Brown told Aloha State Daily following a recent practice. "It's probably the most talented squad I've ever had. The problem now is I got about seven guys I can play. They all have something special about them. They all play with with grit, toughness, and they're really, really smart. As of right now, man, it's probably the best room I've ever had."
Even though Brown has penciled in the group's starters ahead of its Aug. 29 opener at Stanford, competition in the "Lion's Den" continues to intensify.
For the past year, Aisiah "Scoob" Paogofie has done his best to force Brown's hand. Paogofie, a 2025 Campbell graduate, redshirted in his true freshman season with the Rainbow Warriors. He showed flashes of his potential on the scout team, but in spring and fall practices, he's continued to turn heads with his speed, physicality and intensity. During live reps in recent practices, multiple coaches were seen praising him for his instincts off the ball, as well.
"Scoob's probably the most talented guy I got," Brown said. "He has that kind of skill set that he can do anything. Last year, we put him on scout team as the running back, and he looked like a natural, like he's been doing it for 10 years. But he has that ability and speed to play safety. He's just so savvy of where the ball is going to go, and then the ability to bend and get off of blocks. He just knows where the ball is going to go, and his speed is different than the rest."
Brown compared Paogofie to his uncle, former Wai‘anae High School star of the 1990s, Chris Paogofie. It's no wonder that Scoob Paogofie wears the same No. 31 his uncle did for the Seariders.
Additionally, Brown says he sees bits of former UH linebacker Darius Muasau in Scoob Paogofie. Muasau is currently entering his third NFL season with the New York Giants.
Listed at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, Paogofie appears to still be growing into his wiry frame. Bulking into a linebacker's body's has gone according to a plan hatched from when Brown recruited Paogofie out of high school, back when the Campbell safety was less than 200 pounds.
"When I recruited him, I knew he was a safety in high school," Brown recalled. "But I looked at how big his bottom half was, and I said, 'This kid is going to get to 215, 220 really easy.' So, he'll be able to play in the box. Maybe not the tallest guy, but just the ability to find the ball over and over and over. I'm really, really excited about his future. I need to play him this year, and he's kind of forced my hand to make him play, and he's definitely gonna play a lot of snaps this season."
Aisiah Paogofie was born in Minnesota, which is where his family relocated to from Samoa at the time. After moving to O‘ahu as a preschooler, he calls the Islands home. The nickname "Scoob" stuck when a Campbell teammate believed he drew a resemblance to Scooby-Doo, in addition to the fact that he was a "dog" on the field.
Hearing the praise thrown at him from his coaches, specifically Brown, means a lot to Paogofie as he looks to earn playing time. At the same time, he knows he's far from a finished product.
"It means a lot. Just living up to the 'Lion's Den' is a lot, but it's also really cool to be a part of," Paogofie said. "I think camp is going really good for me, but there's little tweaks I gotta work on."
As much as he itched to play last season, Paogofie looks back at his redshirt year as a valuable one. If not for what he learned watching from the sidelines in 2025, perhaps he wouldn't be the same player Brown and the rest of the coaching staff are eager to fully unleash in 2026.
"I think it helped me understand [the game] more," Paogofie said. "Coming in as a freshman, I came around this time, so I really didn't have that much experience as the spring guys had. Just taking that year to understand how the program works and the family that they have over here. I'm really excited for this team, to be honest, because we're all hungry."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
