Arguably the biggest mismatch on the gridiron for the week comes to you from the Great Lakes State as a program from the Mountain West takes a swing at one from the Big Ten. The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors are on the road as they travel to face the #4 Michigan Wolverines in a non-conference tilt Saturday night. Hawaii comes in off a 49-17 pasting at home by Western Kentucky in their previous game last Saturday. Michigan rolled past another Mountain West school as they clobbered Colorado State 51-7 at home last Saturday. In the all-time series between the schools, the Wolverines have won all three meetings, including a 63-3 home win in the most recent matchup on September 3, 2016.
Hawaii was bludgeoned for the second straight week, at home, as the Timmy Chang era has gotten off to a rough start. The Rainbow Warriors were trounced by Western Kentucky after getting clobbered by Vanderbilt and now have to go on the road to the Big House. Against the Hilltoppers, Hawaii led 3-0 after the opening quarter only to get outscored 21-7 in the second to trail 21-10 at the half. The Rainbow Warriors never got closer than that in the second half as Western Kentucky outscored them 28-7 to turn the game into a romp. Hawaii was outgained 412-360 in total offense, gave up 24 first downs while picking up 20 and turned the ball over a staggering six times while forcing two turnovers in the game. Those horrific numbers offset that Hawaii controlled the clock by a 34:08 to 25:52 margin in the contest.
The Rainbow Warriors enter this one 56th in the FBS in passing offense with 258 yards per game while they are 103rd in rushing offense with 101 yards per contest this season. Hawaii is 112th in the FBS in scoring offense by putting up 13.5 points per contest while they are a miserable 127th in scoring defense by allowing an average of 56 points per game. The four teams worse than them have played only one game while Hawaii has played two. Brayden Schager has completed 40 of 68 passes for 391 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions this season while adding 10 yards on the ground. Joey Yellen is 14 of 31 for 125 yards and an interception. Dedrick Parson is the team’s leading ground gainer with 28 carries for 111 yards plus two scores. Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei (17 carries, 85 yards, TD) and Jordan Johnson (three carries, 21 yards) are next in line. James Phillips leads the team with 10 receptions for 55 yards on the year. Jonah Panoke (nine receptions, 133 yards), Jalen Walthall (eight catches, 114 yards), Dior Scott (six gra bs, 45 yards) and Parson (six catches, 32 yards) have been useful targets in the passing game. Matthew Shipley has hit all three extra point attempts and two of two field goal attempts with a long of 40 this season.