Hawaii Preview

To close out its non-conference slate, the Sun Devils face a Hawaii team that has struggled quite a bit this year and offers ASU a great chance to bounce back from a bitter Baylor loss. Here is a closer look at Arizona State’s upcoming opponent.

2025 Season in Review: 9-4

With a 9-4 record including a victory over California in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, last season Hawaii compiled its winningest season since its 10-5 record in 2019.

2026 So Far: 1-4

Hawaii has struggled as it winds down the first half of its 2026 schedule, as the team has lost games to Stanford, UNLV, Wyoming and San Jose State and a 29-19 win over New Mexico State. In three of its last four games, Hawaii has failed to score more than 16 points.

Series History: ASU leads, 5-2

ASU won the first five games in the series with victories over Hawaii in 1954, ’55, ’58, ’59 and ’74, but have lost the two most recent meetings, beginning with a defeat in 1979 and most recently in the 2006 Hawaii Bowl, when quarterback Colt Brennan threw for 559 yards with five touchdowns against the Sun Devils.

Head Coach: Timmy Chang (fifth season)

A native Hawaiian and one of the most prominent players in Hawaii’s history as a star quarterback from 2000-04, Chang took over after the brief but disastrous tenure at Hawaii for former ASU head coach Todd Graham. Including the five games played so far in 2026, Chang has a 23-33 record with Hawaii.

Hawaii Offense Preview

Though many key pieces have departed from last year’s nine-win team, veteran quarterback Micah Alejado is back for duty in 2026. Alejado, who threw for 3,106 yards with 24 touchdowns for Hawaii in 2025, averages 272.2 passing yards per game so far this year with four touchdown passes and three interceptions, along with 30 net rushing yards. He has two games this season with over 340 passing yards, but he has thrown just two touchdowns across the past four games.

Cam Barfield is listed as the team’s top running back for this game, though his production thus far in 2026 has been limited as he has just 11 carries for 43 yards in three games this year.

DeVon Rice, the team’s leading rusher with 276 yards and three touchdowns, is listed as Barfield’s backup for this game.

At wide receiver, the group of Kainoa Carvalho, Tama Uiliata and Nick Delgadillo is listed as the starting trio for Saturday.

Carvalho leads Hawaii with 249 receiving yards on 22 catches, while Uiliata has a team-high 27 receptions for 245 yards with one touchdown. Delgadillo has five receptions for 43 yards through five games this season.

Carvalho, a 5-foot-6 freshman, caught nine passes for 82 yards against New Mexico State and had 72 yards on five receptions against Stanford. Uiliata had a memorable outing against New Mexico State earlier this season with 10 receptions for 107 yards.

Starting tight end Frank Abreu has five catches for 31 yards with a touchdown in five games this season.

The Hawaii offensive line figures to feature a starting lineup consisting of left tackle Dean Briski, left guard Lipe Moala, center Ethan Spencer, right guard Denaris DeRosa, Jr., and right tackle Uluaki Taukiuvea.

Hawaii’s offensive line as a whole has statistically struggled in 2026, as the group has allowed 14 sacks in five games – tied for 121^st nationally – and the team averages just 3.3 yards per carry on the ground, a category in which only 17 FBS teams currently have a poorer average.

Hawaii Offense Summary

Following numerous departures on offense from Hawaii’s nine-win 2025 team, the Rainbow Warriors have struggled on offense, as only eight FBS teams currently average fewer points per game than the 17.6 that Hawaii scores on average thus far in 2026. Additionally, only two teams – Bowling Green and Northern Illinois – average fewer than the 86.0 rushing yards per game that Hawaii averages this year.

Alejado brings a capable veteran presence at quarterback, but a shaky-at-best offensive line, a barely existent run game and inexperience at wide receiver have all greatly limited Hawaii’s offensive firepower.

Hawaii Defense Preview

Operating primarily out of a 4-2-5 defensive alignment, the Hawaii starting line presumes to include ends Lesterlaisene Lagafuiana and Josh Sagapolutele, nose tackle Geoffrey Speight, Jr. and defensive tackle Ozzy Pollard.

Speight leads all Hawaii defensive linemen with 15 tackles, including 1.5 for loss with half a sack. Pollard has tallied 10 tackles, including 1.5 for loss with one quarterback hurry, while Lagafuiana has nine tackles, including 2.0 for loss with a quarterback hurry, and Sagapolutele has eight tackles with half a tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry on the year.

The starting linebacker duo for Saturday is listed as Jamih Otis and Wynden Ho’ohuli. Otis ranks second on the team thus far with 35 tackles, including one for loss, with one interception and one pass breakup. Ho’ohuli has posted 27 tackles, including 3.0 for loss, with one sack, along with two forced fumbles, one pass breakup, and one quarterback hurry.

In the secondary, cornerbacks Jeremiah Hughes and Jaylon Edmond are joined by safeties Kona Moore ad Matagi Thompson along with nickel defensive back Elijah Palmer.

Moore is Hawaii’s leading tackler thus far with 38 stops, including 3.0 for loss with two pass breakups, while Thompson ranks third on the team with 31 tackles and has a team-best four pass breakups.

Palmer has totaled 22 tackles, including 2.0 for loss with a sack and a forced fumble; Hughes has collected 11 tackles, including one for loss with two pass breakups; and Edmond has registered 10 tackles with one interception and one pass breakup.

Hawaii Defense Summary

Statistically, Hawaii allows an average of 158.2 rushing yards per game with 10 touchdowns allowed, along with 226.4 passing yards per game with four touchdowns to allow a total of 384.6 yards of offense per game with an average of 24.8 points per game allowed.

The Rainbow Warrior defense generally hasn’t been the reason for Hawaii’s 1-4 start, as the team has lost three games in which Hawaii allowed between 20-27 points.

Hawaii Special Teams Preview

Sean Olvera-Harle handles placekicking and kickoff duties, and on field goals, he has connected on 9-of-11 attempts this year with a long of 44 yards.

Phoenix Arcadia High School graduate Gehrig Heil is listed as the team’s starting punter and he averages 43.17 yards on 23 punts so far this season.

In the return game, standout receivers Kainoa Carvalho and Tama Uiliata are slated to be the specialists on kickoffs and punts, respectively. Uiliata averages 4.14 yards on seven punt returns and despite being listed as the top kick returner for this week’s game, Carvalho has yet to return a kickoff for Hawaii this season.

Local Ties: RB T.J. Fo’ilefutu (Chandler High School), P Gehrig Heil (Phoenix Arcadia High School) and DB Marquis Richardson (Hamilton High School) all played high school football in the state of Arizona.

Overall Summary

On the heels of one of the most embarrassing home performances perhaps in decades for Arizona State, a Hawaii team standing on a 1-4 record is undoubtedly a welcome sight but certainly not a program to be taken lightly.

Last week’s deflating defeat at the hands of Baylor places just about every aspect of the Sun Devil program in question, so the Sun Devils would be tremendously well-served to provide their fan base a gesture of goodwill in the form of a large margin victory over the visiting Rainbow Warriors.

On the surface, ASU’s defense should be believed to have distinct advantages over the Hawaii offense, but similar sentiments were shared about last week’s matchup between the Sun Devil defense and Baylor offense, but the end result was more than 50 points scored by the Bears.

Saturday’s game is one where Arizona State has no excuse not to execute, not to focus, or not to perform, and certainly no excuse not to win the game.

A win over Hawaii can’t erase last week’s outcome or fully remove the disgusting taste still lingering in the mouths of Sun Devil fans, but it can, at a minimum, place momentum in a positive direction prior to an immensely challenging road trip to Texas Tech.

Final Score Prediction (via Speak of the Devils Podcast): Arizona State 24, Hawaii 17

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