Hawaii Football: 5 reasons Hawaii will beat Arizona in Week 0
By Zach Bigalke
2. Hawaii receivers will challenge Wildcat secondary all night
Speaking of secondaries, let’s talk about Arizona’s defensive backfield a bit. The Wildcats gave up on average more than 30 extra yards through the air each game than Hawaii conceded to opponents. They struggled just as much to generate interceptions, and the front seven was just as bad at generating pressure on quarterbacks to alleviate the stress on the secondary.
Hawaii is hardly the team you want to start a new year against when you are trying to rebuild the confidence of a secondary has dealt with ongoing issues. Despite losing John Ursua to the NFL and Marcus Armstrong-Brown to graduation, the Rainbow Warriors bring back one of the most dangerous groups of pass-catching pests in the game.
Cedric Byrd and JoJo Ward are back after catching nine touchdowns apiece last year. Both listed at 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, the duo of Byrd and Ward offer a pair of diminutive but speedy targets for the Rainbow Warriors. They also get back six-foot senior Jason-Matthew Sharsh, who hauled in just nine catches last year but racked up 152 yards and a touchdown in the process.
Where things are really exciting for Hawaii is in the potential throughout their roster. Given the dearth of size at the position, 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman Nick Mardner and 6-foot-3 true freshman Mekel Ealy could each offer a bigger target for the offense.