Hawaii Football: A new coaching staff offers new hope in 2020

How will Hawaii football fare in 2020?

As of now, Hawaii only has 12 games on their schedule. (Due to their extensive travel, the NCAA allows Hawaii and opponents that play at Hawaii to schedule a 13th game for financial purposes.) FCS Fordham canceled their contest at Aloha Stadium, leaving a blank in the schedule between Pac-12 dates against UCLA and Oregon.

Losing an FCS opponent isn’t necessarily going to break Hawaii’s schedule this season, and they could go 2-1 against their Power Five opponents once again this year. They also have the benefit of playing both Nevada and Boise State at home, though they have to play all three California State University system schools (Fresno State, San Jose State, and San Diego State) on the road.

What’s next for Hawaii?

Just as they did in 2019, the Rainbow Warriors open 2020 with a showdown against Arizona. Last year Hawaii survived a 45-38 shootout at home despite coughing up six turnovers. That carelessness won’t cut it this year when Hawaii travels to Tucson to take on the Wildcats. Cordeiro will face a tough test in the desert, but it will be especially interesting to see how the Desert Swarm defense fares against the school where it first became famous.

Prediction: 7-5, 4-4 Mountain West

Hawaii has a great shot to take down both Arizona and UCLA to start the new campaign, but their unbeaten record will likely come to an end when they travel to Eugene to face College Football Playoff contender Oregon at Autzen Stadium on September 19. New Mexico State offers the chance to go 3-1 in non-conference play.

In the Mountain West, Hawaii projects as a midlevel team. Boise State and Air Force offer tough interdivisional tests, while games in California against Fresno State and San Diego State could also present tough hurdles to overcome. The best guess here is that the Rainbow Warriors split their conference slate and comfortably reach bowl eligibility — even if they can’t find a replacement for Fordham — but regress to the mean in terms of the divisional race.