Break up to make up.
Nine days after entering the NCAA transfer portal, receiver Nick Cenacle withdrew his application and will remain with the University of Hawaii football team for his senior season in 2025.
In addition, the Rainbow Warriors received a commitment from 2024 All-America quarterback Luke Weaver of Modesto (Calif.) Junior College. Weaver will enroll at UH next week, and participate in the Rainbow Warriors’ conditioning program and spring training.
“I’m coming back 100%” Cenacle told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a telephone interview from his family home in Montreal. “It’s because of all those guys (at UH). It’s a whole family. They built me. It didn’t feel right leaving those guys. I want to build this whole team up together.”
Cenacle admitted “people were in my ear,” encouraging him to pursue opportunities that would offer a larger platform and lucrative name, image, likeness paychecks. “I listened to them,” Cenacle said. “It got into my head.”
After entering the portal on Dec. 18, Cenacle received offers from four power-four schools. He said he was set to visit Louisville and Kansas after spending Christmas with his family in Montreal. He recalled his mother asking: “You sure about this? (The UH coaches) are guys who gave you your first shot. They believed in you when nobody else did. They developed you.”
Absorbing conversations with his mother and brother, Cenacle said: “I got to thinking. They were so right. It was an eye-opening moment. I owe an apology to Hawaii to even (enter the portal). Coming back is definitely the best decision.”
Cenacle acknowledged he is turning down NIL money to remain with the Warriors.
“I never played football to make money at the amateur level,” Cenacle said. “I always played it for the love of it. … There’s money on the table, for sure. There’s money to be made in the portal. But the ultimate goal, for me, is the NFL, where the real money is. I left money on the table, but I felt I made the best decision to get to my ultimate goal.”
Receivers coach Jared Ursua said: “This was a guy we never wanted to lose. We love him, and we watched him grow.”
Delayed because of approval of academic transcripts and his student visa, Cenacle did not report to the Warriors until two days ahead of the 2022 season opener against Vanderbilt. It was a steep learning curve for Cenacle, who had to adjust to American football. In Canada, the field is longer and wider, there is one fewer down, and backfield players are allowed a running start known as the “waggle.”
“We had to explain basic fundamental rules on catching a punt, whether or not you could touch it,” Ursua recalled. “He had never been in a stance. You had to explain the game and the simple fundamentals that we have that they don’t have. We’re happy he’ll be back in a stance in a Hawaii uniform.”
Weaver will be one of three scholarship quarterbacks on the spring roster, joining Micah Alejado, who threw for 469 yards and five touchdowns in the season finale, and incoming freshman Jarret “JJ” Nielsen.
Weaver passed for 3,294 yards and 27 TDs (against five interceptions) to be named to the California Community College Athletic Association’s 2024 All-America first team. A CCCAA first-team selection is regarded as being an All-American.
Of choosing the Warriors, Weaver told the Star-Advertiser: “the main thing was the vibe of the players and coaches. It was the family atmosphere. The motto is the ‘braddahhood,’ and that’s really what it feels like.”
Weaver is 6 feet 3, 205 pounds and capable of running 40 yards in 4.68 seconds. Modesto’s run/pass option schemes are similar to some of the plays in the Warriors’ multiple offense. “I love what I saw,” Weaver said of studying UH games.
