With the University of Hawaii football team entering a new stage, Caleb Freeman has embraced his role as the “opposing” quarterback.

“I take it with pride,” Freeman said.

On Wednesday, the Rainbow Warriors created scout teams to simulate the offenses and defenses of their first two opponents, Delaware State and UCLA. Freeman, who joined the Warriors last week, is the scout quarterback facing the defense in drills.

“Caleb’s solid,” said analyst PJ Minaya, who runs the scout offense. “He understands how the offense operates and how to get people aligned. He’s been good.”

Graduate assistant coach Dean Shaffer, who assists in the scout offense’s game plan, praised Freeman’s work. Freeman gets “to go against the best of the best, which is awesome,” Shaffer said. “It’s great for his development. And he gets to give (the first-team defense) a great look.”

Freeman grew up in Katy, Texas — the hometown of actress of Renee Zellweger, Carolina Panther passer Andy Dalton and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. Freeman helped the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor win the NCAA Division III national title in 2021 and reach the semifinals in 2022. “I played all through spring (2023), and I decided afterward I wanted to try something new,” Freeman said. “I wanted to play somewhere else.”

He turned down offers from Division II and III programs to “shoot my shot and walk on to a bigger school.” Freeman enrolled at UH for the 2023 fall semester, but was too late to compete in the walk-on audition. “I trained all fall,” said Freeman, who then was told the Warriors had enough quarterbacks for the start of spring training this past January.

The Warriors entered training camp with four quarterbacks: starter Brayden Schager, senior Jake Farrell, second-year freshman John-Keawe Sagapolutele and true freshman Micah Alejado. Freeman was asked to join the Warriors as a scout quarterback.

“It worked out for me,” Freeman said. “They said they’d take a guy who could run the scout team, and start from the bottom and work his way up. That’s what I was kind of coming in for. I didn’t mind that role at all.”

For Wednesday’s practice, Minaya, Shaffer and graduate assistant Ricky Medeiros showed videos and diagrammed plays for the scout offense. “It’s a lot of sitting them down in a meeting and showing them the main concepts the other teams are running and try to give them an idea how their quarterback reads defenses,” Minaya said.

Head coach Timmy Chang said the scout teams’ roles are challenging because they have to learn new schemes every week. “They have to be able to simulate the new defense or offense,” Chang said.

Minaya said: “It’s a difficult job to watch someone (run a scheme) and simulate it perfectly. The (scout) guys who can do that provide a lot of value for the football team. Coach (Chang) always talks about providing value. We want to reward those guys and give them love, too.”

Wednesday’s practice ended with 2-minute sessions matching the Warriors’ top offensive and defensive units. Schager and slotback Pofele Ashlock collaborated on a 50-yard completion. On defense, Jackie Johnson made a sack and safety Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen intercepted a deflected pass. Mendiola-Jensen also had a pick in the 7-on-7 passing drills.

Mendiola-Jensen is a 2021 Punahou School graduate who played two seasons at UNLV. “I transferred back home because UNLV wasn’t the right fit for me,” he said. “I was looking to transfer somewhere else and luckily Timmy Chang and his staff had a home for me here.”

Against Albany in UH’s third game last season, Mendiola-Jensen suffered a season-ending broken collarbone. “I was itching on the sideline every game,” he said. “Watching my guys compete and not being able to go out there was hard. I tried to do the best I could off the field.”