The University of Hawaii football team won the three Mountain West weekly awards on Monday following Saturday’s 35-14 season-opening victory over Delaware State.
Despite rain and gusts reaching 30 mph at the Ching Complex, quarterback Brayden Schager ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more to earn the Offensive Player of the Week award. After the Hornets tied it at 14 in the third quarter, Schager played a role in each of the Warriors’ ensuing 21 unanswered points. Schager, a senior from Highland Park, Texas, made his 23rd consecutive start.
“Schager’s a good football player,” UH coach Timmy Chang said after the game. “I love that kid. He’s tough, he’s competitive, and he can throw the ball. … He was challenged with the elements, the gusts. And he’s cutting it through the wind. He did awesome. As he goes, we go.”
Jamih Otis, a 2023 graduate of Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, earned the top defensive award after amassing 11 tackles, including eight solo stops and a sack. It was Otis’ first UH start.
“Jamih’s a tackling machine,” said associate head coach Chris Brown, who was Otis’ linebacker coach for three years at Bishop Gorman. “People in Vegas still talk about him. He was one of the greats to ever come out of that school.”
Tylan Hines, a third-year sophomore from Mount Pleasant, Texas, was named top specialist. Hines scored on a 44-yard punt return. It was the Rainbow Warriors’ first punt return for a touchdown since Scott Harding raced 69 yards for a score in 2012.
“It’s nice to have a guy like that who’s so dynamic,” special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield said of Hines. “As coaches, you have to find a way to get the ball in his hands.”
Nevada guard Tyson Ruffins was the Freshman of the Week.