On any given Friday of the football season, Hawaii assistant coach Michael “Ghobi” Ghobrial turns words into electricity.

Ghobrial is part Al Pacino’s Tony D’Amato, part “Ghobi-wan” Kenobi in delivering the night-before-kickoff address to the Rainbow Warriors.

“It fires us up,” left tackle Ilm Manning said of Ghobrial’s weekly presentation. “It gets us going. It gets our blood pumping. It gets us excited for the game.”

Safety Ikem Okeke said Ghobrial never fails to furnish words of motivation. “You see your coaches get that fired up for a game,” Okeke said, “it’s like, ‘They’re not even the ones on the field.’ If you’re on the field, you’ve got to make a play.”

In March 2018, head coach Nick Rolovich was seeking a replacement for Mayur Chaudhari, who resigned as UH’s special teams coordinator to join the Atlanta Falcons. During the screening interview with Rolovich, Ghobrial went over the way he would lead a team meeting. Rolovich was impressed.

“I wouldn’t call myself some exciting, loud-meeting guy,” Rolovich said of his own style. “I kind of get to the point and try to be honest. I thought (Ghobrial’s approach) would be a nice complement to my style. And he’s a good motivator. He gets them focused and dialed in. I think he has great meetings, excellent meetings. He’s not loud to be loud. He’s loud because he’s excited. It’s important to him. And he loves these players.”

Ghobrial was set to lead Friday night’s meeting in the Waikiki hotel, where the Warriors stayed ahead of today’s game against Central Arkansas. The unbeaten Bears opened with three consecutive victories and are ranked 10th among the NCAA’s FCS schools.

“I think at the end of the day, a lot of coaching is motivating,” Ghobrial said. “The process of how to motivate each person is so unique, especially with a team like this that has so many varied backgrounds and cultures. It’s just an awesome and dynamic process to go through to find out what makes these guys tick.”

Ghobrial gleans ideas from players in preparing his weekly presentation. In turn, he instructs players to visualize their contributions in the coming game.

“Before we go to sleep, we visualize greatness,” right tackle Gene Pryor said. “That’s what he always preaches. And when we wake up in the morning, we’re ready to go. That’s a great mood starter for us.”

For today’s homecoming game, the Warriors have prepared for a successful opponent that belies its FCS status. Division I is split into two levels, FBS and FCS. FBS programs, such as Hawaii, are allowed to offer up to 85 full scholarships. FCS schools are held to the financial equivalent of 63 scholarships, which may be spread among 85 players. The Bears have 85 players who are receiving full or partial scholarships. “I try to take care of our guys the best I can,” UCA coach Nathan Brown said.

The Bears have established recruiting bases in Arkansas, Texas and Florida. “You’re going to be able to find skill guys with speed who can catch the ball and throw the ball … and really cover guys in the defensive backfield,” Brown said. “That’s never been an issue. Where we’ve had to continue to grow as a Division I program is getting bigger on the offensive and defensive lines because of the caliber of opponents we play. We want to make playoff runs and FCS playoffs. Teams that are having success, like North Dakota State, are big and physical and strong. We have to be able to continue to recruit big-sized kids who can hold up for an entire season.”

The Bears appear to be on their way. Their average starting offensive lineman is 6 feet 5 and 312 pounds. Left tackle Hunter Watts is 6-8 and 320 pounds.

The Warriors spent the week studying the Bears and working on their own schemes. “You learn from the opponent the tendencies and who they are, but it’s really about what the UH Warriors come out and do this weekend,” Rolovich said. “I’d like to play a complete football game, mistake free. We’ve won two games, but it hasn’t been the cleanest of football.”