The University of Hawaii football team will be without its most imposing offensive lineman for the remainder of the season.

Head coach Todd Graham confirmed that Kohl Levao, a 6-foot-6, 350-pound senior, aggravated a leg injury during this past Saturday’s 34-10 road loss to San Diego State.

“Kohl Levao is done for the season,” Graham said. Levao, who started at left guard against SDSU, can play every position on the offensive line.

It was the second leadership setback for the Rainbow Warriors, who lost co-captain and safety Eugene Ford to a season-ending, lower-leg injury three weeks ago. Graham said Levao, like Ford, will serve a mentorship role during practices and games.

Graham said it was a mutual decision for Levao not to play in the Warriors’ four remaining games of this abbreviated eight-week regular season. Levao is likely to undergo a medical procedure. In a pandemic-related response, the NCAA is allowing each football player an extra season. That will allow Levao, who transferred to UH in 2018 after two years at City College of San Francisco, to return for a sixth season in 2021.

“For his future, it’s something he needed to get fixed,” Graham said. “That’s kind of the decision we made. I think that’s in his best interest, as well.”

In 2018, Levao started in all 14 UH games — the first 10 at right tackle, the final four at center.

He was named to the 2019 watch list of the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center. Several NFL scouts rated Levao as the Warriors’ top draft prospect. But Levao suffered an injury during training camp, and missed the first 11 games of the 2019 season. Because of leg issues, he did not make his first 2020 start until this past weekend.

“He’s a warrior,” Graham said. “He’s a tough, tough guy. You talk about fighting through it. He was basically playing through it. He still was going to have (a medical procedure) done at the end of the season, anyway. But after injuring it again, it’s just going to keep happening every game. It’s something we thought we needed to do.”

Michael Eletise, who started the first three games at left guard, is expected to open there for Saturday’s game against Boise State at Aloha Stadium.

This will be another adjustment for the Warriors. Because of injuries and other circumstances, Graham noted, the Warriors have not had a fully attended practice this season. Under safety and health precautions, a player who is not infected with the coronavirus still can be held out of practice for benign conditions such as a runny nose or sore throat. And while absences might impact developing continuity on offense and defense, Graham acknowledged all teams are going through similar challenges.

“At the end of the day, if you sit around and go, ‘man, this is hard,’ and ‘this is a hard deal’ … it’s not different from Boise State,” Graham said. “Everybody has their problems. Everybody has their challenges.”

At 2-2, Graham noted there is an “urgency” to correcting “mental mess-ups” that factored in the loss to San Diego State. The Warriors lost fumbles at their 13 and 10 that were parlayed into 10 SDSU points; threw a pick-six; absorbed seven sacks; ran incorrect routes, and missed four tackles on each of the Aztecs’ two long scoring runs.

Graham indicated Tuesday’s practice was structured to eliminate procedural penalties, promote ball security, run precise routes, maintain proper stances and placements, and regaining the offensive “rhythm.”

“The bottom line is we have to have a sense of urgency to get better,” Graham said. “And we should be better. We should play better than we’ve played.”