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Oct 12, 2024; Provo, Utah, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan arrives before the game against the Brigham Young Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Game Prediction: Arizona vs. Hawaii (Week 1)

Originally posted on Arizona Wildcats on SI
By Troy Hutchison | Last updated Aug 29, 2025 8:00 AM ET

The wait is finally over and the long offseason is coming to an end in five days as the Wildcats are close to opening their 2025 season against Hawaii on Aug. 30, 7:30 p.m. (MST). Now, before the start of the season, head coach Brent Brennan went out and revamped his coaching staff following the end of an underwhelming 4-8 year with the team missing a bowl game berth.

Brennan mixed his coaching staff up by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

Although this is the first game for the Wildcats, we have seen Hawaii already record a win in a game against Stanford in a solid 23-20 victory off a game-winning field goal by kicker Kansei Matsuzawa.

Marco Garcia-Imagn Images

In that game, Arizona learned that Hawaii has the ability to make explosive plays down field when they get wide receiver Pofele Ashlock in space. Ashlock was able to record 69 yards on nine catches while hauling in a touchdown.

Plus, Hawaii showed that the running game at this point in time isn’t a strength with the Rainbow Warriors rushing for 96 yards as a team on 24 rushing attempts.

When looking at the Wildcats, Arizona fans know Fifita is back and leading the offense while learning a new scheme and that the team has an elite-level secondary that has the ability to go two-deep at each position.

Game Prediction

Arizona: 45

Hawaii: 21

Reason

When you watch the film from last week, Hawaii didn’t look great and Stanford looked even worse. Both teams struggled to move the ball and it had nothing to do with what the defensive units were doing.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

There were a lot of missed opportunities left on the field on both sidelines. And, to be frank, the talent level on the defensive side of the ball for the Rainbow Warriors was a little underwhelming at times last week.

Although Arizona will be breaking in a new system on both sides of the field. I think this is the perfect game for the Wildcats to get in a groove and to face live action where they can play free thinking football.

At the end of the day, Arizona just has too much size, speed and talent for Hawaii to keep pace, which will lead to the Wildcats pulling away in the second half.

This article first appeared on Arizona Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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