The Rainbow Warriors began Friday’s game with an onside kick against the Bears.
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California led 17-14 at the end of the first quarter before pulling away with three consecutive touchdowns. Ikaika Woolsey was 17 for 34 and 234 yards passing with one TD and one interception. The Pistol’s read option running hybrid offense mixed with the Run & Shoot principles in which Rolovich played and then coached as an assistant at Hawaii could make for an interesting experiment to watch take shape in this game. In Rolovich, the Warriors are hoping they’ll get a return of the success they had when his old coach June Jones was running the show in Aloha Stadium. Foot-long hot dogs were big sellers at the outdoor booths, but in keeping with the multicultural nature of western Sydney where the stadium is located, Asian and middle Eastern goods also featured prominently on the menus. After losing the coin toss and Cal chose to receive, Hawaii tried an on-side kick that the Bears were able to recover at midfield.
California head coach Sonny Dykes is looking for his team to get off to hot start against the Rainbow Warriors, and despite being heavily favored in their season opener, Dykes is not taking this matchup lightly. Not unsurprisingly, Dykes went back to his old stomping ground, and holy land for the Air Raid offense, Lubbock, Texas to snag Texas Tech transfer Davis Webb.
Cal opened its season Friday night 7,500 miles from home, with a new quarterback, new set of receivers and revised playbook – and produced a familiar result. It’s the seventh straight year that Hawaii, part of the Mountain West conference, has opened against a Pac-12 team, and Hawaii is 2-5 in that span. Not Hawaii’s way on Saturday. Cal beat SDSU 35-7 past year and holds a 4-3 head-to-head edge in games since 1982. After a bye week, they’ll play the Aztecs at San Diego on September 10.
Freshman wide receiver Kumoku Noa’s older brother Kanawai is a sophomore wide receiver at Cal. Kumoku was a first-team all-state receiver at Kamehameha in 2015, while Kanawai was a two-time all-state receiver for Punahou before appearing in all 13 games for Cal in 2015 as a true freshman at receiver and on special teams. Hawaii averaged closer o 15 points per game from a season ago.
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NOTES: Two former California players- National Football League running back Marshawn Lynch and punter David Lonie -were Cal honorary captains for the game.
