The 2020 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team represented the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

in the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Rainbow Warriors played their final home games at

Aloha Stadium Aloha Stadium is a closed multi-purpose stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, a census-designated place that is a western suburb of Honolulu. It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. , the stadium ceased fan-attended operations indefinitely, and ...

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

as members of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

. They were led by first-year head coach

Todd Graham Michael Todd Graham (born December 5, 1964) is an American college football coach and former player who serves as an offensive analyst for TCU. He was most recently the head football coach at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Playing car ...

. On August 10, 2020, the Mountain West Conference suspended all fall sports competitions due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. This decision was later reversed on September 24, with all 12 teams playing an eight-game, conference-only schedule starting on October 24. The Rainbow Warriors ended their season with a winning record for the third year in a row, also claiming the New Mexico Bowl over Houston. Graham also became the first Hawaii coach since Bob Wagner in 1987 to win his debut; the last five had lost their debuts, all by 20 points or more.

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Mountain West media days

The Mountain West media days was initially set to be virtually held on the days of July 27–29, but were later postponed by the conference.

Media poll

The preseason poll was released on July 21, 2020. Hawaii was initially picked to finish third in the West Division. The divisions were later suspended for the 2020 season.

Preseason All-Mountain West Team

The Rainbow Warriors only had one player selected to the preseason All–Mountain West Team. Offense
Ilm Manning – OL

Schedule

Hawaii had its first four games against

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, Fordham and

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

canceled before the start of the 2020 season. Each cancellation, related to the

, was due to individual conferences attempting to reduce spread of the virus through travel restrictions. Robert Morris later replaced Fordham on the schedule, announced on July 13, 2020. The entire season was suspended by the Mountain West Conference on August 10, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the decision was reversed on September 24, with the conference announcing each team would play an eight-game, conference-only schedule. The new schedule was released by the Mountain West on October 1, 2020. Hawaii played seven of their original conference opponents, with the only change being Wyoming replacing Air Force on the schedule. Hawaii Athletics also announced that home games would be held without fans, in accordance with government regulations. The game scheduled for December 5 with San Jose State was moved to Aloha Stadium after new COVID-19 restrictions were released in Santa Clara County, where CEFCU Stadium is located. Hawaii played as the designated road team in their new all-white road uniforms, which debuted against Fresno State.

Roster

Depth chart

Game summaries

At Fresno State

At Wyoming

New Mexico

At San Diego State

Boise State

Nevada

At San Jose State

UNLV

Houston – New Mexico Bowl

Source:

References

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Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football seasons New Mexico Bowl champion seasons

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team represents the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in NCAA Division I FBS college football. It was part of the Western Athletic Conference until July 2012, when the team joined the Mountain West Conferenc ...