Editor’s note: This is part two of a 13-part series previewing each of Western Kentucky’s opponents for the 2022 football season. Part two features a look at Hawaii. Part three will preview Indiana.

Tyson Helton will head back to where his coaching career began for Western Kentucky’s second game of the 2022 season.

The fourth-year WKU head coach and the Hilltoppers will make the trip to Hawaii to face the Rainbow Warriors in an 11 p.m. CT game at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“The second game is really hard. You’ve got to travel all the way out to Hawaii. The time change and jet lag – you’ve got to deal with all those things,” Helton said at the team’s media day. “I used to coach at Hawaii. That was the first place I coached at. It’s a tough place to play.”

After finishing his college playing career as a quarterback at Houston, Helton went to Hawaii, where he served as a graduate assistant in 2000 and was a special teams coach from 2001-03.

He’ll be back on the field with Timmy Chang, who was hired as Hawaii’s 25th head coach Jan. 22.

This time, they’ll be on opposite sides, however.

Chang was a four-year starter at quarterback for Hawaii from 2000-04, where he set NCAA all-time passing and total offense records and had 117 touchdowns, which ranked third all-time. He led the Rainbow Warriors to three bowl games, was a two-time Hawaii Bowl most outstanding player and had a program-record 29 wins at quarterback. He was also a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Award, given to the nation’s top quarterback, his final season.

“It’s unbelievable. I never thought I’d be here sitting in this position,” Chang said at the Mountain West media day in an interview with the league’s media network. “As an 18-year-old I made the decision to stay home and play and represent the state of Hawaii and 22 years later I’m here as the head coach.”

Hawaii will have a much different roster from last year’s 6-7 team that finished tied for fourth in the MWC’s West Division with a 3-5 mark. The Rainbow Warriors have 60 players returning from last year and 50 newcomers, with more than a dozen FBS transfers from Power Five programs joining.

Hawaii returns just seven starters – four on offense with Ilm Manning, Solo Vaipulu and Micah Vanterpool on the offensive line and Caleb Phillips at tight end; two on defense with Blessman Ta’ala on the line and Penei Pavihi at linebacker; and Matthew Shipley on special teams.

The Rainbow Warriors averaged 28.8 points per game last season and will need to replace two-year starting quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, who transferred to San Jose State after throwing for 2,793 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.

Brayden Schager was the only other QB to see action last season, playing in six games with three starts. He threw for 615 yards and two scores on 65-of-108 passing with five interceptions and returns for his sophomore season. The competition for the starting job is expected to also contain Pittsburgh transfer Joey Yellen and Washington State transfer Cammon Cooper, while the Rainbow Warriors also have Jake Farrell, Connor Apo and Armani Edden on the roster.

“Brayden Schager is a guy who has the experience with Chevan last year for the University of Hawaii,” Chang said at media day. “We’ve brought in a couple of guys and need to give them opportunities to try to be successful and compete for the job with Joey Yellen and Cammon Cooper, but we’ll see how that goes and how that progresses in the next coming weeks here.”

Defensively, Hawaii allowed an average of 31.4 points and 446.3 yards per game last season – the 100th- and 113th-best marks in FBS of 130 teams.

The Rainbow Warriors did not have any representatives on the preseason all-Mountain West football team selected by media members that cover the conference. Hawaii was picked to finish last in the MWC’s West Division by a panel of the league’s media.

The meeting will be the first all-time between WKU and Hawaii, and it’ll mark the furthest trip west for the Hilltopper program. WKU twice played in Sacramento, Calif., in the Camellia Bowl – the Hilltoppers played for the NCAA Division II national championship in 1973 vs. Louisiana Tech and 1975 vs. Northern Michigan. The Hilltoppers also played a 1997 NCAA Division I-AA playoff game vs. Eastern Washington in Spokane, Wash., and in 2020 made the fourth-furthest trip west to play BYU in Provo, Utah.

WKU will follow the game in Hawaii with a bye week before traveling to Indiana for a Sept. 17 game.{&end}