The China Mail - Anthony Arceneaux Outlines Hawaiʻi Offense Before 2026 Season

It's not about the yards, touchdowns or percentages to University of Hawai‘i offensive coordinator Anthony Arceneaux. It's only about his unit doing enough to win. In 2025, that line of thinking helped the Rainbow Warriors go 9-4, by far their most successful season of the decade.

In 2026, led by the return of quarterback Micah Alejado and a handful of reinforcements in the transfer portal, the 'Bows have high hopes for their season, which begins on Saturday at Stanford. Kickoff between the Rainbow Warriors and Cardinal is set for 1 p.m. HST on the ACC Network.

Prior to the opener, Aloha State Daily caught up with Arceneaux for a Q&A about the team's prep for the season, as well as a question that cuts deep into his Saint Louis roots. Arceneaux, a 1999 Saint Louis graduate, followed his brother, former Crusader great Darnell, to the University of Utah. It is also at Saint Louis where Anthony Arceneaux began a decades-long friendship with UH head coach Timmy Chang.

Aloha State Daily: With fall camp over and the season on the horizon, what's the level of anticipation among the team? Anthony Arceneaux: I think you can feel [the excitement] with the boys in practice. For me, I try to be somebody that doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low.

I'm just trying to continue to stay on the process and stay on track of what we're doing. The month of prep was great for us, and now we then fine-tune the areas that we need to. ASD: How would you say a fully healthy Micah Alejado performed during camp?

Arceneaux: Micah's always been solid. The goal is always to get 1% better at every position, and because Micah is as talented as he is and is a great leader and great football player, he still has areas that he can improve, and he'll be the first one to tell you that he's working on those things. ASD: How would you evaluate the depth at the receiver position?

A lot of new guys. [Note: Pofele Ashlock is the only full-time returning starter among the receivers] Arceneaux: We have a really good receiver room. Our goal is to really utilize each of their own specific talents and abilities, and put them in positions to succeed. Even with the guys that we had last year, everybody kind of had their own particular attributes that added to our success.

These guys that we have this year, they have different qualities and some of them similar attributes. But that's the plan, right? To try to position them and give them opportunities to make the plays within their capabilities.

ASD: As an offense, how would you compare what you guys put out on the field last year from a production standpoint compared to what you want to put out there this year? Arceneaux: Production-wise, I'm not a big numbers guy. I don't really like to look too much into those numbers.

We look at specific numbers that correlate directly to what we believe wins and losses will come out of, and so when we start looking at that, it's more about what are we getting out of each play by effort, by details, and by habits, and then we use that as our gauge. ASD: In the running back group [which Arceneaux also oversees], losing a guy like Landon Sims but gaining a transfer Devon Rice, how has that changed the makeup of the room? Arceneaux: The biggest part is you lose leadership, right?

A guy like Landon Sims is not easily replaceable. He did so much for not just our running back room, but for the offense and the entire team, as far as how he carried himself and went about his day-to-day. And then now the the torch just gets passed on to a guy like Cam Barfield.

With Devon coming in, he's done an amazing job of just trying to acclimate to how we do things, our culture and our way of playing this game of football, and he's done a magnificent job there. ASD: If you were to put together an all-time Saint Louis football team, who would your quarterback be? Arceneaux: There's a lot of good choices out there.

Oh man, you gonna put me on the spot? I got my brother Timmy. I got my brother Darnell.

I got Jason Gesser and Marcus Mariota. Goodness grief [contemplates]... I'd have to go Marcus Mariota. [Note: Anthony Arceneaux was the Saint Louis receivers coach, as well as the strength and conditioning coach in Mariota's lone season starting for the Crusaders in 2010] We were blessed to be able to coach him when my brother was the head coach there in 2010, and he's just an amazing human being.

And he is an amazing athlete. I mean, the guy was able to retain additions to the offense every week, and we were able to grow it into something that didn't start out as one in the beginning of the season into a state championship caliber team when it was all stated and done. I love my brothers.

Darnell, Timmy, all the ones I played with. But I gotta go with Mariota.

F.Jackson--ThChM