Welcome to Season 1

Larkdight Studios Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors' Program Rebuild (Season 1) July 1, 2025 9:00AM CST

Welcome to the first season of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors’ Program Rebuild, inside of College Football ’25! If you have been following me, you will know that I am one of the best at College Football Rebuilds. I have done six College Football Program Rebuilds so far with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (won National Championship in second season), San Jose State Spartans (lost to Nevada in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl) and the UAB Blazers (lost to Georgia in the first round of the CFP), Colorado (won National Championship in first season), Washington Huskies (won National Championship in first season), and the Florida Gators (won National Championship in first season). I will currently be working on rebuilding the Iowa State Cyclones and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors this time around, as well as doing my first-ever Team Builder Series with the Aurora State Swarm (a team I created using EA’s College Football 25 Team Builder program).

Just like all of my rebuilds, there is a new Head Coach taking over the program and his name is Manti Te’o. Yes, Manti Te’o. In a shocking announcement, Hawaii has elected to bring in Manti Te’o as their new Head Coach to help rebuild this program. The Athletic Director is making a big-name hiring move, which some will argue as questionable (given Te’o has zero coaching experience), but he believes that he will bring life to this program. It has already started with the elite coaching staff he is assembling with the likes of Troy Polamalu (Linebackers Coach), Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson (Defensive Line Coach), Marcus Mariota (Quarterbacks Coach), and Ron Rivera (Secondary Coach). They did retain Dennis Thurman as their Defensive Coordinator, as well as hired Sam Houston’s Head Coach Phil Longo to be their Offensive Coordinator. This coaching staff is built to win a Championship, but it will be no easy feat for a program like Hawaii (never won a Championship and are 8-6 in bowl games).

Like all my rebuilds, I like to set three-year goals that the program needs to reach in order for the rebuild to be deemed a success. Here are those goals:

• Have at least 2 winning seasons (0/2)

• Recruit a Top 25 Class (0/1)

• Have 2 players drafted (0/5)

• Land 25 recruits out of Hawai'i (0/25)

• Win 3 College Football Awards (0/3)

• Win the Coach of the Year Award (0/1)

• Make a National Championship (0/1)

• Land at least 2 5* Recruits (0/2)

• Reach #5 in the AP Polls (0/1)

You can follow along here on this blog for most of the storied content, while catching all of the games over on my YouTube channel – Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors' Program Rebuild – Season 1 playlist.