A former University of Hawaii defensive back and an assistant from one of the top FCS programs have emerged as leading candidates to join the Rainbow Warriors’ football coaching staff.

Abraham Elimimian, who played four seasons with the Warriors through 2004, and Jake Cookus, who most recently coached the secondary and special teams at Montana, are awaiting final approval from UH’s human resources department, a process that includes a thorough background check.

The Warriors still are finalizing roles, assignments and titles for the coaching staff.

If approved, both probably would join on March 1, more than a month in advance of the Warriors’ spring training.

Elimimian has expressed a strong interest in returning to Hawaii, where he was an All-Western Athletic Conference cornerback in 2004, and working under head coach Norm Chow, whom he has followed for several years. Elimimian was raised in Los Angeles; Chow was the offensive coordinator at USC and UCLA.

Elimimian is the defensive coordinator at Simon Fraser, an NCAA Division II school in British Columbia. Elimimian recently was a finalist for the SFU head coaching job.

In 2000, Elimimian was prepared to join Washington State as a walk-on when he was offered UH’s final scholarship for that recruiting class. Elimimian admittedly used the need to prove himself as motivation during his playing and coaching career.

As a UH senior, Elimimian was 16th nationally with 0.42 interceptions per game. He started 49 of a possible 50 games during his UH career.

Elimimian has served as a graduate assistant at Southern Methodist, a cornerbacks coach at Washington State, and interned under Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers.

Cookus, a former Oregon State safety and co-captain, served as co-defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator at Weber State for seven seasons before joining Montana in 2013.