From his first day as head coach, Nick Rolovich used Pride Rock from “The Lion King” as a metaphorical goal of restoring Hawaii to football prominence.

A key character in the “The Lion King” is Pumbaa, and it was fitting that a phonetic namesake — defensive end Manly “Pumba” Williams — was instrumental in securing the Rainbow Warriors’ season-opening, 45-38 victory over Arizona on Saturday night. Williams teamed with safety Kalen Hicks to tackle Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate a yard shy of the end zone as time expired to preserve the upset of a Pac-12 opponent and 11-point favorite.

“We talk about it all the time: always be ready for your hero moment,” Rolovich said. “You never know when it’s going to come. To me and Pride Rock, that was Pumba’s moment. You talk about the one character in ‘The Lion King’ that has the same name as the guy on our team. I think that’s pretty cool, actually. Pumbaa in ‘The Lion King’ had a very large part in bringing back Pride Rock. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Pumba Williams helped win that game on the last play.”

Williams had aligned as a defensive tackle when Tate took the shotgun snap at the UH 31 with 10 seconds remaining. With receiver after receiver blanketed, Tate took off, sprinting toward the goal line. But Williams, who helped flush Tate from the pocket, sprinted downfield to complete the tackle.

“It’s a neat situation for Pumba, being a senior and having gone through the things he’s gone through — the position changes and just being a selfless guy,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said.

Williams, a Farrington High graduate, was recruited as a safety. He eventually moved to linebacker. Against triple-option teams last year, he played end in a 4-4 alignment. This season, he is aligned as a defensive end on the strong-side position known as the Bandit.

Rolovich noted the Warriors embraced the next-man-up approach, with several reserves, such as Williams, making contributions. Chevan Cordeiro stepped in for quarterback Cole McDonald, who threw for 378 yards and four touchdowns but was intercepted four times. Cordeiro led two fourth-quarter scoring drives.

After Dayton Furuta and then Fred Holly III lost fumbles on consecutive drives, Miles Reed was elevated to featured running back.

Taaga Tuulima opened at center in place of Kohl Levao, who was a medical scratch. In games in which Tuulima is in the opening lineup, the Warriors are 6-5 and averaging 434.7 yards. “I see a confidence with Taaga with his knowledge of the offense,” Rolovich said. “I think it’s somewhat infectious to the other four guys on the line with him.”

Twenty minutes prior to kickoff, UH announced starting middle linebacker Penei Pavihi would miss the 2019 season because of an injury. Jeremiah Pritchard opened at middle linebacker, and after he suffered an ailment, Kana‘i Picanco entered.

“There’s an initial sadness for Penei for the all work he’s put in,” Rolovich said. “But Penei knows we love him. Penei is mature enough that he wouldn’t want it any other way than for us to turn our attention to putting together the best possible job we could against that Arizona team.”

And that meant frequent defensive substitutions to keep fresh against Tate and Arizona’s uptempo offense. “He’s so explosive, so dynamic, so fast,” Batoon said of Tate. “We chased him around the previous play. We got fresh guys in, and (Williams) was the next man up. It was good we had him on the field.”

Batoon added: “It was a MASH unit out there. We were trying to find guys who were fresh enough to chase Khalil around the field. To finish the game on defense, and get a win … it was a neat situation.”