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Abe Elimimian, right, is expected to be retained as assistant coach on new UH coach Timmy Chang’s staff.
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Jacob Yoro talks with Jeffery Keene (35), expected to be retained as assistant coach on new UH coach Timmy Chang’s staff.
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Abraham Elimimian and Jacob Yoro are among the assistant coaches expected to be retained on the University of Hawaii’s coaching staff.
Timmy Chang, who was hired as head coach on Saturday, is beginning to assemble his coaching staff.
Elimiman, a former UH shutdown cornerback who joined the Rainbow Warriors as the defensive backs coach in 2015, coached the running backs in 2021, Todd Graham’s final season as UH head coach. Elimimian was a graduate assistant for two years under June Jones at SMU, then coached at Washington State and Simon Fraser before returning to his alma mater. Elimiman was promoted to defensive coordinator for the 2015 regular-season finale, a 28-26 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. Elimimian was key in the success of safety Trayvon Henderson, cornerback Cortez Davis, and running backs Dae Dae Hunter and Dedrick Parson.
Elimimian and Chang were UH teammates for four seasons through 2004.
Yoro and Chang are Saint Louis School graduates. Yoro’s extensive coaching background included serving as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Pacific, and defensive backs coach at Cal Poly. He joined the UH coaching staff in 2017, eventually coaching the safeties, nickelbacks and outside linebackers. Yoro was instrumental in developing Darius Muasau into an all-league linebacker. After Graham resigned on Jan. 14, Yoro was named interim head coach.
The Warriors are preparing for this coming recruiting weekend, the last ahead of the Feb. 2 start of the signing period for football prospects. The Warriors have 17 available scholarships, but could add more through grayshirting (delaying a commit’s enrollment to January 2023) or blueshirting (in which a player plays in 2022 but his scholarship counts toward the 2023 class).
There no longer is a time crunch for securing commitments by the start of the signing period. The transfer portal has increased the pool of available players, trickling down to now under-recruited high school seniors.
The Warriors also are hopeful that some players who transferred from UH would consider returning. The NCAA has a loophole in which a one-time transfer can return to his original school if he acts before the start of the next school year.
