Reserve quarterbacks Jake Farrell and Joey Yellen insist they will be ready when the Hawaii football team calls, ‘next.”

Through 13 practices, including two full scrimmages, of training camp, Farrell and Yellen have battled for the top understudy’s role to starter Brayden Schager. During Wednesday’s situation scrimmage, Farrell and Yellen operated the run-and-shoot offense at different tempos: the 4-minute drill to keep possession to the final whistle and the hurry-up attack.

“I’m super excited,” Farrell said of the head coach Timmy Chang’s version of the read-and-attack, four-wide offense. “I love the run-and-shoot. Coach Timmy has been calling the offense so it’s been really awesome. And it’s a great experience. A lot of learning throughout the spring and summer just to get ready for this opportunity. Whenever I get my opportunity, I’ll be ready for it.”

For Farrell, this is his fourth offense since joining the Warriors in 2020. After last season’s fifth game, the Warriors began to implement run-and-shoot concepts. For this season, the Warriors went “all in” with a scheme that relies heavily on the quarterback and receivers adjusting routes to counter the defensive coverage.

“Just learning the terminology and learning my reads of the defense,” Farrell said of the adjustments. “It’s a little different from some of my past offenses. This is the fourth offense I’ve learned in the four years I’ve been here. So it’s a little bit of an adjustment on some reads. But it’s football. That’s pretty much what it comes down to.”

Farrell, a graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory Academy in Scottsdale, Ariz., joined the Warriors as a non-scholarship player in 2020. After two seasons as the scout quarterback, Farrell impressed during the 2022 spring training, Chang’s first as head coach. After the final spring practice, Chang awarded a scholarship to Farrell.

“A huge blessing,” Farrell said. “Very, very thankful to him and the staff for doing that. It’s been a big help for my family to stop getting student loans. It was really awesome.”

Yellen is back in an offense that vaulted him to the nation’s No. 3 pro-style quarterback (by ESPN) as a Mission Viejo (Calif.) High senior in 2018.

“We didn’t call it the run-and-shoot, but it was similar in a lot of in-play reads,” Yellen said, “and giving the receivers a little bit more control of where they’re allowed to run their routes and how we want to attack coverages.”

Yellen made one start during his freshman season with Arizona State in 2019. He then transferred to Pittsburgh, where he played in seven games in two seasons as the primary backup to Kenny Pickett. Pickett was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-round pick in 2022. Soon after entering the transfer portal, Yellen and UH were in contact.

Despite missing spring training and joining the Warriors a week ahead of the 2022 training camp, Yellen ascended the depth chart. After being used in relief in the opener against Vanderbilt, Yellen started the next three games.

With a full offseason and added strength, Yellen is at ease with this offense. “I think my comfort increases with everyone else’s comfort, too,” he said. “The more I know that a receiver knows what he’s doing the more he knows I know what I’m doing. It’s just going to be some better chemistry there. We’re getting there. It’s a work in progress but I think there’s going to be some big things coming.”