Hawaii football: By the numbers, Rainbow Warriors lead nation in only important stat

Some people — especially coaches — will tell you that statistics mean nothing. And they’re right. Sometimes the best teams don’t have fancy numbers, individually or as a team. And sometimes those with great stats are losers.

But just a couple of weeks into the season, the University of Hawaii football team leads in the stat provided on the NCAA web site that does mean something: UH is tied with 51 other of the 130 FBS squads with best winning percentage at 1.000.

And that makes some of the other numbers fun for fans of the Rainbow Warriors, who are 2-0 after wins against Arizona and Oregon State.

As a team UH is fourth in passing offense with 428.5 yards per game. The Warriors are tied for 38th with 38.0 points per game.

They are 5-for-6 in fourth-down conversions for an .833 percentage, putting them at 28th.

On defense, Hawaii is tied for 42nd nationally in third-down defense, allowing eight conversions in 26 attempts. UH is tied for 25th in fewest tackles for loss allowed with 4.00 per game.

Hawaii is tied for 44th in fewest penalty yards with 47.0 per game.

Individually, JoJo Ward leads the nation with five touchdown receptions, tied with Tylan Wallace of Oklahoma State and Omar Bayless of Arkansas State. Cedric Byrd, who has four TD catches, is tied with Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy and LSU’s Justin Jefferson for fourth.

In receiving yards, Byrd is second in the country with 285 and Ward is seventh with 259. Rondale Moore of Purdue leads with 344.

For total touchdowns, Ward is tied for third and Byrd is tied for 10th.

Cole McDonald is third in the nation in passing yards with 799. Elijah Sindelar of Purdue tops the list with 932. McDonald is also third in total offense, with 839 yards. Sindelar leads with 968.

The Hawaii quarterback is tied for sixth with 29.5 completions per game. Alan Bowman from Texas Tech leads with 35.0.

With his eight touchdown passes, McDonald is tied for seventh in points responsible for with 24.0 per game with six others.

Defensively, Kalen Hicks is tied for 38th in tackles per game with 9.5.

Dillon Gabriel doesn’t play for UH, but his dad, Garrett is a BYU-beating Rainbows legend. Dillon, a freshman at UCF from Mililani, leads the nation in passing yards per completion with 23.25. He is fourth in yards per pass attempt with 11.63.