Vanderbilt hands Hawaii ugly loss in Timmy Chang’s head coaching debut

The Timmy Chang era as University of Hawaii football coach got off to a promising start.

The cold, hard reality of what might be to come set in quickly after Hawaii’s opening drives on both sides of the ball as Vanderbilt crushed the Rainbow Warriors 63-10 tonight in front of the first sell-out crowd (9,346) to attend a game at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex.

Commodores quarterback Mike Wright threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more and Vanderbilt turned two Dedrick Parson fumbles into scoop-and-score touchdowns to end Hawaii’s seven-game winning streak in season openers.

Rocko Griffin, Ray Davis and Cooper Lutz added scoring runs for Vanderbilt, which gashed the Hawaii defense for 404 rushing yards. Vanderbilt’s defense outscored the UH offense.

>> PHOTOS: Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii

Hawaii sophomore Brayden Schager earned the start at quarterback and promptly led UH down the field on an 8-play, 75-yard drive capped off by Parson’s 37-yard TD scamper on third-and-2 for a 7-0 lead less than three minutes in.

Hawaii then forced a Vanderbilt punt and was in control midway through the first quarter when it began to unravel, and then completely fall apart.

UH managed just 108 total yards of offense the rest of the half as Vanderbilt used a healthy balance of Wright’s legs and arms to take a 21-10 lead at halftime.

Vanderbilt scored four touchdowns in less than 10 minutes to start the third quarter with Wright’s 87-yard touchdown run putting the Commodores ahead 49-10.

Wright added a 15-yard TD pass to Will Sheppard, who scored twice, to make it a 35-0 third quarter in favor of the Commodores, who went 2-10 last year and 0-8 in the SEC.

Joey Yellen replaced Schager to start the second half and finished 10-for-20 for 89 yards before Schager re-entered the game in the fourth quarter.

Schager finished 18-for-35 for 161 yards.

Hawaii will host Western Kentucky next Saturday.

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