2018 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team

The 2018 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team represented the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Rainbow Warriors played their home games at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. They competed in the West Division of the Mountain West Conference and were led by third-year head coach Nick Rolovich. They finished the season 8–6, 5–3 in Mountain West play to finish in a tie for second place in the West Division. They were invited to the Hawaii Bowl where they lost to Louisiana Tech. The Rainbow Warriors clinched their first winning season since 2010 with a 31-30 overtime win at San Diego State, while also clinching a winning conference record in the process.

Award watch lists
Listed in the order that they were released

Mountain West media days
During the Mountain West media days held July 24–25 at the Cosmopolitan on the Las Vegas Strip, the Rainbow Warriors were predicted to finish in fifth place in the West Division.

Preseason All-Mountain West Team
The Rainbow Warriors had one player selected to the preseason all-Mountain West team.

Defense

Jahlani Tavai – LB

Staff
Coaching Source

Navy
Sophomore quarterback Cole McDonald was named Mountain West Offensive player of the week. He finished 30–41 for 428 yards and six touchdowns.