Timmy Chang and Anthony Arceneaux first met as middle schoolers at Saint Louis. Chang was in the sixth grade, Arceneaux was in the seventh.
As their respective playing careers progressed, so did their friendship. The two would commute together to practice and hang out afterwards. Chang went on to set records at the high school and college level, while Arceneaux played collegiately at Utah.
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Although Chang and Arceneuax went their separate ways after high school, the relationship between remained strong. The two briefly reunited with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL in 2007, but both decided to fully immerse themselves into the coaching business half a decade later.
Chang and Arceneaux continued to support each other from afar and keep tabs on one another. When Chang was hired as the head coach of his alma mater in 2022, Arceneaux filled the wide receivers coach vacancy at Nevada left behind by Chang, even staying at the house Chang's family stayed in.
The stars never aligned for Chang and Arceneaux to be on the same coaching staff until Arceneaux was brought on as Hawaii's new running backs coach in the spring.
“I love that guy. I’m really excited that I get the opportunity to help him lead this program and get it going to where we know it can be," Arceneaux said. "We went to Saint Louis together, we started out in middle school. We’ve just been big supporters of each other in this business. This is a very unique and crazy business being a college coach and the more people that know what you go through and the more people you know that can support each other, I think the easier it makes that life.”
The relationship between Chang and Arceneaux extends to their families.
"We’ve been close friends and our families are close and our kids are around the same age. We had similar and separate paths, started at the same time, but the connection back now to have him here, really truly blessed and grateful," Chang said of Arceneaux. "It’s been amazing. I never got to coach with him and so to see him now, he’s an unbelievable coach.
"He’s a high-level coach that understands the young men, what we’re trying to do. Relating to them, communicating, getting them to respond, he understands his fundamental techniques, his football IQ, and he adds value to us. Pretty special to see. I tell my wife all the time, like, Anthony is a really good coach. It’s not surprising to me, but I never got to be around it and never got to see it firsthand. I’m really grateful that he’s here.”
As a player and as a coach, Arceneaux's background was primarily with receivers. At UH, he's coaching running backs for the first time.
“A coach is a coach in my eyes" he said. "At the end of the day, you’ve gotta be able to teach and motivate. There was a little bit of a learning curve of going in depth with some of the fundamentals but I got a great group of guys that I got a chance to work with so they made the transition really easy.”
Arceneaux takes over a unit that hopes to revive the "run" in the run-and-shoot. The Rainbow Warriors ran for 980 yards and six touchdowns as a team in 2023, while Landon Sims was the leading rusher with 255 yards.
“Numbers do tell one side of the story, but they don’t tell the whole story," Arceneaux said. "I think with what we are doing schematically, what coach (Derek) Faavi has been able to do with our offensive line, what coach (Dan) Morrison and coach Chang have been able to do with the quarterback position, and kind of bringing it all together with the running back group, hopefully those numbers are a reflection of us having more success all around in the future.”