Posted on: Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Ferd Lewis
Rolovich's time comes again

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

There were times when Nick Rolovich wondered what he was still doing at the University of Hawai'i.

Any number of them, really, in a football season mostly spent on a bench from where he had a front-row seat to the Tim Chang Show.

"Did I consider leaving? Yeah, it crossed my mind a lot," Rolovich said with the solemnity of someone who has wrestled with both the question and its answer on too many occasions.

How could he have done otherwise last year when he was a junior and the starting quarterback job he once held and still coveted had been won away by a freshman?

And not just any freshman, either. But one from the most storied high school program in Hawai'i, a quarterback who was a household name before he ever set foot on the Manoa campus and then proceeded to become the Western Athletic Conference freshman of the year.

Camera crews and autograph seekers made a bee-line for Chang at every opportunity. Stores sold jerseys. And, win, lose or blowout, the head coach maintained a strict one-quarterback policy.

Mike Harrison, a sophomore and one-time heir to The Position, might not have been a whiz at reading defenses, but he had no trouble comprehending the handwriting on this wall and caught the first flight out.

And nobody would have been surprised if Rolovich, a former junior college All-American at City College of San Francisco, had done the same thing, going to a Division II school where he could have had two years eligibility. Indeed, the wonder is that he didn't.

You suspect it was the prospect of a week like this, one that has helped keep him in Warrior black. A week, for example, when circumstances might bring the Warriors to call his number and Rolovich, through a dint of perseverance would be positioned, more experienced and better equipped, for a second chance.

"It was tough at times but I had to decide what I stood for and what I believed in," Rolovich said. "I had to figure out what I really wanted from this game."

The answer, he said, "was this offense. I don't want to play in an offense with two backs. I don't want to play with a tight end. I like this offense, Coach (June) Jones' offense. I thought about where I was. I know that Coach Jones has what I need from this game and that is his knowledge, attitude and drive to be the best. I guess it comes down to how you feel about a place, the people and the coach. This is where I saw myself.

"That's why I feel great today," Rolovich said. "I've gotten back to where I wanted to be. Nobody wants to see an injury happen to anybody. But this is a game and injuries happen. Now, it is 'go' time for me. I feel a ton more prepared than I was starting last season. I feel like the team has confidence in me."

No longer does Rolovich wonder what he is still doing in Manoa.