Jones should go with hot hand . . . Rolovich's

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

TULSA, Okla. — It has been an abiding rule of head coach June Jones' University of Hawai'i football tenure that a starter doesn't lose a position because of injury.

This week Jones might want to consider making an exception for quarterback Nick Rolovich.

If there was ever a time and a player for which to make an exception, this week and this player would seem to be the one.

With nationally-ranked Fresno State coming to town Friday afternoon and the Warriors on a three-game roll, UH needs to consider staying with the player who helped put them there.

With a short week of practice because of the ESPN game and early-season starter Tim Chang not having seen any game time since being sidelined with a wrist injury Sept. 29, Rolovich provides continuity when UH most needs it to stay in the Western Athletic Conference race.

As Tulsa coach Keith Burns put it after yesterday's 36-15 loss to the Warriors, "Quite honestly, I was hoping we'd see Timmy (as the starter) today from the standpoint of him just coming off an injury without much practice and them being a hot football team with Rolovich in there."

If the Warriors are indeed "hot," then it is Rolovich as much as anybody who has been holding the match.

In three weeks, Rolovich has grown into the position in ways unimaginable last year when he lost the starting job to Chang. With each outing his poise, production and maturity have climbed to the point where he completed 74 percent of his passes (25-of-34) for three touchdowns and 324 yards in just over three quarters yesterday.

In three starts, his remarkable resume reads: 60 percent completion rate (73-of-121), 901 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions.

But the numbers only begin to hint at what Rolovich has come to mean to this team. It is the way his confidence has grown by leaps and bounds, matched only by the confidence of his teammates in him, and what they've been able to accomplish together.

The way Rolovich bulls for first downs and the manner in which he dived to secure a fumble by running back Mike Bass yesterday demonstrate how completely he has put his heart into the game. How he plays every play like it might be his last, which it very well could be since he is a fifth-year senior.

They are episodes not lost on his teammates and coaches.

"At first I was shocked to see him dive like that; you don't see many quarterbacks do that," Bass said. "But that's Rolo . . . and he's got guts. He'll do whatever it take for this team to win."

"Rolo did a helluva job out there," Jones said. "That play says a lot about him — that he is a winner and a competitor."

One the Warriors need to hand the ball to come their opening snap Friday afternoon at Aloha Stadium.