Chang has emerged as field captain

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

As University of Hawai'i quarterback Tim Chang approached, the heckling began.

UH's Tim Chang has yet to practice but is confident he'll play Saturday. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Oooh, Timmy, can I get your autograph?" another shouted.

Chang smiled, then kept walking toward his football teammates, his No. 1 hecklers.

"The only people I listen to are those guys," Chang said, "and my coaches."

The playful exchange yesterday showed the third-year sophomore's comfortable fit within the team. Chang's emergence as a team leader was evidenced by the collective outrage over a late hit that aggravated his injured left knee in last Saturday's 20-19 victory over Cincinnati. That play, in part, led to the postgame brawl between the teams.

Right guard Vince Manuwai, who was voted as a tri-captain during training camp, has said, "Timmy is our real captain. He's our leader."

This week, reporters have tracked the health of Chang's left knee and bruised right thumb, treating his medical charts as if they were Dow reports.

If he is available for Saturday's nationally televised game against Alabama, Chang has pledged to play his game, the one instilled through seven years of operating the run-and-shoot offense at St. Louis School and then UH.

Early in the season, several fans wanted Chang, a third-year sophomore, to be more like Nick Rolovich, who started the last nine games of the 2001 season, or this year's top understudy, Shawn Withy-Allen. Both of those players ran more readily than Chang.

But Chang said, "My mentality — and I learned this from St. Louis — is that the ball moves faster when you throw it. If you were to time someone running with a ball against me throwing it, let's see who gets the ball there faster. If the ball gets there faster by being thrown, why not try to throw the ball first and, if all else fails, resort to the run?"

Chang said in UH's read-and-attack offense, "eventually something will turn open. Something always comes open. I've learned to stay in there (in the pass pocket), feel bodies around me and look downfield for a receiver."

Chang said no amount of prodding — and he has heard the fans in the orange seats yell, "Run! ... Run!" — will change his approach.

"Regardless of what anybody says to me on the sidelines or in the stands, I'm programmed already," he said. "I'm set. My memory chip is in. People can't really alter me. They can't change the player I am."

After years in this offense, Chang said, "I don't play to the crowd. My job is to win games. Their job is to watch us play — support us, cheer us, boo us, if you want to, do what you want in the stands — but our job is to play. Our responsibility is not to listen to the fans out here or to what critics think we should do. We're out here six days a week, four hours a day. We're getting prepared by our coaches who get paid to tell us what to do. We listen to them."