Despite the offense's uneven performance in yesterday's 49-play scrimmage at the grass practice field, Chang said, "We're ready to go. If we had to play a game tomorrow, we'll be there."

Chang, a fourth-year junior, completed 5 of 9 passes for 43 yards. Two of his passes were dropped. But he predicted: "The offense is going to look crisp. It's going to happen. That's just the way it goes."

Chang said he will not face a defense as good as the one he played against in the scrimmage.

"Not only are they tough, they know all of our plays," he said. "They study (the offense) just as much as we study ourselves. If we can execute against these guys, we have an excellent chance of executing against people who don't really have a lot of time to study us."

The offense, as expected, had better success against the third- and fourth-string defenses. Jeff Rhode completed 7 of 9 passes for 136 yards, including a 50-yard scoring pass to slotback Ross Dickerson. After catching the long pass, Dickerson bounced off of defensive backs Lono Manners and Brown Faave before finding the end zone.

"I just had that will to make a touchdown," Dickerson said.

John West, who is competing with Mike Bass for the starting job at running back, took a handoff on a misdirection play to the left and raced 50 yards along the left sideline for another touchdown.

"I saw an opening and just went with it," said West, a senior who worked on squat lifts this summer to increase his leg strength and speed.

During next week's final days of training camp, the Warriors are expected to redistribute the practice duties, giving more repetitions to the players atop the depth chart. Dan Morrison, who coaches the quarterbacks, said Chang will get four reps, Jason Whieldon will get two, and the order will be repeated. Rhode, who is regarded as the No. 3 quarterback, will take "mental reps" by standing near Chang and Whieldon.

"We want to focus down and make sure that Timmy and Jason are ready to go," Morrison said.

Mike Cavanaugh, who coaches the offensive line, said the first two weeks of training camp and yesterday's scrimmage helped promote competition. In the absence of starting left tackle Samson Satele, a second-year freshman who has missed a week of contact drills because of a stomach flu and strained left shoulder, 2003 high school graduates Jeremy Inferrera and Larry Sauafea have practiced extensively. Another true freshman, Michael Lafaele, also played several downs yesterday.

"Here are the great things: these young kids are serious about what they do, they're smart and they want to be good football players," Cavanaugh said. "They're really starting to develop competition. I think some of the older guys are starting to go, 'Wow, these guys are pretty good.' I love what I see. These young kids are hungry and they're picking things up. I haven't seen this kind of a class since we've been here, and I'm talking about overall deal.

"Our defense is making these guys better. I've seen a couple of occasions when they've had success and a lot of times when they did not. If you can block that horse (defensive tackle) Isaac Sopoaga or (defensive end) Travis LaBoy every once in a while, you can handle everybody else we see."