Chang's passing can put UH in rarefied air

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

As the University of Hawai'i football season draws closer, the coach's symbolic knocking on wood when oft-injured quarterback Tim Chang's health is invoked has become an altogether appropriate gesture.

More than any other player — quarterback or otherwise — UH has had, the fifth-year senior holds the potential for so much in his young hands. Never before has a UH player loomed so fundamental to the success of his team or been better positioned to deliver such a longed-for slice of national prominence to his school.

When Chang lines up behind center for the Sept. 4 season opener, 2,218 yards will separate him from assuming ownership of college football's career passing yardage record. By UH's pass-first-and-ask-questions-later standards, the distance between Chang's 12,814 yards and Ty Detmer's 15,031 isn't much at all. Given Chang's average of his first four seasons, it is perhaps as little as four or five games' work.

But for the program, it represents the opportunity for a huge leap not only into the record books but the consciousness of college football. For one week, the school 2,500 miles off the sport's beaten path can proudly stand front and center while accumulating years of residuals.

"I really don't think the people here in Honolulu understand what is about to happen as Timmy progresses toward the record (or) the implications this is going to have for our program and our state," Jones said.

But Jones plainly does. You get the feeling he's had this scenario near the forefront of his mind since he stepped off the plane from San Diego in 1999. The only question, at the time, was who the quarterback would be and how soon it would happen.

The assault on Detmer's mark and the sudden Heisman Trophy campaign that preceded it last year are less about setting records than carving a niche and building a reputation. When you are UH, it takes something special to be anything more than a brief "SportsCenter" highlight, and this is calculated to provide that window.

"Hopefully it is going to be broken in week four or five and of the next five or six games, three of them are on national (cable)," Jones said. "If we beat Northwestern and we beat Michigan State and Timmy shoots the lights out, guess what...the Heisman voting is one week off.

"Everybody thinks I'm nuts," Jones said, "but I'm telling you there has never been the potential for such an exciting time, not only for (Chang), but for our team, our school, the state."

Jones said, "I'll say it again, I think this record, should he — and I'll knock on the table right here — stay injury free, will last for 50 years."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.