It also will be a time for football connoisseurs to celebrate the diversity of a sport that allows two distinctive philosophies — UH's four-wide passing offense and Louisiana Tech's zone-stretch running attack — to prove their worthiness.

The teams' styles are displayed in their marquee players — Chang and Louisiana Tech running back Ryan Moats.

Chang is indeed a Warrior, playing with bullet-biting grit after suffering torn ligaments in his left (non-throwing) shoulder in the season's first drive. Last week, a concerned member of the officiating crew asked Chang how he could smile while playing in obvious pain.

"I'm smiling because I enjoy the game so much," said Chang, who leads the WAC in total offense with 310.3 yards per game. "Even though we're going through some hard times, you still have to enjoy playing. I love the sport and I love the competition. It's a privilege to be out here."

Moats is symbolic of a Bulldog, whose feisty determination should be sold as an alternative energy source. "I'll keep running," said Moats, who is sixth nationally in rushing with 151.6 yards per game, "until I can't run anymore."

Jones had said that given talent, time and opportunity, his offensive scheme would produce a quarterback who could challenge Detmer's passing record. "The Apprentice" is Chang, who has benefitted from the so-called Hawai'i Exemption (which allows UH to play an extra regular-season game each year), three bonus games in 2001 (an injury-shortened year that does not count against his NCAA limit of four seasons of eligibility), and UH's bowl appearances in 2002 and 2003.

What's more, Chang has played in a similar run-and-shoot offense since he was an eighth-grader at Saint Louis School.

Moats, on the other hand, was recruited to a system that threw on 60 percent of the offensive plays. Through the first four games of the 2003 season, Moats was an understudy at a position that was an afterthought. But after rushing for 99 yards in his first career start and, two weeks later, gaining 267 rushing yards against UH, Moats forced coach Jack Bicknell to revise the playbook.

"We felt we had a good running back, and why not build an offense around that?" Bicknell said. "We knew we wanted to give him the ball. Before you know it, you're bringing in two tight ends (as run blockers). And, before you know it, it's more of a run/play-action type of situation rather than a dropback."

Bicknell described the transition to a running scheme as "an interesting adjustment. In a way, it's been fun, and it's a little easier. If you turn around and hand the ball off, you don't have to (pass) protect and do all of those other things."

The teams also have a different approaches to scheduling. The Warriors rely on ticket revenue and pay-per-view fees for home games to pay the bills. The Bulldogs, who average 20,007 in home attendance, are willing to collect appearance fees from nationally ranked schools. They lost to Miami, Tennessee and Auburn by a combined score of 142-24.