Rainbows head coach Fred vonAppen said the batting order would be a fluid process that could last until fall camp.
"My druthers right now is we start with a different rotation every day until it starts to shake itself out," vonAppen said yesterday afternoon.
Last spring, Glenn Freitas and Johnny Macon were in the spotlight for the coveted prize. This year, neither is in the picture.
The top four are senior Tim Carey, junior college transfer Dan Robinson, sophomore Hunter Young and redshirt freshman John Gurasich.
Carey and Robinson are likely to emerge as the top two contenders because both have strong arms and good size. Neither has played in vonAppen's system, but both are very familiar with the pro style attack Hawaii plans to use this fall under the watchful eye of new offensive coordinator Wally English.
Gurasich and Young have the advantage of spending a year with quarterbacks coach Guy Benjamin, learning his system, but Gurasich never took a snap from center and Young played sparingly.
"Maybe Tim and Dan haven't been in our system, but both can throw," vonAppen said. "Hunter wasn't recruited for this offense, but has leadership qualities we like. John Gurasich is only a freshman, has a strong arm, but has a long way to go."
For Carey, this is his last shot. Four years ago, he was one of the top high school quarterbacks in the country. He signed with Stanford, but never emerged as the starter for the Cardinal.
He transferred to Hawaii last year and spent most of the fall as the scout team quarterback. Carey would like nothing better than to win the starting job.
Robinson will probably provide some stiff competition. The Ricks (Idaho) Junior College transfer has a good arm and proved it last year by tossing 32 touchdown passes.
"We like the competition at that position," vonAppen said. "We feel we're improved in that area over last year."
"We've got to get three coaches up to speed and that takes time," vonAppen said. "We also had a coordinator change, so we needed to take some time to go over what we're trying to get done.
"The reason we wanted to start in the middle of March is we wanted one week before spring break, then give the guys that week off, and come back and finish up by April 12."
Instead, Hawaii will practice through April 19. There will be a scrimmage that final Saturday, but there won't be a Green-White game as in past years.
But with North Texas pulling out at the last minute last week, UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida elected to put Hawaii in a tough situation.
If Hawaii beats Northridge, it does little to help the Rainbows in terms of a quality win. If they lose, it would be a difficult defeat to overcome.
"Anybody can play for them," Los Angeles resident and senior cornerback Robbie Robinson said. "They take 'home boys' that don't even have a grade-point average."
VonAppen, who would like to be more involved in scheduling, said he wasn't given that many choices for the Sept. 6 game.
"I've expressed a desire to be more involved in it," vonAppen said. "We didn't have a lot of options because of the late date.
"They asked if Northridge was OK with me and I said fine. If that meant there were 14 other choices, I don't know. That was the only one they presented to me."
VonAppen also said that Daniel Ho-Ching's status remains fuzzy. He had a death in the family and hasn't been cleared by doctors to return to football.
"We're just glad he's still alive," vonAppen said. "I'd say his chances of an immediate return are not good. As for George, he still has a lot of work to do.
"His academic picture remains bleak. I told him if he could get everything in order, he could come back. He hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'm not sure where things stand with him right now."