The H-Men's star of the show is the quarterback.
Professor J calls the position the life-blood of the team. If you don't have a signal-caller who can master the intricacies of the run-and-shoot offense, well, you might as well remove the oil from a 1965 Mustang and drive it down the street.
Now, Professor J has seen a lot of quarterbacks in his day. Before he joined the H-Men, he was a quarterback who knocked around in the National and Canadian football leagues. It wasn't pretty. So he returned to Hawaii in 1983 as an assistant coach for one season.
But trying to sell conservative head coach Dick Tomey on the run-and-shoot was a little like convincing your parents to listen to Jimi Hendrix wail away on the "Star Spangle Banner.''
It even took a while to sell NFL quarterbacks on the run-and-shoot, but once he did, success followed wherever he went, including UH last year.
It's true, this year's starting quarterback for Hawaii has no major college experience. Of the top three contenders, Mike Harrison is the only one to take a Division I snap.
But junior college transfer Nick Rolovich, who was named the starter on Monday, is the oldest and most wizened in some ways. Last year, he led College of San Francisco to the mythical national championship in junior college and even spent the spring learning Jones' system. Still, he has no experience at this level.
Neither does true freshman Timmy Chang, the local boy made good. What he does have are three high school state championships under his wing in the same Aloha Stadium Professor J and his mighty heroes call home.
One day, Chang will call the position his own, but for now, he must stand and watch Rolovich take command.
"We're confident Nick can get the job done," Professor J said earlier this week. "He has a good command of our offense and completed the most passes in fall camp. "We're also comfortable with Timmy and Mike. It's just that Nickhad the advantage over Timmy of practicing this spring. He will be our starter against Portland State this Saturday night."
Whether Rolovich can stay the course and keep his starting role remains to be seen. He does have good skills, a strong belief in his ability and the backing of his teammates.
They knew from the start he was the man who would be king of the H-Men.
At this position
| NO. | PLAYER | HT. | WT. | CL. |
| 16 | NICK ROLOVICH* | 6-1 | 193 | JR. |
| HOMETOWN: NOVATO, CALIF. |
| 14 | TIMMY CHANG | 6-1 | 190 | FR. |
| HOMETOWN: HONOLULU |
| 12 | MIKE HARRISON | 6-1 | 206 | SO. |
| HOMETOWN: BELLFLOWER, CALIF. |
* Denotes starter
