Sidelines
JUNE Jones presented the perfect mood for this. He was calm. He was cool. He did not panic. He showed the perfect expression in the face of the situation. His mouth said the perfect words. Is there life after a
broken quarterback?"There's no more sense of urgency for any game," he said. "All games are the same, the kids have stayed focused since I've been here. We played hard last week, we'll play hard this week."
You're thinking: What a bunch of clichés. Is he kidding? No sense of urgency? Timmy Chang is out. Timmy Chang! That's a big deal. Big!
It is big. This next game is big. A lot of eggs were in Timmy Chang's basket this season. A lot on his shoulders. And now, suddenly UH, already saddled with two losses, has to find a way to move on without him.
That's the key word. Move on. Jones is an expert at it. He's the perfect coach for this situation. He doesn't dwell on anything. Incomplete pass? Drop back and throw it again. Interception? Throw some more. Three and out? Bombs away.
That's the run-and-shoot. That's Jones. That's what UH has to do here, because all the worrying in the world isn't going to get Chang healed any sooner. You lose somebody? You come back even harder with who you've got left.
They have to believe they can win without him. Jones has to. He has no choice.
"The defense has to play better, the receivers gotta make great catches, the runners gotta run for more yards," Jones said.
Nick Rolovich has to play well. Rolovich? Yes, as Jim Leahey teased at yesterday's Honolulu Quarterback Club meeting, it seems that Rolovich has made a miraculous recovery from his supposed broken finger to come back out of a possible redshirt and retake the reins. No such miracle appears likely for Chang. And that hurts, no doubt about it.
Jones won't change the offense. The quarterback will still pass, pass, pass, no matter who it is. Mike Bass is looking more and more like the real deal that he was promised to be, but the running game can't and won't carry this team. You can't run the draw 30 times a game. The trap play doesn't work on every down.
No, Rolovich has to make plays. No getting around that. He was the starter before, he's the starter now, and he's learned a lot in between, Jones said. "Rolo I think is better prepared right now than he ever was." He understands the offense. He'll have to, because it's the only one Jones has.
"This will be a good challenge for Rolo and it will be a good challenge for our team," Jones said.
That's one way of putting it. Jones had his guy for the next few years, UH was set. And Chang, continuing his education with every hard-knock helping of "experience" -- see, Saturday night -- was getting closer and closer to fulfilling the coach's vision. UH had lost twice, but he was getting it.
It's not a good time to lose him. It's not a good time to go to the backup. We know that. Jones doesn't.
"I'm confident that he can lead the team and put us in the end zone," he said.
Clichés. But these are not clichés to Nick Rolovich. Not to Hawaii's defense, which introduced itself to the world on Saturday night. UH needs to be ready to play a football game this week. A short memory helps. And Jones has that.
During training camp, Rolovich looked Chang's equal on the field, in the drills. Some days he was even better, more accurate. He has a better arm. He won the job a year ago.
But Chang has something. Something. He has touch and he has a touch. People just seem to love Timmy Chang. He is, Jones has said, something special.
What Rolovich has, well, he now has his chance to show us.
Inside, in the press conference, June Jones was putting on the perfect face. He had no other choice. He couldn't afford to complain. His team couldn't see him panic.
Outside the Stan Sheriff Center, another face told another story. Timmy Chang perched on a motorcycle and scowled. It was an unnerving sight, the man with the golden smile, without one.
Seconds later, we found out why. Timmy Chang was out. Without him, his team, his coach, could only move on.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com