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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
NCAA record shows
Chang can hang
TONIGHT it happens. Today, if all goes well -- or even if only one thing goes well -- Hawaii's Tim Chang will do it. Fourteen yards, and he'll pass BYU's Ty Detmer as the NCAA's all-time passing-yardage leader.It won't be the greatest thing ever to happen to him, to us, to the school, to the state, to the world, the universe, etc. No. Not unless you also think the interceptions record he set last week is the worst.
But it should be a nice moment. We'll have plenty to think about, when they stop the game and give him that ball.
I won't remember the highlights. I'll remember the smile, the one that made anyone who ever met him like him. I'll remember the heart, the one that was so big he had us all convinced he was just a kid, even when he became a man, thanks to as many bad times as a winning quarterback could have.
He was always overhyped, but always underappreciated.
I'll remember how he always handled those tough times with class.
This isn't a record about talent or greatness, as we've been told so many times. Even June Jones has said now that any of his starting quarterbacks would have caught Detmer. That Chang will have had the equivalent of an extra year in which to throw.
This is a record about persistence, about endurance. This is about a guy who just kept coming back. He'll have this record because he just kept throwing.
He had a concussion that freshman season. Remember that? He got thrown to the wolves and his brain got bruised. And he had to come back from the kind of trauma that comes with head trauma.
That next year he broke his wrist, and Rolo went in. Chang was told he could come back when he was ready. Then he said he was ready. But he couldn't come back.
Sometimes, this game breaks your heart.
He knows that now.
Then Chang finally hit his stride. Kind of. The numbers were spectacular. But it was never easy.
And then every injury. And impossible expectations. And interceptions. And benching. And boos.
He's tougher than we know. He would have to be, to make it through all of that, to go through five years with an entire state on his shoulders. To have accepted that.
To have come up with those Joe Montana moments, against Cincinnati, at Fresno State.
He wasn't always that good, but he always kept throwing. And always, there was that smile. Always, you could see that heart.
So many kids have seen it.
It's true. He does do things you just can't coach.