The D Line Dave Reardon

PHOTOS BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Brent Rausch, Inoke Funaki or Greg Alexander will start at quarterback in UH's season opener at Florida. CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR LARGE

Hawaii awaits important starting QB decision

Rolo didn't get the job and the majority of the practice reps until a week before the start of the season. It showed game night against Portland State, and Hawaii was routed by a Division I-AA team. It wasn't long before Tim Chang was summoned from the bullpen.

You may remember Rolo rebounded the next season. He took over for the injured Chang and finished his college career with 20 touchdown passes in his last three games, to be remembered forever for crushing BYU in Garrett Gabriel-like fashion. Part of Nick Rolovich's legacy is the Hawaii Bowl, the game he created by leading UH to 9-3 and nowhere to go for the holidays.

It ended happily ever after for him. But Rolovich, now the UH quarterbacks coach, head coach Greg McMackin and offensive coordinator Ron Lee want to avoid putting this year's starter in the same predicament Rolo was eight years ago.

It started out as three men and a maybe when camp opened last week. So far only the maybe, MIA Tyler Graunke, has been definitively ruled out to start 17 days from today in Gainesville.

Until the decision is made later this week, I'll list them in alphabetical order: Greg Alexander, Inoke Funaki and Brent Rausch. Some who claim inside knowledge put them in that order, too.

The coaches don't. They've got them so close they need another day or two to evaluate them.

"These guys are making it tough," Rolovich said yesterday.

My choice? For now, Funaki. But the only real reason is I've known him longer than the other two - and so have his teammates. He's a leader, and he's hungry to prove he's not just a smart, funny and tough guy everybody likes. He wants to be known for more than high school state championships and riding roller skates to practice.

"We're not in a hurry, we just want to make a good choice," McMackin said. "This team needs to know who the quarterback is so they can rally around somebody."

That's especially true with the news that injuries have knocked Blaze Soares and likely Rocky Savaiigaea - two popular stalwarts of the defense - out of the lineup for the opener.

There are those who say the quarterback at Florida can be a sacrificial offering to the football gods, leaving the "real" starter unscathed physically and emotionally for games UH has a reasonable chance of winning.

The Warriors' new head coach can be Mack-avellian at times (you don't last in his profession without that capacity). But I don't think something like that falls within his ethical range; he does not seem the type to use players as pawns. Plus, when he tells me the Warriors are going to Florida to win, he looks me in the eye, and I believe that is what he means.

What did UH's two losing seasons in the June Jones era have in common? The starting quarterback of the season opener was not named early in camp, and did not control the reins for long once the games started.

As Nick Rolovich knows from personal experience, this is a decision that must be made without haste, but quickly.