SMU-bound Tim Chang may get the last laugh

A decade after Tim Chang played football at the University of Hawaii, people continue to hate on him. That’s unfortunate and sad.

Mere mention of his name still draws as much, or more, negative reaction as positive. Even something as seemingly innocuous but interesting as Chang becoming a graduate-assistant coach at SMU under his former coach at UH, June Jones, inspires more disparaging remarks than “good for him” comments.

Someone asked me, in a sarcastic tone, “They let him into grad school?” My response, “He has a bachelor’s degree. Why wouldn’t they?”

Perhaps that’s what playing quarterback for the Warriors for five years will do for you, for better or worse. Everyone’s going to have an opinion about you, shaped largely by your performance in a few football games while you were in college.

Chang’s biggest problem besides too many interceptions was that he was overhyped. Big passing numbers generated by the run-and-shoot offense were at once a blessing and a curse. It got UH and Chang a lot of attention, and he had a few supporters nationally. But people who really understood football correctly didn’t assume his production and skill-set would transfer to the NFL.

Chang came out of Saint Louis School at the height of anti-Crusaders sentiment in Hawaii because they had dominated the local prep football scene for so long. So he didn’t really get as much credit as he might have otherwise for being a local kid choosing to stay home and play for UH instead of going to the then-Pac-10, where Cal had offered him.

He started as a freshman, and I’ll remember Chang standing his ground and sitting out a game after a big hit to his head. A move that would be deemed sensible and enlightened now … in 2000 it got him a label from some as soft, which he’d never shake despite playing hurt in later seasons.

After a couple of years of big stats, there was a joke of a Heisman Trophy campaign. But that’s OK, such campaigns are put together all the time for players who have very little or no shot at the award; it’s more about getting exposure for the program.

That is something Chang helped accomplish for UH. His gaudy numbers — most prominently, breaking Ty Detmer’s NCAA career passing yardage mark — were noticed. They were discounted by most analysts due to the style of offense and quality of opposition, but it still got the Warriors some publicity and credit for an exciting brand of football.

More Hawaii fans might appreciate Chang if they’d seen what I think was his best and most significant winning effort up close. That was the 31-21 win at Fresno State on Oct. 25, 2002. The Warriors trailed 21-9 in the fourth quarter, but Chang directed two late touchdown drives and Hawaii won for the first time at Fresno since 1973.

“Timmy Chang was marvelous. He did what great quarterbacks do, winning the game in the final two minutes,” Jones said afterward. “Go the length of the field, convert third downs, like the big-time guys do.”

It was Chang at his best on the game-deciding touchdown pass, a 13-yarder to Britton Komine. On a fourth-down play, he had the guts and instincts to throw for a receiver who was not guaranteed to be open or even anywhere near where the ball was headed when he released it. “Britt was getting held up on the line. I knew he was going to get loose sometime,” Chang said after the game. “Right when I threw it he shook off the guy and caught the ball in the end zone and that’s all I remember.”

Chang had a few great games at Aloha Stadium, too. An MVP performance in the overtime win over Houston in the Hawaii Bowl and beating Cincinnati with a torn-up knee come to mind.

But for his detractors, the good games just added to the fuel when he had bad ones. They choose to remember his inconsistency, his several four-interception games, and booed him mercilessly when he performed poorly against Alabama and was benched — a game that UH eventually won behind backup quarterback Jason Whieldon.

When Chang didn’t get drafted and didn’t make it as an NFL quarterback, he played in Canada. He didn’t help himself a couple of years ago with a minor legal brush (taking and throwing someone’s video camera generated more jokes) home in Hawaii.

But he got his degree. He’s worked with kids at Mililani High School and in clinics. And now he’s going to SMU to get a master’s degree and help Jones and the Mustangs. Chang told me the other night he hopes to eventually return to Hawaii and coach here again.

Tim Chang was a good football player who didn’t live up to hype he didn’t ask for. But his experiences, good and bad, might make him a very good mentor.