New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker has already had to deal with one quarterback suffering a season-ending injury.

It’s the main reason he benched last night’s starter, Matt Christian, to begin the second half of Saturday night’s 45-34 loss to Hawaii at Aloha Stadium.

Unfortunately for Walker, freshman Travaughn Colwell hurt his foot midway through the third quarter, leaving Walker with the option of putting tight end Trevor Walls in at QB, or going back to Christian, who had his left arm in a sling.

Christian, who missed the second half of last week’s win over Idaho with the same injury, battled with his one good throwing arm to finish 18-for-34 for 224 yards and three touchdowns to keep the Aggies in the game.

"Once (Colwell) got hurt, I didn’t have much of a choice," said Christian, who had his shoulder popped back into place at halftime. "My left arm is pretty much out of commission right now."

The Aggies have used three different quarterbacks this season. Sophomore Andrew Manley, a 2010 Leilehua graduate, tore his ACL against UTEP and is out for the season, but is expected to earn a medical redshirt.

Knowing he’s already depleted at the position, Walker tried to be careful with Christian, but wasn’t left with many other options once Colwell was hurt.

"He’s crazy and he ticks me off because we need him for the end of the year," Walker said. "His shoulder was dinged up and we went with the freshman, but he hurt his foot, so we had to go back to Christian."

Even with the Aggies trailing 39-20 in the fourth quarter, Christian, who said he couldn’t move his left arm after the game, scrambled on a first-and-goal play from the UH 3-yard line and dove leading with his injured shoulder through multiple UH defenders for his only rushing touchdown of the game.

"These guys are battlers and, again, you never want to lose the game, but I just thought these guys battled their butts off," Walker said.

Christian, 2-2 since taking over for Manley, said the difference was NMSU’s slow start in the first quarter. The Aggies were held to 52 yards on their first three drives, allowing the Warriors to take a 14-0 lead.

"Once you give them that kind of (lead), it’s hard to make that up," Christian said. "A lot of it was me. I played poor to start the game."

A 47-yard touchdown pass to Austin Franklin by receiver Todd Lee on a trick play accounted for NMSU’s first score.

The Aggies answered four of UH’s seven touchdowns with scores of their own, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome.

"We could never get close enough where when we needed a stop, we couldn’t get a stop and when we did get a stop, we couldn’t score a touchdown," Walker said. "We could never get the offense and defense on the same page when it came to matching what they were doing."