The University of Hawaii football team is continuing its quest to be an armed force.
Quarterback Tanner Darling of Moorpark (Calif.) College told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser he is joining the Rainbow Warriors for the coming season. Darling said he is set to report on July 26, the opening of the Warriors’ training camp.
Darling will be the Warriors’ seventh quarterback, although he also has the skills to play other positions. The other UH quarterbacks are third-year sophomore Cole McDonald, freshmen Jeremy Moussa, Chevan Cordeiro and Justin Uahinui, graduate transfer Kolney Cassel, and senior Larry Tuileta, the latter who recently completed his UH volleyball career.
“I always wanted to go to Hawaii from the start, just not even for football,” Darling said. “When I was younger, Hawaii was just the dream. I’m from Cali. I’ve been a surfer, and I love the beach. And that was one of the main reasons when I was younger. Now that I have an opportunity to go play football there, that’s just the icing on the cake.”
Darling is a graduate of Simi Valley (Calif.) High, where he threw for more than 3,000 yards as a senior. He redshirted in 2016, his first year at Moorpark, because of a knee ailment. As Moorpark’s starting quarterback in 2017, he was intercepted only once in 239 passing attempts.
Darling is 6 feet 1 and 193 pounds. He said he watched telecasts of UH games when he was growing up and was particularly fascinated with Colt Brennan, the 2007 Heisman Trophy finalist. Of the run-and-shoot offense that the Warriors will resurrect this season, Darling said, “Man, it looks like fun. … That’s exactly what I want to do.”
Darling said he also has studied videos of former UH quarterbacks Timmy Chang and Nick Rolovich, the latter now UH’s head coach. “Another great quarterback,” Darling said of Rolovich.
Darling said he began focusing on football in seventh grade, and committed to being a quarterback in high school.
“I love football,” he said. “I love the physicality of football. I wasn’t always a quarterback, either. The physicality. The way you compete in football. The games, obviously, are a whole other level of intensity.”
