After three nights in a row of watching college quarterbacks from Hawaii shine, I almost expected to see another in the Labor Day game between Ole Miss and Louisville on Monday.
And three years ago there would have been, as Jordan Ta’amu from Pearl City was still starring behind center for Mississippi.
The South was full of outstanding college quarterbacks from Hawaii in 2018. There was also Tua Tagovailoa (already a legend at Alabama) and McKenzie Milton at Central Florida. Tagovailoa was a sophomore and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting, and Milton was sixth after leading UCF to 11 wins without a loss and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl in his junior year.
Today, Ta’amu is still trying to find a landing spot in the NFL, and Tagovailoa begins his second season as the Miami Dolphins starter Sunday, playing against New England, which starts his former ’Bama backup, rookie Mac Jones.
As for Milton, he’s doing what no one expected after a horrific knee injury in the last regular-season game of 2018. He’s playing college football again. At the time, doctors were hoping they could save his leg and that he might walk again someday.
His incredible fourth-quarter off-the-bench comeback performance for Florida State on Sunday did not end up with a win against Notre Dame, but Milton sparked a Seminoles program that had been in a moribund state for years.
Milton showed he should start. But even if he never plays another snap he’ll still be college football’s comeback player of the year. Maybe the decade.
On Friday, we saw another former Mililani High quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, lead UCF to a 36-31 win against Boise State. Gabriel, a junior and third-year starter, completed 25 of 37 passes for 318 yards with four touchdowns.
Then on Saturday, Chevan Cordeiro — who was Tagovailoa’s successor at quarterback at Saint Louis School — led Hawaii to a 49-35 win over Portland State. UH is an 11- to 12-point underdog at Oregon State this Saturday, but I’m sticking to my preseason pick of a Hawaii win. Why? One reason is the Warriors are set at quarterback, and the Beavers are still trying to figure out who their guy is.
While recounting last Saturday, let’s not forget Taulia Tagovailoa, Tua’s brother who set passing records at Kapolei High. He passed for three touchdowns and no interceptions in Maryland’s 30-26 victory over West Virginia.
Jayden de Laura, another former Saint Louis QB, came off the bench for Washington State and provided a spark, but not enough to prevent a 26-23 loss to Utah State.
Three wins by the three guys who started and one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history is still not bad for the first official week of the season for the QBs from Hawaii. It’s more validation that Hawaii is not just the place where you find great linemen. Now, it’s known as the home of superb quarterbacks, too.
Most of the national recognition started with Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota in 2014. But local football fans know it goes back farther; in 2000, there was a weekend when three guys from one Hawaii school — Saint Louis — started at quarterback for Division I college teams: Timmy Chang at UH, Darnell Arceneaux at Utah, and Jason Gesser at Washington State.
And, of course, there’s no Dillon Gabriel without his dad, Garrett Gabriel, the Maryknoll and Pac-Five multi-sport star who quarterbacked UH to those blowouts of hated BYU in 1989 and 1990.
Now, Dillon Gabriel is picking up where Milton left off at UCF.
Milton isn’t just an inspirational figure. When history looks back on him, it may also see him as one of the college football’s most influential figures — even if you discount Sunday’s instant-legend deeds.
The season before Milton’s injury, 2017, Central Florida went unbeaten, including a Peach Bowl win over Auburn, and was ranked No. 6 in the final Associated Press poll — with four first-place votes.
By the way, you might recall, the National Championship game was won by Alabama, with freshman Tua Tagovailoa coming off the bench in the second half to lead the Tide past Georgia 26-23 in overtime.
Would UCF and Milton have given ’Bama — or any of the four playoff teams — a battle? We’ll never know.
More than any other team, though, that UCF squad showed that expansion from a four-team playoff and providing true access for Group of Five conference teams to play for the national championship is the right thing to do.
And what was one of the two biggest topics of offseason talk this summer? Playoff expansion.
The other was name, image, likeness rights for student-athletes. And guess who was among those ready to roll out with an NIL venture on July 1, the first day allowed by the NCAA. That’s right, McKenzie Milton.
It looks like quarterbacks from here will impact college football indefinitely. A weekend like this past one goes to show fancy passing from Hawaii guys was never just a passing fancy.
