When he first stepped on the University of Hawaii campus a year ago, people would glance at 6-foot, 5-inch, 235-pound Taylor Graham and wonder if he was a basketball player.

“I’d tell them, ‘no, I’m Taylor and I’m on the football team,’” Graham said.

After a year of the blank stares and non-recognition that went with being a behind-the-scenes redshirt, Graham has shed his anonymity, trading it for the No. 1 slot on the depth chart at that most visible of positions and all that goes with it.

These days he can be found, arms crossed and determined, on the cover of the UH media guide. He was one of two player representatives at the Mountain West Conference football preview last month. He is in magazines, on TV, and most of all, in the minds of Rainbow Warrior faithful. All without having thrown a pass in college.

Perhaps not since record-setting Tim Chang arrived from Saint Louis School in 2000 has a quarterback prepared for his first game at UH amid more expectations and higher hopes.

Of course, Graham, a redshirt junior, is hardly your run-of-the-mill recruit. He is an Ohio State transfer with a pedigree, somebody who, just warming up on the practice field, looks the part of a real, honest-to-BCS quarterback. He is strong-armed, tall, thick as an oak, honor roll bright and self-assured.

All of which has been enough to jack up hopes this time of the year when the goal is to put the memories of a 3-9 season is the rearview mirror.  

Never mind that Graham is scheduled to become the first UH quarterback to open against back-to-back nationally ranked opponents, No. 24 USC and No. 25 Oregon State, in barely a month’s time. Or that his sum total of college playing time in three seasons spread across OSU and UH is three handoffs two years ago in the waning minutes of a 42-0 Buckeye victory over Akron.

He might still be in Columbus if not for a change in head coaches, offenses and the presence of Braxton Miller.  

Instead, Graham is becoming the red-headed face of year two of head coach Norm Chow’s tenure at UH and the hopes that accompany it.  

As such, maybe the best thing Graham has going for him — beside the counsel of a father who quarterbacked Notre Dame and Ohio State before an 11-year NFL career — is a level head and feet planted firmly on the ground.  

“I understand expectations here,” Graham said the other day after practice as a gauntlet of TV cameras and tape recorders awaited him. “I think we all do. Coming off a disappointing year, as far as wins and losses go, people are going to expect more. And, that’s why we’re out here (at practice) every day working hard.”

 But, Graham will tell you up front, our expectations aren’t necessarily his.

“My expectations are higher than everybody else’s,” Graham said. “They are very high. I’m not going to give any wins and losses (total), of what we’re trying to reach for or anything, but I have my own goals. And, they are very high.”

 No doubt in part because there is no mistaking this is his football team now.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.