Dru Brown looks to add to Warriors' quarterback legacy

It was a perfect story that almost didn’t happen, or better yet one that shouldn’t have in the first place. For the first time since 2010, the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors finished with a .500 record.

Again, it probably shouldn’t have happened in the first.

Playing an extra 13th game each season to help cover travel cost (known as the Hawaii exemption), the Warriors found themselves with a 6-7 record at the end of the regular season. Getting to six wins, however, made them bowl eligible for the first time since 2010. A 52-35 victory over Middle Tennessee State in the newly reinstated Hawaii Bowl evened out their record at 7-7.

The coach that orchestrated this turnaround? Former Warrior quarterback Nick Rolovich. After moving around college football as a coordinator for a few years, Rolovich landed his first head coaching job at the same school he once played for.

A record stretch

Rolovich didn’t play much during his time at Hawaii, just 14 games over two years. He attended at the same time that Timmy Chang did. Chang of course broke Ty Detmers’ record for most passing yards in a career (since been broken) during his time at Hawaii, not leaving much time for anyone else to play, including Rolovich.

But during the 2001 season Chang was hurt and missed the majority of the season, allowing Rolovich to play.

After a 1-2 start, Rolovich took over for the Warriors in their game against SMU, winning 38-31. Overall, Hawaii would win eight of the nine games in which Rolovich started that included two victories over ranked opponents.

Rolovich orchestrated a late comeback against rival Fresno State, erasing a 27-16 deficit late on a last second touchdown in favor of the Warriors.

It was the last three games he played that people will always remember. In Jones’ Run-N-Shoot offense, it wasn’t uncommon to see the quarterback throw a lot. It helped Chang and eventually Colt Brennan break records, but in this case it was Rolovich who took advantage of it.

The senior attempted 151 passes his last three games, amassing 1,548 passing yards and 20 touchdowns in that span. As a comparison, Air Force’s quarterback Keith Boyea - who Hawaii played in one of those games - didn’t throw for that many yards throughout the entire season.

Rolovich threw for seven touchdowns against Miami (OH), and then another eight against BYU, who was ranked in the top ten at the time.

In his Hawaii career, Rolovich threw for 40 touchdowns and 3,361 passing yards. Exactly half of his touchdowns, and 46% of his yards all came in those last three games.

A legacy of quarterbacks

Over the last near 20 years Hawaii has had a nice run of successful quarterbacks at the college level. While Rolovich and Chang are the more notable ones from the early days, it was Dan Robinson who began everything.

He oversaw a turnaround that saw Hawaii go 0-12 one year, to 9-4 the next - the first of June Jones’ tenure - that also included a share of the WAC Championship. His lone season with Jones saw him throw for over 3,000 yards and 28 touchdowns.

Of course Chang broke the all-time passing yards record originally held by Ty Detmer. Chang, who was also a high-school star on the island, threw for over 17,000 yards and 127 touchdowns under Jones.

Colt Brennan helped take Hawaii to a new level, accounting for 146 total touchdowns over three seasons that also saw him a Heisman Finalist twice, and helped the Warriors finish with a perfect regular season and their first ever BCS Bowl birth.

While he didn’t have the extended success that Brennan and Chang did, Bryant Moniz had himself quite the career season himself. Even after Jones left Hawaii, the Warriors enjoyed some success from the quarterback position.

In 2010, Moinz led a potent offense that featured a 5,000 yard passer (himself), a 1,000 yard rusher (Alex Green), and two 1,000 yard receivers (Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares).

Struggles since

Greg McMackin did his best to keep Hawaii afloat coming after Jones left for another coaching job, even keeping the Run-N-Shoot in tact while running things. The fact was, the same talent wasn’t coming in as it was when Jones was there.

He was able to get to ten wins one year, but the other three there he finished below .500, leading to Hawaii to look elsewhere.

That man was Norm Chow, who orchestrated some of the best offenses in college football history while at USC.

Without a Reggie Bush or others as talented as the ones he dealt with at USC, the offense struggled, mainly at the quarterback position.

In the five years after Moniz threw for 5,000 yards, the Warriors had seven different quarterbacks attempt at least 100 passes.

Moniz broke his tibia in the 2011 season, leading way to David Graves and McMackin’s eventual dismissal. Sean Schroeder threw for 39 touchdowns in two years, but never topped 3,000 yards in a season and also tossed 28 interceptions during the same span.

Ikaika Woolsey was never much of a passer, and Chow had to work around his limitations to try and find any offensive success. There was hope briefly when former top recruit from USC Max Wittek transferred to Hawaii, but he threw multiple interceptions in seven of his nine games played - 15 overall.

In all, since Moniz’s 5,000 yard season, Hawaii quarterbacks (who attempted at least 100 passes in a season) have averaged 1,903 yards with just 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Rolovich threw eight in a single game against BYU in 2001.

Enter Rolovich, and Dru Brown

What made the Run-N-Shoot so effective was it’s ability to narrow the playing field, making up for the fact that Hawaii wasn’t always equipped with the same talent level as their opposition. It was also slightly before EVERYBODY started to run the spread, opening up more options for quarterbacks and receivers who wanted to play in that kind of scheme.

Chow tried to run an offense reliant on a type of players he couldn’t get access to at Hawaii.

Looking back at worked, Hawaii decided to bring back Nick Rolovich - 15 years after his historic three game run - to be the next coach for the Rainbow Warriors.

Rolovich of course was the offensive coordinator for Hawaii under McMackin, coaching Moniz during his career seasons. When Chow came to town, Rolovich took the offensive coordinator job at Nevada, before eventually returning to Hawaii as the top guy.

During his time with Nevada, Rolovich added a few wrinkles into his playbook, which originally was mostly a duplicate of Jones’, his former coach. This one featured the running game more, as well as tight ends, a position Jones never used.

The question remained on who was actually going to be quarterback in the new system. Woolsey was in his last season in Hawaii, and the only left over from Rolovich’s first stint with the team.

Woolsey started the first four games, got benched during two of them, completed less than 50% of his passes and threw as many interceptions as he did touchdowns (six).

With a 1-3 record to start the season, Rolovich turned to sophomore Dru Brown to start against Nevada. He responded by going 15-of-18 passing, for 222 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Hawaii won that game 38-17 and three of four overall, eventually evening their record at 4-4.

There were growing pains, including a 55-0 drumming at the hands of San Diego State that saw Brown throw three interceptions and being benched. A loss the following week to Boise State gave Hawaii their third straight loss and dropped them to 4-7 and what looked like another losing season.

It was how Brown, and the rest of the Warriors, responded to those games that has people intrigued about their prospectus for the upcoming season.

He didn’t put up the eye-popping numbers his coach did, but led Hawaii to three straight wins, including a bowl game, which gave them their first .500 season since 2010.

Brown scored ten total touchdowns in those three games - nine passing, one rushing - to just one interception while completing 68% of his passes.

Looking Forward

It may have just been a 7-7 finish and if Hawaii didn’t play a 13-game regular season, a bowl game wouldn’t have been possible, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

The seven wins that Rolovich finished with nearly matched the total Chow finished with his entire tenure at Hawaii.

Under Jones, Hawaii won 67.7% of their games. That dropped under McMackin to 55.3%, before falling off the table with Chow (21.7%).

The last time the Warriors had consecutive non-losing seasons was back in 2007-2008, when Colt Brennan was leading the offense to all sorts of records.

Brown may not be capable of those same feats, but with his finish to last season and Rolovich at the helm, there is a lot of excitement surrounding Hawaii this year. They were picked to finish second in the West Division behind San Diego State.

It shouldn’t come as too much a surprise, as it turns out that the best way for the Warriors to return to their former high-powered self, was to bring back one of their former stars from that era.

Jones had Chang, Rolovich, and Brennan star while at Hawaii. Now as Rolovich looks to carve out his own legacy as a coach, he will look to mold his own stars, and he’s hoping Brown will be the first of many to come.