Waikīkī — Twenty-five years after each joined the University of Hawai‘i football program as quarterbacks, Timmy Chang and Nick Rolovich sat beside each other at the center of the Hawai‘i Bowl press conference podium on Monday at the Royal Hawaiian hotel's ocean lawn.
Back in 2000, Chang entered the program as a highly recruited record-setter out of Saint Louis, while Rolovich came in as a junior college All-American from the City College of San Francisco. Although they were competing for the same job at the time, they each had memorable stints as the starting QB for the Warriors.
Rolovich stepped in when Chang suffered a wrist injury three games into his sophomore season in 2001. That cleared the way for Rolovich, who went 8-1 as a starter down the stretch. In his final three games alone, he threw for 1,548 yards and 20 touchdowns. The Rainbow Warriors were left without a bowl game despite going 9-3, leading to the creation of the Hawai‘i Bowl.
Following Rolovich's graduation, Chang resumed the role as starting quarterback in 2002 and went on to set the NCAA's passing yardage record with 17,072. He won two Hawai‘i Bowl MVPs, winning the bowl game Rolovich helped set the foundation for twice.
Rolovich and Chang each had brief professional playing careers before pivoting to coaching. Though they never coached on the same staff together, both established themselves as promising assistant coaches at Nevada for four seasons before taking over as Hawai‘i's head coach.
Indeed, the former teammates have come a long way in the sport not just in 25 years, but particularly the last three.
After serving as Hawai‘i's head coach from 2016 to 2019, Rolovich departed for Washington State. His five-year contract north of $15 million was terminated after he failed to comply with the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate midway through the 2021 season. He did not officially rejoin the college coaching ranks until joining California as an offensive analyst prior to the 2025 season. Following the firing of Justin Wilcox, Rolovich was named the interim head coach for the Bears before the team's regular season finale, a 38-35 win over SMU on Nov. 29.
Meanwhile, Chang took the Hawai‘i job in January 2022, restocking a dilapidated roster with 53 newcomers in the wake of a mass exodus under former coach Todd Graham. The learning curve was steep for Chang, and the Rainbow Warriors went 3-10 in his first season.
On Monday, Chang and Rolovich were cracking jokes days before coaching against each other in the 2025 Hawai‘i Bowl on Wednesday. Kickoff between Hawai‘i [8-4] and Cal [7-5] is set for 3 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
"I hope it's not the completion of the circle, but Hawai‘i has given me so much in my life," Rolovich said in Monday's press conference. "When I chose to come here out of junior college, from friends, to my wife, which leads to my children and my chosen career in football. You probably couldn't have written this a few years back that this was going to be the case but Hawai‘i will forever be special to me, personally, and what it gave me as a young man."
Rolovich left Hawai‘i in 2020, but Hawai‘i never left him. He continued to keep tabs on his alma mater over the years, never imagining he'd have the opportunity to be a head coach against the Rainbow Warriors this soon.
"For what UH gave me, I paid attention very closely," Rolovich said. "I respect and probably have a deeper understanding of the journey Timmy's taking his team through because of the grind and what it takes to kind of fight through that barrier and get his team to play like they're playing right now. It can be a tough job, and we've seen that in the past. But you hear it all the time — college football is better with Hawai‘i football being better. I think that's true."
When the Hawai‘i Bowl is over, Rolovich will remain with Cal as the program's quarterback coach and assistant head coach. That's welcome news to star freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. Citing their shared affinity for the Islands, the Campbell alum says he and Rolovich were able to share a bond.
"It wasn't easy for me. Coach Rolo would be there late at night helping me," Sagapolutele said. "He wasn't just there for football, he was there to check up on me as a person, making sure my mental was good and making sure I was OK in everything I did, even taking me home sometimes. It just felt like having another father there. He stepped up big time for us."
Following the college football season, Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi will take the reins at Cal as the program's new head coach. Along with Lupoi, Cal football general manager Ron Rivera will be calling the shots for the Bears on both micro and macro aspects of the program. Rivera, a former NFL player and head coach, saw retaining Rolovich as key to the program's success moving forward.
"He was very essential," Rivera told Aloha State Daily of Rolovich. "You talk about his career, talk about his abilities, you talk about the way he relates to the young people. It's very important, and I've got to say that firsthand getting to really get to know who he is, watching his style of coaching, and then when I made decision I made and put him as the interim, I think we're very fortunate, because then you really got to see the way he connected with the players and the relationship he's built with our guys."
While Cal is playing in its third straight bowl, the Rainbow Warriors are currently gearing up for their first bowl since 2020, as well as their first Hawai‘i Bowl since 2019. The Hawai‘i Bowl is a brand new experience to every player on the UH roster, which doubles as a reward for its eight-win regular season.
Chang, pointing to his senior co-captains in Peter Manuma and Zhen Sotelo, says the two West O‘ahu natives have exemplified the program's climb since 2022. It may have been hard to picture the program's ascension during the dark times, but the 'Bows don't want to stop now.
"These guys have been staples of our program. We inherited a team that was fractured, broken," Chang said. "We first got here, they were freshmen, and Peter started as a true freshman and we asked Zhen to change positions, and just the willingness to really stick it out, go through the process of tough times to where we are today. I think not only I learned, but they learned how to go through it, how to deal with it, how to keep pushing forward, how to bring others and lead. And so I'm very, very grateful for these two young men in a time where with the transfer portal, you can leave.
"These two boys stayed home, and they represented us really well when we look at two guys at the end of the season that you know we will put our backs on and to lead us out every day. So, truly grateful for these boys."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
