When he was at the University of Hawaii, one of head coach June Jones' first star recruits was high school All-American Timmy Chang who would go on to set records for the Hawaii Warriors. The two worked well together and brought Hawaii to a more prominent position in college football. Well, the ol' head coach is going to try it again. Jones, who has been coaching the Southern Methodist University Mustangs in Dallas, Texas, for the past four seasons, is bringing in his star quarterback as a graduate assistant.
Chang will be working with the SMU offense, which is still basically the same run-and-shoot that the Hawaii Warriors ran when Jones and Chang were at Hawaii. Chang had been getting ready to be the offensive coordinator at Mililani High School when he got the call from Jones.
The 30 year old Chang had a run-in with the law a few years ago (source - USA Today) but had been flying straight since. It was not a surprise when Chang got the call as he had recently worked to achieve his bachelor's degree and had put the word out that he was available.
Chang, from Waipahu, was a standout quarterback at St. Louis High School in Honolulu when he went to Hawaii to play college ball. He held just about every record there was in the NCAA for throwing the ball (source - Total Football Stats). But Chang went undrafted and the dig was he was a system quarterback. He never could find a roster spot in the pros and ended up bouncing around the CFL before finally retiring three years ago (source - Star Advertiser).
Jones has had limited success in Dallas. SMU hadn't had a winning record in more than a decade and the year before he took over, they were 1-11. But Jones started off very slowly, matching the record of 2007 with another 1-11 season. But the following year, the Mustangs went to their first bowl game in 25 years - ironically the Hawaii Bowl, where SMU beat Nevada. The Mustangs have been to two subsequent bowls: the Armed Forces Bowl which they lost and the BBVA Compass Bowl last season where they won. Their records since Jones has been at SMU are: 1-11, 8-5, 7-7 and 8-5.
There has been some grumbling and pressure on Jones to improve the program to the next level - maybe with some of his old gang like Chang, he can find the magic for the Mustangs that he once had at Hawaii.
Sources - TotalFootballStats, University of Hawaii
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Through thick and thin, Daryle has been a huge fan of Hawaii since visiting there 40 years ago and dozens of times since. Go 'Bows!
