Picture being the University of Hawai'i football team and watching with dread as your starting quarterback is carried off the field and out for the year with a knee injury.

This on top of knowing you've already lost your backup for most of the season.

Then, imagine someone promising you the next quarterback up, a walk-on who has been out of football for a year, of all things, will produce Tim Chang-like numbers in his first four games?

Somebody been partying too much with Andre Agassi?

Not really.

If you look at Bryant Moniz's body of work in his first four starts for the Warriors — and remember that he missed three-plus quarters with a concussion against Boise State — statistically he compares favorably with the first four starts by the guy who went on to become the NCAA's all-time career passing leader.

This isn't to say that Moniz is a certainty to inscribe his name in the record books or will be a savior for all that ails the Warriors. But it does underline that somebody who wasn't even offered a major college scholarship and has had to learn on the job, has, under the circumstances, acquitted himself remarkably well through his first four starts for the Warriors.

Which is another reason why it hurt to see Moniz tearfully trying to shoulder so much of the blame in the aftermath of UH's 31-21 loss at Nevada Saturday. Commendable as it was that he would look inward rather than pointing fingers elsewhere.

To be sure, the two interceptions, one of them a sign of his growing into the position, hurt. But by no means did Moniz single-handedly send the Warriors to defeat on a day when he also passed for three touchdowns and 374 yards.

Nobody in the UH era of the run-and-shoot offense has stepped into it with such aplomb or as such a quick study as Colt Brennan. Even he, an eventual Heisman Trophy contender, had his struggles.

By way of context, however, consider that in Chang's first four starts, he completed 53.2 percent of his passes for seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Moniz completed 57.7 of his passes for six touchdowns and five interceptions.

Chang, of course, was a freshman but had spent his high school years at Saint Louis in a similar system and was groomed from the day he set foot on the Mänoa campus. Moniz, a sophomore, played in a different offense in high school and his one year of junior college, and was well down the line on getting repetitions in practice at UH.

Chang was the much-heralded "Franchise" from the time he signed a letter of intent. Moniz was, except to those who visited practice regularly, a little-noticed add-on deemed unlikely to see much game time. Well, except in an emergency. And, what were the chances, right?

Now, he's been thrust into just that kind of a situation with all that comes with it.

Chang went on to start 50 games, help lead UH to three bowl games and garner national attention for the Warriors.

The betting is that Moniz, in time, will make a mark in his own way.