Several times, quarterback Taylor Graham had struggled with reading the coverage on an identical play, but this time both the understanding and the pass were on target.
Quickly, University of Hawaii coach Norm Chow and his quarterback exchanged glances of acknowledgement.
Never mind that the receiver dropped the pass — something that would cause Chow to shake his head later — this was another in a series of positive, incremental signs of growth for Graham.
"I don’t know that I’d call it a breakthrough, yet, but things are going good," Graham said. "I feel good where I’m at, but I know I have a lot of work to do."
Indeed, these are the increasing patches of enlightenment and understanding, the little victories, that Graham strives to stitch together daily on the Warriors’ practice field this spring.
At 6-feet-5 and 235 pounds, the Ohio State transfer certainly has the bearing of a major college quarterback and a strong right throwing arm to match. There is even the pedigree that comes with having a father (Kent) who spent 11 years as a QB in the NFL.
"(Taylor) is big, he’s talented and smart as heck — everything you want in a (quarterback)," said Chow, who attempted to recruit him to UCLA three years ago.
WHAT GRAHAM DOESN’T have is significant game experience or a thorough grasp of Chow’s offense yet, which is part of what this spring and today’s 11 a.m. scrimmage are about.
But then, Graham’s only appearance in three college seasons (a redshirt year each at Ohio State and UH sandwiching a season behind Terrelle Pryor, Joe Bauserman and Braxton Miller) was the final three plays — all handoffs — in the Buckeyes’ 42-0 rout of Akron in September 2011.
Graham hasn’t thrown a pass in a game since 2009 as a senior at North Wheaton (Ill.) High, and didn’t author all that many even then in a season abbreviated by a knee ligament injury in the second game. Or, even, in 2008, when his junior season was shortened by a broken ankle in the fifth game.
"I hope that doesn’t make anyone nervous," Graham joked.
What it has done is make him determined to gain a working knowledge of the offense and playing time 4,500 miles from where he once thought he would be playing.
For if anybody seemed destined to pass as a Buckeye, it was Graham. He was born in the hospital on the Ohio State campus, not much more than punting distance from Ohio Stadium, to a father who had quarterbacked the Buckeyes. Not coincidentally, Taylor grew up a Buckeyes fan and had attended Ohio State camps, which is where he caught the coaches’ eyes and earned a scholarship.
But his scarlet and gray all-in-the-family tale in the making unraveled when Jim Tressel was fired in 2011 and the successor, Urban Meyer, brought in an option offense that had little need for a prototypical drop-back passer.
A second-chance opportunity is what brought Graham to Manoa last fall and helped see him through an NCAA-mandated year out of competition as a scout-team quarterback.
"Having to sit out stunk, but it is what you have to do, so you try and absorb as much as you can," Graham said.
Perhaps when you have come six time zones and waited a year to get your shot, summoning the patience necessary to master a new playbook and the resilience to see it through becomes the easy part.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
