HONOLULU — Colt Brennan and Hawai‘i overcame a shaky first half to beat Arizona State 41-24 in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl yesterday. Along the way, Brennan shattered David Klingler’s record for touchdown passes in a season. Trailing 10-3 going into
HONOLULU — Colt Brennan and Hawai‘i overcame a shaky first half to beat Arizona State 41-24 in the Sheraton
Hawaii Bowl yesterday.
Along the way, Brennan shattered David Klingler’s record for touchdown
passes in a season.
Trailing 10-3 going into the half and Brennan on the bench with a minor injury, the nation’s most explosive offense — and player — ignited in the third quarter.
After a touchback on the opening kick of the third quarter, Brennan led an 80-yard scoring drive, going 5 for 5 for 76 yards in the air and running for another 15, capping it off with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jason Rivers.
The strike not only tied Klingler’s 16-year-old record of 54 TD passes in a season but, with the extra point, the score as well.
Neither would stay tied for long.
After a three-and-out and poor Sun Devil punt, Hawai‘i took over near midfield and quickly moved the ball into the red zone.
On first and goal from the 7, the Warriors lined up in the shotgun, leaving little doubt that head coach June Jones was going to get his junior quarterback the record.
Brennan hit Ryan Grice-Mullen in the right flat, who juked one defensive
back to the inside before beating another in a foot race to the pylon.
Jones, who invited Brennan to walk on as a junior college transfer in 2005, embraced the new NCAA touchdown king as he returned to the bench.
But Brennan wasn’t done.
The California native finished the next Hawai‘i drive — a possession the Warriors started on their own 1 yard line — with a 36-yard bullet to Grice-Mullen over the middle for another score.
It was Grice-Mullen’s 11th touchdown
of the season, and Brennan’s 56th.
In the third quarter alone, Brennan went 10-11 for almost 200 yards and 3 TDs.
Turned out Hawai‘i would need all of it.
After a UH field goal early in the fourth, ASU running back Ryan Torain
broke a 63-yard run — the second longest in Hawaii Bowl history — and later scored on a 12-yard scamper.
Hawai‘i’s Nate Ilaoa fumbled on the next possession, and ASU quarterback
Rudy Carpenter took advantage of the short field, hitting Mike Jones on a crossing route for a 4-yard score and cutting the lead to three.
Once again, though, Brennan led the Warriors on a long drive, capping an 80-yard, five-minute march with a 21-yard TD pass to Davone Bess, extending the lead to 10 with less than six minutes remaining.
Brennan later iced it with a 79-yard TD pass to Rivers.
Brennan passed the 5,000-yard mark in the first quarter, becoming only the third player in NCAA history to have 5,000 yards and 50 TDs in a season. The other two were Klingler of the University of Houston and B.J. Symons of Texas Tech.
Brennan finished the season with 5,550 yards and 58 touchdowns, ending one of the best seasons in the history of college football.
