Colt in the final four for the Heisman.
Hawaii’s Colt Brennan was named one of four Heisman Trophy finalists yesterday, along with Florida QB Tim Tebow, Missouri QB Chase Daniel, and Arkansas RB Darren McFadden.
Last year, Brennan finished sixth in the voting despite putting up a record season, throwing for 5,549 yards and an NCAA-record 58 touchdowns.
This year, he was one of the leading candidates, and even though he had a couple of factors against him (schedule, exposure), the chance for him to make his mark would be there if he kept playing well and Hawaii kept winning, as the Warriors entered the season in the top 25 and getting consideration as another ‘BCS buster‘ if they could run the table.
Brennan didn’t post numbers as huge as he did last year, but Hawaii played one more regular-season game, and he played in all of them. This year, injuries caused him to miss nearly two whole games and parts of a couple more.
Those injuries and a few up and down games might have put him in a hole heading into the final couple of weeks of the season, but with Hawaii still unbeaten, he had his chance to make the big push.
And he did, recording back-to-back huge games against Boise St. and Washington to finish the regular season, helping Hawaii wrap up a 12-0 season and a BCS berth.
He threw for 4,174 yards and 38 touchdowns (with 14 interceptions) and ran for eight more touchdowns.
Brennan will finish his college career as perhaps the greatest college QB in history, and his career touchdown passes mark will be hard to break, as there’s a good chance he’ll add a few more to that mark of 131 against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. All told, he has thrown for 14,024 yards and 131 yards and run for 585 yards and 15 touchdowns in three years. And, in 37 career games played thus far, he has 10 300-yard games, 16 400-yard games, and 4 500-yard games - 30 of 37 times going over at least 300 yards passing - all the while completing more than 70% of his passes (1,093 of 1,546) and getting intercepted only 39 times in the process.
Regardless of if Brennan wins the award, he has accomplished a lot already in the last three years, most notably staying out of trouble and fully repaying June Jones’ faith in him. In the meantime, he has established himself as one of the top quarterbacks in college football, and helped put Hawaii’s name on the national map.
He’s proven many a doubter wrong thus far, and he’s going to have to do it all over again come next year, but before that time comes, he has a few things left to do while he’s still a college QB, starting with a not-so-little awards ceremony on Saturday.
Tags: Colt Brennan, Hawaii Warriors, Heisman Trophy, WAC Football