GameDay: Hawaii at San Jose State

It's game day! Excitement mounts!

From Stephen Tsai's article:

"It's our first opportunity to go up against a team that is tied with us for No. 1 in the WAC," Spartan quarterback Adam Tafralis said. "We'll treat this like a championship game, just like we're going to treat every game from here on out."

UH quarterback Colt Brennan, who appears to have recovered from a sprained right ankle that limited him to five series last week, said: "They're undefeated and we're undefeated, and there's a lot on the line. That's fine with us. Trust me, if there's one game we've been most excited about up until this point, it's this game. Friday night on ESPN is one thing. Not just that, but we've kind of played the easier part of our schedule, and now we're playing an opponent that's good enough for us to get excited for."

In his gameday preview, Dave Reardon takes a look at offense, defense and special teams for SJSU and UH, and highlights this key matchup:

Brennan's precision vs. San Jose State's DBs

Take away the one-game aberration of five interceptions against Idaho two weeks ago, and Colt Brennan is among the best at making sure the football doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Heck, leave that game in the accounting, and Brennan still averages exactly one interception per outing for his 31-game career.

That's quite an achievement considering he's thrown 1,281 passes.

But Brennan goes up against a San Jose State team that has 11 interceptions in its six games this season, good for fifth in the nation.

In his gameday preview, Stephen Tsai breaks down the offense, defense and specialists for both teams, which includes this bit about Kealoha Pilares and the shovel pass.

When Brennan is the quarterback, Pilares is averaging 11.6 post-catch yards on shovel passes. During the offseason, Pilares said he watched cut-up videos of Brennan shoveling passes to Nate Ilaoa, last year's running back.

"Colt and Nate were doing some crazy stuff," Pilares said. "I tried to learn from that. When I take my steps, I know Colt's going to get me the ball."

Like a baseball pitcher who uses the same motion to throw different pitches, Pilares has learned that the best way to sell the shovel pass — or any draw play, for that matter — is to make the defense believe he is a backfield blocker on every play. "(Running back) coach (Wes) Suan pushes us to make it consistent," Pilares said.

Ferd Lewis has a bunch of game notes, including a UH vs SJSU rivalry amongst Colt Brennan's family members and a list of a few people who will be on the sidelines today.

Former UH players Isaac Sopoaga, Jeff Ulbrich and Ashley Lelie of the San Francisco 49ers are expected to be on the Warriors' sideline today.

Also, former UH men's basketball coach Riley Wallace and sportscaster Larry Beil are scheduled to be on hand.

Speaking of Lelie, here's another article about him being set to get more playing time for the 49ers.

And finally here's a Ferd Lewis article about the the WAC's hopes for a better contract with ESPN.

When the WAC Board of Directors turned down a contract extension that came with what has been described as a "significant" increase in rights fees this summer, the presidents and chancellors of the nine institutions gambled they could do better in future talks.

With Boise State coming off its 13-0 breakthrough season and Fiesta Bowl finish of 2006 and UH figuring it could make its own Bowl Championship Series run in 2007, the WAC calculated it could come out of this season with more bargaining leverage for the next round of negotiations.