UH vs Utah State Wrap-Ups

Here are game stats and a scoring breakdown from the Advertiser. Cool stat of the night: Solomon Elimimian had 20 tackles. Here are video clips from the post-game press conference from Leila Wai.

In his wrap-up, Stephen Tsai reports on Colt Brennan's ankle injury.

While throwing to wideout C.J. Hawthorne, Brennan was hit on the right knee and fell in a painful heap.

"My (right) ankle got caught when I got tackled, and I sprained it again," Brennan said. "There's a sharp pain in a specific spot on my ankle. It's sore, but it's part of football."

"They put a brace on me (at halftime) and tightened up the tape, but that just made it more aggravated," Brennan said. "I got the brace off, and we let Tyler go in, and he did a good job. We knew we'd be fine."

Tsai writes about Tyler Graunke's performance filling in for Colt.

"I know he had a rough outing the last time he was here," Brennan said. "To come back in front of the fans, to do what he did, shows a lot. It reminds me of the Tyler we remember from last year. It's great confidence for this year, and even more for next year."

Graunke said: "If I get (the fans') support, that's awesome. But I've got more to prove, trust me. I didn't start off strong the last time. I wanted to prove a point to everybody I could do it. I wanted to show myself, most of all."

And a great quote from David Farmer about scoring a 20-yard TD on a shovel pass.

"I was kind of shocked to hear the call myself," Farmer said. "They blitzed the corner, and so that's what you hope for. It was just wide open. I've been telling people I've been getting faster. I'm glad it's finally on film."

In his wrap-up, Dave Reardon writes that the Warriors were not satisfied with their performance.

Senior receiver Jason Rivers was one of several players who said the Warriors did not perform to their capability.

"Probably not," said Rivers, who caught seven passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. "There's always room for improvement. I'm sure everybody feels the same way. We kind of came out slow on offense."

But even when the Warriors aren't in the zone, they're good enough to win. That might not be true in the coming weeks, as the schedule gets tougher.

Reardon also has a great quote from June Jones, praising Graunke.

"I've always known, believed he can play," Jones said of Graunke, two weeks after the backup was booed by some fans during a blowout of Charleston Southern. "He proved tonight he's a pretty good quarterback. I'm proud of him and happy he had the success."

Stacy Kaneshiro also has an article about Graunke, who talks about his rushing TD.

Graunke apparently wanted to demonstrate he was his own man. After his long completion to Bess to the USU 1, Brennan suggested from the bench that he run the option. But Graunke had other ideas.

"I told him, 'gimme the ball, gimme the QB sneak, I can get the ball in,' " Graunke said. "And, uh, didn't work. So we ended up running the option he wanted to run."

And more praise from Graunke, this time from Ferd Lewis.

Why did UH head coach June Jones stay with Graunke through the struggles against Charleston Southern? How come Jones permitted the long leash two weeks ago when the more vocal but unknowing segment demanded Brennan's return?

Because he knew there would come a game like last night when the Warriors would need Graunke. And they'd need him to pull them through when Brennan wasn't an option.

And in a journalistic case of wearing the same dress to the party, the Star-Bulletin's Jason Kaneshiro writes an article entitled Life in the fast Lane, while the Advertiser's Michael Tsai writes one entitled Warriors loving life in the fast Lane. But what may be an awkward situation for them is all good for Malcolm Lane. From Tsai:

Sophomore receiver and kickoff returner Malcolm Lane touched the football just twice last night, but, oh, did he make an impression.

With the Warriors struggling to find a rhythm against a surprisingly game Utah State squad, it was Lane who delivered, both in quick fashion, two of the game's key plays.

From Kaneshiro:

Lane's score came moments after Utah State had taken a 13-10 lead early in the second quarter as Aggie kicker Chris Ulinski bounced it downfield, through Satele's legs and into Lane's grasp.

"As soon as I picked it up everybody from their team just broke down too far away from the ball," Lane said. "So I just took it to the middle, made a little move and I saw a crease out of the corner of my eye and just hit it."

At the end of Kaneshiro's article, Dan Kelly talks about getting into a tussle.

Kelly even got a bit of contact, getting tangled up with Utah State's Aaron Lesue in a brief scuffle at the end of a kickoff.

"I'm a football player, I'll get hit when I need to get hit, but there's a difference between getting blocked and getting tackled," Kelly said. "You can't let that stuff get to you. If I had let it get to me I might have missed my field goal. I'm a football player and I'll get hit. I'm not going to shy away from it."

I love seeing Kelly dishing out hits during returns. I think he's saved a couple of touchdowns this year too.

Michael Tsai has another article about Kelly's booming 54-yard field goal.

Kelly nailed the field goal to tie the game 10-all, and in the process earned himself the No. 5 spot on UH's list of longest field goals. His previous high was a 52-yarder against Purdue in 2005.

Jason Elam and Justin Ayat share the record of 56 yards; they also share the next spot with respective 55-yarders.

Kelly said his off-season regimen of weights and daily kicking have slowly and surely increased his leg strength, enabling him to increase the distance of his attempts.

There should've been competing articles titled "Kickin field goals and kickin ass!" Awww yeah.

Brian McInnis highlights the play of defensive lineman Josh Leonard.

Leonard, not related to starting linebacker Adam Leonard, came up big when he quelled a Utah State drive by falling on an Amani Purcell-induced fumble on Aggie running back Derrvin Speight at the Hawaii 32 with 3:30 left in the half. To that point, the Warriors' success containing quarterback Leon Jackson III was spotty at best, as USU nailed two first-half field goals to remain within 24-13.

Nick Abramo writes about USU's Kevin Robinson.

"We told the coaches that we should be throwing the ball more," Robinson said. "Let's throw the ball and let's go deep, we told them. They believed in us and let us do it.

"We knew they (the Warriors) were going to score a lot. Our motto was that we gotta score a lot, too. We reached our goal of scoring 30 points, but we didn't hold them."

And the Star-Bulletin's Notebook discusses the return of Jason Rivers from injury, Solomon Elimimian's big night, Jacob Patek's sack, and why USU's offense was able to move the ball on the Warriors.

UPDATE: Here's a column from the Star-Bulletin's Paul Arnett about how the Warriors' BCS hopes hinge on the health of Colt.