Aloha Friday Links - Sugar, Heisman, Etc

The news, it never stops. It's been crazy. Here are some articles from the past few days.

Robert Collias of The Maui News takes a look at the Washington win, the Sugar Bowl, future schedules, etc.

Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise is rooting for the underdog.

The big boys, with their $60 million-plus athletic budgets and football-only dorms and indoor practice facilities, aren't real keen on sharing the postseason spotlight (and payout) with an interloper that has a $21 million athletic budget, spends $2.2 million on football and has to scramble just to make sure the soap dispensers in the showers are filled.

Kyle Woodley of the Newark Advocate is also a Hawaii advocate.

Hawaii is putting up more points than any team in the country, and it's racking up the third-highest number of offensive yards. And while most Western Athletic Conference teams are known for giving up as much as they dole out, the Warriors are in the upper half of the nation of both points and yards allowed.

And I suppose this is a minor point:

They're 12-0.

That's one credential all 119 other FBS teams are missing this year. Ohio State and Kansas are the only teams ranked ahead of Hawaii that have just one loss -- the rest have fallen twice.

Want to penalize the Warriors for a weak schedule? OK.

Let's penalize teams ahead of them for weak losses.

Jeff Miller of the Orange County Register has a great column about Colt Brennan.

In the Warriors' final two tests, with the WAC title and a BCS bid in doubt, he went 82 of 103 for 937 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions.

Yeah, he knows how to finish with flair.

"Hawaii," Brennan said, "has inspired me to do a lot of great things."

At one point, he braided his hair to bond with his dreadlocked receivers. Then, early this season, he had most of his hair dyed blond except for a portion that was dark and in the shape of the Hawaiian Islands. Paradise, genuinely, had gone to the guy's head.

Now, after passing for nearly eight miles and 131 touchdowns for the Warriors, Brennan's college career is down to one award show and one Sugar Bowl. He isn't favored in either.

Matt Hayes of the Sporting News writes why he chose Colt Brennan as his Heisman Trophy pick.

His numbers are impressive (more than 4,100 yards passing, 38 TD; 8 rush TD), and breaking an NCAA record every time he steps on the field helps, too.

But here's what matters: Four times this season Brennan led his team to come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter. The last was against Washington -- with everything on the line -- when Brennan completed a staggering 42-of-50 passes and threw five touchdown passes that accounted for all of Hawaii's points.

If you don't think there was pressure in that Washington game, ask LSU if there was pressure in the Arkansas game with everything on the line. Or West Virginia with Pitt coming to town. Or Missouri against Oklahoma.

Hawaii was down 21-0 in the first quarter, and Brennan kept chipping away.

Just like when the Warriors were down 14 points with four minutes to play at San Jose State -- and Brennan was playing with a high ankle sprain.

Danny Aller of The Albany Herald makes a case for Colt.

Yes, I’ll admit that in reality Brennan likely won’t win the Heisman on Saturday night when it’s awarded in New York — heck, he might even finish dead last — but that certainly doesn’t mean the voters won’t be wrong.

Aside from leading his team to the only undefeated record in Division I-A this year, this kid can flat-out play, and I couldn’t care less about what people say about Hawaii’s strength of schedule. All those arguments will be settled when the Warriors face the top-notch defense of No. 4 Georgia — arguably the second-best team in the nation’s toughest conference — Jan. 1 at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

B.J. Lisko of the Salem News in Ohio makes another case for Colt.

Brennan did what no other Heisman candidate did. He simply won every contest he was asked to win. He led his team from behind. He demolished the squads he was supposed to demolish. He set the bar for pass-oriented college quarterbacks.

Colt Brennan thanks his coach for bringing heat upon himself, which possibly helped Colt get to New York.

Georgia coach Mark Richt and cornerback Thomas Flowers address the system tag in this article by Marc Weizer of Online Athens.

Brennan said Jones actually has a "ton of respect" for Tebow.

"I think what he was trying to say is that the type of passes we throw and the type of execution we're asked to do, Tim Tebow isn't asked to do that in his offense," Brennan said, "but then I'm not asked to run over 225-pound linebackers either."

Cornerback Thomas Flowers played against Tebow and watched Brennan in a replay of Hawaii's win over Washington.

"I understand what he's saying, but Tebow is a great quarterback," Flowers said. "You can't take anything away from that guy. Colt Brennan, that's a great quarterback. You can plug those guys in any system."

Said Richt: "I think if a quarterback is performing at a high level, it means their coach has done a great job of providing them the system where their skills could be maximized. That's the bottom line."

Stephen Tsai checks in from New York.

Colt Brennan is in town, at the first of his many functions.
UH has produced a Colt Brennan Heisman guide. Pretty spiffy ... from the 14 seconds Lois Manin let me read. Lois, who is one of Colt's 10 guests,was on my Delta flight.

And Dave Reardon, in New Jersey, has a new post.

Derek Inouchi reports that Colt Brennan was met by a mad rush of fans at the airport and hotel in New York. Inouchi was told by a Heisman official that it was the “craziest he’s seen.”

I’m headed across the bridge now to meet up with them.