COLT BRENNAN
position · quarterback
key stats · broke or tied 18 NCAA records, 17 WAC records and 41 school records

6 Tyler Graunke	11 Inoke Funaki	12 Kiran Kepo’o

COMPARISONS

Tim Chang started for four-plus seasons and broke the NCAA career passing-yardage mark. Chang was more durable than many people realized, often playing hurt. But he suffered from consistency problems and was plagued by interceptions (sometimes caused by inexperienced receivers). Dan Robinson’s toughness and savvy led UH to its 1999 miracle turnaround. Nick Rolovich enjoyed one of the greatest three-game runs in NCAA history in 2001, throwing 20 TD passes. Operating out of Paul John-son’s spread option, Garrett Gabriel delivered two big wins over BYU and Michael Carter a WAC championship and Holiday Bowl victory. Raphel Cherry was a superb athlete, and his duels with UNLV’s Randall Cunningham were legendary.

POSITIVES

Colt Brennan is an incredibly accurate passer. He has completely mastered June Jones’ offense to the point where he sometimes sees things the coach doesn’t. It is common for Brennan to complete passes for big gains on the third or fourth read.

He is also very difficult to rattle, and scrambles well when necessary. After a 2005 season in which he put up very good numbers without really knowing the offense, Brennan was spectacular last year with more knowledge of the run-and-shoot. He is an outstanding leader who almost always hits the right tone with teammates, coaches, fans and media.

No. 2 quarterback Tyler Graunke is a very solid backup. He was as accurate as Brennan last year. Yes, he passed in mop-up situations, often against bad defenses - but that is negated by the fact that he was often working with a patchwork crew of first-, second- and third-teamers. Graunke is a strong runner who seems to be perfect for option packages.

No. 3 Inoke Funaki is a strong all-around athlete. Like Graunke and Brennan, he has the confidence of his teammates - even though he hasn’t had to play in crucial situations yet.

NEGATIVES

Brennan has been criticized by some for a three-quarters delivery, but when he needs to throw a deep pass, he throws over the top. Still, he seems to have more than his share of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage by savvy defensive linemen with good timing. Brennan is not very fast, but he is quite elusive and very good at picking the right time to run. He has no fear, and hopefully for him that doesn’t lead to a serious injury someday. The velocity of Brennan’s passes has been questioned, but that perceived flaw hasn’t caused any problems for him so far.

DAN MORRISON / QUARTERBACKS COACH

“It’s such a unique thing to start with a guy like Colt who has captured so much national attention. Obviously he has had a great offseason getting ready for this particular year. He’s just so confident. Tyler has the same confidence and knows the system and Inoke is doing well too. The young kids are in the learning stage, but because the three veterans are so far along the kids are learning faster.”