UH turns attention
to WAC season

Brennan emerges as the Warriors’
top QB in the loss at Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. » Jerry Glanville calls it the preseason. Thankfully for Hawaii, it's over.

Notre Dame reaches top 10 Notre Dame is a top-10 team for the first time in three years, and Southern California has matched Miami for the longest stay at No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25. Charlie Weis' Fighting Irish are No. 10 in the AP media poll released yesterday, jumping 10 spots after upsetting Michigan 17-10 on Saturday to improve to 2-0. "I think too many times rankings are based off of reputation, not off what really happens," Weis said yesterday when asked if he thought he had a top-10 team. "So maybe if you go by what you see, maybe the answer is yes. I'm not there to judge that." Rankings on page B8. Associated Press

When Glanville, the Warriors defensive coordinator, and head coach June Jones were in the NFL, their first two games wouldn't count at all.

They wish that were the situation now. After Saturday's 42-14 defeat at Michigan State, Hawaii has been outscored 105-31 in its two "exhibitions" and will have to win seven of its remaining 11 games to finish with a winning season for the fifth year in a row.

"We gave the big backs the best we had, but we've got to tackle better," said Glanville, whose unit allowed 499 yards, including 199 rushing, Saturday at Spartan Stadium. "We've got our two preseason games out of the way; we better get going."

Of course Jones would rather be 2-0 right now, but playing teams with elite reputations helps his program, he said.

"When we play teams like Michigan State and USC, it makes us grow up fast," Jones said.

The Western Athletic Conference season begins Sept. 24 at Idaho after a bye this week. Although UH still has a lot of unanswered questions heading into league play, at least it has a starting quarterback now.

Jones, at least for now, has decided sophomore Colt Brennan "is ahead" of second-year freshman Tyler Graunke.

Graunke started the season opener against USC, and he and Brennan shared the duties around 50-50 in that game and they graded out close to each other. But Brennan started against Michigan State, played most of the game and performed significantly better then Graunke.

Brennan completed 23 of 31 passes for 219 yards, including two touchdowns. He was not intercepted and also ran seven times for 37 yards.

Graunke was 2-for-11 for 17 yards and rushed twice for -10 yards.

"I'm real excited," Brennan said. "I know Tyler can get it done, too, so he's right on my heels now. I just have to make sure I go out there every day and do the right thing and make the right reads and stay real humble with it, and I think things will work out for both of us."

Brennan completed nine passes in a row in the second half as UH drove to its only two scores of the game; slotback Davone Bess scored on a 3-yard pass after a tip by a Spartans player, and the other TD came on a 16-yard pass to Ian Sample.

It was the first UH career touchdowns for both receivers.

"We drove down and we had a chance for the end zone almost every time (in the second half)," Brennan said. "It's tough when you have to walk in down by that much (MSU led 28-0 at halftime). You want to be in the game. Then I realized we had a whole second half."

The defense played better in the second half, too, allowing 206 of the 499 yards.

"Even though things didn't go our way, we did our best to stay with it," said linebacker Brad Kalilimoku, who was in on nine tackles.

While the Warriors are encouraged by their performance after the break Saturday, it doesn't make them take Idaho -- a team UH beat 52-21 last year -- lightly. That game was at Aloha Stadium, and UH has lost its last six road games.

"These two losses have put a nice little bad taste in our mouths right now. We're pretty bummed out about it, so I don't think we can be overconfident. I know (Idaho) played (Washington State) real tough, so we just have to come out worrying about ourselves," Brennan said. "We're not holding our heads too low. We're concentrating on what's important to us, and that's winning the WAC. If we beat Idaho, we have a big game against Boise and things could work out for us. It's not where you start, it's where you finish and we're concentrating on that now."

After all, those were just preseason games, right?

"You can look at it that way," said senior running back Nate Ilaoa, who rushed for 76 yards in his college debut at the position. "We didn't go into the game looking at it that way.

"This is going to help us a lot. The confidence level is up. We're not going to underestimate anyone, but this is going to help us for the WAC. The way we finished today is going to be a plus for us in the long run."

Hawaii statistics

Team Statistics

	Hawaii	Opp
FIRST DOWN	45	49
Rushing	12	20
Passing	27	25
Penalty	6	4
RUSHING YARDAGE	183	375
Yards gained rushing	231	421
Yards lost rushing	48	46
Rushing attempts	49	74
Average per rush	3.7	5.1
Average per game	91.5	187.5
Touchdowns rushing	0	6
PASSING YARDAGE	613	542
Att-Comp-Int	92-58-2	55-41-1
Average per pass	6.7	11.7
Average per catch	10.6	15.7
Average per game	306.5	321.0
Touchdowns passing	4	7
TOTAL OFFENSE	796	1017
Total plays	141	129
Average per play	5.6	7.9
Average per game	398.0	508.5
KICK RETURNS: No-Yds	11-243	4-87
PUNT RETURNS: No-Yds	1-(-2)	1-14
INT. RETURNS: No-Yds	1-0	2-65
FUMBLES-LOST	4-2	3-0
PENALTIES-YARDS	19-158	14-146
PUNTS-AVG	7-37.3	3-43.0
TIME OF POSSESSION/GAME	32:07	27:53
3RD-DOWN CONVERSIONS	11/25	12/20
4TH-DOWN CONVERSIONS	0/4	2/3

Rushing

	G	Att	Net	Avg	TD	Long
Ilaoa	2	9	76	8.4	0	41
Graunke	2	9	33	3.7	0	12
Maneafaiga	2	12	30	2.5	0	10
Brennan	2	13	28	2.2	0	19
Farmer	2	6	16	2.7	0	8
Total	2	49	183	3.7	0	41

Passing

	G	Att	Comp	Int	Yds	TD	Long
Brennan	2	63	44	1	469	3	43
Graunke	2	28	14	0	144	1	36
Milne	2	1	0	1	0	0	0
Total	2	92	58	2	613	4	43

Receiving

	G	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Grice-Mullen	2	12	119	9.9	0	25
Bess	2	10	88	8.8	1	19
Sample	2	8	111	13.9	1	27
Maneafaiga	2	8	75	9.4	1	27
Dickerson	2	7	141	20.1	0	43
Washington	2	5	31	6.2	0	9
Farmer	2	3	17	5.7	1	7
Linkner	1	2	22	11.0	0	22
Ilaoa	2	2	3	1.5	0	3
Ferguson	1	1	6	6.0	0	6
Total	2	58	613	10.6	4	43

Total Offense

	G	Plays	Rush	Pass	Tot	Avg
Brennan	2	76	28	469	497	248.5
Graunke	2	37	33	144	177	88.5
Ilaoa	2	9	76	0	76	38.0
Maneafaiga	2	12	30	0	30	15.0
Farmer	2	6	16	0	16	8.0
Total	2	141	183	613	796	398.0

Scoring

	TD	FG	1XP	2XP	Tot
Kelly	0	1	4	0	7
Bess	1	0	0	0	6
Maneafaiga	1	0	0	0	6
Farmer	1	0	0	0	6
Sample	1	0	0	0	6
Total	4	1	4	0	31

Punting

	No.	Yds	Avg	Long
Milne	7	261	37.3	47
Total	7	261	37.4	47

Punt Returns

	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Bess	1	-2	-2.0	0	0
Total	1	-2	-2.0	0	0

Kick Returns

	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Taylor	5	136	27.2	0	40
Kafentzis, T.	5	88	17.6	0	24
Ferguson	1	19	19.0	0	19
Total	11	243	22.1	0	40

Tackles

	G	UT	AT	Tot
Kalilimoku	2	10	3	13
Patton	2	11	0	11
Moe	2	9	2	11
Alama-Francis	2	5	5	10
Broadway	2	3	6	9
Manners	2	8	1	9
Elimimian	2	6	2	8
Kamakawiwo'ole	2	5	3	8
Kaomaka	2	5	0	5
Peters	1	5	0	5
Kafentzis, L.	2	3	0	3
Curnan	2	2	1	3
TEAM	2	3	0	3
Purcell	2	2	0	2
Akpan	2	2	0	2
Monteilh	1	1	0	1
LaCount	2	1	0	1
Kauia	2	1	0	1
Peoples	1	1	0	1
Laeli	1	1	0	1
Malala	2	1	0	1
Fonoti	1	1	0	1
Grice-Mullen	2	1	0	1
Saole	1	1	0	1
Milne	2	1	0	1
Total	2	89	23	112

Misc.

Sacks (No.-Yds.): Alama-Francis, 2-10. Broadway, 1-7. Total: 3-17.
Interceptions (No.-Yds.): Patton, 1-0. Total: 1-0.
Fumbles (Total-Fumbles Forced-Fumbles Recovered): None.
Blocked kicks: None.