ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii QB Colt Brennan is expected to play this weekend.

Brennan plans to play

Having his Heisman Trophy candidate hobbling around campus can't be the most reassuring thought, but June Jones is confident quarterback Colt Brennan will be ready to play Saturday against Charleston Southern.

Brennan, the nation's second-leading passer, hurt his ankle during last Friday's walk-through practice but played through it in UH's 49-14 win over UNLV. He didn't participate in yesterday morning's workout and is expected to sit out this morning's practice as well.

Jones hopes he'll be ready to return to action tomorrow but if he can't, "if he can practice Thursday and Friday we'll be all right," Jones said yesterday during his weekly press conference.

"We'll make sure he's OK, but I'm not concerned about him playing."

After sweeping a two-game road trip, the No. 18 Warriors return to Aloha Stadium on Saturday to face the Division I-AA Buccaneers of the Big South Conference.

Jones said Brennan will have to practice this week in order to get on the field on Saturday and backup Tyler Graunke might see more playing time.

"My history is no matter who they are they have to practice," Jones said. "If they don't practice they don't play very well and he's in the same category."

Despite the injury, Brennan completed 26 of 32 passes for 298 yards and two touchdowns while running for three more. The senior leads the nation in points responsible for with 32 points per game.

"When I saw the size of his ankle (prior to the UNLV game) I was thinking he probably wasn't going to play very long," Jones said. "But he had a lot of people there and he wanted to play.

"That injury, you'd better be able to play with it or you're not going to ever make it in the National Football League. I can tell you that."