RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM UH receiver Jason Rivers let out a roar before the Senior Walk on Saturday.

UH Football: Rivers saves it for big games

» Hawthorne finds his way home

Hawaii wide receiver Jason Rivers was not among the 11 Warriors named to the All-WAC team yesterday. Maybe that's because he plays his best games in nonconference events.

In three Hawaii bowls, Rivers has 42 catches for 599 yards and six touchdowns. In three games against Pac-10 teams, he has 30 receptions for 487 yards and seven scores.

After Saturday's four-TD, 14-reception, 167-yard effort against Washington, Rivers became UH's third 1,000-yard receiver this season, tying the NCAA record.

Rivers didn't make All-WAC first team, but he made WAC Player of the Week yesterday.

He's at his best in the big games, and looks forward to going up against No. 4 Georgia in the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl.

"It's the same thing when we played Arizona State and Washington. I'm anxious to go up there and see what they have to offer us as far as competition is concerned, the level of play they have," said Rivers, who also has the longest current streak of games with at least one catch. "I know they're an excellent team ... just inches away from being in a national title game. It's going to be a good test for us."

The Warriors return to practice Dec. 13. Meanwhile, they'll work out on their own and focus on final exams.

"We get back to work today," Rivers said. "I don't think anyone's going to gear down because there's just too much excitement and everybody's geared up for the game.

"Nobody's going to stop working now."

Sugar Bowl

» No. 10 Hawaii (12-0) vs. No. 4 Georgia (10-2)
» Jan. 1, 2008
» Louisiana Superdome

ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii coach June Jones said yesterday that he believes Colt Brennan is the best passer in college football history.

Jones swings in defense of Brennan

June Jones has done the impossible. No, we're not talking about getting Hawaii into the Sugar Bowl. The three-time WAC Coach of the Year somehow forced people to look past the latest biggest game in UH history.

He took Georgia off everyone's minds briefly, replacing it with the 2008 opener at Florida.

Jones' assertions of the Gators' Tim Tebow being a system quarterback were meant to give the Warriors' Colt Brennan a final push toward the Heisman Trophy. Most pundits think it's either the sophomore Tebow or Arkansas junior running back Darren McFadden who will hoist the hardware Saturday.

Brennan learns tomorrow if his five TD passes in UH's last-minute comeback victory against Washington to complete UH's unbeaten season last weekend is enough to get him to the finalist ceremony in New York.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see how long Tebow's memory is when the Warriors venture into The Swamp next August, minus Brennan.

For now, what passes for the college football intelligentsia fainted in unison at Jones' remarks. The UH coach repeated them yesterday. And explained them. Several times.

"I'll probably get a little more (heat). My intent was not to demean Tim Tebow in anyway. ... My point was my quarterback has been labeled a system player, for three years. (Brennan is) the best passer in college football history," Jones said. "Tim Tebow is in a system. The last quarterback that was in that system ... Alex Smith (was) talented, but I didn't see him in an NFL passing deal. Colt Brennan plays in an NFL passing game. You can dial it up and see it's not a system. And Tim Tebow's system is a college system.

"He's a great quarterback, probably win another national championship, he's competitive, he's all those things. But a lot of his stuff comes off little dive fakes and all different kinds of things that he's not going to do in the National Football League. That's my point."

Jones was also upset that pundits promoting Tebow for the Heisman talk about his 53 touchdowns responsible for this season. He points out that Brennan passed for an NCAA record 58 last year, when he was sixth in the voting.

"I said, 'I got my point across, you guys ripped me a new one yesterday, but I'll say it again and stand by what I said,' " said Jones, recounting interviews with ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit and Mike Tirico. "I irritated them because they knew I was right."

If Brennan goes to New York, Jones said he'll join him.

"I'll have to get fitted," he said, when asked if he would wear a coat and tie to the formal affair.

On his way out of the press conference, Jones' cell phone buzzed.

"More guys from Florida," he said.

Brennan said he appreciated the support from his coach.

"He's a good guy, you know, I think he might be the best coach in the nation. But I think Coach Jones is like that, he takes extreme pride," Brennan said. "It's funny, I never heard him say face-to-face anything, really, like that. He's always been great to me, but he's always on me and always pushes me. It's cool when he goes out and does that stuff."

The UH quarterback said Jones' comments were misunderstood.

"I know he wasn't taking any shots at Tim Tebow. I've heard him say great things about Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is a great quarterback, he most likely will win the Heisman Trophy. But I think Coach Jones is very strongly trying to take away that whole system thing (on me), and just let the players be players."

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's C.J. Hawthorne grew up in Biloxi, Miss., a 45-minute drive to New Orleans, where he and the Warriors play in the Sugar Bowl.

Hawthorne finds his way home

Talk to C.J. Hawthorne for any length of time, and he's bound to utter this sentence.

"I'm just blessed."

Now, more than ever, the Hawaii senior receiver has reason to feel that way. When it was announced Sunday that the Warriors will play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year's Day, the entire team and state celebrated the triumph.

It has extra meaning for Hawthorne, who was an integral piece in the Warriors' run-and-shoot offense this season with 786 receiving yards and six touchdowns. His hometown of Biloxi, Miss., is just a 45-minute drive away, and unlike the team's visit to the Pelican State early in September to play Louisiana Tech, Carroll Joseph will have the time to journey home during the Warriors' improbable return visit to the South to play No. 4 Georgia.

"It's supernatural, I don't think anything will happen again ever like this," Hawthorne said, shaking his head. "It's extraordinary."

His past is one many people would have trouble escaping, let alone returning to face. But the Warriors' unprecedented success has brought him back. It will be his first return home since the summer of 2006, when the Gulf Coast area still struggled to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

That hurricane was just a minor blip compared to other storms he's endured. Hawthorne's parents separated when he was 11, and his mother, Clemencia Williams, left the lives of C.J. and six of his seven siblings when he was in high school. His father, Jerry, died while C.J. was playing junior college ball along the Gulf Coast, and never got to see him play at the Division I level. Various tragedies have befallen several of his siblings over the years, as they were left to fend for themselves.

But that's all in his past. The two years he's spent in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as a Warrior are to be cherished.

"A lot of stuff happened, but I've been so blessed, and I'm going to be the first one (in the family) to graduate," Hawthorne said. "Even this whole journey has given a lot of people back home hope."

He and his fellow offensive skill-position starters were named recipients of the Western Athletic Conference's first Offensive Unit of the Year Award yesterday (quarterback Colt Brennan, and receivers Hawthorne, Jason Rivers, Ryan Grice-Mullins and Davone Bess).

Grice-Mullins, Bess, Brennan, and linemen John Estes and Hercules Satele were named to the WAC offensive first team. Defensive linemen David Veikune and Mike Lafaele, linebackers Solomon Elimimian and Adam Leonard, and cornerback Myron Newberry earned WAC defensive first-team honors. Dan Kelly was the WAC's first-team kicker. Rivers made second-team offense.

They all know of the many trials and tribulations Hawthorne has survived before coming to Hawaii with his wife, Tina, and son, Kobe.

"He's been over here, he's trusted in whatever he saw in our program to leave his life and come over here and share it with us," Rivers said. "We've taken him in, and he talks about his family all the time. I'm sure it's very special and meaningful that he gets to play over there in front of his family and friends."

Brennan, the repeat WAC Offensive Player of the Year, had more to say on Hawthorne's behalf.

"Here's a young man who had a rough childhood growing up, he's already married with his son, he's a college student," said Brennan.

"And he's really been nickel-and-diming his way through life for the past couple of years. For him to have this experience and this opportunity, it feels great for us guys who have had it a lot easier in life, to see him be rewarded and get something he deserves, we're just thankful that he gets to go home."

June Jones, the WAC Coach of the Year, said that Hawthorne would be able to take a personal day to visit family after the Sugar Bowl. Virtually all of Hawthorne's family still lives in Mississippi.

Two of Hawthorne's brothers and one of his sisters will attend the game. He doesn't expect his mother to be there. She hasn't seen him play on national television yet.

"She's proud of me, I know she is," Hawthorne said. "Football's not really her thing, you know. I've talked to her during the season, like, four times. It's all right though. A lot of times, people just go through so much." He paused. "And when she sits down and thinks about it, I think she's real proud of me."