"If football didn't work out I was going to find a nice little hut and chill out for the rest of my life," Brennan said in rapid-fire cadence during a recent interview. "But then football worked out."

You could say that.

He finished sixth in last year's Heisman Trophy balloting and plans as a senior to kick it up a notch as Hawai'i enters the season with a chance to earn the Western Athletic Conference's second consecutive bid to a Bowl Championship Series bowl.

Brennan opted not to leave early for the NFL despite being told he was likely a second-round pick. He turned 24 on Aug. 16 and returns to continue reworking the NCAA record book and his image.

"When I was going through a lot of the rough times, it was very surreal ... for me," Brennan said. "And now going through all the good times, it's a surreal moment for me. It's kind of hard to fathom. Right now, you're taking it for what it's worth and trying to do it right and not mess it up."

On the field and in life, Brennan is trying to stand tall in the pocket.

He's still got a reputation to live down. He knows character questions will haunt him again next year when he prepares for the NFL draft.

It's tough enough trying to convince the NFL that a run-and-shoot system quarterback can make it in the pros (see Andre Ware, David Klinger, Tim Chang).

Brennan is borderline NFL in size at 6-foot-3 and only 205 pounds, and the league's recent crackdown on bad guys makes it essential for Brennan to prove he's not one.

"Once the season's over, it will probably resurface and I'll have to deal with it," Brennan said of his past.

Brennan would not be able to match Leinart's linear, rocket-rise to stardom even though he tried to mimic Leinart's style after he getting his chance at Mater Dei.

"And it was horrible, because that's not me," Brennan said. "I'm not Matt Leinart."

Who was he?

The Colorado mess left Brennan isolated and unpopular with scholarship givers. Syracuse backed off, and San Jose State, which showed interest, was too close to home.

So Brennan went island hopping.

He has made questionable moves in his life, but going to Hawai'i was not one of them. The island offered distance, shelter, stability, and the quarterback-knowledge services of coach June Jones.

"I was embarrassed," Brennan said of his predicament. "I wanted to get away. ... Hawai'i seemed like just the place to do it."

Brennan still has a year and half left on the four-year probation he received stemming from unlawfully entering a coed's dorm room at Colorado.

He has blended into island culture. He knows enough Samoan that he sometimes calls plays in the language at the line of scrimmage: "For the guys on the other side of the ball, they are like, `What the hell are they saying?' "

Brennan has put up almost mind-boggling numbers. He threw for 4,301 yards and 35 touchdowns in 10 starts before last season and topped that by passing for 5,549 yards and 58 touchdowns in 2006 while breaking or tying 18 NCAA records.

The trick now, though, is to prove he's more than just numbers.

Jones says the knock on run-and-shoot quarterbacks being "products of a system" is unfair. For every Ware and Klinger that failed on the next level, Jones, a former NFL head coach in Atlanta and San Diego, points to a number of successes:

"Jim Kelly played in our deal, Warren Moon played in our deal," Jones argued in defense of a pass-happy offense. "Bobby Hebert went to his only Pro Bowl, Jeff George went to his only Pro Bowl, Chris Miller went to his only Pro Bowl.

"Obviously, average quarterbacks or guys in the middle of the range get better, and the great ones are great no matter what they do. If Joe Montana was in our system, he'd figure it out."

Chang, the Hawai'i quarterback who preceded Brennan, put up huge passing numbers but, so far, has not stuck in the NFL.

Jones says he doesn't doubt Brennan's potential.

"Jeff George, Dan Marino and Colt are only guys I've seen when they release the ball their right foot is off the ground," Jones said. "I don't know what it means, but I'm going to start looking for it in high school."

Jones calls Brennan the most accurate passer he has coached since George.

Even Brennan's life, it seems, is on the straight and narrow, and football is not the only thing he is passing along.

He likes speaking now to young players at risk.

Brennan, after all, was once in their cleats.