Officially, University of Hawai'i quarterback Colt Brennan was allowed to take along 10 invited guests with him to today's Heisman Trophy ceremonies in New York.

Unofficially, his entourage fairly overflows.

When Brennan takes his bows today as one of the four finalists for the most prestigious award in college sports, he will have with him, in spirit if not exactly the flesh, every player who has worn the UH uniform in its various hues and incarnations. Every "Fighting Dean" "Rainbow" and Warrior through the years.

But it is the quarterbacks in the head coach June Jones era (1999-present) in particular with whom there is a forged steel bond. They are, as quarterback coach Dan Morrison puts it, "a special, tight-knit fraternity."

Theirs is a shared lineage, a unique, active fellowship — and a lot more. Stretching from Dan Robinson to Brennan, they not only know each other by reputation and through game video archives, but personally. They celebrate each other's triumphs, feel one another's pain and share tips and insights.

When Brennan arrived on the Manoa campus, Nick Rolovich was there to help ease him into the complexities of the nation's most productive offense. When Brennan made his first start, Robinson was at Michigan State in 2005 to talk to him. And they have kept up the dialogue ever since, often with Morrison as the conduit.

The brethren are conversant in a language of "switches" and other terms that the uninitiated can only guess at. When one of them plays on television, the others see the game behind the game through similar eyes.

When Robinson, who was a holdover from the Fred vonAppen era, finished his one season under Jones by rewriting the record book, he pointedly told people, "you haven't seen anything yet." The surface was just being scratched on what his successors would and where they could take the Warriors. Those who followed in his cleats, Robinson said, would lift the offense to new, barely imagined heights.

For somebody who has become a Louisville, Ky., dentist, Robinson was also quite the prophet. Robinson was part of the biggest single-season turnaround in NCAA history, taking the Warriors from 0-12 to 9-4. Rolovich, now quarterbacks coach at City College of San Francisco in today's California State Junior College Championship, had the finest four-game stretch of passing in NCAA history. Tim Chang broke the NCAA career passing yardage mark. And, now, Brennan has set the NCAA career touchdown standard and taken the Warriors to the Heisman Trophy ceremonies.

"Everybody who played, whether they were a backup defensive lineman or special teams player, feels a part of this," Rolovich said. "But as a quarterback, you feel like you have a foot on that stage (today) with Colt."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.