In this historic Hawai'i football season, it seems a new hero emerges every week.

But it was difficult to make room for the latest one, quarterback Tyler Graunke, who filled in for star quarterback Colt Brennan to spur Friday's 28-26 road victory over Nevada.

On the return flight to Honolulu early yesterday, Graunke recalled, "it was fun for the first couple of hours. Then the next four hours were pretty miserable. I couldn't sleep."

With a team rule banning gambling games in Reno, the Warriors had spent free time playing arcade games at the nearby Circus Circus hotel. In the theme of this trip, the Warriors came away big winners.

"Everybody won all of these big stuffed animals," Graunke said. "You know how good Colt is. He won a lot of animals."

On the charter flight, two players were assigned to every three-seat row.

"The middle seat was filled with stuff Colt won," Graunke said. "I was crunched up in the corner. It was tough to sleep."

Then again, Graunke did not have to sleep to experience a dream.

"Oh, man, it was an unbelievable game," Graunke said. "I'm so proud of the guys. I'm so glad we got an opportunity to pull out a win on national television."

The night before the game, head coach June Jones summoned the players for a special meeting. It was then that Jones announced that Brennan, who had suffered a concussion in the previous game, would not start and only be used for a handful of specific plays. Jones then handed the offense to Graunke, a fourth-year junior who had made two UH starts.

In an act of team unity, each player went up and expressed his faith in Graunke.

"That was one of the coolest things ever," Graunke said. "I'm sure the fans were concerned, but our team has full confidence in me and Inoke (Funaki, the third-string quarterback). After that little team talk, I felt unbelievably special. This is a special team. We're 10-0 for a damn good reason, because we're a bunch of great football players who play together."

Jones said: "Tyler is a player. I knew that from the first scrimmage (in August 2004). He's tough, very tough, and a competitor."

That was evident Friday night, when Graunke absorbed several big hits.

"My (throwing) hand got hit on one," he said. "I hit it on somebody's helmet. That kind of hurt. My head got hurt on that third down, when I took the sack. I was slow getting up. I blacked out for a second. It was weird. I got, like, deja vu. I didn't think I was going to be straight-headed, but it came back to me real quick. I'm grateful for that."

Graunke was particularly sharp in the game-winning drive. The Warriors took over at their 12 with 2:16 remaining and no timeouts.

But the line blocked well, and Graunke repeatedly hit slotbacks Davone Bess and Ryan Grice-Mullins for clock-stopping first downs.

"It says a lot about the team to put together a drive like that," Jones said. "Everybody stepped up and made plays. We had a 13-play drive with no timeouts. That's unheard of."

It was punctuated when Dan Kelly hit the game-winning field goal from 45 yards.

"Sometimes I get nervous and my body feels weird when I go out there," Graunke said. "(On the final drive) I was super calm. I wasn't cold. I was real focused on the game. I just knew we were going to win. We didn't put up as many points as we should have, but everyone had this real positive attitude. It was real cool just being out there with everybody."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.