For the 2007 Western Athletic Conference football champions, the Aloha State is in a state of aloha.

Hawai'i defensive tackle Michael Lafaele said he received well wishes from friends and family members.

Linebacker Solomon Elimimian said he was congratulated while shopping at Wal-Mart.

"My phone's been going off," said quarterback Colt Brennan, noting his cell stopped accepting messages.

Brennan said he received text messages from across the country. Several came from Boston. More from Chicago, where a former Colorado teammate watched Friday's telecast of UH's 39-27 victory over Boise State.

"He said the game was on every single TV in the bar, and the place was going nuts cheering for us," Brennan said. "That was really awesome."

Brennan acknowledged the wide-reaching importance of the Warriors' first outright Western Athletic Conference football title. In 28 years of membership, they only shared titles in 1992 and 1999.

"Being out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we're isolated from the rest of the United States," Brennan said. "We're all we have out here. This is for everyone here."

Brennan said the title was a culmination of an effort that began when June Jones accepted the head coaching job in 1998. By coming to Manoa, Jones left behind a multi-million opportunity to remain in the National Football League.

"I don't think this championship is solely for this team," Brennan said. "It goes to so many teams, ever since coach Jones got here. All of those teams built up this standard, and now we've taken it to the next level."

The core of the team — Brennan, slotbacks Davone Bess and Ryan Grice-Mullins, linebackers Elimimian and Adam Leonard, defensive tackles Lafaele and Fale Laeli, and kicker Dan Kelly — joined or emerged in 2005. Although that team finished 5-7 — only one of two losing seasons during Jones' tenure — it established an identity.

"That was a special group," Jones said. "It just continued to grow. We reaped what we sowed."

The Warriors finished 11-3 last season.

"There were tremendous leaders on that (2005) team, like Lono Manners and Kila Kamakawiwo'ole and Brandon Eaton and Derek Fa'avi," Brennan said. "I remember how disappointed I was because we couldn't give them a great senior year. That was one thing we wanted to give Sam (Satele) and Nate (Ilaoa) and Mel (Purcell) last year."

It is why, Brennan said, "whatever success we have this year is definitely dedicated to all of the guys who have been here the last couple of years, especially last year. It's dedicated to the guys on the 5-7 team. Those guys were a part of this. We set out to do great things when we played with them. The lessons we learned (in 2005) helped us last year and made us what we are this year."

Jones has tried to downplay the significance of Friday's victory, the first over Boise State in seven years. After defeating San Jose State last month to improve to 8-0, Jones reduced the remainder of the schedule to a four-game season. The Warriors close the regular season Saturday against Washington.

"It's a four-game playoff, and we won the third," Jones said of the quest for an unbeaten regular season and a possible berth in a BCS game. "We have to win the fourth to get to our Super Bowl. Everybody knows what's at stake. We've been talking about it for so long. Everybody knows we have to win one more."

Brennan said there was great relief in beating Boise State.

"Now that we've done that, there's new life on our team," Brennan said. "We got that big monkey off our back. Now we can focus on going out and making a great statement."

Brennan said the Warriors' comeback victories on the road instilled confidence.

"We could be down by 14 or 20 points in the fourth quarter, and we still believe we're still in that football game," he said. "That's the difference in this football team, and that's the difference between winning and losing. That's what a lot of analysts don't realize about what football is and what winning is."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.