SAN JOSE, Calif. — "Over-rated ... Over-rated ... Over-rated. ..."

For the better part of four beyond-frustrating quarters last night, the shrill chant from the San Jose State student section dogged University of Hawai'i quarterback Colt Brennan and the 16th-ranked Warriors. It poured into the ear holes of their helmets more than the rains that drifted through the Bay Area. It stuck to them more than the deepening Spartan Stadium mud.

But on a night when they were pushed into the muck and mire only to rise out of it and rally for a stirring 42-35 overtime victory, maybe these Warriors and their quarterback were — how shall we put it — perhaps ... underrated.

In what had been their hour of despair, with a national cable audience and Fiesta Bowl representative watching their season circling the drain, Brennan and the Warriors turned things around dramatically and, in doing so, showed us the resilience of champions.

It was something pretty amazing, under the circumstances.

UH coach June Jones said he told the Warriors when they were down 35-21 in the fourth quarter that what they did the rest of the game would define them.

Actually, as some would put it afterward, it would be more of a confirmation than a definition. It confirmed, under the most intense pressure yet, what this team has been about from the beginning. It underlined, on a bigger stage, what we witnessed at Louisiana Tech. Last night just allowed us to view it a little more clearly and in context.

This was as remarkable a road win as any Warrior team has brought home, and this group has bagged seven in a row on the road over two seasons now. It would be altogether fitting, too, that their seventh consecutive victory to start a season, tying a school record, came over San Jose State's Dick Tomey, whose 1981 UH team set it.

Down 35-21 with 12 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, interceptions, dropped passes and frustrations mounting, this game could have easily gotten not only away from the Warriors but way out of control. The Spartans felt it and their fans certainly had begun to celebrate it.

And the Warriors? "We talked about believing," Brennan said. "We just told ourselves, 'Keep believing and we'll make it happen.' My teammates didn't get down on me even with four or five — whatever it was — interceptions. They had my back. I was surrounded by great people. I was proud to go to compete with them."

Instead, they took turns picking themselves up — the defense making stops and forcing turnovers, the offense extending drives, special teams holding on.

Brennan kept picking himself up and throwing. He threw a school-record 75 passes and completed a school-record 44 of them for 545 yards and four touchdowns.

When Blaze Soares forced and Adam Leonard recovered the fumble that gave UH its shot at a game-tying score in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, and Brennan ran it for a touchdown, he pumped his fists and shouted to the heavens and the crowd.

After all the struggles and uncertainties, that was when he knew. "That's when I knew it was over," Brennan said. "I knew that from 20 yards or 25 yards, whatever it was (the ball gets placed in overtime), nobody could stop us. We were going to score and keep scoring if we had to."

And they did.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.