Ty Detmer has heard Colt Brennan coming.

Heard it from friends who are only too happy to remind the owner of what was once almost an NCAA record for records that he is about to lose perhaps his most illustrious one to the University of Hawai'i quarterback. And, now, he's hearing it from the media.

"I figured I'd be getting a call here real quick," Detmer laughed from Texas, where news that Brennan is but three touchdowns away from breaking the career mark of 121 touchdowns finds him regularly these days. "My friends, here, they like to keep those (reminders) coming. They tell me my records are falling left and right."

When Detmer left Brigham Young University after the 1991 season, it was with 59 NCAA records. A near-record haul for NCAA marks, you might say. Slowly over the intervening decade and a half that saw him play 14 years in the NFL they are being rewritten as people reminded him yesterday upon his 40th birthday. But the one Brennan takes aim at is one of the most cherished and most defining for the 1990 Heisman Trophy winner.

"It will be one of the last major ones to go," Detmer said. "Any of the career marks, especially, mean a lot. It shows what you've done over a long period of time. It shows that it wasn't just a one-year flash-in-the-pan type of thing."

Indeed, Detmer assembled this one over parts of four seasons (1988-91) for the Cougars when they were a dominating force in the old Western Athletic Conference and owned the passing chapter in the NCAA record book. Brennan figures to break it in three years and in fewer games and attempts, unlike former UH quarterback Tim Chang, who captured Detmer's career passing yardage mark in 2004 with more games and attempts.

Even with the bite Warrior quarterbacks have taken out of his record holdings, Detmer, now a rancher and financial adviser, is an avowed fan of UH and its offense. "I enjoy watching Hawai'i (on TV). I like watching June Jones' offense. They are wide open and, for a former quarterback, you like watching the ball in the air a lot."

As a Heisman Trophy voter, Detmer also likes what he sees in Brennan. He likes that Brennan returned for a senior season and lauds the leadership he sees. "I definitely would (consider him)," Detmer said. "He's done everything that's been asked of him. They're ranked, undefeated. People are going to talk about the level of competition and all those things but the bottom line is he is throwing the ball where he has to even when everybody is gunning for him. He makes it all work for them (the Warriors). I think he is definitely in Heisman contention."

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