Brennan has flourished with second chance at Hawaii

	Hawaii QB Colt Brennan leads the nation in passing efficiency and has also thrown a Division I-A-best 39 touchdown passes. AP
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Thousands of miles from the darkest time of his life, Colt Brennan has found redemption in the warmth of paradise.

After being charged with breaking into a dorm room and fondling a girl and getting dismissed from the team at Colorado, he has learned some valuable lessons to become the player and person he always thrived to be. But the Hawaii quarterback hasn't forgotten, not for a moment. He remembers that feeling in a Boulder, Colo., courtroom of having his life hanging in the balance of a jury.

"That whole experience just kind of brought me down a level, just put my whole life in perspective," Brennan said. "It made me wake up and realize you don't always have complete control of your life."

Brennan was given a second chance by coach June Jones at Hawaii and has become the best quarterback you've never seen. The 6-foot-3, 196-pound junior leads the nation in passing efficiency (190.0) -- completing an astonishing 72.9 percent of his passes -- and total offense and has thrown a Division I-A best 39 touchdowns to just six interceptions.

But there was a time when none of this seemed possible.

The February 2004 incident, which came at the height of the school's sordid recruiting scandal, got Brennan ousted from the team. He says he felt "like I was really being made an example of."

He pled not guilty to all charges and was acquitted of the sexual assault charge, but was convicted of first-degree criminal trespass and second-degree burglary. He received a sentence of seven days in jail and four years probation.

"I'm a big believer in karma and I think that there were a lot of things that went down out there in Colorado that really set me up and I kept my head straight that there was something really big waiting for me down the road," Brennan said. "Something really, really big."

That something came in the form of Jones, who saw a tape of Brennan playing for Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, Calif., after he left Colorado.

"At the end of [his highlight tape] was an actual game tape," Jones said. "I watched the first 20 plays. I asked my quarterbacks coach Dan [Morrison], 'Who is this guy? This guy can play.' I've never seen anyone so accurate throwing the football. Most highlight tapes come with guys completing balls, but receivers have to turn sometimes [to catch the ball] or whatever. But every ball on this tape was right on the money in stride."