Feature article on Colt

TFP = Chattanooga Times Free Press

About Colt's popularity in Hawaii now, JJ said:
"He could get anything he wanted to win on this island right now," Hawaii coach June Jones said. "He could be governor. He could be speaker of the house. We could go back to the royal times, and he could be king." (TFP)

About what happened to him in Colorado, Colt said:
"I was devastated. Everybody talks about how I got found guilty of trespassing and burglary, but that's not what I was accused of. I was accused of some serious things, and luckily a jury found me not guilty of some things. To this day, it still affects me. It still haunts me and is with me. I have not gotten over it." (TFP)

About evaluating Colt before offering him a scholarship, JJ said:
"It was a difficult situation. I talked with everybody who had been around him -- grade-school teachers, high school teachers, his coaches at Mater Dei High School, his coaches at Colorado. Everybody said he was a great kid. It just seemed like it was a bad judgment that he made, and that he needed a second chance. If he was not a good kid, I probably would not have given him a second chance, but everybody around the guy said he was a really good person. I rolled the dice, took a chance, and he's proven that he is a good person." (TFP)

About Colt and the Heisman, JJ said:
"Colt Brennan should have won the Heisman last year, no doubt about it. The word 'system' was used to put disdain on what he had accomplished. He had more yards and touchdown passes than the two top quarterbacks, Troy Smith and Chad Henne, combined, and he did it in fewer attempts." (TFP)

Asked if Colt is appreciative of his second chance, JJ said that he shows it every day by:
"saying no to nobody and signing every autograph he can." (TFP)

About choosing to go to UH, Colt said:
"After the whole Colorado situation, I was kind of humiliated. My friends and family had to read such horrible things about me in the newspaper. I wanted to get away, and initially that's what I loved about Hawaii. It was a place to isolate myself. I came to Hawaii for life first, but when I really got things settled off the field was when things started really working out for me on the field." (TFP)

TFP Note: "Once at Hawaii, Brennan immersed himself in Polynesian culture. He filled his language requirement by taking Samoan because so many of his teammates are Samoan, and he appreciates how no teammate ever said anything bad about the Colorado incident. Brennan lives across the street from a juvenile detention center, so he often talks with kids about the mistake he made and how it shaped him."


About talking with kids about the mistakes he made and how it shaped him, Colt said:
"I love going back and helping out kids. I remember when I got in trouble hitting my knees and saying, 'God, you know I didn't do this or do anything to deserve this and that, I swear, if you give me another situation, I'll do anything you want for the rest of my life.' He definitely guided me out of that situation, and I definitely wanted to go out and make a difference for the better ever since I got out here in Hawaii." (TFP)