Brennan breaks TD passing record as Warriors win Hawaii Bowl
NCAA Football Betting Lines
12/25/2006 - Honolulu, HI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan broke the NCAA single-season touchdown passing record, throwing for five scores, all in the second half, and a school-record 559 yards, as the Warriors beat Arizona State, 41-24, in the Hawaii Bowl.
Brennan's 58 TD passes eclipses the mark of 54 by Houston's David Klingler in 1990. Brennan connected on 33-of-42 passes and was also picked off once.
Jason Rivers caught 14 balls for a school-record 308 yards for the Warriors (11-3), who were playing at home in the Hawaii Bowl for the fourth time in five seasons. They've won three of those games, beating Houston in 2003 and UAB in 2004, while losing to Tulane in 2002.
Nate Ilaoa had 97 bruising yards on 18 carries for Hawaii, which equaled the school record for most wins in a season, set in 1992.
Ryan Torain ran for 160 yards and a score for the Sun Devils (7-6), who were playing their last game under head coach Dirk Koetter. He was fired last month, with former Idaho coach Dennis Erickson taking over the reins going into next season. Rudy Carpenter went 13-of-26 for 191 yards with a pair of TDs through the air for Arizona State.
Brennan lit up Arizona State's defense in the third quarter, breaking the record. He tied the mark with a 38-yard pass to Rivers, which equaled the score at 10-10 with 12:29 left in the quarter.
Brennan set the record with a seven-yard strike to Ryan Grice-Mullen with 8:46 to go in the same period. Grice-Mullen caught the ball and then moved to the right sideline before stretching the ball over the goal line, just before going out of bounds. The play was reviewed, but the call stood.
Incredibly, Brennan's 56th came on another connection to Grice-Mullen, a 36- yarder over the middle with 2:14 left in the third, for a 24-10 margin.
Then, after the Sun Devils cut the margin to 27-24, Brennan put away Arizona State, hitting Davone Bess with a 21-yard scoring pass with 5:16 left.
ASU was then forced to punt, and Brennan put the icing on the cake by throwing to Rivers over the middle on 3rd-and-9 for a 79-yard TD with 2:01 remaining.
The completion moved Brennan past the 543 yards for Nick Rolovich (2001) for the school record. Also, Rivers surpassed the receiving yardage record of 285 set by current Atlanta Falcon Ashley Lelie in 2001.
Rivers and Brennan were honored as the co-MVPs for the Warriors, while Torain was Arizona State's MVP.
Down 24-10, the Sun Devils had a TD pass wiped out in the third by an illegal shift call. Then, Carpenter was sacked on a blitz and fumbled the ball away, giving Hawaii possession at the ASU 48 with just over a minute left in the third. Brennan guided his team into field goal position and Dan Kelly was good from 43 yards away with 13:04 left for a seemingly comfortable 27-10 lead.
However, Torain rumbled for 64 yards, setting up his 12-yard run for a score. Ilaoa then fumbled and Arizona State took over at the Hawaii 27. Carpenter's four-yard TD pass to Michael Jones made it 27-24 with 10:25 left, but then came Brennan's back-breaking TD tosses.
Torain fumbled the ball away for Arizona State on its first possession at the Hawaii 11, but the Sun Devils broke on top on Jesse Ainsworth's 44-yard field goal late in the opening quarter.
Kelly missed a 42-yarder late in the first, but then split the uprights from the same distance in the second to tie the game.
Arizona State failed on a fourth down deep in Hawaii territory early in the second, but then forged ahead, 10-3, at the half following Carpenter's 37-yard TD pass down the middle to Brandon Smith. The score came with 5:21 to go in the second quarter, shortly after Brennan was picked off by Josh Barrett.
Game Notes
Bess had a pair of flags for unsportsmanlike conduct and was ejected after his TD grab. The second flag came after Bess went toward the stands to interact with the crowd...The only Hawaii Bowl the Rainbows have not been involved in was in 2004 when Nevada beat Central Florida...Rolovich set the previous Hawaii record Dec. 8, 2001 against BYU, while Lelie's mark was against Air Force Nov. 24, 2001...Arizona State fell to 5-2 all-time against Hawaii...ASU fell to 12-10-1 all-time in bowl games...Grice-Mullen had eight catches for 111 yards...Hawaii had 680 totals yard to 391 for Arizona State.
Honolulu, HI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hawaii junior quarterback Colt Brennan broke the NCAA single-season touchdown passing record, throwing his 55th in the Hawaii Bowl Sunday against Arizona State Brennan has three touchdown passes in the game, b
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
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