Former electric Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan died Tuesday at the age of 37, sending shockwaves through the college football world.
Terry Brennan, Colt’s father, said the family took Colt to an emergency room Sunday night when they found him extremely intoxicated, but his son was turned away from a detox facility because no beds were available. Paramedics were called to a hotel Monday where Colt had been with other people.
His father, Terry, told media that Colt ingested something laced with fentanyl and never regained consciousness.
Before Colt’s high-flying career with the Rainbow Warriors under coach June Jones, he was recruited to play at San Jose State by his own cousin, current Spartans head coach Brent Brennan. Brent was the recruiting coordinator under legendary head coach Dick Tomey and offered Colt a scholarship.
Instead, Colt walked on at Hawaii, so Brent and the Spartans had to play against him three times, losing all three WAC showdowns between 2005 and 2007.
Brent remembered the games coaching against his cousin in a heartfelt poem he posted Wednesday morning on Twitter.
In 2005, Colt was California’s junior college offensive player of the year at Saddleback College, but most D-I schools had been scared off by the well-documented 2004 on-campus incident at Colorado that got him kicked off the team and landed him in jail for a week after being convicted of criminal trespass and burglary.
Brent, then the SJSU recruiting coordinator, offered his cousin a scholarship, but was turned down.
“I could have gone to San Jose State, but I have family here, and I was embarrassed. I wanted to get away,” Colt said during 2007 WAC media day in San Jose. “When I went through the Colorado thing, the thing I wanted to do was get away. Hawaii seemed like just the place to do it.”
Colt added, “If football didn’t work out, I was going to find a nice little hut and chill out for the rest of my life. But then football worked out.”
Colt went on to a record-setting career at Hawaii, and had three big games against his cousin. Hawaii beat SJSU each time, and Colt passed for more than 1,400 yards and 12 touchdowns in those games.
Before their final meeting, in 2007, Brent was asked about how close the cousins got to working with each other and said it worked out the way it was supposed to.
“A lot of times with recruiting, I think players end up where they belong,” he said.
Colt’s college career was one of the greatest in Hawaii history as he amassed an amazing 14,193 passing yards and 131 touchdowns in three seasons, leading the Warriors to an undefeated regular season and Sugar Bowl appearance in his senior year. He finished in the top six of Heisman Trophy voting in his final two years with the Warriors.
Below is the full text of Brent’s poem:
legends come and legends gobut legends never die
until this day i hear them sayi sit alone and cry.
a spirit of joy, of smiles, of fun,has moved on to another place
and we are left trying to understandand fill the empty space.
his game was big his heart was biggerhis energy lit up the room
i know it’s this, we all will missas colt is gone too soon.
when on the field it looked so easy,he was always in control
while off the field the struggles came,and he battled for his soul.
his life was filled with ups and downsthe best and harder days,
but when i think of him, i will choose to grin,and remember his magical ways.
he lifted a state, a program, a team,he gave us hope he taught us to dream.
i want to trust god’s timing is as perfectas a young colt brennan dime
i know we will all miss him dearly,but in the end it was just his time.
we shared special moments in those games,and i remember them all
he beat my teams every time,both running and throwing the ball.
and when the game ended we would meet at midfield,there was always an embrace
he would take off his helmet,with his huge colt smile spread across his face.
and in big hearted fashion as colt brennan always does,with his big smile he’d give me a hug, and say… “i love you cuz.”