What Colt Brennan does is walk into the youth detention center, sit down with the newest line of delinquents and spin a tale of redemption sought. His.

"I look at them and say, 'Hey, look. You're looking at a convicted felon right now,'" Colt Brennan said. " 'And I've not let that hold me back one bit. You can decide your fate in this world.' "

These are indeed the times of young Colton James Brennan's life. Just 25 days ago, he put the final touch on the first 12-0 season in Hawaii football history, conducting a 21-point comeback to beat Washington.

Twenty days ago, he finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, the best finish by a player from a non-BCS league in 13 years (Steve McNair, Alcorn State, 1994). Just 12 days ago, wearing shorts and sandals beneath his green robe, Colt Brennan was handed his UH diploma, a bachelor of arts degree in communications. To punctuate the moment, commencement speaker Barry Weinman pulled on a replica of Brennan's No. 15 jersey as he spoke.

And in just four days, Colt Brennan plays the biggest game in his, his school's and maybe his conference's existence, facing Georgia in Tuesday's Sugar Bowl. He brings with him a feared right arm to go with a 13-game win streak, the longest current one in the nation.

But with scant acknowledgement, another milestone passed with the completion of his degree. The terms of his probation, which has lasted three years, were satisfied one year early by his graduation. That might close the book, at least in a way, on one life-changing night in January, 2004, when he walked into a girl's dorm room. He insists he was invited. She said otherwise.

Subsequently charged and convicted on trespassing and burglary charges, Colt Brennan has been trying to make up for that decision ever since. While he has become one of the nation's best quarterbacks during his afternoons, he also endeavored to restore himself as a creditable and resolute young man he knew himself to be.

In Hawaii, this is how they know him. And nearly every week since he arrived in the summer of 2005, he has spoken to troubled youth about his life's path.

"The message is, just because you've messed up or made a mistake doesn't mean you have to be a bad person, doesn't mean you can't go on and have a great life and succeed," he said. "Or even become a role model."

"It's been a long road, but we're getting there," said his father, Terry Brennan. "It's where you end the journey that's probably the most important for him."

'If you walk on ...'

Before he had set any of his 20 NCAA records, Brennan went out to play his first game of catch with some of his new receivers soon after his arrival at the University of Hawaii. He was tall enough (6 feet 3), but a little light (hardly 190 pounds) and didn't pass the ball as much as he slung from a three-quarters shoulder angle. And it was beautiful.

"The one thing I noticed was just how easy his pass was to catch," said Ryan Grice-Mullen, a slotback in UH's pass-mad offense. "A lot of quarterbacks just want to fire every ball. But since day one, he makes it easy on the receivers. It's up and it's out."

June Jones, Hawaii's coach, felt even stronger. He had seen the videotape of a junior college receiver prospect that had been passed along to his offices by a mainland radio reporter. But Jones could not see the receiver for the quarterback who was reaching every part of the field. This was no time for a soft sell.

"I went to his house and told him, 'If you'll come' — and I asked him to walk on; I didn't give him a scholarship — but I just said, 'If you walk on, there's a good chance you'll be the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft,' " Jones said. "I had an idea after watching his tape that he would be."

But the walk-on invitation was as far as Jones would dare, as Colt Brennan came with his record. As a freshman at the University of Colorado, he had wound up a night of heavy drinking back at a female student's room. When he wouldn't leave, she called campus police.

Brennan's case became the first of several sexual misconduct incidents at Colorado that eventually drove out coach Gary Barnett. Although a judge threw out a sexual assault charge, Brennan pleaded guilty to criminal trespass and burglary (for not leaving the room when asked). He drew a week in jail, 60 hours of community service and four years of probation. Colorado also threw him off the team.

After a year at Saddleback Community College, near his Irvine, Calif., home, where he became a junior college All-American, Brennan heard Jones' pitch as an offer to start over. There had been pressure at Saddleback to have him removed from the program when the case drew publicity.

Jones had given similar second chances to other players, with good success.

Said Brennan, "I was not anticipating that things would work out so well."

Records start falling

If there was a game when the light went on, it came in the final weekend of his 2005 season, when Hawaii was facing a San Diego State team that had allowed just 10 touchdown passes in 11 games. Brennan threw for five touchdowns in the first half, completing a 5-7 season that hinted at something greater. Brennan had been on campus barely five months and had led the nation in total offense and touchdown passes.

Since then he has broken, among other records, Ty Detmer's NCAA record for career touchdowns passing (131). No one has ever been responsible for more points (886) in NCAA history, nor recorded more 400-yard games (22). In just three seasons, he has set 25 WAC records and 70 school records. Besides the 29 NCAA records, he is within reach of five more as he prepares for Georgia.

Moreover, Hawaii has gone 23-3 the past two years. In those losses in 2006, the Warriors had the ball in the last three minutes, with a chance to win. In 2007, he brought UH from behind to win in the last three minutes four times, culminating with the three-touchdown comeback win against Washington on Dec. 1, when Brennan at one point completed 20 passes in a row.

Said Jones, "You learn."

Three years in, Brennan still surprises his receivers. In an offense that often has no primary receivers or set routes until the defense commits, Hawaii wide-outs are still learning they are each viable targets on every play, no matter where they might be on the field.

"That's interesting you bring that up," receivers coach Ron Lee said. "They have a good understanding of the offense, but it is a challenge. We [the coaches] don't know. Sometimes the quarterback even throws it to the wrong guy."

More than he dreamed

In the process, Brennan has become the biggest island celebrity since Don Ho. Affable, with a huge smile, he attempts with difficulty to seem like he is really 24. Think Doogie Howser, trying to grow a beard. He has a steady girlfriend. As a term of his probation, he has not been permitted to drink alcohol.

Upon graduation, he said, "All you kids out there, the best thing about going to school is knowing when you're done."

Through it all, he has committed to talking with kids in trouble. Public speaking invitations increased to where the university assigned an athletics department representative to handle the bookings. With them, he stays on point: Plenty of first chances get ruined. Make sure to take advantage of the second one.

"They can still go on and make a difference in a positive way," he said.

As redemption is in the eye of the beholder, Colt Brennan has been occasionally taunted during away games, but, as he said, "When I compare that to what other guys have gone through, I'd say it's no different."

He is the salient reason Hawaii has a chance against an accomplished Georgia team that, come to think of it, did not fare so well the last time it encountered a sophisticated passing system (South Carolina 16, UGA 12). He is the focal point in New Orleans this week and, in some way, he can't believe it either.

"Basically, everything that's happened over the last couple weeks — the last couple years — has been more than I ever could imagine," Brennan said. "I wanted to have success here. I wanted to do great things. But I never thought we'd have the opportunity to accomplish what we've been able to accomplish.

"It's been kind of overwhelming, but it's been awesome. It's been a great feeling. And I think because we kind of had really humble, really good intentions when we started out three years ago and we wanted to bring this program to a new level, because we set out to do things right is why we're here right now."

See more at www.ajc.com