Hawaii Bowl | Hawaii's Brennan breaks TD mark

HONOLULU — Containing Colt Brennan for a half is impressive — an entire game is almost impossible.

Brennan broke the NCAA single-season record for touchdown passes, throwing five in the second half to lead Hawaii to a 41-24 victory over Arizona State on Sunday night in the Hawaii Bowl.

"It feels awesome," said Brennan, who finished the season with 58 TD passes. "Tonight really made it special: at home, at a bowl game. It means so much tonight."

Brennan, 33 of 42 for 559 yards, threw a 7-yard scoring pass to Ryan Grice-Mullen on the Warriors' second series of the second half to break the previous mark of 54 set by Houston's David Klingler in 1990, also against the Sun Devils.

Jason Rivers also tied a school mark with 14 receptions and set the Hawaii record with 308 yards, the most in a bowl game since 1937. NCAA records don't go back any further.

Grice-Mullen grabbed the record TD pass with one hand, made a move and leaped across the goal line for the touchdown that gave Hawaii a 17-10 lead.

"When they show that touchdown to break the record, it's going to be an unbelievable receiver making an unbelievable catch and me not doing much," Brennan said.

After throwing the pass, Brennan hugged coach June Jones and waved No. 1 as teammates lifted the junior into the air and the crowd of 40,623 cheered wildly.

After hugging and congratulating his quarterback, Jones told him: "Let's get going. We need a couple more scores."

Brennan tied the record on the previous series, throwing a 38-yard pass to a wide open Rivers for his 54th TD strike.

Brennan and Rivers, selected the co-MVPs for Hawaii, also teamed on the final touchdown pass, a 79-yarder late in the fourth quarter.

"He just kept hitting all night. We really had something special this year," Rivers said.

Hawaii (11-3) matched the school mark for most wins in a season, set in 1992 when the team went 11-2. The Sun Devils (7-6) concluded their disappointing season, unable to send coach Dirk Koetter out with a win. He coached his final game after being fired last month. Dennis Erickson has been hired to take over the team.

Koetter went 40-34 in six seasons at ASU, including 2-19 against ranked teams and 21-28 in the Pac-10. He also led the Sun Devils to four bowl games.

Brennan finished the season with 5,549 yards to become just the third quarterback in college history with 5,000 yards and 50 TDs in a season, joining Klingler and Texas Tech's B.J. Symons (2003).

"Brennan is everything they said he was," Koetter said. "We couldn't get it going on offense and we couldn't stop them on defense."

Brennan and Grice-Mullen also connected on a 41-yard pass play down the middle for Brennan's 56th TD pass of the season with 2:14 left in the third quarter. Brennan then threw a 21-yard scoring pass to a crossing Davone Bess, giving Hawaii a 34-24 lead with 5:16 left in the fourth quarter.

Dan Kelly kicked a 43-yard field goal to put the Warriors up 27-10 early in the fourth, but the Sun Devils trimmed the lead to 10 on Ryan Torain's 12-yard TD run. The score was set up by a 64-yard run by Torain, who finished with 160 yards on 18 carries and was honored as the game MVP for Arizona State.