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.

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Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Odds

Will he or won't he?  Now that the Dallas Cowboys have a new head coach in Wade Phillips, the big question will be: Does Terrell Owens stay with the team.

Jerry Jones continues to suggest that Terrell Owens will remain with the team.

"I've said that he's back, he's here, he's under contract," Jones said. "In the interviews I've just been through (to hire a new coach), it was very clear to me how highly he's thought of and how much of an impact he had on our offensive success."

Just to be sure though, Terrell Owens cleared out his locker and removed his name plate.

Terrell Owens was among the Cowboys most productive players this past season, catching 85 passes for 1,180 yards and a league-best 13 touchdowns.

But T.O. is due a $3 million roster bonus in June, then a $5 million salary this season. Cutting him before then would save a lot of money and headaches.

Aside from the questions surrounding Terrell Owens, the oddsmakers at MySportsbook.com have concerns over starting quarterback Tony Romo's state of mind and whether he will remain a starting quarterback.  It is also not known how players will adjust to new head coach, Wade Phillips.

Here are the football odds as seen at MySportsbook.com and subject to change after February 10, 2007 if not locked in prior to that date.
Arizona Cardinals 60-1


Atlanta Falcons 50-1


Baltimore Ravens 15-1


Buffalo Bills 50-1


Carolina Panthers 18-1


Chicago Bears 10-1


Cincinnati Bengals 15-1


Cleveland Browns 100-1


Dallas Cowboys 15-1


Denver Broncos 15-1


Detroit Lions 100-1


Green Bay Packers 50-1


Houston Texans 100-1


Indianapolis Colts 6-1


Jacksonville Jaguars 30-1


Kansas City Chiefs 30-1


Miami Dolphins 40-1


Minnesota Vikings 75-1


New England Patriots 10-1


New Orleans Saints 18-1


New York Giants 20-1


New York Jets 30-1


Oakland Raiders 100-1


Philadelphia Eagles 18-1


Pittsburgh Steelers 10-1


Saint Louis Rams 60-1


San Diego Chargers 6-1


San Francisco 49ers 75-1


Seattle Seahawks 20-1


Tampa Bay Buccanneers 75-1


Tennessee Titans 40-1


Washington Redskins 50-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook credit cards needs.

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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