Colt Brennan Blog

If Colt can’t play (heaven forbid!), who would take Colt’s place?

Meet Tyler Graunke, Hawaii’s 2nd string QB. Graunke, an experienced backup who enters this season as a Junior, actually beat out Colt for the starting job back in 2005 — Colt’s first year at Hawaii. Both Graunke and Colt shared snaps, and eventually Colt took over the offense.

Graunke comes to Hawaii from Arizona’s Salpoint Catholic High School. While there, he broke the state record for career passing yards, made the all-city and all-state team, and also received the Tucson Citizen’s high school football player of the year award.

Graunke, who is generously listed at 6′0, put up impressive numbers in mop-up duty last year: 32/43 (74.4%) for 501 yards. Several throws were dropped by backup WRs.

This year, Graunke has struggled. He threw two picks against Division 1AA bottom-dweller Northern Colorado, but rebounded at the end of the UNLV game with an 81-yard TD strike. Next year it is widely expected that Graunke will retake the starting QB position. He’ll have his first challenge right away: Hawaii opens at Florida.

To learn more about Graunke, and his increased practice time this week because of a nagging injury to Colt (who is expected to start this Saturday), read Dave Reardon’s feature.