Over the Years, Brennan’s Aspirations Changed

Football was the last thing on Brandon Brennan’s mind when he entered Western High School. College was a close second-to-last.

But priorities have a way of changing in three years.

Tonight, Brennan will be looking to lead Western (6-2-1, 3-1 in the Orange League) to the league title with a victory over fifth-ranked Valencia (8-1, 4-0). Afterward, Brennan will start thinking about where he wants to play college football. USC, Colorado, Arizona, Colorado State and San Diego State have shown interest in Brennan, who leads Orange County quarterbacks in passing efficiency with a rating of 188.53, almost 20 points higher than second-rated Paul Waldrop of Savanna.

In nine games, Brennan has completed 62.9% of his passes for 1,722 yards, 21 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

“I like that I’m leading in that category,” Brennan said. “That was one of my goals, to become more efficient.”

Brennan knew nothing of passing efficiency until last year and he didn’t learn about football until his freshman year when some friends coaxed him into trying out for the team.

“I had never played before,” he said. “I had always played Little League baseball and basketball. Basketball was my sport. I didn’t even know how to put on the pads in football.”

Once he got the pads on, Brennan played tight end and linebacker for the freshman team. But one game into the season, Brennan was asked to change positions.

“I was throwing the ball around in practice and the coaches told me I would be playing quarterback from now on,” he said.

Before the season was half over, Brennan was the team’s starting quarterback. Within a year he had taken over as the varsity’s starting quarterback, but Brennan was far from polished.

“He was so raw,” Western offensive coordinator Mike Bodkin said. “We didn’t know where he was throwing it and he didn’t know where he was throwing it. But I knew he could go far. He had the whole package.”

So the next summer, Bodkin met with Houston Oiler offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride at a coaching clinic and came away convinced he could make Brennan into Western’s version of Warren Moon.

Convincing Howell, who says he’s closer in offensive philosophy to Woody Hayes than Bobby Bowden, wasn’t quite so easy.

“I wouldn’t say I was stubborn, but I said, ‘Show me,’ before I would agree to totally commit,” he said.

Howell hasn’t totally committed to the run-and-shoot, which uses four receivers to spread the field and create one-on-one coverage in the secondary. He still runs some wing-T, but the mix is now about 50-50; it used to be about 90-10 run to pass.

“We’ve toyed with naming our offense, ‘Wing and shoot’ or ‘Blue Gun’ after our school colors, but we really don’t have a name for it,” said Bodkin, who has been with Howell since Howell became Western’s coach in 1979.

Brennan doesn’t care what the offense is called, he simply knows he likes it.

“My sophomore year we had a pretty boring offense and it wasn’t working,” said Brennan. “Now, we get excited whenever we call a pass play.”

Western went 2-8 in 1991, but last season, with Howell opening up the offense, Brennan passed for 17 touchdowns and nearly 1,800 yards. The Pioneers went 8-3 and tied Anaheim and Valencia for first place in league.

This season, with a better offensive line, an improved running game and a experienced group of receivers, Brennan’s productivity is up and so is his confidence.

“There were balls I didn’t dream of throwing before that now aren’t a big deal,” said Brennan, who is 6-foot-2 and has bulked up to 190 pounds. “We feel like we can do anything.”

Senior Josh Christensen has been Brennan’s favorite target, catching 43 passes for 711 yards and seven touchdowns. Senior Jason Covarrubias has caught 18 for 389 yards and six touchdowns. Running back Marques Robinson has 17 receptions and tight end Vince Branstetter has 14.

During the first eight weeks, Western’s offense averaged more than 34 points. But the fun stopped last week when Anaheim’s blitzing defense rattled Brennan, sacking him four times and hurrying several other passes. He completed 14 of 30 for 112 yards, 54 yards short of his previous low this season.

The result was a 10-7 Anaheim victory and Brennan’s worst game of the season.

“The (Anaheim) defense played great,” he said. “Everybody made mistakes. I was pretty mad about it. Sometimes, I tried to do too much. I had happy feet.”

Bodkin took some of the blame.

“I call it a bad game plan,” he said. “We thought they’d try and cover us. They decided to put pressure on us instead. We guessed wrong.”

Brennan is not a great student, but he has become an average student with the help of football. He must pass a geometry class and improve his Scholastic Aptitude Test score 20 points to be eligible to play at a Division I college, something that hardly seemed possible two years ago.

“I was doing awful in school and I never even thought about college,” said Brennan. “But at the end of my sophomore year, a couple people mentioned that I might have the potential to play college football. I started thinking about it, and I’ve been getting my grades up since then.”

Funny how priorities change.