LARAMIE, Wyo. >> Hawaii quarterback Dru Brown completed 29 of 40 passes for 280 yards Saturday night and he had a 129.6 passer rating.
That compared well to the nine of 19 for 92 yards and 105.4 rating for his much more heralded Wyoming counterpart, Josh Allen.
“Their quarterback played excellent,” Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said.
But the Cowboys won 28-21 in overtime when Allen threw a perfect 25-yard scoring pass to James Price.
“Great throw at the end,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said. “He’s a good player. He threw some passes in the first half that could’ve been caught that were big-time throws. I think those were impressive.”
Then, when Hawaii got its chance in overtime, Brown’s pass was tipped by Wyoming’s Conner Cain and intercepted by defensive end Carl Granderson, ending the game.
“I’m looking downfield, so if a D-lineman gets his hand up, you can’t really take that into account,” Brown said. “Hats off to him for making a play. It seems like that ball’s up there in the air forever (when it’s tipped). You just hope it hits the ground.
“It didn’t.”
Brown also threw an interception in the third quarter, when UH appeared to be on the verge of scoring with first-and-goal at the Wyoming 7. He said he should have thrown the ball away instead.
“I think he did some good things,” Rolovich said of Brown. “But those interceptions, both in the red zone, are going to hurt.”
Brown did combine with slot John Ursua on a 50-yard scoring pass that gave Hawaii a 21-all tie with 8:18 left in regulation.
“The first (interception), we’ll get that cleaned up. That’s just X’s and O’s. Tipped passes, that’s just football,” running back Ryan Tuiasoa said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt on our team that Dru is our offensive leader and regardless of those two interceptions we still have all the confidence in him.”
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Linebacker Jahlani Tavai echoed that.
“I would tell him, ‘Just keep your head up.’ It’s a team game,” he said. “It’s not on Dru.”
But Brown did take responsibility for the turnovers.
“I thought we played fairly well. A few aspects I need to clean up. The turnover battle. That’s on me,” he said. “I think everyone can have a few hours to do what they need to do (to recover from the loss). It’s hard to put on a smile after a loss like this. But Monday everybody better be ready to learn and be ready to play Colorado State, because there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
