PASADENA, Calif. >> On a day in which he established a school record while detonating an offensive blitz, UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen criticized himself.

“I had three incompletions today,” Rosen said. “That was an anomaly, hopefully.”

Those incompletions failed to mar Rosen’s performance in the Bruins’ 56-23 rout of Hawaii on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

The junior not only burnished his status as a contender for the Heisman Trophy by throwing for a career-best five touchdowns and compiling 329 passing yards while completing 22 of 25 attempts. Rosen also exceeded 300 passing yards in a game for the 12th time in his collegiate career, breaking a tie with Cade McNown for the most in UCLA history.

In addition, Rosen surpassed NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman in career touchdown passes. Aikman finished with 41 for the Bruins, but Rosen now shares fifth place on the school’s all-time list with 42. The junior also took over fifth place in career passing yardage (6,403) and career total offense (6,316) at UCLA.

Rosen’s performance came six days after he enabled the Bruins to overcome a 34-point deficit in the second half and beat Texas A&M 45-44. Rosen threw for four touchdowns — all in the fourth quarter — while amassing 491 passing yards and going 35-for-59.

“It’s great to see his growth,” UCLA running back Nate Starks said. “I’ve been here since he was a freshman and he just keeps getting better. He’s locked in every week and he’s been a great leader this year.”

Rosen’s growth reflects a commitment to striving for more than excellence.

“My expectation is to be perfect,” Rosen said. “I know that will never happen. But I always expect to have a perfect game every time I step onto the field. You have to strive for perfection and hope you stumble upon greatness along the way.”

The junior demands the same from the rest of the Bruins’ offense, which scored on seven of its first eight possessions Saturday.

“Ideally, we set that as the norm,” Rosen said. “We just continue to score every time we touch the ball. If we’re not scoring, then there’s a fixable reason why. We have to set that as the expectation, and we hold ourselves to that.”

Is that reasonable?

“Absolutely,” Rosen responded to a reporter who asked that question. “It has to be. If you want to be one of the better teams in the country, it has to be. You can’t be happy with 70 or 80 percent success rates, or anything that normal people would consider good. You have to set the bar unreasonably high and always strive for it.”

Rosen surmounted two obstacles to achieve his current success. The first was an injured shoulder nerve that caused him to miss the final half of last season. The second is the demand to learn a new offense.

“I really enjoy this system,” Rosen said. “I’m excited because when your defense is looking at us, you have to account for every single one of our playmakers. Anyone can explode at any given time. When you have five or six guys who can light up at any time, it’s really dangerous.”

The biggest danger, however, might be a quarterback whose determination can ignite those playmakers — and his own prospects.

“He has worked very hard on this new offense to understand it,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said. “Every snap matters. Every practice rep matters. Every clip of film he watches matters. Every snap he takes — because he’s a cerebral guy, because it’s important to him — he is going to improve.”

More photos of the game between Hawaii and UCLA.