When a pass sails beyond the intended target's hands and falls harmlessly to the grass, conversations tend to stop and heads swivel on the University of Hawai'i's football practice field these days.

Observers look at each other as if attempting to confirm that what their eyes are telling them is true: quarterback Colt Brennan missed his target?

It happens.

But not often. Especially now. As the Warriors prepare to chase that unbeaten season, their quarterback relentlessly pursues perfection, too.

Not the 13-0 season so much right now, he'll tell you, but perfect passing execution. The ball delivered just where it is supposed to be at the split second it needs to be there.

"If I do that," Brennan says, "everything will take care of itself. The wins, the statistics, the records, the accolades."

For all the numbers that surround Brennan — and he set 18 NCAA records last season — there are only two statistics he admits to checking: wins and completion percentage. The two go hand in hand for the Warriors, as Brennan's nation-leading 72.6 percentage in the 11-3 season of 2006 illustrate.

But if winning is the bottom line for Brennan, then completion percentage is what he figures will drive the No. 23-ranked Warriors there. Indeed, it is what he has hitched his career to and made his trademark.

When people said Brennan wasn't tall enough or strong-armed enough — and he heard that a bunch when scholarships weren't coming his way out of high school and junior college — he could always point to accuracy. Few could match him there. "It is what I pride myself on," Brennan said.

The ideal of perfection is what challenges him, too.

"When I'm out there on the practice field, unless the ball is completely perfect, then it is my bad. That's how I throw the football, and that's how I look at it. I just realized that if I could be a really accurate passer, that's my chance to keep on playing," Brennan said.

It has kept him playing, all right: a 68 percent completion rate as a senior in high school; 70 percent in junior college; 68 percent in his first year at UH.

They have kept him dreaming, too. The thought of a perfect game — no incompletions — teases him. Difficult to be sure for someone who has authored, on average, 41 passes per UH appearance. The closest he's come is a 32-of-39 (82 percent) showing in a 68-37 bombardment at Fresno State. "To go a whole game and not have an incomplete, well, that would be awesome. That would be so sweet."

And maybe not all that far-fetched. His fall camp performance suggests he should be poised for his best, most exacting year. Brennan has been remarkably accurate, even by his stiff standards and those set for him.

Quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison says unhesitatingly, "he's more accurate. More accurate deep, too. He's always been accurate middle to short, but this year he is even more accurate deep."

Some of it is experience, his own and that which comes from having familiar receivers, to be sure. But it has also been a point of emphasis since Brennan decided to forego the NFL draft and return to UH that he would develop his deep game. "I worked on it in the spring and all summer," Brennan said. "I think it will show."

Said Morrison, simply: "He's ready."

Of that there should be no doubt.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.