They were sweating and there was some huffing and puffing and, still, they kept coming back for all University of Hawai'i quarterback Colt Brennan and the Warriors could dish out.

The out-manned University of Northern Colorado football team?

Well, the Bears too, of course.

But we're talking the Warrior Battalion, the gray-shirted, close-cropped 30-strong UH ROTC students who descended from their north end seats at Aloha Stadium en masse to do pushups in the end zone after every Hawai'i score. A role that made them something of frequent visitors to the field last night.

For on a night when the No. 23 Warrior football team was never tested in a 63-6 barely-break-a-sweat, season-opening victory, its ROTC brethren were. Early and often on an 84-degree night.

As Brennan wrote five more entries into the school record book, the ROTC panted alongside the Bears. While the UH cruised to a 42-0 halftime lead and defensive tackle Michael Lafaele said, "Man, I wasn't even tired," the Warrior Battalion did 147 pushups.

And while Brennan showered at halftime and watched the second half in street clothes from the bench after completing 34 of 40 passes for 416 yards and six touchdowns, the ROTC kept coming back for more, including Michael Washington's 80-yard punt return for a third quarter touchdown and Malcolm Lane's 94-yard kickoff return in the fourth.

Finally, after Greg Salas' 24-yard touchdown pass from Inoke Funaki in the fourth quarter and 266 total pushups, they rested. "Good practice for next week's (Army) physical fitness tests," said Army Sgt. Antonio Rico.

At this rate and with this schedule — while the Warriors lead the nation in offensive statistics, their ROTC buddies will surely lead it in physical fitness. Those are the prime conclusions to be drawn from the opener. Perhaps the only truths to be gleamed from a monumental mismatch that had head UH coach June Jones' mercy to thank for it not being worse.

So lopsided did it become so fast that in the second quarter Brennan said the Warriors worked on their two-minute drill to get in some game-time work before next week's Western Athletic Conference opener.

Pick your turning point in this one. Two first-quarter Bears' turnovers? A 28-point UH first quarter? We'll take April 1, 2007 — and all-too-appropriate date as it turns out — which was when the contract was signed.

You could blame part of this one on Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr. Except that would constitute piling on after everything Wolverines fans are hitting him with following Appalachian State's 34-32 stunning upset. It was Carr, we are told, whose no uncertain terms veto last winter of what would have been a game with UH in Ann Arbor, Mich., that set in motion two disasters: this one and what took place at a disbelieving Big House.

Carr wanted an eighth home game and 12th game overall but he wanted no part of the Warriors for either. "He wouldn't play us," UH athletic director Herman Frazier confirmed. "It would have been the opener."

What Carr got in their place was a rocking of his world while UH free safety Keao Monteilh & Co. were doing the same to UNC.

What the Bears got was a 13th game and a nice payday for their labors.

Meanwhile, the UH ROTC got the best workout of the night by anybody in the home camp.

"Hopefully," Brennan said, "we'll help make them pretty strong this year."

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