If quarterback Colt Brennan was the steal of the last football season for the University of Hawai'i, then coach Dennis McKnight might become the bargain of this one.

The Warriors got Brennan as a walk-on last year, meaning they paid not a dime of the $5,088.20 out-of-state fall semester tuition or room and board for somebody who ended up leading the nation in touchdown passes (35) and total offense (371 yards per game).

Specials like that you don't find under the blue light at Kmart, even if he did go on scholarship in the spring.

For McKnight, whom head coach June Jones has said will work with special teams and the offensive line, the Warriors will actually have to fork over some money but not nearly what the 46-year-old could be worth.

As a graduate assistant, McKnight is limited by NCAA rules as to what he can receive, which is four tickets and graduate tuition. In his case, if he is an unclassified grad student, the tuition would be a maximum of $6,963.20 per semester. Or less than 1/57th of Jones' total compensation (UH money and donors' contributions) for the same period.

UH had been prepared to offer McKnight, who spent last season at San Diego State, a full-time position, had one been available, and salary upwards of $40,000. But an expected opening did not materialize and McKnight, who is well invested in a San Diego cleaning business, was able to come on the grad student plan that previously brought UH Jeff Reinebold, who was a head coach in Canada and Europe.

In McKnight, the Warriors will get someone with five seasons of college coaching experience, 11 years as an NFL player and some familiarity with UH and the Western Athletic Conference. And, hopefully, an end to some debilitating special-teams breakdowns.

It is this last area of expertise, which he well coordinated in his first stay at UH (1999-2000), where McKnight could pay the biggest dividends on the Warriors' manini investment.

Imagine, for example, if UH hadn't suffered the hat trick of second-half special-teams breakdowns against Boise State last year — a punt returned 92 yards for a touchdown, a blocked field goal returned 69 yards for a TD and a block point-after attempt returned for two points.

Take away one of the two touchdowns and a 44-41 loss to the defending champion Broncos in the fourth game of the 2005 becomes an upset victory. If it had, it wouldn't have been hard to imagine a 5-7 season turning into at least a 7-5 finish and a bowl appearance.

So this is the potential that the fiery McKnight brings to UH. And, for the Warriors the price is right.

For as UH has proved, you don't always get what you pay for, sometimes you even get a whole lot more.

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