HONOLULU • Colt Brennan, a star quarterback at Hawaii who finished third in the 2007 Heisman Trophy balloting, died early Tuesday, his father said. He was 37.

Brennan, who had public struggles with alcohol, died at a hospital in California, his father, Terry Brennan, said.

“He just spent one too many times on the dark side of life, and it caught up with him,” Terry Brennan said.

Brennan transferred to Hawaii after stints at Colorado and Saddleback in California. A certain pro prospect, he bypassed the NFL draft in order to play his senior year for Hawaii coach June Jones.

Brennan led the Warriors to its finest season, going 12-0 in the regular season.

In 2008, Georgia ended Hawaii’s hopes for an unblemished record, defeating the Warriors 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl.

He returned, in part, to pay back a school and a coach that gave him a second chance, and he had no regrets.

“Hawaii has inspired me to do a lot of great things,” he said in 2007.

Jones, the former Hawaii coach now with the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL, called it sad day for the islands.

“Colt was clearly the star of our program and what he did after the 2006 season by staying in school said a lot about him and how he cared much more about Hawaii and his teammates,” he said.

In a statement, the university athletics department called the Irvine, California, native “the focal point of one of the greatest eras in Rainbow Warrior football.”

“He was a phenomenal player and provided us some of the greatest sports memories we’ll ever have. But he was more than that,” the statement said. “He never turned down an autograph, he never turned down a picture with someone.”

Brennan was drafted by Washington in the sixth round in 2008, but he never played a regular-season game in two seasons.

Life after football seemed difficult for him. His former attorney, Michael Green, told the AP in 2013 that the quarterback felt like he had disappointed people with his fledgling career. He also said Brennan was dealing with emotional and physical pain from a head-on crash on the Big Island in 2010.

He had numerous arrest, most involving alcohol.

In 2010, he was a passenger in an SUV that was involved in a head-on crash on the Big Island. He suffered head, rib and collarbone injuries.

A jarring hit that reverberated throughout Aloha Stadium knocked him out and left him with a concussion early in the fourth quarter of a 2007 game against Fresno State.

Brennan, who used a cane and wore a leg brace, went to California a few months ago for rehab for his injuries, including blood clots in his legs, his father said.

Brennan had been living at an addiction treatment center in Costa Mesa, California, and Terry Brennan said his son also had been a big user of marijuana. Terry Brennan took him to a hospital emergency room on Sunday because his son had been drinking. “I could tell he was not well and needed help,” Terry Brennan said.

But the detox facility was full, so without his family realizing it, Colt Brennan was released. He was unconscious when taken back to the hospital, where he died, his father said.

Brennan had a school-record 131 touchdowns from 2005 to 2007. Brennan broke or tied 31 NCAA records at Hawaii.

He led the nation in 2006 in several areas, including total offense (422.5), TD passes (58), and passing efficiency (185.96).