This afternoon David Fales makes the trip to Hawaii he thought he might never experience.

"I’m definitely looking forward to it (the trip)," Fales said. "It has been a long journey."

So much so that the 2,500 miles Fales will cover today barely scratches the surface on his voyage of self-discovery and redemption.

Four years — and three schools — after Nevada made him an 11th-hour scratch from its Sheraton Hawaii Bowl travel roster, Fales arrives leading San Jose State as its quarterback for Saturday’s game against Hawaii.

It has been a remarkable trek for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Fales, who went from the depths of career disappointment in being told he had no future at Nevada, or any other Division I school, to leading the nation in passing accuracy and being mentioned as a projected early-round pick for the 2014 NFL Draft.

The 2009 Hawaii Bowl trip was to have been the highlight of Fales’ first year at Nevada, a redshirt season spent watching junior Colin Kaepernick popularize the pistol offense. "It was going to be my first trip to Hawaii and my friends (on the team) and I were excited," Fales said.

Sometime during that bowl week in Honolulu he and Nevada head coach Chris Ault were scheduled to talk about his prospects. A future that Fales, a pocket passer, had begun to suspect might not hold all that much promise as he watched the Wolf Pack lead the nation in rushing and pledge its continued allegiance to the pistol.

Still, it came as a jolt when Ault told Fales days before departure that not only did he no longer figure in Nevada’s future plans, but he needed Fales’ seat on the plane for somebody else.

With nothing else to fall back on, Fales went to Monterey Peninsula Community College. He performed well enough to get some nibbles but, despite sending out tapes, few scholarship offers. Wyoming invited Fales to walk-on with the carrot of a scholarship down the road. But after three weeks in Laramie where he said it became apparent he was brought in just to add depth, he returned to MPCC, winning all-conference honors again.

This time, San Jose State, which was in need of a quarterback after the controversial Tate Forcier had departed, came knocking. And Fales turned the opportunity into a statement-making season, guiding the Spartans to their best finish (11-2) in 72 years and a bowl victory while completing 72.5 percent of his passes for 4,193 yards and 33 touchdowns.

This year, with a new head coach and two top receivers out, the Spartans have struggled to a 1-3 mark. But Fales, who passed for 439 yards and three touchdowns against Minnesota, still ranks among the top quarterbacks in the nation, averaging 298 yards a game and completing 58 percent of his passes.

Through it all the lessons learned have adhered. "You’ve got to stay focused, stay humble and keep working hard," Fales said. "It (success) just doesn’t just happen."

Something he’ll no doubt have occasion to ponder on the flight to Honolulu today.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.