2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Notre Dame (6-6) vs. Hawaii (7-6)
Dec. 24, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Payout:
$750,000 Location: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI
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2008 Hawaii Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Hawaii |
Notre
Dame |
|
Total Offense |
|
74th 344.85 ypg |
75th 344.83 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
57th 351.85 ypg |
38th 327.5 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
69th 24.92 ppg |
86th 22.67 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
72nd 27.31 ppg |
43rd 22.25 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
107th 99.31 ypg |
99th 113.42 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
72nd 148 ypg |
64th 142.67 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
33rd 245.54 ypg |
46th 231.42 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
54th 203.85 ypg |
30th 184.83 |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
83rd -0.38 |
85th -0.42 |
|
Hawaii
at Florida L 56-10
Weber St W
36-17
at Oregon St L 45-7
SJSU L
20-17
at FSU W 32-29 OT
La Tech W
28-14
at Boise St L 27-7
Nevada W 38-31
at Utah St L
30-14
NMSU W 43-20
Idaho W 49-17
Wash St W 24-10
Cincinnati L 29-24 |
Notre Dame
SDSU W 21-13
Michigan
W 35-17
at Mich St L 23-7
Purdue W
38-21
Stanford W
28-21
at UNC
L 29-24
at Wash W 33-7
Pitt L 36-33 4 OT
at Bos Coll L 17-0
Navy W 27-21
Syracuse
L 24-23
at USC L 38-3 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
H |
5
highest
1 lowest |
N |
|
3 |
Quarterbacks |
4 |
|
1.5 |
RBs |
3 |
|
3 |
Receivers |
4 |
|
2 |
O
Line |
3 |
|
3 |
D
Line |
2.5 |
|
4 |
Linebackers |
3 |
|
3 |
Secondary |
4 |
|
2 |
Spec
Teams |
3 |
|
3 |
Coaching |
3.5 |
|
By
Pete Fiutak
Either this is the stepping
stone to the big turnaround
that’s over two years in the
making, or it’s the first leg of
the Charlie Weis Goodbye Tour.
Either way, the Hawaii Bowl,
which had a far better matchup
last year when Chris Johnson and
East Carolina beat Boise State
in a classic, is a dream come
true for the organizers and for
anyone looking for a reason to
duck into the den on Christmas
Eve.
Notre Dame might have been a
train wreck over the second half
of the season, but at least
there was progress after the bar
was set and an all-time low last
ear. The offense moved the ball
a little bit, the passing game
showed tremendous promise with a
great young receiving corps and
the emergence of Jimmy Clausen
as a decent passer, and the line
actually blocked someone.
However, the Irish got worse as
the season went on and had an
interesting and inconsistent mix
of close losses (four overtimes
to Pitt and in the final minutes
against Syracuse) and total
disasters (the losses to Boston
College and USC). It all added
up to Weis being on the hottest
of hot seats, but he got a
reprieve.
The 2009 season starts now for
Weis, who was put on the
equivalent of double secret
probation with the edict of BCS-or-Bust
from the higher ups. To Weis’s
credit, he has put as much
pressure on himself and his team
as anyone else, but if the
program is going to take a big
leap forward next year, it has
to show that this core group of
players can get the job done
against a plucky, but flawed
Hawaii team.
The Warriors were left for dead
after getting blasted by Georgia
in the 2008 Sugar Bowl, and with
all the key parts jumping off
the apparently sinking ship.
Head coach June Jones left for a
bigger payday at SMU, and led
the way to a 1-11 season with
the lone victory coming against
Texas State. Heisman finalist
Colt Brennan was off to the NFL,
and the receiving corps, hurt by
a few early exits, had to be
completely revamped. New head
man Greg McMackin had his work
cut out for him, but he and his
team overcame the adversity, and
a lousy start, to put together a
nice year.
There was an inexplicable 30-14
loss to Utah State, but that was
offset by a nice overtime win on
the road at Fresno State. The
losses, for the most part, were
acceptable, getting blasted at
Florida and Oregon State, losing
at Boise State, and dropping
hard-fought home games to San
Jose State and Cincinnati. As
always, the team played tough at
home, giving the Big East
champion Bearcats a nightmare of
a time and beating Louisiana
Tech and Nevada, but it took a
while for the pieces to come
together.
While the offense was hardly the
steamroller is way in the
Brennan era, it finally started
to click once Greg Alexander
settled in at quarterback. The
defense, while mediocre at
times, was ultra-aggressive and
was strong against the weak. A
three-game winning streak over
the dregs of the college
football world, New Mexico
State, Idaho and Washington
State, allowed the Warriors to
stay at home for the bowl
season, and now they have to
take advantage of the
opportunity and the national
stage.
These are two very flawed, very
entertaining teams, for both
good and bad, with each
struggling to run the ball, each
struggling to find any semblance
of consistency, and each looking
to come up with a big win to
cleanse the palate.
Notre Dame has lost nine
straight bowl games, and no,
Weis wasn’t the coach for all of
them. The last post-season win
was over Texas A&M in the 1993
Cotton Bowl. Since then, there
have been plenty of high-profile
blowouts like the disastrous
41-9 loss to Oregon State in the
2001 Fiesta Bowl, the 28-6
embarrassment against NC State
in the 2003 Gator Bowl, and the
41-14 loss to LSU in the 2007
Sugar Bowl.
The Warriors have won the last
three times they’ve been in the
Hawaii Bowl, and this will be
the fifth time in the seven
years since the bowl’s
reemergence that they’ve gotten
the home post-season game. All
the Hawaii Bowls have been
shootouts, with the inaugural
game in 2002, a 35-28 Tulane win
over Hawaii, the lowest scoring
of the bunch. This year, it’ll
be worth watching for what
should be a 60-minute thriller,
or for the car crash.
Players to watch:
Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen
looked like he was turning a
corner on his way to being the
superstar he was supposed to be
as one of the nation’s top
recruits a few years ago, and
then he regressed. Having to
press a bit early on, he threw
two interceptions in each of his
first three games. And then came
the problems late with eight
interceptions in his final four
games with only two touchdown
passes; both came against
Syracuse. Notre Dame can’t win
by just pounding away with the
ground game and will need
Clausen to not only be efficient
and effective, but smart.
Hawaii, at home, has a way of
getting under the skin of teams
and forcing mistakes. Clausen
will have to quickly put the bad
plays in the past before they
snowball into a big Hawaii run.
Hawaii’s offense didn’t start to
click on until junior Greg
Alexander, a top JUCO
transfer, started to figure out
what he was doing. On the bench
for the first half of the year
after a disastrous outing
against Florida, he took over
the full-time gig against Nevada
and completed 17-of-22 passes
for 205 yards and two
touchdowns. Since taking over,
he has thrown 12 touchdown
passes and just two
interceptions. He’s just good
enough as a runner to be a
regular part of the ground game,
and while he’s not putting up
Brennan-like passing numbers (he
only has one 300-yard game this
year), he’s effective at closing
out drives with touchdown
passes.
The strength of the Warriors is
the linebacking corps led by WAC
Co-Defensive Player of the year
Solomon Elimimian. The
team’s leading tackler, with 112
stops, and a good pass rusher
when turned loose into the
backfield, he’s a disruptive
force who makes plays all over
the field. His name will get
called every time the anemic
Notre Dame ground game tries to
establish itself.
For Notre Dame to win, the young
receivers, Golden Tate
and Michael Floyd, have
to shine. Tate, one of the star
recruits of a few seasons ago,
had a breakout season using his
great speed to catch 52 passes
for 903 yards and seven
touchdowns. A home-run hitter,
he exploded for 146 yards and
two scores on seven catches
against Syracuse and has come
through big against some of the
better teams on the schedule
like North Carolina and Pitt.
Floyd was this year’s star
recruit, and he showed why with
46 catches for 702 yards and
seven touchdowns, highlighted by
a 10-catch, 100-yard, two
touchdown day against Pitt. He
missed the last two games hurt,
but he’ll be back for the bowl.
Hawaii will win if... it
can protect Alexander. The
Hawaii offensive line has been a
disaster this season in all
phases. John Estes is a special
blocker, but he hasn’t been able
to do everything. The line is
among the worst in the nation in
pass protection and isn’t good
enough to blast away with the
running game, but fortunately
for the Warriors, Notre Dame
doesn’t do much in the
backfield. Despite all the
issues, Alexander hasn’t made
too many mistakes under the
pressure. Since Notre Dame
doesn’t have a great pass rush,
the Hawaii line has to do just
enough to allow Alexander time
so he won’t have to hurry his
throws and for him to get into a
bit of an early rhythm.
Notre Dame will win if...
get Armando Allen and the
running game going. Hawaii’s run
defense is fine, but nothing
special, and it will wear down
late in games. While Notre
Dame’s bread is usually buttered
by the passing attack, it’s the
ground game that has led the way
to the easier wins. The Irish
ran for 200 yards or more in
three games this year, and all
three (Purdue, Washington, and
up until the frantic end, Navy),
turned out to be the easiest of
the six victories. The Irish
didn’t run well on Michigan, but
that game was over early thanks
to Wolverine turnovers, while
the win over Stanford came on
the arm of Clausen, who bombed
away for 347 yards and three
touchdowns. Notre Dame is 5-1
this year when it has a rushing
touchdown, and 1-5 when it
doesn’t.
What will happen:
Hawaii will be pumped up, it’ll
be flying all over the field,
and it’ll ride a few
mini-momentum swings to keep
this close, but Notre Dame will
get an effective, balanced
performance out of the offense
while the underappreciated
defense will force three
turnovers, allow fewer than 50
yards rushing, and will come up
with one big stop deep in its
own territory that’ll all but
win the game.
Line: Hawaii -1.5
... CFN Prediction:
Notre Dame 28 … Hawaii 20
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2008 Hawaii Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More