Fighting Irish More Than Lucky in Hawaii Bowl Win

I guess 62% of the Big Island's SportsNation, including yours truly, were wrong in assessing the fate of the 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

Meanwhile, the 38% who chose Notre Dame were right on the mark with the points of emphasis in this game, as heard on my show this morning:

- Lack of Discipline by the Warriors

- Better athletes underneath the Golden Domes of Notre Dame

- A win would not be close, whatsoever.

I did say to watch out for some kind of breakout game from QB Jimmy Clausen, didn't I? Yeah, I picked Hawaii to win, but I was afraid of the very kind of game that Clausen delivered on Christmas Eve. He set Notre Dame bowl game records for passing yards and TD's. He even got help from a Warrior secondary that must've sipped on some spiked Egg Nog before kickoff, because they were nowhere to be found all game long.

For Notre Dame, they throw the bowl game monkey off their back, breaking the streak of 9 straight postseason losses, 4 of them to Oklahoma State and LSU alone. All of the questions surrounding Charlie Weis will remain going into the 2009 regular season, but at least now for Irish fans, they will have a bright glimmer of hope for a better campaign than the one they just suffered, highlighted by a loss to the Orange of Syracuse.

And Hawaii? A winning season with a first year head coach. Sure, it wasn't pretty at times, but I think most Hawaii fans will remember the strong end to the regular season rather than the beginning and the ND game and look to games against Cincinnati and Fresno State, for example, as signs that the Warriors will improve and be better. They will have two returning QB's and a lot of promise at other skill positions. But can their defense improve, especially in the secondary? And can they stop committing stupid penalties?

All questions will be answered in 2009.

Until that point in time, I've got three shows left here in 2008 (Christmas Day, the 26th, and the 20th), so I hope you and your families have a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season, and even more so, a prosperous 2009. Our ESPN Radio family appreciates your support and we look forward to bigger and better things to come in '09!

Notre Dame / Hawaii in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl?

Sources tell the Honolulu Advertiser this morning that a Fighting Irish / Warriors Hawaii Bowl matchup is close to being a done deal.

Now, let's be honest. Notre Dame at 6-6 definitely doesn't deserve a bowl berth. Heck, their coach should be lucky that he has a job for next season.

And, as I have stated for the past few weeks on my show, Hawaii is not a deserving bowl team? Although they had a very good performance for about three quarters against Cincinnati, they didn't have the juice to finish off the upset. Their body of work, however, over the course of the year, has shown only one good win, and multiple bad losses.

But, we all know what the bowl season is really all about....

$$$KA-CHING$$$

Notre Dame has a nice Hawaii following. After all, all of their home games were on NBC for everyone to see, kinda similar to the Braves having their games on TBS not too long ago before TBS decided to carry the national Sunday package. The Fighting Irish have had an honorable past history on the gridiron, no matter how bad this decade has been in the eyes of the Irish Faithful.

More over, Notre Dame will want to play in Hawaii because they want to woo Punahou senior and Butkus Award winner Manti Te'o their way. There's been no secret that the Irish want him. Coach Charlie Weis made a visit after the USC game, and Te'o has made a visit to South Bend. A impressive win in Hawaii would go a long way for them.

Certainly, to be fair to Hawaii, this season has exceeded a lot of people's expectations, considering the players that moved on and a first-year head coach. Seven wins is considered a great year, in my opinion. But having a great year and deserving to play in the postseason are two different things. Heck, next year, a great year for Washington Huskies fans will be winning at least three games. Won't get them into a bowl. Even more so, a great year for Miami Dolphins fans this year would've been more than 4 wins. Right now, they may go to the playoffs. We must put it in perspective.

More importantly for ESPN Regional and Sheraton (the organizer and sponsor of the Hawaii Bowl), this would be a given for a solid Aloha Stadium Crowd. Heck, I may even decide to fly up and watch! Big crowds, especially if a lot of South Bend faithful decide to fly over, equals tourism and dollars.

We'll see if this gets finalized today. My thoughts on the BCS pairings coming up tomorrow.

UPDATE: It indeed has been confirmed, as Notre Dame and Hawaii will meet in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. ESPN Radio will have coverage of the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl at 2:35 pm on Christmas Eve.

Whew! That was close...

Before I even blog about the Weber State / Hawaii game, I did want to mention very quickly how much of a headache I had earlier from the countless hours I spent watching college football today. I would say I spent almost 9 hours on college football, jumping from game to game. Even for a "sports guy," that can be quite a bit.



Luckily for me, I have this cool thing called High Definition Television, and with it came this channel that showed a concert from one of my favorite bands of all time, Dave Matthews Band. If you are a DMB fanatic, or are just a fan of good music, I strongly suggest you check this out. It was on the Palladia channel on Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

______________________________________________________

It looks like the Tyler Graunke era begins sooner rather than later at the University of Hawaii.

And when I meant later, I was meaning Week Four of this season.

After Inoke Funaki went down with a reported concussion, and the Warriors had given up 14 straight points at the end of the 1st half to trail by 10 to the Football Championship Subdivision Weber State team, Graunke was inserted to start the second half and was flat out fabulous.

Graunke finished with a quarterback rating of 206 (I still don't really know the math behind that), threw for 218 yds and had 3 passing touchdowns.

Inoke Funaki wasn't BAD, but its just that the offense didn't move with him at the helm. With Graunke out there, things were exciting again, and the Warriors seemed to have an easy time hitting paydirt.

I guess this means we will have our third different starting quarterback in three weeks as Tyler should get the nod against the 0-2 Beavers, who were demolished in Happy Valley by JoPa's Nittany Lions, which leads me to some other college football notes.

____________________________________________________

- Excessive Celebration? Seems to me we have excessive amounts of stupid rules.

The referees MIGHT HAVE cost the Washington Huskies a chance to win over #15 BYU on Saturday, when Jake Locker was called for Excessive Celebration after his touchdown to get his team within a point.

I emphasize the IF factor because we don't know if BYU would have blocked the extra point attempt from the regular distance, so Washington didn't totally get robbed.

But, back to the point. Under the letter of the NCAA's Rules and Interpretations, if you toss the ball up in the air in a celebration, that can be interpreted as part of an excessive celebration. Locker indeed threw the ball up in the air in celebratory fashion, so he was penalized.

Should that really be a penalty, though? I can see this called in High School, because we want to teach Sportsmanship and goodwill to the young moldable athletes. In college, different story. While based on the letter of the law, the referees made the right call, its a call that shouldn't have to be made in the first place.

- ECU upsets another Top 25 foe, this time Top 10 West Virginia

Whatever, Daniel Brock. You've got a surprise coming your way on Monday's show.

_______________________________________________________

By the way, for those of you who missed Friday Night's BIIF Game of the Week between the Honokaa Dragons and the Hilo Vikings, click here