Cincinnati, Shutter, Banquet, Notre Dame

Dave Reardon reviews five key plays from the Warriors' loss to Cincinnati in this week's Warrior Replay.

Stephen Tsai writes about Cayman Shutter's commitment to UH.

According to Shutter, McMackin said the Warriors had decided they were done recruiting quarterbacks for the 2009 class. Four UH quarterbacks were returning, including starter Greg Alexander, and the Warriors had received a verbal commitment from Corey Nielsen of Gahr High School in California.

"I held on for a little bit," Shutter said.

But Saturday morning, Shutter received a voice-mail message from McMackin.

"He said he needed to talk to me before the game (against Cincinnati)," Shutter said. "I went in before the game. He said he really liked me, and he thought he'd open it up again and give me a scholarship. I committed on the spot."

Tsai also has a list of award winners from last night's team banquet. The team's MVP is...

Defensive end David Veikune yesterday was named the winner of the Alec Waterhouse Award as the Warriors' most valuable player.

Jason Kaneshiro writes about Shutter's commitment and talks to Greg McMackin about the award winners.

The Ben Yee Most Inspirational Award went to long snapper Jake Ingram and defensive back Ryan Mouton.

"Jake has been Mr. Consistency since I've been here," McMackin said.

Mouton earned first-team All-WAC honors as a defensive back, but also contributed on offense, starting two games at slotback to spark the receiver unit. He came back from a sprained ankle to play against Cincinnati and set up an interception with a tipped pass.

"He's the best athlete on our team and the quickest, and he's mentally tough," McMackin said. "He's a guy who puts the team first and just wants to help the team win."

Kaneshiro talks to Adam Leonard and Greg McMackin about Notre Dame accepting the Hawaii Bowl invite.

"With the tradition they have, everybody knows about Notre Dame," Hawaii senior linebacker Adam Leonard said. "It's just unbelievable and I'm thrilled for the opportunity."

"I'm really excited," Hawaii coach Greg McMackin said. "This is one of the big-time teams in college football. This is Knute Rockne, Touchdown Jesus and the Four Horsemen. It's one of the top names in the game.

"They travel well, it'll help the bowl and it'll help the economy."

Ferd Lewis has details about the many factors involved for the Notre Dame invite came together.

But the Pac-10, in an uncharacteristically down year, was struggling to meet its obligation to send a sixth selection and it was feared the Hawai'i Bowl might have to look to a less recognizable representative from the much-less prestigious Mid-American or Sun Belt conferences to find UH an opponent.

At that point, the Honolulu-based Matlin lobbied the game's owner, ESPN Regional Television of Charlotte, N.C., to lay the groundwork for the long-shot possibility of Notre Dame, enlisting Derzis, ERT vice president, in the cause.

But, Matlin said, "a lot had to happen" in a process that others involved have compared to a "root canal."

Slowly, it unfolded.

Michael Rothstein of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette writes about some of the logistics Notre Dame had to work around before accepting the bid.

And Ferd Lewis has a few reasons why this game is important for Notre Dame.

At a down-and-out 6-6 and after a beyond-humbling setback to woeful Syracuse, the Irish have tumbled a long way from worrying about national championship "implications." They'd just like to climb back to respectable.

That's why they want Hawai'i and the Dec. 24 date in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl now. Frankly, they need Hawai'i and its bowl in 2008 and the reasoning isn't hard to comprehend.

The Irish have given their embattled head coach, Charlie Weis, a stay of dismissal with clear marching orders: Demonstrate progress, pronto. Aloha Stadium is clearly where they mean for that turnaround to begin.