Game Day: Hawaii Bowl

Game day! There are game previews, predictions, and breakdowns from:

The Advertiser

The Warriors are hopeful that they have solved their pass-protection problems. They have allowed 49 sacks, including 10 in the past two games. They were unsuccessful even when they unveiled a double-tight-end formation.

Pete Fiutak of CFN and Fox Sports

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.

Irish Eyes

Hawai’i has 34 sacks in 13 games and whether or not the Irish offensive line is able to hold up against the Warriors’ pressure could determine the game.

“The thing they do the best is rush the passer. You don’t have 30-plus sacks for a team if you’re not getting after the passer,” Weis said of Greg McMackin’s defensive unit. “He’s got a lot of fast guys and he lets them run to the ball.”

The News-Sentinel

Beyond the bowl streak, the Irish are trying to avoid consecutive losing seasons for the first time since the mid-1980s and ease at least some of the heat off of coach Charlie Weis.

Bleacher Report

Hawaii wins if...

The Warriors can jump in front early against what has actually been a very solid Notre Dame defense. Hawaii is 7-1 when scoring 20 or more points, and if the Irish feel the pressure of playing from behind, all that negative bowl history and self-doubt will creep in.

ESPN Insider

Alexander and his deep receiving corps are more than capable of keeping Hawaii in this game. However, look for a deeper and slightly more talented Notre Dame team to get the win for embattled head coach Charlie Weis.

The Journal Gazette

Daniel Libre leads Hawaii with 35.92 yards per game, but that could change against the Irish, who have been vulnerable against the run. Notre Dame has allowed 142.67 yards per game on the ground and are 112th in the country in tackles for loss, which is usually a barometer of how good a team is of stifling a running game before it starts.

Blue and Gold

Whichever team can establish some semblance of a ground game and avoid the turnover plague will likely come out on top. The X-factor will be who wants it more. Hawaii wants to win this game, but Notre Dame really needs to – similar to the Michigan contest this year after a 3-9 season and barely surviving the opener against San Diego State. The Irish are backed into a corner again, and they traditionally have responded well in such situations.

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We have some history from:

Michael Tsai

Like the Yankees in baseball or the Celtics in basketball, Notre Dame occupies a sphere of recognition that far exceeds the boundaries of collegiate football.

Billy Hull

Touchdown Jesus, Rudy, The Four Horsemen, Knute Rockne and the slogan "Play Like a Champion."

Stephen Tsai

Notre Dame and Hawai'i are polar football teams, as different as gold and lava.

Today's Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl opponents are opposites in tradition.

Dave Reardon

Everyone says Notre Dame is the most tradition-rich college football program of all.

That may be so.

Let's take a decidedly unscientific look at how Hawaii matches up in some of the legend and lore departments anyway.

Jason Kaneshiro, who recounts some memorable performances in Sheraton Hawaii Bowl history and writes about the game's origins.

The Advertiser, which has season recaps for Notre Dame and UH.

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Jason Kaneshiro writes about UH persevering through early-season struggles.

Greg McMackin trudged toward the stage set up in the Aloha Stadium hospitality room, the angst clearly evidenced on his brow.

Moments earlier he had watched San Jose State celebrate a 20-17 victory over Hawaii, the result of a mistake-riddled performance that dropped the Warriors to 1-3 a month into his first season as head coach.

He then made a vow before the assembled media, and those still tuned in to the pay-per-view telecast, that the Warriors would end the season in a bowl game.

"I remember ... saying that I believe in my players, I believe in my coaches and we're going to end up being in a bowl game," McMackin recalled. "I really believed that."

Ferd Lewis writes that Notre Dame is giving UH chance, so UH gotta chance um.

UH is appearing in its fifth Hawai'i Bowl and seventh postseason at Aloha Stadium and it could play in several times that many and not have the pre-Christmas present it unwraps today. Hawai'i is only the second of what we now consider non-Bowl Championship Series schools to get a postseason date with Notre Dame. The Warriors are the only team of any pedigree with six losses to get a bowl meeting with the Fighting Irish.

And they get it here in front of the home crowd and a national cable audience with a buzz that transcends their accumulated records.

Greg Couch of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that this game is a chance for Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen to begin living up to the hype.

Jeff Carroll of The South Bend Tribune talks to Mike Washington about Notre Dame's secondary.

"Their secondary is good, to tell you the truth," Washington said. "(Scheme-wise), we haven't seen anything different — everything we've seen we've also seen against other teams. They've got nice safeties, good corners, nice speed. We have to run our routes and execute to the best of our ability.

"I think we match up quite well. In our scheme of offense, everything the defense does gives us an option. You've got to execute to the 'T,' though, because they have make-up speed if we beat 'em deep."

And Curtis Lum writes that this game is good for tourism.