Game Week: Hawaii Bowl - Monday News

Tim Prister of Rivals.com writes about Notre Dame's "sack opportunities":

Hawaii's quarterbacks have been sacked 49 times in 13 games, and most of the time, it's been Greg Alexander, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound junior who started the season opener against Florida as well as the final six regular-season games.

"They gave up 49 of them I think," Notre Dame sophomore linebacker Brian Smith said. "That's one thing we've been focusing on: creating space within our lines so we can get to the quarterback."

"They do give up a lot of sacks," said senior defensive tackle Pat Kuntz, who is the Irish co-leader in sacks (3.5) with outside linebacker Harrison Smith.

According to Jeff Carroll of the South Bend Tribune, the Domers are "packing a sack lunch."

“That’s one big thing we’ve been focusing on,” said linebacker Brian Smith, who will return to the lineup after missing the regular season’s last two games with an injury. “You can bring different pressures without worrying, ‘We’re going to leave him out to dry or we’re going to leave him out to dry.’ We can come with a lot of pressures more comfortably.”

Stephen Tsai talks to Warrior coaches and players about those sacks.

"I'm not happy with the number of (relinquished) sacks we've had this year," UH head coach Greg McMackin said. "In the offseason, that's going to be a deep project for us."

"Sacks come from a lot of things," McMackin said, listing "quarterbacks not getting the ball off, receivers running the wrong routes, trying to go deep when (the defense) is blitzing. It's not always on the offensive linemen. It can be one of 11 guys' problems. Everyone always puts it on the offensive line. I don't point fingers at anybody. It's the entire offense's problem. It will take them all to work together as a team."

Tsai also writes about Notre Dame's kicking woes, Jayson Rego's key role on the punt team, and Tuiatua Tuiasosopo recovery from a staph-like infection.

Billy Hull writes about the Notre Dame players loving those sacks.

After a little more prodding, Kuntz saved his biggest smile for when Hawaii's FBS-worst 49 sacks allowed were brought up.

"They do give up a lot of sacks," he said. "I HAVE noticed that."

The 6-foot-3, 283-pound senior is licking his chops to get after Hawaii quarterback Greg Alexander when the Fighting Irish (6-6) and the Warriors (7-6) face off in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve at 3 p.m.

Hmmm, if I didn't know any better, I'd think Billy Hull was being a bit cheeky!

Jason Kaneshiro profiles senior center John Estes. He's sick of seeing the o-line give up sacks:

"I'm sick of seeing us give up sacks," Estes said.

"When we give up sacks it's usually not the guys just beating us, it's us beating ourselves. We just have to eliminate the mental mistakes and if a guy makes a play, he makes a play. You just go on to the next play. You can't dwell on the past because you can't do anything about it."

Lou Somogyi of BlueandGold.com lists some top storylines for the UH vs Notre Dame matchup. They include 1.) Who wants it more? 2.) The QB quotient and 3.) Season of Giving, which discusses the propensity for turnovers by both teams. It also has one statistic which I was unaware of or had blocked from my memory:

However, there is one other area of gift-getting where Notre Dame could benefit: Hawaii led the nation in penalties (114) and penalty yardage (1,028, or 79.08 per game) this year.

Seriously? Well yes on the yardage per game, but looks like that TCU has us beat in penalties per game. Still, whether the refs are more prone to calling penalties on the Warriors or not, this may be another "deep project" for Coach Mack and the players to focus on in the offseason.

And for all the articles about Notre Dame feeling some jetlag when they arrived this past weekend, Dave Reardon has a great column about what UH does every other week, every single year.

"It does have physical effects on you," said cornerback Terrail Lambert, blinking in the midday sun after an Aloha Stadium practice yesterday.

Wait a second -- this is the wrong place to moan even a little about the rigors of travel. Hold on while Greg McMackin and his team that plays you this week tune up the world's tiniest ukulele.

Notre Dame, Hawaii feels your plane -- and more.

The Warriors went back and forth to the mainland five times this season, including once all the way to Gainesville, Fla. That's twice as far in itself as any trip Notre Dame made before Friday.

Hawaii totaled 38,173 miles.

A Fighting Irish official said he thinks that with this trip, Notre Dame will have traveled more miles than any other continental college football team ("We don't even count Hawaii," he said).

OK.

Hah.