Looking Ahead to 2009

Jason Kaneshiro and Dave Reardon review the game and look ahead to 2009.

"We'll take a look at the film and see what we did (against Notre Dame), every game you play is a good learning experience," junior quarterback Greg Alexander said. "Saying that, our offensive output was just unacceptable. We're going to look at it and hopefully learn from it. It was just one of those games."

"Just have to train harder and come back strong next year," said sophomore running back/slotback Kealoha Pilares. "We have a lot of good people coming back, so we just have to build on this year and just get better."

Stephen Tsai writes about the sacks.

"Right now, we've got a lot of work to do," said McMackin, who was 7-7 in his first season as UH head coach. "We've got to eliminate sacks. We can't give up that many sacks."

The Warriors relinquished 59 sacks, more than any other NCAA Division I-A team has allowed in a season in the recorded history of the sport.

They were sacked 18 times in the final three games.

Asked if reorganization would be part of the solution, McMackin said: "I have to do some more thinking about that."

Mack also talks about rebuilding the secondary, going into spring with Greg Alexander as the #1 QB, and Inoke Funaki moving to running back. Let's hope we see some Wild Inoke formations in '09! Tsai writes about Warriors training for the pros:

Linebacker Adam Leonard will train in Tampa. Middle linebacker Solomon Elimimian also will train on the Mainland.

Ingram, Mouton and defensive end David Veikune will rent a house in Carson, Calif., where they will train. UH's Pro Day is scheduled for early March in Carson.

Ferd Lewis writes about the work that needs to be done in the offseason.

Shake up the coaching staff, re-wire some of the offensive and defensive approaches, change the culture on penalties, you name it, there is much that needs to be done and there is little time to waste.

Greg Alexander alone was sacked 32 times, which is not only a school record but remarkable for someone who played only nine games, including seven starts.

Part of the problem is Alexander's footwork is slow, he takes time to release the ball and didn't chuck some away when he should have. Elements that can be worked on. And must be. But the overriding failure was an inability to give him time to do more than count "one Mississippi, two Mississ..." — and gulp.

And Ferd writes that the PAC-10 may have a hard time providing a Hawaii Bowl representative once again.

While bowl officials say they are hopeful of pairing UH with a Pac-10 opponent in the 2009 game, "it will be a challenge," acknowledges David A. K. Matlin, executive director of the bowl.

The Hawai'i Bowl is scheduled to get the seventh pick of bowl-eligible Pac-10 teams, if the conference qualifies that many for the postseason. This year the Pac-10 was contracted to send its sixth to Hawai'i and seventh to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego but only managed to field five that were bowl-eligible. The Pac-10 had eight bowl-eligible in 2006.

"When they (the Pac-10) went to round-robin scheduling it made it harder to get teams (bowl eligible)," Matlin said.