Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii vs. Notre Dame Football Picks
Written December 21, 2008 by Jason Lowry
This Christmas Eve if you are looking for some football to watch, the Hawaii Warriors pretty much get an extra home game when they take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu. This is the 5th time in the 7 year history of the Hawaii Bowl that the Warriors have had the chance of playing in front of their home fans, and rarely do the fans get to see them play a team with the history like Notre Dame. Hawaii finished the season 7-6 and finished tied for 2nd in the WAC at 5-3. The Fighting Irish had yet another disappointing season thanks to a 1-4 finish to the season, as they won just 6 games all season. For those of you looking to bet on NCAA football this bowl season, the oddsmakers have Notre Dame 1.5 point favorites over the Hawaii Warriors at Sportsbook.com
There is no question that the Fighting Irish have had a much harder schedule this season compared to the Warriors, but Notre Dame had one of its worst losses in years when they fell to Syracuse at home. Notre Dame will be counting on the offense to come in and snap a 9 game bowl game losing streak, as the Fighting Irish haven’t won a bowl game since 1994. The offense is led by quarterback Jimmy Clausen who wound up throwing for 2,771 yards with 20 touchdowns on 60% passing, but Clausen is prone to making mistakes, as he had 17 interceptions on the season. Clausen has to solid targets to throw to, as Golden Tate and Michael Floyd each had 7 touchdowns on the season. The offense can stall at times and a large part of that is the fact that this team struggles to run the football, as they are 98th in the nation gaining just 113 yards a game.
The Irish defense got slaughtered all of last season, as opponents regularly scored 30 points against this unit, but in 2008 the defense has improved, but obviously not enough or this team would be better than just 6-6. The defense isn’t going to win the game this weekend, but they can play a huge role in whether or not this team finally walks away with a bowl win. The Irish were better against the pass than the run, but you have to stop the run before a team even worries about throwing the football. We think Notre Dame has what it takes to win this game, its just hard telling which Irish team is going to show up. Bet Notre Dame Fighting Irish -1.5 at Sportsbook.com
Hawaii had a rough start to the season winning just 1-3 to start the season, but really picked it up in conference play going 5-3. A big reason for the Warriors early struggles was finding a quarterback to replace the great Colt Brennan, who led an explosive offensive attack over the last few seasons. After Tyler Graunke and Inoke Funaki failed to get the job done, the Warriors look like they found a real solid guy in Greg Alexander who stepped in and threw for 12 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions in 6 starts. Alexander will have to work around a very poor offensive line that is allowing the 2nd most sacks in the nation, and a rushing attack that is ranked 107th in the nation gaining just 99.3 yards a game. Daniel Libre has Warriors fans talking that he might be the answer in the backfield, and we will likely get to see if he when they take on the Irish.
The Warriors defense was pretty solid if you look at their performance on a weekly bases, but they did have a few games where they let opposing teams put up some big numbers, including 56 to Florida early in the season. The defense does a pretty good job against both the run and the pass, and a big reason for that is the play of the defensive line, as the Warriors are 21st in the nation with 2.6 sacks a game. Stopping the Irish means putting plenty of pressure on Clausen, and with the defense playing pretty much in front of a home crowd in this one, you have to believe this team has a real legit shot at taking home the trophy to this bowl game for the 4th time since 2003. Bet Hawaii Warriors +1.5 at Sportsbook.com
Get the best NCAA football picks and grab the latest college football odds for all the games this bowl season at Betfirms.
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4 Responses to “Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii vs. Notre Dame Football Picks”
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I think this article could use a few more “now”s.
NOT!
The content of the article is good, but the writer needs some lessons in sentence composition.
Almost all of his sentences that start with “now” should simply have the “now” stricken, and the article would read much better.
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John,
You couldn’t be more correct. Sometimes our guys get more caught up in voicing their opinions on the games than they do with their grammar. Thanks for your comments and I believed I edited out the excessive use of “now.”
Jack
Reply
tHIS WRITER MUST BE ON GLUE STATING”THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT THE FIGHTING IRISH HAD THE THE MUCH TUFFER SCHEDULE THIS SEASON.” HAWAII STARTED THEIR SEASON AT THE SWAMP PLAYING THE NOW NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NATION, FLORIDA. PLAYED THE BIG EAST CHAMPION AND NUMBER 12 RATED CINNCINATTI WHICH THYEY SHOULD HAVE BEATEN BY THREE TOUCHDOWNS, PLAYED AT UNDEFEATED REGULAR SEASON NUMBER NINE BOISE STATE, PLAYED AT THEN NUMBER 13 FRESNO STATE, PLAYED AT OREGON STATE WHO THE NEXT WEEK BEAT NUMBER TWO USC,ETC. NOTRA DAME WHO NEARLY SHOULD HAVE LOST TO THE WEAKEST SAN DIEGO STATE AT HOME, LOST TO SYRACUSE, AND NEARLY NAVY. A SIX AND SIX TEAM THAT HAS NO BUSINESS BEING REWARDED WITH A TRIP TO HAWAII, WHAT A JOKE
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Kelly,
You make some good points. I don’t think it’s that obvious that Notre Dame’s schedule was tougher. Check out the computer rankings at: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt08.htm and you’ll see the Irish have the slight edge. Both one game against top 10 opponents, Notre Dame has 5 top 30 to 4 for Hawaii.
Jack
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