Hawaii Bound

The 6-6 Irish found out their bowl destination yesterday, as the school announced its acceptance of the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl bid. The (7-6) Hawaii Warriors await the Irish in their home stadium in Honolulu on Christmas Eve, 8pm eastern time. The bowl marks the third time the Irish have played U of Hawaii, both previous times ending in 1 point Irish victories (November 1991 and November 1997).

The odds makers have not come out with a line that I have seen yet, but I am going to predict the line will be the Irish favored by 3.5 points. Factor in the stats I will provide in my post tomorrow, and see what conclusion you come to.

While many fans are upset, angry, or apathetic about the Irish bowl bid, this game is far from irrelevant. The Notre Dame football program has failed to enter an off season with a bowl victory since 1994. I'm going to type that sentence once more time, so please read it out loud or whatever you need to do for it to sink in: The Notre Dame football program has failed to enter an off season with a bowl victory since 1994.

Had the Irish won some bowl games at the end of a few of the good seasons during that stretch, maybe the Irish program would have experienced more consistent success, with fewer ups and downs? The Irish had numerous goods seasons (2000, 2002, 2005, and 2006 come to mind) but got soundly beaten in bowl games to end each season, killing any momentum as the Irish head into a winter full of conditioning and hard workouts. I cannot think of a bigger motivational spark or confidence building tool than winning a bowl game - even a lesser bowl like the Hawaii bowl.

Lou Holtz used to say the phrase "WIN" - which stood for "What's important now". He used it often to keep his team focused and to motivate. "What's important now" for the Irish is to learn from the inconsistent and disappointing 2008 season, and then discard any mental or emotional baggage that may remain, allowing full focus on Hawaii and this bowl game. No matter how prideful or embarrassed you may be as a fan of the Irish right now, the only thing we can do about it is to win this bowl game - a road game against a quality opponent - breaking a 14 year bowl drought. Then maybe we can truly move forward out of the cesspool that was 2007 and 2008 Notre Dame football, towards a better future.