Notre Dame Shows Its Potential

We faithful believed that it was there. We'd been told that it was there. Hiding somewhere, beneath the messy formations and missed blitz pickups, waiting to emerge. And maybe, just maybe it has! Like a Christmas present to Irish fans everywhere...

Talent. Speed. Strength.

Coming into the Hawaii Bowl, everything swirling around the Fighting Irish football team was negative. ESPN was running hourly updates on the failure-in-progress that had been the 2008 Notre Dame football campaign.

Constant recaps of the nine straight Irish bowl defeats, scrolling lists of the 89 different teams that have won a bowl since Lou Holtz's 1993 Irish team beat No. 6 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl to finish No. 2 in the AP poll.

Non-stop talk of the lost leads and late game meltdowns that landed the Irish in the Hawaii Bowl, had every analyst not named Jesse Palmer picking the Warriors.

Everyone wearing blue and gold had something to prove. A loss to a 7-6 Hawaii team would only heighten the intense scrutiny already focusing on head coach Charlie Weis and quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

A win, and maybe the young team could build some momentum heading into next year (maybe like Lou Holtz's 1987 team? HEY! It's Christmas... I can dream!).

What Weis needed most was for his four and five star recruits that Notre Dame recruited to start playing up to expectations. Clausen needed to be the QB that he was hyped up to be.

And for one night, it happened.

Despite all the talk of Notre Dame's impending demise at the hands of the Warriors, a glance at the rosters would suggest that the Irish should have a talent, speed, and size advantage across the board. Hawaii's defense never could mount much of a pass rush, and by that time Clausen had the game that everyone had been waiting for him to have.

He broke Irish bowl records for pass yardage and touchdowns in a bowl by HALFTIME. Completed 84% of his throws (every incompletion hit the hands of it's intended receiver) throwing for 405 yards and five touchdowns. He made the Warriors' defense look like high-schoolers.

There were many wide open receivers, but he also made some great throws. The touchdown to Tate in the back left corner of the end zone was one of the most perfect passes he has thrown.

The fourth-and-one scramble, broken tackle completion for 29 yards to Rudolph showed strength, mobility, poise, as well as accuracy. In many games past he'd have fired the ball into a linebacker's hands, but suddenly, Clausen could do no wrong.

Golden Tate often ran by cornerbacks like they were standing still. On the 69 yard TD catch Tate showed a burst to gain separation that no Irish receiver has shown since a guy named Ismail.

When the ball was thrown, Tate was even with the corner. He gained eight yards of space by the time it settled against his chest. He proceeded by making an easy walk into the end zone.

The Hawaii defense could not control any aspect of the line of scrimmage. As Hughes and Allen found running room not seen this season outside of the Navy game.

Notre Dame continued a season-long tradition of pounding the Hawaii quarterback, while limiting the speedy Warrior receivers to season-low yardages.

On special teams, the Irish blocked a punt, returned a kick, and returned a punt (although the punt was called back due to a roughing the kicker foul).

The 49-21 score, as lopsided as it was, was not as bad as the game was on the field. Notre Dame emptied its bench early in the fourth, and Hawaii added a TD late. With the punt return TD called back, it could have easily been worse.

Still, I can't help but wonder...

Shouldn't this have been somewhat expected?

Talent. Speed. Strength.

This team is composed of two straight top five recruiting classes, they were returning healthy for the bowl game, and had all their talent on the field. There were flashes all year that pointed to this, that the Irish were capable of being good, very good, if and only if they could find something to bring it all together.

For a team that wants desperately to back among the elite, shouldn't they expect to pound a WAC team mercilessly? But what was it that brought it all together?

Was it rage? Constantly being poked?

Whatever it was, the Hawaii Warriors are feeling the aftermath Christmas morning.

...and for Notre Dame fans, we can only hope that there will be longer-lasting effects of this Christmas explosion as winter turns to spring, and spring turns into the 2009 football season.

Questions will remain, but if what we saw last night could become the norm for the Irish next season, Christmas 2009 could be very Merry indeed!

Finally cheerful, GO IRISH!

Merry Christmas!