NOTRE DAME 49, HAWAII 21
HONOLULU Notre Dame was stuck in the worst slump in bowl history. Jimmy Clausen gave the Fighting Irish an unexpected jolt on Wednesday.
Clausen threw for a career-high five touchdowns and posted his first 400-yard passing performance as Notre Dame crushed Hawaii, 49-21, in the Hawaii Bowl.
Golden Tate had three touchdown catches and Armando Allen returned a kickoff 96 yards for a score for the Fighting Irish (7-6), who claimed their first postseason win in nearly 15 years, snapping an NCAA-record nine-game losing streak in bowl games.
Notre Dames previous bowl win was a 24-21 win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1994.
The Fighting Irish did it in a very big way on Wednesday, setting school records for most points and most passing yards in a bowl game.
Clausen provided the spark early, recording 300 of his 401 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, lifting the Irish to a 28-7 lead.
It was not a start expected out of Notre Dame, as it struggled to another subpar season under head coach Charlie Weis.
After a nightmarish 2007 season in which he coached the Irish to a 3-9 record, the worst in the storied programs history, Weis guided the team to wins in five of its first seven games before a terrible finish that included an embarrassing loss to lowly Syracuse in the home finale and a blowout defeat at Southern California to end the season.
The poor finish drew calls for Weis to lose his job. However, athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced that the maligned Weis would return to coach in 2009 following the loss to USC.
With the black cloud of uncertainly lifted, Notre Dame played relaxed and with confidence, giving some possible indications of what next season may have in store.
While Clausen and the offense was rolling up numbers never seen for the Irish in a previous bowl game, the Notre Dame defense also came up big, almost completely disrupting a Warriors team that entered the game averaging 31.8 points in their previous six games.
Predicted to give Notre Dame a challenge, Hawaii instead had another disastrous performance in a bowl. Coupled with their 41-10 thumping by Georgia in last years Sugar Bowl, the Warriors have been outscored 90-31 in their last two bowl appearances.
Greg Alexander finished with 261 yards passing, two touchdowns and an interception for Hawaii (7-7).
