It was against Hawaii! Not Texas, not Florida, not Oklahoma, not Syracuse. They finished 7-7.

 

Sorry for being a wet blanket and....

 

Merry Christmas.

I agree completely.

 

We should expect a win like this against a team like that. We should also expect to go at least 9-3 every year, never to lose to a 3-9 team, and to be in the National Championship hunt two out of every three years. Those are realistic and attainable goals and they should be our standards.

Jesus, McDougal....do you work for ESPN??? Trying to find the negative in anything we do. I love your posts on this board but come on...

 

Can you remember the last time we blew anyone out?...let alone against a team that opened up as a 2 point favorite on the road.

 

I know we blew some teams out 3 years ago but those 3 years seem like 30. Enjoy the win and the Christmas with your family. Leave the hating up to the media.

Thanks 2lakes. I was (and still am) expecting to get butchered by some of our members for my pesimism.

 

Completely agree with your goals also.

 

There we go.....just as I was posting this, El Hombre let me have it. I love it! That's what I'm talkin' about!

 

Hombre, help me bring the "swagger" back to ND fans!!! We shouldn't be celebrating a win against Hawaii for God sakes!

 

Merry Christmas and have an F'N great New Year.

Happy Holidays to you and your family too, McDougal. Let's just enjoy this one! Huge monkey off our back and HOPEFULLY something to build on. I agree, it's not where we want to be, but we made everything that we could have hoped for out of what we presented ourselves with. Go Irish! Here's to a much better 2009 season!

Thanks 2lakes. I was (and still am) expecting to get butchered by some of our members for my pesimism.

 

Completely agree with your goals also.

 

There we go.....just as I was posting this, El Hombre let me have it. I love it! That's what I'm talkin' about!

 

Hombre, help me bring the "swagger" back to ND fans!!! We shouldn't be celebrating a win against Hawaii for God sakes!

 

Merry Christmas and have an F'N great New Year.

 

Point blank many expected us to do poorly against Hawaii. Could this season have gone better? Yes, no doubt about it. We went into a game that we were underdogs in, not many expected us to win and we won convincingly. Our first bowl win in quite some time, that alone deserves its praise. Not only did we break the 'jinx', but we did it with a very young football team. Our young offense has a lot to build on going into the offseason. Yes there is a bittersweet aspect to beating Hawaii, but we won. Our younger players got an extra few weeks of practice and we can go into the offseason on a positive note versus the extremely negative one that was building up prior to the bowl game.

 

I'm perfectly fine with questioning things. I think it's a very healthy thing to do, but it's also healthy to give praise when it's due and our team did perform well, regardless of the opponent.

It was against Hawaii! Not Texas, not Florida, not Oklahoma, not Syracuse. They finished 7-7.

 

Sorry for being a wet blanket and....

 

Merry Christmas.

 

 

Merry Christmas mc!! I agree, we beat a crappy team, but i don't give a crap because we finally looked really really good. We didn't look this good against a crappy Syracuse team or San diego or Navy or et. etc. I haven't seen a bowl win since High School and you won't ruin it for me! :drunk:

Of course I am upset that we didnt beat a Texas in our bowl game... but guess what... we didnt have a great season, just about everyone thought we were gonna be toast in this game and we DOMINATED the game. I will gladly take the bowl win against Hawaii... am I saying I will settle for this next year? NO! Top 25-15 I will bite my tongue and call it more progress, but I expect a top 15 finish and at LEAST being competitive in a BCS game... The kids had fun out there tonight and THATS what we need to see week in week out next season.

 

Here is to a finish to build upon.

 

Merry Christmas Domers

Just to clear this up-I was excited and thrilled to see this game! Man I was glad to see Jimmy and Golden light it up, Hughes running inside, Mondo returning a kick.

 

I expect a top 10 team next year with all this talent and better execution. I'll take this win but DAMN IT!, I want a championship! Been waiting since '93.

 

And thanks for taking it easy on me guys!

McDougal, I agree, it was Hawaii who we beat in a third rate bowl and not a Tier 1 team like we would have wanted had the season gone our way. I will take the monkey off the back for our bowl losing streak, it may not seem like much but it is a relief. I think that this trip can have many positives for our team in the future. One aspect is showing CW and the team that the bowl trips can be and should be fun, good things obviously can happen when we are playing loose and having fun. Hopefully the mood, activities, and preparation can carry over to future bowl planning. Of course hopefully we aren't facing a disappointing end to the season with a rumored coaching change either any time soon, but we'll see.

 

Another aspect of the bowl was the extra practice. I know some people will say that they had all season to practice and should have the plays down by now. Sometimes it does take that one more time/rep/practice to turn the corner on the learning curve IMO. With injuries to guys like Floyd and a few others who were dinged up, it gave them an opportunity to come back for one more game this year and play. I know that can have a huge psychological impact on a player rather than having to wait an entire year to game test how well they'll come back. Players coming off season ending injuries often times go through that tentative process when getting back onto the field the next year. Many will play head games with themselves all off season and end up hesitating for fear of hurting themselves again. At least with Floyd especially, he was able to get right back up on the saddle and play once more before next year and even the spring. He looked good as far as I could tell and had little to no hesitation to go up for balls tonight.

 

We'll see how this bowl plays out next year in the grand scheme of things.

Yes Hawaii sucks but every d-bag ND hater out there is pissed today. They were all foaming at the mouth for ND to lay another egg. It was fun to watch. This sets the tone for next year and hopefully can help us pull in a few more recruits. Now I can watch all the rest of the games and pull for upsets.

I'm very happy with this win, no BUTS about it, we wanted a bowl game, we wanted a win, we were 6-6 and the Hawaii Bowl is where we were placed, its OKAY to be happy! Now is not the time to complain, enjoy the win.

first off, merry christmas everyone. second, we were in the bowl we deserved to be in. we were a third tier team all year and we played in a third tier bowl but thank god we didn't play like a third tier team. we did what we had to do. we showed up and kicked major a$$. now, let's finish up this recruiting and get these kids together to prepare for next year. alot of people, including myself thought we would have a better year than we did last year. the disappointment clearly showed . however, there were those who remained the voice of reason. facemask being one of them. when ever i started freaking out i would just remember what facemask would say. we won't be better than 7-5. he said that at the beginning of the year and he never changed his stance. even when we came out the gates with a few wins. his explanation for the reason is long and rambling, but it always made sense. thanks face for keeping me in the proper perspective. now, just tell me that next year will be better before i get all excited and slide into a major depression when we crap the bed...........................we will be better, right??? right??, just tell me we will get better...........................

I am happy that we bring a positive into the recruiting year and spring practice, instead of the negative attacks! ND will be able to say with a smile, "see we are getting better." I thought this team could have won 10 (with the bowl game) but maybe it was just too big of a jump from 3 wins. Either way, I think it will be much easier to add a few recruits and finish off the recruiting year. This freshman class really helped, Floyd, Fleming, Johnson, Rudolph, Blanton, etc. Now we need to improve just like ND did the first year of CW coaching, the next step will be huge! It looked like the kids and coaches had a large truck remove from their backs! Merry Christmas!!!

Please don't get me wrong. I'm very very happy that the Irish won. But I think a lot of people are forgetting the fact that Notre Dame still can't run the ball. Yes they had bursts up the middle at times but the fact remains they had only 75 yards total on the ground.

A passing attack will only get the Irish so far next season.

gosh no one is complaining about the poor play calling , what happened . charlie did a great job last night and we won the game and the team played great the entire game , complain if you like thats your right , but iam damn proud of the the way the team overcame an underdog role to totally put a good whipping on the favorites and since all America felt that the irish would lose . i say the hell with ya. go irish were going to be better next year. go irish . nice game charlie , the boys were ready . and it showed. go irish