A Girl Scouts: The Hawai'i (Rainbow) Warriors

The 7-6 Warriors from Hawai'i play Fat Charlie's (6-6) boys on Christmas Eve in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl at Aloha Stadium. Kick off is at 8pm Eastern on ESPN. That's 3pm Hawaiian. I figure that we know all that we care to about The Domers --but Greg McMackin's team??? Not so much.

This is not your 12-0 Hawai'i team of yore. No Colt Brennan. No June Jones. Colt graduated and June Jones left the rock to go to Southern Methodist University (of NCAA death penalty fame) and defensive coordinator Greg McMackin became the head coach. Love his last name. Reminds me of another famous Hawaiian.....

So let's find out about these Warriors. I was at the Michigan v. Hawaii game at Aloha Stadium in 1998, and I can tell you that Aloha Stadium is super cool brah. The 2007 Hawaiian squad went 5-2 at home and for the season won games against Weber State (36-17), Fresno State (32-29 OT), La Tech (24-14), Nevada (38-31), New Mexico State (42-30), and Idaho (49-17) to finish second in the WAC--behind Boise State.

Hawai'i owns this bowl, appearing in 2002, '03, '04, and '06 winning all of them except the first. Weird fact: ND last traveled to a Hawaiian bowl when it appeared in the Aloha Bowl in 1984 which they lost to SMU (June Jones' new school...). ND and Hawai'i have met twice before and ND won in both 1991 and 1997. The third time's da charm brah. Beat ND, yah.

ESPN scouts this game and doesn't even talk about Hawai'i. Shocking ND-favoritism. The only reason to go check out their site is to see their comparison charts matching the almost identical stats for each team in total yards, rushing yards, passing yards, and points scored. I'll get to the details in a minute, but one of the BEST things about the Hawai'ian Warriors is their pre-game Ha'ka. Check it out.


Unfortunately, the Sugar Bowl refs and the WAC penalized them for unsportsmanlike conduct for performing the Ha'ka prior to last year's game. Hopefully the home-town crew will look the other way this year.

On the offense:
The Warriors are led by QB Greg Alexander, a JuCo transfer junior from Santa Rosa CA and the WAC offensive player of the week back in October for his performance against Nevada. His numbers are solid, completing about 64% of his passes and tossing 12 TDs. Their other QB, Inoke Funaki, also a junior, completed 56% of his passes, but threw to the other guys 12 times.... doh!
Their preferred receivers are Greg Salas and Michael Washington. Salas, the "X" receiver wearing #1, is a sophmore receiver out of Chino, CA and Washington is the senior out of Aliquippa, PA who also returns punts and kickoffs. More importantly, Washington's 3rd cousin is Ty Law!!!
On the ground for the Warriors, keep your eyes on Daniel Libre and Kealoha Pilares. Each averages about 4-5 yards per carry, scoring 6 and 5 rushing TDs respectively.

On the defense:
Linebacker Solomon Elimimian was the WAC's co-defensive player of the year. The guy averages 10.9 tackles per game, and I'm betting he becomes Jimmah's new-best friend. As Andy's son would say: BEAST! A senior out of Compton in LA, this dude takes no prisoners. Oh, and he's an academic all-WAC team member as well. Look for him on Sundays.
Another guy Jimmah should be a'scared of is David Veikune off the left end.
Watch Ryan Mouton too. He returned a pick for 91 yards this season against Nevada. He also returns kicks and averages 21.4 yards per return. He housed one for 90 yards this season too.

Although still a run-and-shoot offense, Hawai'i hasn't really been lighting up the score board. Nor have they shut down too many opponents. In their defense, they did play 4 ranked teams this season: No. 5 Florida, at No. 22 Fresno State, at No. 15 Boise State, and No. 13 Cinncinati. (pre-emptive strike: that's more than we can say...)
Hawai'i's special teams are very solid and have blocked 3 FGs this season. I think that their special teams will make a game changing impact.

With game time temperatures in the low 70s and a boat load of jet-lag for the Irish, I'm calling this one in favor of the Warriors, 38-23. Making a perfect 10 losses in bowl games! As an aside, Mike Haywood, ND's offensive co-ordinator will be the new head coach at Miami (OH). This makes Haywood the 7th black head coach (Ron English was #6) in the FBS and the third one in the MAC........And, it also means that Fat Charlie is callin' the plays. I can't stop giggling!
To quote one of MGoBlog Brian's favorite expressions (with the help of Avenue Q and Sponge Bob): SCHADENFREUDE

And, dear reader, I would be completely remiss if I did not end this post with some happy healing images from Hawai'i---particularly given the weather in the upper Midwest......