Honolulu, HI (My Sportsbook) - Already locked into the Hawaii Bowl, the Hawaii Warriors hit the field at Aloha Stadium for their final regular-season game of the 2008 season this weekend against 13th-ranked Cincinnati.
Last week the Warriors, who concluded their Western Athletic Conference slate a week earlier with a win over Idaho, posted a 24-10 victory against Washington State to move to 7-5 on the campaign. Following the win, first-year head coach Greg McMackin accepted an invitation to participate in the Hawaii Bowl once again, a game that will be played in the very same facility on December 24th against an opponent from the Pac-10 Conference which is still to be determined.
As for the Bearcats, they easily took care of the Syracuse Orange last weekend in a 30-10 decision, marking the first time the program has gone undefeated at home since 2000. In addition, the victory also provided the Bearcats with the Big East Conference title, the program's first outright conference championship since bringing home the Missouri Valley Conference crown in 1964. As a result of finishing first in the Big East, Cincinnati earns an automatic bid to a BCS Bowl for the first time in school history.
As far as the series between these two teams is concerned, each has won one of the previous meetings. Cincinnati dominated the first contest back in 1951 by a score of 34-0, but in 2002 the Warriors leveled the field with a 20-19 triumph at home in Honolulu.
"Well we finished what we started," said head coach Brian Kelly after his Bearcats defeated Syracuse. "We started this year with the goal to become the Big East Champions...It is a great day to be a Bearcat. We're excited for what we're able to do in a very short period of time."
Tony Pike threw for 272 yards and two touchdowns, surviving four sacks and an interception in the fifth straight win for the Bearcats and the ninth in the last 10 outings. Although he failed to make his way into the end zone, Mardy Gilyard finished with 11 catches for 114 yards to which he noted after the game, "We really don't get caught up in the stats. We take what they give us." Gilyard heads into the final game of the regular season with 67 catches for 982 yards and nine touchdowns thanks to the efforts of Pike who is averaging 206 ypg passing and has 17 scores, against five picks in 270 attempts.
The team is just 92nd in the nation in rushing with 119.8 ypg, but that doesn't mean that John Goebel (532 yards, seven TDs) hasn't been trying to produce week in and week out.
Against a program that has struggled the entire season and entered last weekend with a lame-duck coach, the Bearcats completely dominated Syracuse by limiting the Orange to just 59 yards passing, the top defensive effort of the season for UC. Additionally, the visitors were allowed only 152 yards rushing and converted a mere 3-of-14 on third down as Derek Wolfe, Lamonte Nelms and Curtis Young all registered a sack for the victors.
Nelms is second on the team in total sacks this season with five and a half and is also second in teams of tackles for loss with 13 in his 12 starts. Connor Barwin ranks first on the team with his 10 sacks and is also tops with 13.5 TFLs. Because of Barwin's efforts the Bearcats as a team are first in the conference and 17th in the nation this week with 2.67 sacks per outing. In terms of TFLs, the Bearcats are second in the Big East and 33rd nationally with 6.33 per contest as well.
"I know we had some tough times and our ups and downs this year, but there was no way that we weren't going to make it to a bowl game this season," coach McMackin said after accepting the bid to the Hawaii Bowl. Against a weak Washington State program the Warriors scored the first two touchdowns of the game last Saturday and never looked back.
Greg Alexander had one of his best games under center for the squad as he converted 19-of-34 passing for 315 yards and a pair of touchdowns as he withstood five sacks and an interception. Daniel Libre finished with just 17 yards on 11 carries, yet had a touchdown run in the victory, while Greg Salas pulled down seven passes for 131 yards and a score.
The UH passing attack has taken a few steps backwards this season as it tried to find a serviceable replacement for Colt Brennan, yet it still produced 243.1 ypg to rank third in the conference. Unfortunately, Alexander, Inoke Funaki, Tyler Graunke and Brent Rausch have had to survive a collective 20 interceptions and relentless pressure that has amounted to 3.67 sacks per game that ranks the group eighth in the WAC and 117th in the nation entering play this week.
Perhaps most impressive about Hawaii's effort against Washington State was that it held the Cougars to a mere 76 yards through the air and sacked the quarterback combination of J.T. Levenseller and Kevin Lopina five times. Adam Leonard stepped up with one of those sacks, had 1.5 TFLs and 10 total tackles, while John Fonoti recorded two and a half of his six stops behind the line of scrimmage and had a sack of his own. David Veikune, who is fourth in the Western Athletic Conference this season with 0.67 sacks per game, was credited with 1.5 quarterback takedowns versus the Cougars.
Of the 12 players selected to the All-WAC Defensive First Team this week, Leonard, Ryan Mouton and Solomon Elimimian all made the cut, while the latter was also named the league's co-player of the year on that side of the ball. Elimimian currently ranks sixth in the league in tackles per game with almost eight and a half per outing and is the all-time leader at Hawaii with his 414 stops. Just 29 tackles shy of the all-time conference record, Elimimian has 101 stops overall this season.
