2008 Hawaii Bowl
The 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl game was a post-season college football bowl game played on Christmas Eve 2008, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu between the Hawaiʻi Warriors of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) against the independent Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The game was part of the 2008–2009 bowl game schedule and was the concluding game of the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season for both teams. This seventh edition of the Hawaiʻi Bowl, sponsored by Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, was planned as a matchup between the WAC and Pac-10, however the Pac-10 was not able to supply a bowl-eligible team.
| 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 24, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Aloha Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Honolulu, Hawaii | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | QB Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame) WR Golden Tate (Notre Dame) WR Aaron Bain (Hawai'i) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Notre Dame by 1½ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Stan Evans (MAC) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 45,718 (tickets sold); 43,487 (turnstile) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Payout | US$750,000 per team | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Dave Pasch, Andre Ware | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 2.6 | ||||||||||||||||||
Notre Dame's victory marked its first in the postseason since the Irish defeated Texas A&M in the 1994 Cotton Bowl Classic following the 1993 season, and ended an NCAA record nine-game bowl game losing streak. Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen broke school bowl game records after passing for 401 yards and five touchdowns, and his 84.6% completion rate was the second-best completion percentage for any player in any bowl game in NCAA history. Wide receiver Golden Tate also set Irish bowl records upon catching for 177 yards and three touchdowns.
The game set the record for the Hawaiʻi Bowl's largest attendance, in both tickets sold and turnstile count, breaking the previous record set at the 2006 edition.
Notre Dame wore player names on the backs of its jerseys for the first time since 1985 season finale at Miami in Gerry Faust's last game as Irish coach.