The men’s hoops team had a great win over #9 Georgetown win Monday.  The Irish defeated the Hoyas 73-67 for their 44th consecutive home victory - the longest active streak in the nation.  Here’s some highlights courtesy of ESPN.

Notre Dame picked up its first commitment for 2010 today in Christian Lombard - a 5 star offensive tackle from Illinois. Lombard had offers from virtually everyone and will be on everyone’s top 100 lists next year.

Considering our lack of success recruiting offensive tackles this year outside of Zach Martin, this is outstanding news.  Lombard will be the highest rated offensive lineman the Irish have received a commitment from since Sam Young three years ago.

The class of 2010 has quite a few elite prosepcts which the Irish appear to be in the driver’s seat for early in the process and Lombard was one of them.  If Weis can right the ship and get Notre Dame back in the Top 10 next year, we could see another banner year in recruiting like last year’s top rated class.

This was a huge first commitment for the Irish which could give us a little momentum in rounding out this year’s class as well.

Here’s another set of Hawaii Bowl highlights from the Honolulu Advertiser this time.

There were quite a few heroes from last night’s Hawaii Bowl win.  Here’s a look at who were the stars of the show for the Irish as they broke the 9 game bowl losing streak.

• Jimmy Clausen - Had by far his best game as a collegiate quarterback.  Clausen finished 22 of 26 for 401 yards with 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.  The 401 yards and 5 touchdowns were both Notre Dame bowl game records.  All four of Clausen’s drops hit Notre Dame receivers in the hands.  He had all day to throw for the most part and given that time he was as accurate as I’ve ever seen a Notre Dame quarterback.  This game should do wonders for his confidence which was likely shaken after a very rough four game stretch to end the season.
• Golden Tate - Tate lit up the Hawaii secondary to the tune of 177 yards on 6 catches for 3 touchdowns.  He also had a spectacular punt return for a touchdown that was called back because of a roughing the punter penalty.  The return was the first time this year that Tate really made something happen in the punt return game.  He is still very rough around the edges in the technical aspects of playing wide receiver like route running, but his skills are pretty undeniable.  If he can continue to improve on his fundamentals this off-season, he’s going to be one of the better wide receivers in college football next year.
• Kyle Rudolph - It’s amazing how much better this offense works when the Irish attack the middle of the field with Rudolph.  The freshman tight end had 4 catches for 78 yards including a huge fourth down catch in the first half.  Rudolph has an extremely bright future ahead of him and the Hawaii Bowl performance was just a sign of things to come.
• Armando Allen - It’s also amazing that Notre dame had went 6 years without a kick return for a touchdown before Allen took one 96 yards yesterday.  He also added a receiving touchdown and flashed the speed we have all been waiting to see in the return game.
• Ethan Johnson - Originally Johnson was credited with 3 sacks in the game, but when I went back to look at the stats today, he was credited with 2.  Regardless of how many sacks he was credited with, Johnson was a disruptive force in the pass rush.  Johnson was playing a lot on the inside of the line in 4 man fronts in the nickel packages throughout the game and seemed to get good pressure from both inside and off the edge.  We’ve been waiting for a game like this from Johnson all year and hopefully its just the first of many.
• Darius Fleming - Fleming saw a lot of action in the nickel packages and spent a lot of the night in the Hawaii backfield.  He saw more and more playing time as the season progressed this year and could very well step into a starting role next year.
• Steve Quinn - Quinn came out of no where to register 2 sacks in his final game with the Irish.  Quinn was all over the field and was in on more action than Maurice Crum whom he was spelling.

For those of you who may have missed last night’s Hawaii Bowl due to Christmas Eve obligations, here are some highlights from the 49-21 win over Hawaii.

Ethan Johnson has gotten a lot of playing time for a true freshman this year, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night that he really emerged.  Against Hawaii last night, Johnson recorded three of Notre Dame’s eight sacks and spent most of the night in the Hawaii backfield.

Johnson is going to be counted on to step into a starting role next year with the graduations of Pat Kuntz and Justin Brown so his big game is a very promising sign that he’ll be able to do just that.

It’s been a while since Notre Dame has had a legit pass rushing threat. Justin Tuck was the last defensive end to provide the Irish with a consistent pass rush.  If Wednesday nigth is any indication though, it looks as though Johnson might be capable of providing the Irish defense with that same pass rush.

Before we get too carried away though, Hawaii’s pass protection has been awful all season.  Hawaii had given up 49 sacks heading into the game giving them 57 sacs allowed on the season after Notre Dame’s eight sack effort.  Any time a defensive end gets you three sacks as a true freshman though it’s a very promising sign.

Now if we can just get a couple of Johnson’s defensive line classmates to emerge this off-season, we could have the makings of a very good young defense next year.

We all got an early Christmas present Wednesday night when our beloved Irish ended the bowl losing streak with a 49-21 victory over Hawaii.  We at UHND would like to wish all you more good times and blessings this holiday season.

As always, we thank you all for your continued support throughout the year and wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.

We all know that the bowl losing streak ended at 9 tonight with Notre Dame’s 49-21 victory over Hawaii.  That wasn’t the only dubious streak that we ended tonight though.

It had been 6 years since Notre Dame last reutrned a kickoff for a touchdown before Armano Allen took a 3rd quarter kickoff 96 yards for a score.  Before Allen’s first career special teams touchdown, the last kick Notre Dame returned for a touchdown game on a 92 yard return by Vontez Duff against Navy in 2002.

Allen was banged up coming into this game, but he looked faster than ever tonight on kickoffs and catching the ball out of the backfield.

Hopefully this is the first of many kick returns for scores for Allen.

Jimmy Clausen is having a career day today and we’re only at half time.  At the half way point of the Hawaii Bowl, Clausen has completed 18 of 21 passes for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s been down right dominant and nearly flawless in carving up the Hawaii defense.  All three of Clausen’s incompletions have come on drops while he’s been more accurate than we’ve seen him in his 2 years at Notre Dame.

Clausen isn’t looking anything like the QB we saw in the second half of the season who turned the ball over more than he put it in the end zone.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Clausen and will propel him into next season with a lot of momentum.

The 300 passing yards is already a Notre Dame bowl record eclipsing Brady Quinn’s 286 yards in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.  If his second half is anything like his first, I think it’s safe to say he’ll probably break another Notre Dame bowl record or two

Golden Tate had 136 of Clausen’s 300 passing yards which is also a Notre Dame record breaking Maurice Stovall’s mark of 124 in that same Fiesta Bowl.

Notre Dame is playing tonight with names on their jerseys for the first time since the 1988 (1987 season) Cotton Bowl.   While this is the first time in 21 years since names have appeared on the Notre Dmae jerseys, this used to be a tradition during Ara Parseghian’s tenure as head coach.  Under Ara, the Irish would not have names on the back of their jerseys during the season, but would for bowl games.

Players get to keep their jerseys from bowl so this is another nice way for them to end the year.