"I'm sorry," Hawai'i head football coach Greg McMackin told a group of Aloha Stadium workers yesterday as he made the now long walk to the locker room. "I let you down this time."

Then long-snapper Jake Ingram, one of the Warriors' 35 seniors, approached McMackin. The two embraced.

"I'll be your friend for life," McMackin said.

Asked which hurt more — the Warriors' disheartening 49-21 loss to Notre Dame in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl or saying farewell to each senior — McMackin, his eyes moistened with emotion, said: "Both."

"I love these guys, and I wanted them to go out with a win," he added. "It would have been really neat. But give credit to Notre Dame. They played a great game."

Indeed, nearly every moment of yesterday's nationally televised game was golden.

The Fighting Irish are a national football treasure. They are the Four Horsemen, the Gipper, "Rudy," the Golden Dome, and NBC's game of the week.

And yesterday, history made its presence, thanks to quarterback Jimmy Clausen, the appropriately named Golden Tate, Armando Allen's 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and a relentless defense that left the Warriors dazed and confused.

"They were consistent, and we weren't," said McMackin, whose Warriors finished 7-7 in his first year as head coach. "They made plays, and we didn't make plays. ... Notre Dame just out-played us in all three phases."

Nearly two years ago, Clausen was rated as the nation's No. 1 recruiting prospect. In 2007, he made the quickest ascent to the starting quarterback's job in Notre Dame history, and was efficient in the first eight games this season. But he slumped in the final third of the regular season, throwing eight interceptions against two touchdowns.

But yesterday, UH linebacker Adam Leonard noted, "you could see why (Clausen was No. 1)."

Clausen completed 22 of 26 passes for 401 yards and five touchdowns. Two of his passes were dropped. He was not intercepted.

Three of the scoring passes went to Tate, a sprinter who is capable of covering 40 yards in 4.35 seconds.

Tate sped past UH cornerbacks for scoring plays of 69 and 40 yards. He also caught an 18-yard scoring pass when he outraced safety Desmond Thomas and Calvin Roberts to the corner of the end zone.

"I don't know why he even threw it," Tate said. "Obviously, he had confidence in me. I did my best to get to it."

Clausen said: "Hey, I trusted in him that he could make a play, and I made a throw."

There was little the Warriors could do to solve the Fighting Irish's multiple attack, which was choreographed by head coach Charlie Weis.

Weis, who has won four Super Bowl rings, was in the coaches' booth for the first time in seven years. Because of injuries to both knees — he undergoes surgery Monday — he is on crutches, and needed to sit to call the plays. But the man upstairs made all of the right moves.

Weis used 237-pound Robert Hughes at running back to force the Warriors to shift a second linebacker toward the middle. He sent tight end Kyle Rudolph on Z-shaped routes to draw a safety out of zone coverage. And he aligned freshman wideout Michael Floyd, who missed the past two games because of an injury, opposite Tate.

Floyd had two catches for 17 yards. But his presence prevented the Warriors from doubling up on Tate.

Every time Tate faced single coverage, Clausen recalled thinking, "I'm going there."

Tate said Aloha Stadium's compacted FieldTurf creates a "fast" surface. He proved his theory in the second quarter, after UH slotback Aaron Bain scored on a 10-yard play to close the Warriors to 14-7.

Tate sprinted past cornerback Roberts, made the catch at the 30, and zipped the rest of the way to extend the margin to 21-7.

In the third quarter, Tate got behind cornerback Jameel Dowling for a 40-yard, catch-and-sprint touchdown.

Tate finished with six catches for 177 yards.

"They had good speed," Roberts said. "They knew what coverage we had. They were checking at the line. They made the plays. It wasn't our day. If we played them any other day, I think it would have been a different story. But this wasn't our day. Big ups to them. Give them all of the credit."

The Warriors, meanwhile, could not respond. Not against the Fighting Irish's pressing defense that transformed the pass pocket into a house of cards.

The Irish run a deceptive 3-4 alignment. They slide a linebacker to the edge to create a four-man front. Then a second linebacker, usually Harrison Smith, storms a gap as a blitzer.

The Irish also try to sneak a defensive back or linebacker into the flats, disrupting the Warriors' safety-valve passes — quick outs and screens.

"They did a good job of taking away our short stuff," said UH quarterback Greg Alexander, who was 23-of-39 for 261 yards. "They had an excellent game plan coming in. They brought pressure. It was an accumulation of things."

Against the constant pressure, Alexander had little time to wait for the deep routes to develop. He was sacked eight times, giving the Warriors the NCAA record for most sacks allowed in a season.

The previous record of 58 was set by Notre Dame last year. UH was listed as having allowed 49 sacks entering the game.

But that total was a miscalculation. UH had actually allowed two more sacks against Washington State that were not inputted into the official NCAA statistics. The eight sacks yesterday gave the Warriors 59 for the season.

"We expected them to pressure us," UH offensive line coach Brian Smith said. "We worked on it all week. We had some breakdowns in execution — protection-wise, up front, all the way around — and it showed at times. We're definitely a little disappointed in the way we played up front."

On one of the first-half sacks, Alexander suffered what was suspected to be a subluxation to his left (non-throwing) shoulder. He experienced numbness in that shoulder the rest of the game.

Of the Warriors' offensive woes, Alexander said: "It was frustrating. But it was one of those things you have to keep pounding away until you find something that works. Today, we didn't find it."

It was the Irish who found the answers in paradise. They ended a nine-game bowl losing streak, and avoided consecutive losing seasons for the first time in school history. They finished 7-6.

"It was good for us to send the seniors out on the right note, and to end the bowl streak," Clausen said, noting the Irish felt comfortable. "We all felt good the day we stepped here in Hawai'i."

Tate said: "We're working on bringing Notre Dame back to where it's supposed to be, and that's competing for national championships each year."