Leigh Tiffin added three field goals for the Crimson Tide, which had two apparent touchdowns overturned on replay challenges by Hawai'i.

Wilson started slowly, completing only four of 10 passes for 80 yards in the first half. Looking more comfortable after halftime, he was 12 of 19 for 173 yards and a 35-yard touchdown pass to Keith Brown.

"It was a great win for us," Alabama coach Mike Shula said. "We worked as hard as we could. We didn't play perfect but there were some really good individual efforts.

Down by a touchdown and 2-point conversion, Hawai'i drove the ball to the Alabama 26 with 13 seconds left. On fourth down with 1 second remaining, Colt Brennan lofted a pass to the goal line, where the Tide's Lionel Mitchell jumped for an interception to preserve the win.

"We played hard up front," Hawai'i coach June Jones said. "We knew we had to stop the run and I feel like we did a good job defending the run. They had some big guys. They threw the ball up and that was a big disadvantage (for us)."

Hawai'i didn't reach the end zone until late in the third quarter, when Reagan Mauia scored on a 16-yard shovel pass from Brennan. Brennan threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Grice-Mullins midway through the fourth quarter to bring the Warriors within eight.

"A year ago, I don't think we had the camaraderie or team cohesion to fight in the second half," Brennan said. "You have to take the positive and you have to look at the negatives.  I think the negatives were pretty blatant but the positive is that we fought with a great football team."

Said Jones: "We weren't ourselves in the first half. You could tell the first couple of times (we had the ball), apparently, we were nervous and stumbling. We tried our hardest but we fell a little short."

Dan Kelly kicked a 42-yard field goal for Hawai'i on the game's opening drive, but Alabama didn't trail again.

Tiffin, a freshman, kicked field goals of 31, 23, 27 yards.

Tim Castille scored on a 3-yard run, and Jimmy Johns rushed for 58 yards on eight carries for Alabama.

The Crimson Tide defense held Hawai'i to 22 yards on the ground and 350 passing.

Brennan completed 30 of 44 passes and was intercepted once.

"He was really good tonight and was very poised," Shula said. "He came out on that first drive in a big stadium and didn't show any signs of being intimidated."

A Hawai'i challenge killed what was first ruled an Alabama touchdown off a botched punt. Officials determined the Tide's Roy Upchurch recovered a bad punt snap out of bounds instead of in the end zone, and Bama settled for a safety.

"The fumbles really hurt us and the dropped punt," Jones said. "Our little mistakes were ongoing in the game. We can't make those mistakes on the road and expect to win the game. The fact that we had the chance to tie it at the end of the game was kind of a disgrace.

"As I told the team we were going to be a good football team this year. We learned a lot about ourselves today."

Hawai'i used another video review to wipe out an apparent TD pass by Wilson to Brown. The drive ended in a field goal by Tiffin, son of former Alabama kicking great Van Tiffin.

"Hawai'i is very good," Shula said. "They have as much speed as anybody we'll see all year. On defense we mixed up zones and played man but we got beat on the blitz. We wanted to keep everything in front of us.

"We were inches away from another field goal, we were inches away from a touchdown instead of a safety, we were inches away from another touchdown with Keith Brown. So if those three plays happen, the score's a little bit different."

The game was played in the newly expanded and sold-out Bryant-Denny Stadium, which seats 92,138 and is now the nation's fifth-largest on-campus stadium. Outside, a new plaza features statues of former national championship coaches including Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Alabama linebacker Juwan Simpson played from the opening drive and had nine tackles despite his offseason arrest on charges of marijuana possession and carrying a handgun without a license. Simpson entered a court-ordered drug program and paid $300 in fines for the weapons charge.

Hawai'i found out quickly that the 'Bama crowd didn't have a taste for island culture.

Before kickoff, the Warriors gathered in front of the Alabama student section and performed the haka, a traditional Polynesian dance, as "Sweet Home Alabama" played over the loudspeakers. The boos nearly drowned out Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Information from www.rolltide.com was used in this report.

ALABAMA 25, HAWAII 17

Hawaii 3 0 7 7—17

Alabama 3 12 7 3—25

First Quarter

Haw—FG Kelly 42, 11:31.

Ala—FG Tiffin 31, 7:18.

Second Quarter

Ala—T.Castille 3 run (Tiffin kick), 14:30.

Ala—Safety, 5:13.

Ala—FG Tiffin 23, 1:19.

Third Quarter

Ala—Brown 35 pass from J.Wilson (Tiffin kick), 11:15.

Haw—Mauia 16 pass from Brennan (Kelly kick), 4:59.

Fourth Quarter

Ala—FG Tiffin 27, 14:42.

Haw—Grice-Mullins 31 pass from Brennan (Kelly kick), 7:04.

A—92,138.

Haw Ala

First downs 18 20

Rushes-yards 15-22 36-125

Passing 350 253

Comp-Att-Int 30-44-1 16-29-0

Return Yards 2 0

Punts-Avg. 3-35.3 4-39.8

Fumbles-Lost 4-2 1-0

Penalties-Yards 11-82 5-34

Time of Possession 24:16 35:44

RUSHING—Hawaii, Ilaoa 4-27, Mauia 3-15, Brennan 6-3, Team 2-(minus 23). Alabama, Johns 8-58, Darby 16-25, McClain 2-17, T.Castille 6-14, Brown 1-8, J.Wilson 3-3.

PASSING—Hawaii, Brennan 30-44-1-350. Alabama, J.Wilson 16-29-0-253.