Don't know what Greg McMackin's Christmas shopping list looked like this year, but the "must do" repair list for his 2009 University of Hawai'i football team is shaping up as considerable.

Like the guest who drops by the house and proceeds to infuriatingly point out everything that needs fixing up, Charlie Weis and Notre Dame have, with the 49-21 Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl pounding, provided a forceful reminder there is work — and plenty of it — to be tackled this offseason.

The Warriors, after doing well to clinch a bowl berth at 7-5, limped home 7-7 in McMackin's inaugural season and altering those fortunes means President-elect Barack Obama isn't the only chief executive in the Islands at the moment who needs to embrace change with urgency.

Shake up the coaching staff, re-wire some of the offensive and defensive approaches, change the culture on penalties, you name it, there is much that needs to be done and there is little time to waste.

For most of the season there were "Protect This House" banners fastened to the railings at Aloha Stadium for UH games. Sadly, they were reminders that too often went unheeded in one of the rare seasons in which the Warriors lost three times in their Halawa home.

Of course, you can't very well "protect this house" if you can't protect the quarterback that operates there in a passing offense. And to the depths of an NCAA-record 59 sacks, the Warriors couldn't. Greg Alexander alone was sacked 32 times, which is not only a school record but remarkable for someone who played only nine games, including seven starts.

Part of the problem is Alexander's footwork is slow, he takes time to release the ball and didn't chuck some away when he should have. Elements that can be worked on. And must be. But the overriding failure was an inability to give him time to do more than count "one Mississippi, two Mississ..." — and gulp.

To do that UH needs an offensive line that can protect the quarterback and a running game to take some of the heat off. It needs to take the blinders off the offense.

And UH absolutely has to cut down on penalties, a department which, like sacks surrendered, the Warriors have the unwelcome distinction of leading the 119-team NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. If there was a separate accounting for personal fouls — of which UH had more than 20 this year — the Warriors might lead in that, too.

These are all within the purview of the head coach who, after the devastation of the Hawai'i Bowl, has his own list and should be checking it twice.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.