Marshmallow Time!!!!

It's been 3 years of sitting in the student's section at the games where I got to see the seniors throw marshmallows at eachother. Come tomorrow, I can't wait to be a part of it. Some people will inevitably put gravel or pennies in their fluffy projectiles to make them go farther, and for that the ushers will try and stop anyone who look suspicious enough to throw one. Whatever, if I get kicked out of the stadium for throwing something two rows above me which feels like a light breeze to whomever I hit, so be it. And for those sitting in the section next to the seniors or those below them in the gold seats- tough. Get a hot chocolate and be thankful for the free toppings raining down on you.

Security is going to be tight, so until the magic moment, all marshmallows must be kept away from the ushers' eyes. Some ideas on where to stash them.

- the seat of your pants - conceals, fulls out those apple bottoms, and also provides a cushion for halftime

- stuffed into winter gloves- the temp is going to be on the warmer side tomorrow, but bring gloves anyway to pack full of marshmallows. My guess is that you can fit 12-15 in each hand.

- cowboy hat - tried and true method of concealing things, whether it be a hidden camera, or a bag of pillowy marshmallows

- duct taped to your chest - works for both guys and girls, get taped up like your going undercover in a sting operation, and then when they least expect it, unload a barrage on them

and of course...... prison rules if need be

Tomorrow's game is going to be fun no matter what. Hopefully we will win and do so in convincing fashion, but if we are down, come 4th quarter- there is going to be some interesting things being chanted towards Charlie's direction. GO IRISH!

Get the Moving Vans Started

Herbstreit thinks decision is made and Weis knows as well....

My only thoughts on this matter are if he is a lame duck coach, thats fine. But if he loses either of the last two games, fire him or ask him to step down before the bowl game. Bowl games are rewards for coaches and teams who have played well in the season. They are showcasing those teams for fans and recruits with the hope of coming home with hardware. The players deserve to be there, but the coach does not if he can't find a way to win out with his job on the line.

Navy Duds and Studs

I feel like with all of the negative fan criticism towards Weis stemming from the loss that I should add my two cents on how this loss affects Weis' job security before launching into the weekly Duds and Studs segment.

Effect: The defense is a major point of concern. Yes, we let Navy dominate us on the ground and let them score 23 points. However, even with a shutout against Nevada, our team is giving up 29 points a game, so the Navy performance can almost be viewed more as a continuing trend than anything new.

Cause: Everyone knows by now that Weis is an offensive coach, but as a head coach, he still must be held accountable for the defense. The poor performance of the defense this season leads me to believe that A) Weis does not understand defense enough to be a head coach, or B) Weis has not done a good job of hiring and promoting his defensive coaching staff

Effect: With two All-American receivers and a (former) Heisman candidate quarterback, our offense was shut out in the first half and managed only 21 points.

Cause: I am actually going to give Charlie a pass here. His offensive game plan lit Navy up for over 500 total yards, and we gained as many first downs as we did against a hapless Washington State. The missed opportunities while going 2-6 inside the red zone seemed to be more the fault of the players than the coaching. Weis is a damn good offensive coach.

Verdict: Weis has three games left, and he must win out to keep his job. Our last win against a ranked opponent was in 2006 against Penn State, and we were favorites in that game. Losing to Pitt next week would cement the idea that Weis' teams cannot win against anyone ranked higher than them, which is unacceptable. Losing to UConn or Stanford (both of which are having good years) cements the idea that Weis' teams play down to (on paper) inferior opponents, which is unacceptable.

Now for what I'm sure everyone really came to read:

Duds

Excise Police: On a weekend where there is so many football related issues to talk about, I'm not going to spend too much time here, but the same week Notre Dame sponsored an event for off campus students to learn how to live safely in the dangerous city of South Bend, the Indiana State Excise Police broke up a party thrown by my friends only to ticket 2 younger siblings that were visiting for the weekend. Great use of resources.

Sergio Brown / Robert Blanton / Harrison Smith: Our defensive backfield has had issues all season, but this was one of the more frustrating performances. I'm not sure if Sergio took one step downfield to stop the run as he was content catching the fullback after ten yard gains instead of proactively trying to hit someone. Blanton's showboating after big plays is really starting to irritate me. Against Washington State, he was able to tip down the only deep ball thrown at him, but his celebration seemed unwarranted considering that a better ball would have resulted in an 80 yard touchdown. Similarly against Navy, RJ was heavily lobbying that the receiver should have been down at the 1 after he missed an assignment that resulted in a touchdown; just get off the field and get the next play right. This paragraph is getting kind of long so I'll let Brawling Hibernian comment on Smith.
Remember Washington?: This time Notre Dame was unable to get points in the red zone as missed field goals and turnovers inside the 20 negated an otherwise stellar performance by the offense. Credit Navy for standing strong when it counted, but one, if not both of our turnovers, were more mental errors than great plays by Navy, so this blame really goes on the players.

Coaching: The offense was great, but the defense was hard to watch. We gave up 348 yards on the ground because our coaching staff was not able to make adjustments. Our DBs were not prepared to defend the one pass that hurt us. Most importantly though, is that down 2 touchdowns with 12 minutes to go in the game, our entire sideline looked like they would rather be sitting in an Accounting class. In the NFL, its hard to tell someone who's making millions of dollars a year to yell; in college ball, it should be easy, but yet not one of our coaches made an effort to motivate the sidelines during the game. Maybe the cliche of coming out flat was why we couldn't score in the first half or why we couldn't make stops when we needed to. To me, this is my single biggest knock on Charlie Weis' teams; it is too hard to get them excited unless the game is in its final minutes.

Studs

Clausen / Floyd: I have to put them in here for the stats. Jimmy ran off 452 passing yards and Floyd grabbed a game high 141 receiving yards to go along with his touchdown. Even though Floyd had a few big drops, you have to applaud the guy's ability to come back after an injury with such a big game. Jimmy almost found himself in the Duds column this week for his two turnovers and poor reads in the fourth quarter. This is probably overstepping my bounds as I don't know what was going on after Clausen's fumble, but I can tell you that it reinforced every negative stereotype about Clausen when he laid on the ground showing off his injury after the fumble.

Tate: 9 catches for 132 and a touchdown. Also made a great play on the onside kick to give us a chance to win. After Clausen missed on his fourth consecutive first down fade to Floyd in the fourth quarter, a student next to me lamented about Floyd's return, complaining that now less passes will get thrown to Golden.

David Ruffer: The kickoff specialist gave Notre Dame it's first touchback in a long time.

Bye Week: At least I didn't have to watch my Browns lose this weekend, too. If Notre Dame decides to cut ties with Charlie at the end of the year, the school might learn a lesson from the Browns, who have found a comfortable place in the cellar of the AFC North behind two former Belicheck coaches in Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini (who we inexplicably hired after he was fired from the Jets). Our next coach should be proven, either with BCS appearances in college or with rings in the NFL. Notre Dame should be an attractive coaching job, and we need to stop trying to find the next breakout coach and make a hire with less risk.

That's it for the Duds and Studs segment. Go Irish! Get a freakin good win, please!

Photos from the AP.

IBG: Lots of Gold Helmets Edition

I'm finally done with my overloaded first half of the semester, I've had a chance to travel the great state of Ohio over fall break, and after a fantastic Halloween last weekend, I have finally run out of scheduling excuses and must finally host an installment of the Irish Blogger Gathering. In addition to finally having some free time, posting for the Navy week seemed to make sense over here because our very own JY has two younger sisters attending the Naval Academy this year. So with that intro, let's jump into the questions.

I'll be linking other member's responses as they come in, so keep checking back to satisfy your mid-week Notre Dame fix.1. With all of the recent injuries, what scenario would you rather have? Option A: Dayne Crist out for the season, Trevor Robinson out indefinitely with an ankle sprain and Jimmy Clausen suffering week to week with turf toe OR Option B: All of the above players are 100% and Floyd is out for the year?

I'll be interested to hear everyone else's take on this, but I'm going with option A for two reasons. Notre Dame has not performed well in the red zone in Floyd's absence; Air Mike is able to use his 6'3" frame and superb hands better than anyone when he has little space to work with. While not having Crist available if Clausen goes down is a scary prospect, the second reason I'm picking option A is our depth at quarterback. Sharpley isn't going to win the Heisman, but he has gotten some quality playing time over the past few seasons, and if he had threats like Tate and Floyd to through to, I'm sure he would do alright.2. After experiencing our first neutral site game at San Antonio this week, it got me thinking about our upcoming off site game against Navy. What are your thoughts on playing Navy in Ireland in 2012? Should the 7-4-1 model take us abroad?

I was more focused on trading baseball cards and pursuing my inevitable career as a comic book artist in 1996 when Autry Denson led the way to a 54-27 victory in Dublin, but I can still say that the upcoming Dublin game is (gasp) a good thing. Firstly, this matchup speaks to the incredible versatility that Notre Dame has in scheduling; how many other Universities can offer recruits the chance to play ball in front of thousands of crazy football (the other kind) fans? Second, unlike in the NFL, college teams, and especially Independents, are afforded the opportunity of scheduling around big games. For the 2012 matchup, it looks like Notre Dame will open the season against Navy and then return home for a bye week before facing Pitt, likely avoiding the chance to have a 'let down' or 'looking ahead' or a 'we got screwed up by the time change' game. As for regularly going abroad, I feel like once a decade is plenty enough; these types of games should be special.

3. Navy's unique offense and personnel always seem to test the Irish in some ways that other opponents don't. What position matchup are you most looking forward to this weekend?

ND Offensive Line vs. Navy Defensive Line. The last two seasons, ND averaged 4.5 and 3.7 yards per rush, and this year I want to see us reassert some dominance in the trenches. Expect a healthy dose of Allen and Hughes while the offensive line flexes some muscle.

4. The Navy football stereotype is generally that the players are undersized and have less star power, but by emphasizing the fundamentals, minimizing mental errors, and playing as a team, they are always able to put up a fight. What position or player on Notre Dame's roster do you think could benefit from approaching games with this attitude?

We have been starting to see more of it lately, but I would like our defensive front seven, especially the linebackers, to play a little more like Navy. Against the run from a pure statistical standpoint, things have been bad, but they could be worse. With Tenuta's blitzes, though, it becomes even more important for the first defender to make a sound tackle because there might not be much help if he misses. Let's start bringing our feet, wrapping up, and driving through the ball! Te'o will lead the charge for improvement over the final stretch.If we can get these many bodies in the backfield every play, we should be fine
5. Everyone in the country saw that Navy took #6 Ohio State down to the wire in the opening week; how will the Midshipmen fare against the Irish? Predictions please.

Before losing to Temple last week, Navy looked like a very respectable 6-2 team, with their two losses coming on the road at Ohio State and at Pittsburgh, and they even put up 63 points against Rice. However, Notre Dame's fire power should be too much to match. My stat of the game is that Navy has not given up more than 35 points this season; look for the Irish to top that mark and beat Navy 38 - 13.

IBG Responses:

Domer Law Blog is excited for Dublin
One Foot Down is looking forward to some option football
Brawling Hibernian picks Option C

WSU Duds and Studs

Here we go again...Duds

Young Special Teams: For the first time that I've noticed this season, freshman longsnapper Jordan Cowart had some trouble snapping the ball, which led to the blocked extra point. Cowart's snap may or may not have been the primary cause for Ben Turk's sky high 10 yard punt, but the other Aquinas special teams product also struggled. Similar to the difficulties Brandon Walker faced, the issue doesn't appear to be talent with Turk (he's only a freshman), but inconsistency has been a problem, and inconsistency is the last word you want to use when talking about special teams.

Injuries: With a 24 point lead halfway through the 3rd quarter, I have no problem leaving Jimmy in the game to let him try and get 1 more security touchdown before handing the game to Crist. Fortunately, Clausen's turf toe doesn't look to be bad as Weis said he could have continued playing if needed. Unfortunately, Crist suffered a more serious injury shortly after. "At first, we thought it was definitely really bad" said Weis, "now we're thinking it might not be as bad and we're waiting on the MRI." The worst injury, however, was to Trevor Robinson. I hope TRob can make it back soon, but from what I saw on the tape, an pretty solid ankle sprain (2-4 weeks) or a broken ankle (longer) don't look out of the question.Eric Olsen: Two personal fouls is bad. The second personal foul by itself didn't look that bad, but you have to figure the ref gave him some warning before that one. At the same time though, you have to love the aggressiveness from the offensive line. Watch the next time we complete a 15 yard pass; Paul Duncan and Chris Stewart will be there to pancake a DB 2 seconds after the ball gets there.

Studs

Duval Kamara: Duval, to put it mildly, had some consistency issues last season after exceeding expectations in 2007. With Floyd and Parris out, though, Kamara provided Clausen with some key outs when he needed it, registering 3 catches for 36 yards and a touchdown. Also with a key block on Tate's TD run, Kamara deserves a some credit for his performance this week.

A for Effort: Obviously you have to throw some major props to Mike Ragone this week. Its pretty easy to stand out on the field after a turnover, hang your head, and say "f it," but sprinting 95 yards to stop a 2 point play that (very likely) would have had no outcome on the final score speaks to the heart and pride that this team has. Another catch by Rudolph demonstrated the same effort (even though it was negated by a penalty) as he churned his legs for 10+ yards with 3 defenders on his back. And speaking of dragging defenders...

Robert Hughes: It seems like, for better or worse, Hughes specializes in beating down on lesser opponents. His stat line of 131 yards (5.5 ypc) and a touchdown downplay the tough running by 33. Allen got to rest, Riddick looked good during his time (9 carries for 51 yards and 3 catches for 24 yards), but this night belonged to Robert Hughes... haha TRICK - nice try Rob, but how could I leave out...

Golden Tate: A regular on the studs list, Tate lifted himself past Clausen in the Heisman (at least for me) with his performance against Washington State. With 4 rushes for 61 yards and a score, I'm questioning whether our best runningback on the team doesn't play wide receiver, but with plays like this, how can you keep him behind the quarterback? Maybe Floyd's return will finally let me stop writing about this guy every Monday.

Fun fact to send everyone off: the Irish are 15-0 when playing on Halloween, and USC lost this year... anyone think the AD should start scheduling that game asap?

IBG: How can I enjoy the game when all my exes live in Texas?

Whiskey at One Foot Down had the questions this week. Enjoy, and Go Irish!

1. The 7-4-1 scheduling model has been the subject of much heated debate amongst Irish fans since it was first announced back in 2006. This week the Fighting Irish will play the first neutral site “barnstorming game” in said model so now is as good of a time as any to weigh in on the controversial subject. What do you think about a) 7-4-1 as a whole, b) the neutral site/ barnstorming game in general and c) specifically playing Washington State in San Antonio.

a) Don't like it. In theory, especially as a student that doesn't have to deal with a ticket lottery, the more home games, the better. However, the schedule greatly inhibits ND's ability to schedule meaningful non conference games (see Western Michigan). Seeing Utah should be alright, but even the Utes won't agree to multiple trips to South Bend for nothing in return, and with BCS conference schools hesitant to give up their TV contract money to NBC, the quality of opponents will only get worse.

b) Not a bad idea. Especially for alumni in Texas, for example, that cannot normally attend an ND without a great deal of travel. If its a good venue and a good team, it can be a great tool to keep ND prominent on the college football map. That being said, I would much rather prefer to reinforce our prominence by winning games instead of putting on side show tricks, which brings me to...

c) Bat S*** Crazy. Scheduling a terrible football team whose fan's don't travel to games in Washington does not make any sense. This game does not build tradition. This is the least attractive opponent to bring recruits to (at least Nevada was the opener). If we were able to play A&M or Texas Tech in the Alamo Dome, it would have been awesome, but it suffices to say that this matchup falls short of what the barnstorming concept encourages.2. I have personally had this game circled on the schedule for quite some time as the one “sure thing.” After the last few games I have really been looking forward to a drama free victory. As luck would have it I started looking at the Cougars more closely this morning and it appears that freshman quarterback Jeff Tuel went 28 of 42 for 354 yards and 2 TD’s in a losing effort against Cal over the weekend. With the Irish secondary still struggling to get it together what are the chances that yet another freshman signal caller makes this one way more interesting than it should be on Saturday night in San Antonio?

I'll go easy on the secondary here. Weis has a tendency in his game plans to find what a team does best and take that away from them. Against BC, the focus was on defending the run, and we shut them down pretty well. In fact, a majority of our opponents have had strong ground attacks relative to their passing games. With only 3 TDs coming from runningbacks this year, WSU will probably try to throw the ball, and expecting this, I think Charlie/Tenuta/Corwin will put the secondary in a better position.

3. Assuming that the Fighting Irish are able to take care of business and put this one away early what non-starters would you most like to see get some reps this week? Why?

Jonas Gray and Theo Riddick. Lets keep Armando healthy, and give these guys a chance to show off their legs. I would especially like Jonas to get some carries to work on his ball handling because this guy has the chance to be pretty good in a year or two if he can make the next step.
4. With the game being played on Halloween Night chances are that if you are not traveling to San Antonio you most likely have a scheduling conflict. Whether you are supposed to be at a party dressed as Fat Elvis, taking your kids trick-or-treating or just dealing with your doorbell ringing nonstop how do you plan to watch the game? If you are going what are you most looking forward to?

Fortunately as students living in South Bend, the focus will definitely be on football, and with the TV close to the door (if you are planning on robbing my house please ignore that last comment), it will be easy to dish out candy to anyone that stops by (which will probably be no one). Afterwards its time for the always fun costume parties, which I hate to say is what I'm most looking forward to. For everyone that couldn't make it to the game though, here's a picture of the band compliments of my dad who found a way to sneak to San Antonio.
5. Trick or Treat? Predictions please.

Like Whiskey mentioned, Washington State was perhaps the most guaranteed victory coming into the season, and Weis has two options: run up the score and impress some recruits, or take another game down to the wire, starting the search for the next head coach. I highly doubt that this game will be close though. Notre Dame wins 41-17.

Boston College Duds and Studs

With five straight games decided by a touchdown and four come from behind victories, I think its safe to say that the student body is getting their money's worth for their tickets this year.

Running the ball 27 times against 39 passing attempts didn't do well to help us control the clock and put the game away, poor special teams coverage gave us bad field position, and our secondary digressed from their performance against USC, but we still won, and for now, that's good enough for me.

Sitting at 23rd in the polls, Notre Dame has arguably matched expectations (especially factoring in the loss of Floyd) to this point in the season with a 5-2 record, but there is much improving that needs to be done over the next two weeks to prepare for what is increasingly looking like a tough 3 games at #15 Pitt (7-1), UConn (4-3), and at Stanford (5-3).

Duds

Pass Defense: By this point in the season, our secondary has proven itself to be a major point of concern; we are ranked 117th nationally against the pass, and 3 freshman quarterbacks have had career days on us. This has inevitably led to some anti Corwin / anti Tenuta posts from the ND faithful. It was encouraging to see our front seven apply some pressure at the end of the game, and moving Harrison Smith to more of a nickle/backer roll helped some, but this needs to be improved for us to beat Pitt.

Robert Hughes: Hughes only got four carries, but thats about 3 more than he should have got. If Hughes or Alldridge are on the field, it should be in a fullback / dual halfback roll opposite Allen because Armando has proven to be the best back when healthy.

Red Zone: Like in the Washington game and the end of the USC game, the Irish continued to struggle with red zone scoring on Saturday, scoring a touchdown only once in four attempts. Tate's speed is somewhat negated by the short field, and Parris and Kamara have been unable to make the plays in the endzone this year. The problem with throwing the ball in the short field, though, also falls on Clausen. Jimmy has a tendency to stare down receivers in the three step game and often throws to a well covered first read. The solution? I know it won't work 100% of the time, but it would be nice to see a non-gimmick, hard nose running game from inside the 20 (or 1!).

Ben Turk: Notre Dame found itself on the wrong end of the field position battle in part due to poor kick coverage. However, it is obvious that Turk needs to do some improving, registering an average of 32.7 yards on 6 kicks (for comparison, my high school teammate, who wasn't recruited anywhere, had a net of 34 yards senior year). BC's Ryan Quigley was able to help his team out with a 42 yard average on 5 kicks (keeping in mind that he is kicking to Golden Tate) and a long of 56.

Studs

Manti Te'o: My friends used to jokingly ask whether we would rather take a bullet to the chest or get hit by Ray Lewis, the moral of the story being that there are good linebackers, and then there are linebackers that you are kind of scared to play against. Notre Dame hasn't had one of the latter in awhile, so it would be nice if Manti can continue his rapid development and start really taking some heads off.

Golden Tate: I try to mix up the players in this weekly post, but I can't seem to keep Golden off of the list. Hauling in a career high 11 receptions for 128 and Notre Dame's only two touchdowns, #23 was the game's most valuable offensive player.

Kyle McCarthy: The secondary has been struggling this year, but it is not because of Kyle McCarthy. With five interceptions so far this season (three of them meaning the difference between wins and losses), McCarthy gets my vote for game MVP.

IBG: Screamin Eagles

Welcome to another installment of the Irish Blogger Gathering. The Brawling Hibernian hosts the questions this week. Enjoy.

1. Coming off a very difficult loss to a rival that has now beaten them eight straight times, Notre Dame faces another that's beaten them six straight. Can Notre Dame end the losing streak against BC or will the combined weight of the USC loss and recent history against the Eagles be too much to overcome? Explain.

Boston College will play Notre Dame close like they do every year, but Vegas is slotting the Irish as an 8 point favorite for a reason.BC is 0-2 on the road this year, and in their two conference wins (Wake Forest and FSU), the Eagles nearly blew the game by letting the opponent rally in the second half. However, this game is really more about Notre Dame than Boston College. After playing USC down to the last second (BC was blown out 48-14 by then #5 Va Tech), the Irish find themselves in a cliché “gut check” scenario. Will the players rally behind their coach and play like they did last Saturday? If so, the Blue and Gold should come away with a 2 touchdown win.

2. Not unlike Notre Dame's defense, BC's offense has been pretty erratic this season. While in their most recent win, they rolled up 480 total yards and scored 52 points; in their two losses, they've averaged 109 yards and 11 points. Which BC offense and which ND defense show up on Saturday? Why?

BGS ranked BC’s offensive line second behind USC’s, and that doesn’t bode well for Notre Dame’s defense. BC’s 1.5 sacks allowed per game (much better than ND’s 2.3) leads me to believe that ND’s weak pass rush will be unable to pressure the quarterback, and with BC’s trio of quarterbacks demonstrating the ability to protect the ball, an Eagle air attack could spell trouble for the Irish. Once again, though, it is worth noting that BC’s two abysmal performances have come on the road, so a big crowd in South Bend could throw them off of their game on Saturday.

3. Does anyone seem primed to have a Robby Parris-like breakout moment against the Eagles? If so, who is it and why?

I would like to see Armando Allen return to his pre-Purdue form. After sitting out the game against the Boilermakers with an injury, Allen has only accumulated 90 yards on 24 carries in the last two games. The lack of a ground game amidst our offensive passing inconsistency caused a 4-1 squad to limp to a 6-6 record last season, so as we begin the road to January, regaining a player like Allen will help us survive some of the unexpectedly tough games that will inevitably come up.

4. It's been an and up-and-down year for Boston sports. After a strong start, the Red Sox folded in the second half of the year. The Patriots, meanwhile, seem to be on the upswing after a 59-0 dismantling of Tennessee. For their part, Boston College has seemed as though their season could go either way. Ultimately, will the Eagles be the Sox or the Pats?

Currently sitting on top of the weak ACC Atlantic division, the Eagles will be in position to play for the ACC crown and a BCS berth. The remaining schedule include a tough MAC opponent in Central Michigan, and winnable games @ 3-3 Virginia, 4-2 UNC, and @ 2-5 Maryland. However, even if BC makes it to the ACC Championship game, they will likely be bested by a superior Coastal team like Ga Tech, Miami, or the same Va Tech team that spanked them 48-14 earlier in the season, so my vote is for Red Sox.

5. While most Irish fans refer to BC as "Fredo", tell me to which other cinematic character you would compare the Eagles.

Since 2004, Boston College has won 4 bowl games, had at least 9 wins every year, and hasn’t lost to Notre Dame. While they have failed to win the ACC during any of these years, I don’t think it is that much of a stretch to say that they have actually out performed Notre Dame, especially when factoring in their current 6 win streak over the Irish. So, while some ND fans view BC as an incompetent little child, I will give the Eagles some credit by comparing them with Tommy Boy. Viewed by many to be incapable, Tommy was able to overcome the odds and succeed despite his shortcomings. Hopefully this weekend will see BC demoted back to its current nickname of Fredo, but for now, lets think of them more like a fat guy in a little coat.

USC Duds and Studs

Hello everyone.Notre Dame is on fall break, so I will be making my annual rounds of Ohio colleges with my roommates this week. My blogging may be a little more sporadic as I am technically “off the grid,” using pay-phone-computers to type sentences at a time as I hitchhike from city to city. As much as I would like to take the week off, though, I feel like I need to earn my salary by offering some thoughts on the USC game, so I’ll start by giving the Duds and Studs from the game.

Duds

Pass Rush: Barkley is going to be a special player, but a true freshman should not light up a defense the way he did on Saturday. Weis has done a great overall job of recruiting since he started coaching, but he has had trouble pulling in D-Linemen, and specifically D-Tackles. Having a Gerald McCoy or Omar Hunter in the trenches would help apply some pressure, but Hart and Tenuta need to find a way to get pressure with what they have.

Pass Blocking: A year after USC sent 10 defensive players to the NFL, the Trojans were still able to field a menacing pass rush. Clausen was brought to the dirt five times, but the bigger issue was that Weis continually had to keep a runningback in for protection instead of sending a player like Allen on routes.

Darrin Walls: While Blanton earned the dud DB award last week, Darrin Walls seemed to shoulder the most blame for the aerial beat down this week. With as mush experience as Darrin, has, one would expect him to better close on routes that he is leaving wide open, and he had a tough time bringing down USC’s big receivers as well.

Heart attack: With the way the past five games have gone, the mean age of Notre Dame alumni could very well drop 2 years over the course of the season. Out of all of the close games, though, it is worth noting that we probably had the best shot of winning against Michigan and USC. Down in a hole late against Washington, the Irish had no business shutting down the Huskies on 8 plays from the 1 yard line. Michigan State had a wide open receiver in the endzone for the win – that loss is more on them than us, and Purdue made us scratch and claw for a victory in West Lafayette. With Michigan, we failed to run out the clock. With USC, we (arguably) failed to manage the clock on what (arguably) should have been a scoring drive. A loss in the expiring seconds is always tough to stomach, but it’s even more difficult with a timeout on the board and a down to spare.

Studs

Trick Plays: There is more or less a consensus that if a team needs to use trick plays, then they are usually an inferior opponent. That being said, I felt that Weis did a good job of playing with what he had. The fake field goal kept the Irish from being on the bad end of a first half blowout, and even the Wild-Goodman served as a good means of keeping USC off balance. I’m not saying Charlie called a perfect game, but he did install some clever stuff over the bye week.

St. Ignatius: Speaking of the Wildcat, two former Wildcats had good games against the Trojans. Johnny Ryan came up with a critical sack in the closing minutes of the game that gave the Irish their chance to tie the game. Robby Parris might as well have been wearing the #3 this week; with 9 catches for 92 yards, Parris stepped up to prevent USC from locking down Tate and freezing the offense like they did a year ago. Saying that it was unfortunate to see Robby get injured (on a late hit) at the end of the game would be an understatement.

Golden Tate: With only 2 catches for 15 yards against USC last season, Tate may have boosted himself into All-American discussion with his play against USC this year. His 8 receptions for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns kept the crowd (and the team) in the game. I feel like this post is lamenting too much on what could have been, but can anyone even comprehend what this offense would be like with a healthy Floyd and Arrelious Benn at Clausen’s arsenal?

Tackling (!?): Going off the grid / into the wild / rogue / Get in the Bronco Shawn! has prevented me from rewatching the game, but it seems like our tackling improved against USC (3.7 YPC was better than I expected). Granted, we did not shut them down, and a few missed tackles led to some big plays that should not have been. Again, I stand to be corrected, but if this is true, then this is more evidence that the bye week was well spent. If the defense can build off of this performance in the coming weeks, we have a good shot of finishing with 10 wins.

Photos from the AP.

One Bright Spot from Saturday

Saturday's defeat to the hated Trojans highlighted a number of the problems which have plagued the Irish this season. I usually blame poor tackling as the number 1 cause in my book. The defense stopped playing two-hand touch and played a decent game (one John Ryan even had a sack). I still need to watch the replay of the game on Universal HD sometime this week, but at the game it just seemed that the defense schemes on important plays (short yardage/3rd down) were just wrong. The guys on the field played their hearts out and came through again when necessary against a very talented team. But I feel that when a coach is known to use his tight ends vertically down the field in short yardage situations, the play should not be to leave them uncovered. All and all the team played whard, finally got a due turnover, and had multiple chances to send the game into overtime. There is nothing to hang our heads about that, and it was one of the more memorable games in my 4 years.


The Charlie's Nasties' recruiting desk correspondant known as "The Franz" first allerted me Friday that the speedy recruit Tai-ler Jones would be attending the game against USC, and was having doubts about his verbal comit to Stanford. Sure enough with a good performance Saturday from Weis's offense, and a fantastic stadium atmosphere during the game, the WR Jones changed his comittment to Notre Dame. This is an awesome pick-up for the Irish since his speed and elusiveness will complement well the other playmakers in the WR core, and it comes at the loss for his hometown Florida Gators, and the rising Stanford. Mark my words, Jim Harbaugh is going to build a very competitive program in the next few years, and the Cardinal will/won't be a pushover game.

And how much better did the student's section look this week with everyone just wearing green. Pick your favorite green t-shirt and wear it, and wow, it looks better than just about anything we've thrown out there in a while. Who knew that any real shade of green (not the 2007 shirt) would look better than a pasty/sandy gold shirt?