A Tale of Two Freshman Part III

At long last, I finally found time to conclude my three part article comparing Jimmy Clausen's freshman year to the first year Quinn played for the Irish. After analyzing everything from how the young QBs performed game by game to the supporting casts that surrounded them, the basic conclusion was that Brady had a better year, but it wasn't better by much, and Clausen was leading a far less experienced team. So is Clausen's slightly less impressive year counterbalanced purely by the lack of playmakers he gave the ball to? Does this mean that JC will end up being better than Brady Quinn during his four year career at Notre Dame? At this point, it may be a case of comparing apples to oranges; there are simply too many variables to make any concrete conclusion. However, perhaps we can speculate how the Irish might do in 2008 based on a quick recap of how Brady and his lads did in '04 compared to '03.

How did the frosh finish?
The 2003 squad finished the year with three positive wins over Navy, BYU, and Stanford, but they dropped the last game in an embarrassing loss to Syracuse, lowering their record to 5-7 and eliminating the possibility of playing in a bowl game. It's difficult to say whether or not this deflating end of the season loss had anything to do with Notre Dame opening the '04 season noticeably flat in a loss to BYU, but it is a possibility. Clausen's group, on the other hand, was able to end a disastrous season with two straight wins; for the first time, the Irish seemed capable of establishing an offensive rhythm and making defensive stops when necessary. Hopefully the current team can use this momentum to start the season off strong against San Diego State.
Who left?
The most noticeable void in the 2004 team was shown immediately in the season opening loss to BYU. Willingham was unable to establish a ground game without Julius Jones, and it took an extra week to figure out that Marcus Wilson and Travis Thomas were probably not the best suited players to become ND's next runningback. Fortunately, a 115 yard 2 TD performance by newcomer Darius Walker solved this problem, and (with the help of a strong group of returning receivers) the 2004 offense was able to put up some decent numbers during the season. The 2008 team figures to be in a slightly better position with its entire receiving corps returning, only one loss on the offensive line, and a (hopefully) strong group of running backs to choose from. It would be great if incoming freshman Jonas Gray turns out to be the next D-Walk, but it is much more likely that either Aldridge, Allen, or Hughes (who already come with valuable playingtime) will be able to step up and carry the Irish running game on his shoulders.
Is there a difference in the schedule?
2003's team faced a front loaded schedule (#14 Washington, #4 Mich, #13 Purdue, #1 USC, #8 FSU in the first 8 weeks) similar to 2007's schedule (#14 PSU, #4 BC, #14 USC in addition to other bowl opponents in the first 8 weeks). However, in 2004 the four ranked opponents were spread more evenly throughout the season, giving the team more time to prepare for (and recover from) the tougher games in the season. As mentioned by many other ND fans, the 2008 schedule is much more favorable for a rebuilding team; the tough games are sandwiched between games that should (theoretically) be winnable.
How did the soph perform?
In 2004, Notre Dame went 5-1 in games where Brady threw for under 200 yards compared to winning only 2 of 7 games when he threw over that mark. Of course there are natural football explanations for this (i.e. you run more when you are winning, you throw when you are behind), but it is worthy to note that Quinn wasn't by any means hurling ND to victory all season. His TD/INT ratio improved from about .50 to 1.7, but ND's record was more positively correlated with the ground game and defense than his passing numbers. While running the ball and playing tough Brown/Tenuta style defense will still play a large role in the 2008 season, I feel that Clausen is actually more capable of carrying a team through the air in his sophomore season than Quinn was. JC's relatively more conservative passes in 2007 hint that he should be able to more consistently pick up yardage through the air with less incomplete passes and interceptions. Also, anyone that has been watching video of ND's spring practices has been able to see that since healing from the elbow injury that bugged him most of freshman year, Jimmy has been putting much more zip into even more accurate passes. Call it wishful thinking, but I think that this will be the biggest difference between Clausen in '07 and Clausen in '08.

So while both quarterbacks seemed to have similarly difficult freshman seasons, it seems that Jimmy and his team are at least as capable of (if not more prepared to) making the jump that Quinn's 2004 team made. The downside, of course, is that this improvement only consisted from moving a 5-7 team to a 6-7 team over one year, but as a stereotypically optimistic Notre Dame fan, I have full confidence that 2008's improvement will definitely be at least one game better than last season (how can it get any worse?).


Go Irish! Beat Aztecs!