Random Excitement

MSN once again justified itself as my homepage by supplying me with this short video of Weis talking about the season opener. There's nothing really too revolutionary in it, but the combination of Charlie talking about the team's improvements edited together with a few highlights from last season was a great way to increase my excitement for this weekend.

Notre Dame will open up against a somewhat uncharacteristically weak opponent. San Diego State didn't do much to worry Irish fans, falling to FCS school Cal Poly 29-27 in its opening game. However, Weis seems confident that his team won't come out flat against the Aztecs.

"They're tired of hitting each other. Just having a fresh opponent will be exciting in its own right. Take that and put it into Notre Dame Stadium with over 80,000 people, a home opener, all the college kids are here in town, all the fans come rolling in, the band is playing... I think the players will be plenty excited for 3:40 on Saturday. They'll be ready to go."

Another interesting clip from the video had to do with Charlie's thoughts about our defense. He mentioned that while we may look slightly undersized at some positions (I think he was particularly referring to LB and some of the DL), he is pleased with the speed and athleticism. An article in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated broke down the challenges of stopping a spread offense, and the primary ingredients seemed to be speed and sure tackling. If the spread offense is the new offense of college football, it looks like ND is doing its best to keep up with the Jones'.
Finally, it looks like my full season game-by-game preview may not be making it this year, but just for the heck of it, here are predictions for the second half of the season:

Washington: W 38-20

Pitt: L 21-29

BC: W 17-10

Navy: W 24-16

Syracuse: W 42-24

USC: L 21-44

See you Saturday! Go Irish!