Thursday Quote - Weis Likes Offense

Straight from the Tribune:
As for who Weis will be rooting for Saturday, as the newly reinstated offensive coordinator, the Irish coach made it clear: the offense. "When I'm the head coach, I cheer for everyone," Weis said. "Not when I'm calling plays. I'm a sore loser. I don't want to eat hot dogs, OK?"

Plenty to watch for in the Spring game this year. The resurgence of Robby Parris and the emergence of John Goodman (and hopefully the return of Duval) are great stories to look for at the receiver position. I'm personally looking forward to seeing the extra gear that our defense has supposedly picked up, and after watching Duncan in one on one drills from yesterday, the run blocking should also be fun to watch.

Happy BlueGold - Go Irish! ...now off to work on a business case for the rest of the day...

Winslow Throwing QotW Layups

The Dayton Daily News, one of my favorite papers to read for Browns updates, published some clips from a Sirius interview between ex-Brown Kellen 'I Don't Give a Hell' Winslow Jr. and Sirius personality Adam Schein:

Host Adam Schein: “Who is the better QB for the Browns this year? [Derek] Anderson or [Brady] Quinn?”

K-2: “I would say Brady Quinn. I love Derek Anderson. Great quarterback. It just didn’t work out. Brady Quinn is coming in, he has tremendous upside. Very calm, very mature and, I mean, give the guy a chance. What’s the big deal? I really don’t get it. This guy is coming in, he has worked his tail off. I bet you he is there working out right now. Just give him a chance. He is a leader, he is coming into his own. I really don’t get what’s the hard decision up there. My choice would be Brady Quinn.”

I breathed a big sigh of relief when the Browns didn't give up Quinn and a first rounder to grab a difficult Jay Cutler (good luck with that Chi-Town), and hopefully that non-trade will lead to Quinn seeing some serious PT in 2009. Granted he won't have anyone to throw to, but that's another story...

By the way - if you have an extra 25 seconds on your hands and can't figure out how to spend it, try checking Weis' new Twitter page. I thought it was pretty lame when I first heard about it, but for the effort it takes to read (none), its actually not a bad read.

For me, its back to the homeland this weekend to do the Easter thing. One week until Blue Gold, Go Irish!

Spring Fever

Spring football is moving into full gear, and all around the country, schools that failed to post double digit wins in '08 are postulating why their team will be the team in '09. Looking back on the past two springs, however, Irish fans should know that positive projections in April don't always lead to a successful September.
That being said, it still feels good to hear good things about your team in the spring. Here are a few articles that are predicting some good things for the 2009 squad.

From Scout.com:

• The defensive backfield looks to be as good as advertised.
• Ethan (Johnson) is an elite talent. Enough said.
• A person would be hard pressed to find a more impressive group of Tight Ends than the four on the Notre Dame roster.
• This offense is good enough to win several games without utilizing the running game.

From BlueGraySky:

• Barring injury, the current corps of receivers at Notre Dame will be remembered as, without question, the most prolific group in school history.
• If you look at the postseason awards the past two years you'll notice that no Notre Dame player has even been named as an honorable mention All-American. That drought ends in 2009.

From ESPN.com:

• "I'm not saying they are LenDale [White] and Reggie [Bush]. I think Robert could be better than LenDale. Armando has another gear, but I don't know if it's that Reggie gear." - Weis
• But the possibility exists that after two years of saying goodbye to the BCS, it will be time for Notre Dame to say hello.

Enjoy the optimism. Go Irish.