Brady Quinn Head of the Class

Here's an NFL.com video of BQ drawing up the 'College Route' (click image to play):


By the way, I'm a big fan of the pump up music that starts playing when Brady hits the white board - it really shows how psyched ND students get for mental challenges (thus why I drink an EAS Myoplex after every exam).

One of my favorite ESPN.com writers, James Walker who covers the AFC North, just released his top 7 position battles from the conference. Whether because of intense competition or lack of talent, my Brownies managed to score 3 of the top 5 spots. Of course, #1 is the annual QB derby in Cleveland. Here is what Walker had to say about the former Irish QB:

"Cleveland's offensive system under Mangini is being built around a power running game and an efficient and conservative passing game, which seems to favor Quinn."

Thanks for reading. Go Irish!

Tangled up in Spring

A couple things I'm thinking about:

Congrats to Armando and RJ for taking home the spring game MVP honors. However, I think it is likely that only one of these players will step up to garner MVP type performance consistently this season. Looking at UHND's breakdown of past Blue Gold MVPs, a runningback has won the award since 2006, but none of these players (Travis Thomas, Junior Jabbie, Robert Hughes) has been able to translate a good spring into a great fall. On the other hand, the Blue/Gold MVP award has recently been a good predictor of success for young, highly recruited defensive players. Look for Blanton to team up with Walls for a great season in the Irish secondary.
All this focus on the running game sounds awfully familiar - remember about this time last year when Weis promised a power running game? The offense did pick up a lot of yards on the ground this spring, but our RBs only averaged 4.2 yards per carry; Weis himself said that number needs to be up to around 4.6 for us to be on par with the better teams in the country. Furthermore, those numbers may even be inflated with our interior defensive line and inside linebackers having little depth (and possibly less talent) compared to some of the teams we will face in the fall.

While it was nice to see Bruton get drafted to a place like Denver where he should have a shot a competing for playing time at safety, it was unfortunate that he was the lone Irish player taken. However, Weis has been working hard to get other seniors signed to rookie free agent contracts. His ability to give some of these players a shot at the NFL has to look good to recruits.
Speaking of the draft, ESPN's recent 2010 draft projections have Sam Young getting drafted 14th overall to the Bills. Hopefully Sam can have a great senior year and raise himself from his current stock as the 5th best tackle in his class.

Now off to do some work for finals, Go Irish!