IBG: Better Late Than Never

I usually try to get my Irish Blogger Gathering posts up by Thursday, but a few things came up (one of which may or may not have been an impromptu screening of Hellboy II) so I missed my deadline. However, a night game at Purdue gave me the extra time I needed to answer Frank's questions from UHND. Here you go:

1. The obvious question for the week, how does Notre Dame deal with the loss of Michael Floyd? What wide receiver steps up? How, if at all, does the offense change?

When Floyd went down, every Irish fan started having nightmares of last year when a respectable Irish offense went comatose without their young star wideout. Putting my emotions (mostly stemming from the loss to Syracuse) aside and looking at some numbers however, ND’s offensive efficiency (measured in a percentage of yards gained) dropped from 71.5% to 53% after Floyd left the game. Considering that 60% seems to be the benchmark for a good offense, and adding that Clausen and Armando were banged up, it looks like Notre Dame’s dip in offensive production will fortunately not be as severe as last season. Look for the veteran combo of Kamara and Parris to team up with Rudolph in replacing some of the production.

2. After seeing three games from Notre Dame in 2009 have your expectations increased, decreased, or remained the same?

Unfortunately, MSU put up a 60% offensive efficiency against ND, which is the highest opponent total in the last two years. Our inability to put pressure on the quarterback has decreased my expectations somewhat, and I think that my 10-2 regular season prediction will dip to at least 9-3 as a result.

3. The last two years against Purdue, a Notre Dame player has had their breakout game. In 2007 it was Golden Tate and in 2008 it was Armando Allen. Who do you think could have their breakout game against the Boilermakers this year?

Going on the road and potentially facing some bad weather, I think Notre Dame will still score points through the air, but I want to see the coaching staff mix in a little more ball control offense. With Armando coming off of a minor ankle injury, I think one of the backup runningbacks could take advantage of some extra carries. My breakout player is Theo Riddick.

4. How would you grade the three new coaches on this year’s staff based on the first three games?

As I mentioned in this week’s Duds and Studs post, I am pretty pleased with Alford and Verducci. The offensive line may have returned four of last year’s starters, but there has been a lot of position switching, and Verducci’s ability to manage this position flux while greatly improving the run and pass blocking gets him an A. Allen is running better than ever and protecting the ball, but Jonas Gray still has some work to do before I would feel comfortable putting him on the field, so Alford gets an A-. Hart is tricky because we haven’t been putting up great defensive numbers, but he doesn’t have the best talent pool to work with (lets be honest, John Ryan and Mo Richardson are no Pat Kuntz and Trevor Laws). All that being said though, I think our D Line does display better tackling fundamentals than our linebackers (which is scary), and I think the enthusiasm Hart brings to the table will lead to more improvement in the near future. He gets a B.

5. Your thoughts on Golden Tate’s stage dive into the Michigan State band? Was he trying to avoid running into the band? Was the whole thing intentional? Little of column A, little of column B?

From the experiences I’ve had with Golden, I’d have to go with 95% column B. And it was awesome.

6. How has your opinion of the Notre Dame schedule changed from how you felt about it in the pre-season?

I’ve spent this week ranting with my roommates about how the rankings system in college football is pretty flawed. Every year, perennial teams returning big names get over ranked. Think of Georgia last year sitting at preseason #1 because they were returning Stafford and Moreno, but even Georgia fans recognized that their returning talent on the offensive line would give them issues as the season progressed. I’m saying this because for all of the talk about Notre Dame having such as easy schedule, the Irish now have 3 ranked opponents on the schedule, and teams like Pitt are looking to crack the top 25 sooner rather than later. Especially with Washington pulling off a win over USC, I think you have to recognize that the schedule is a little tougher.

7. Should Jimmy Clausen be getting more hype for the Heisman?

JC has been playing great, but he needs to keep up his stratospheric numbers for the next few weeks. If Clausen comes out of USC averaging 3 TDs a game and maintaining his passer rating, the hype will definitely start coming.

I'm taking Notre Dame -7 @ Purdue tonight. Go Irish!