Catchin up

Sorry for the brief hiatus. I just couldn't bring myself to do write ups following losses to Pitt and UConn. While reflecting on why I didn't want to write the Duds and Studs issue for the Pitt game, I stumbled across this bit from Blue Gray Sky:

There isn't much to rehash in ND's ugly 27-22 loss to Pitt this past Saturday. It featured many of the same issues that have become all too familiar lately: a running game that disappeared, curious play calling, lackluster defense, questionable interpretations of "indisputable" by the replay officials, some amazing plays from Golden Tate, and ultimately a game that came down to the final drive, this time with ND coming out on the losing side of the ledger. And as the game wound down to the unsatisfying conclusion, Brent Musburger accurately noted that with the loss "the long knives are now out for Charlie Weis".

This quote seems to ring true after the UConn game as well. Whether it was because of untimely penalties, missed assignments, or questionable play calling, our star studded offense found itself stalling during critical times (which in the UConn game consisted of the entire second half). Tate has been getting praise all year, but at this juncture in the year, a team needs some other people to come up big when the team is struggling. Not to be all negative, I'll throw some props to kicker David Ruffer, who stepped in for an injured Nick Tausch and delivered in both games while getting Notre Dame its first touchbacks in years, and Ben Turk has found his groove as a punter, registering 47 yards per punt against UConn.

Now for my two cents about everything that has been going on the last two weeks:

On Clausen: I don't know about Tate, but Clausen is gone next year. He posed for pictures with his family after the game, he didn't return his jersey with the team laundry, and his parents have put their house on Angela on the market. Am I glad that he is going? Jimmy is an incredible football player, and his absence will be felt next season as Dayne will struggle getting acquainted as the starter with a green offensive line. However, it will (unfortunately) be refreshing not to have him around. The program needs his athletic ability, but all of the noise surrounding him is getting old.

On Weis: Thanks for those of you who inquired about the future name of this blog - it gives me some confidence that Charlie's Nasties won't die with the coach. That being said, I have no idea what will happen at the end of the season. On one end, our team has played down to all but two opponents this year, and losing three weeks in a row is inexcusable to the point that I think we should let him go now and spare his family the grief of another week of criticism and jabs from the media. On the other hand, this guy loves Notre Dame, works his freakin tail off, and scores well in all of Swarbrick's performance metrics except winning games.

I was able to find odds on who will replace Weis next season, but I wasn't able to find odds on whether or not Weis will be fired. I speculate that whatever this mythical number is, that it is probably overvalued because I do see a situation where Weis comes back. If Swarbrick doesn't think he can land a better coach, then as a business man I can't see him taking the risk while eating the rest of Charlie's contract. I could also see Jack using his performance metrics to justify keeping Weis based on his elite graduation rates and recruiting abilities.

You can't question this guy's effort. Remember how arrogant Weis appeared when we hired him? Well Weis cared so much about this that he consulted a professor at the University about how to better his image to the public. Have you seen the other coaches from the Belichick tree? How many of them would have created a Twitter page in an effort to be more open with their fan base?

That being said, this is an unlikely scenario. Notre Dame has blocked the tracking of its private jet used for coaching searches, Swarbrick has cancelled Weis' west coast recruiting trip, and even Charlie is acknowledging that his record will probably not be enough to justify keeping him as a head coach. If tomorrow's game against Stanford ends up being Weis' last , then I would like to say thanks for the long hours and hard work. Thanks for putting up with the media. Thanks for reminding us that Notre Dame can recruit the best of the best while maintaining our academic integrity. The last three years have not met my expectations from a win - loss perspective, but I thank you for your hard work and wish you the best of luck in the future.

Go Irish.

Navy Duds and Studs

I feel like with all of the negative fan criticism towards Weis stemming from the loss that I should add my two cents on how this loss affects Weis' job security before launching into the weekly Duds and Studs segment.

Effect: The defense is a major point of concern. Yes, we let Navy dominate us on the ground and let them score 23 points. However, even with a shutout against Nevada, our team is giving up 29 points a game, so the Navy performance can almost be viewed more as a continuing trend than anything new.

Cause: Everyone knows by now that Weis is an offensive coach, but as a head coach, he still must be held accountable for the defense. The poor performance of the defense this season leads me to believe that A) Weis does not understand defense enough to be a head coach, or B) Weis has not done a good job of hiring and promoting his defensive coaching staff

Effect: With two All-American receivers and a (former) Heisman candidate quarterback, our offense was shut out in the first half and managed only 21 points.

Cause: I am actually going to give Charlie a pass here. His offensive game plan lit Navy up for over 500 total yards, and we gained as many first downs as we did against a hapless Washington State. The missed opportunities while going 2-6 inside the red zone seemed to be more the fault of the players than the coaching. Weis is a damn good offensive coach.

Verdict: Weis has three games left, and he must win out to keep his job. Our last win against a ranked opponent was in 2006 against Penn State, and we were favorites in that game. Losing to Pitt next week would cement the idea that Weis' teams cannot win against anyone ranked higher than them, which is unacceptable. Losing to UConn or Stanford (both of which are having good years) cements the idea that Weis' teams play down to (on paper) inferior opponents, which is unacceptable.

Now for what I'm sure everyone really came to read:

Duds

Excise Police: On a weekend where there is so many football related issues to talk about, I'm not going to spend too much time here, but the same week Notre Dame sponsored an event for off campus students to learn how to live safely in the dangerous city of South Bend, the Indiana State Excise Police broke up a party thrown by my friends only to ticket 2 younger siblings that were visiting for the weekend. Great use of resources.

Sergio Brown / Robert Blanton / Harrison Smith: Our defensive backfield has had issues all season, but this was one of the more frustrating performances. I'm not sure if Sergio took one step downfield to stop the run as he was content catching the fullback after ten yard gains instead of proactively trying to hit someone. Blanton's showboating after big plays is really starting to irritate me. Against Washington State, he was able to tip down the only deep ball thrown at him, but his celebration seemed unwarranted considering that a better ball would have resulted in an 80 yard touchdown. Similarly against Navy, RJ was heavily lobbying that the receiver should have been down at the 1 after he missed an assignment that resulted in a touchdown; just get off the field and get the next play right. This paragraph is getting kind of long so I'll let Brawling Hibernian comment on Smith.
Remember Washington?: This time Notre Dame was unable to get points in the red zone as missed field goals and turnovers inside the 20 negated an otherwise stellar performance by the offense. Credit Navy for standing strong when it counted, but one, if not both of our turnovers, were more mental errors than great plays by Navy, so this blame really goes on the players.

Coaching: The offense was great, but the defense was hard to watch. We gave up 348 yards on the ground because our coaching staff was not able to make adjustments. Our DBs were not prepared to defend the one pass that hurt us. Most importantly though, is that down 2 touchdowns with 12 minutes to go in the game, our entire sideline looked like they would rather be sitting in an Accounting class. In the NFL, its hard to tell someone who's making millions of dollars a year to yell; in college ball, it should be easy, but yet not one of our coaches made an effort to motivate the sidelines during the game. Maybe the cliche of coming out flat was why we couldn't score in the first half or why we couldn't make stops when we needed to. To me, this is my single biggest knock on Charlie Weis' teams; it is too hard to get them excited unless the game is in its final minutes.

Studs

Clausen / Floyd: I have to put them in here for the stats. Jimmy ran off 452 passing yards and Floyd grabbed a game high 141 receiving yards to go along with his touchdown. Even though Floyd had a few big drops, you have to applaud the guy's ability to come back after an injury with such a big game. Jimmy almost found himself in the Duds column this week for his two turnovers and poor reads in the fourth quarter. This is probably overstepping my bounds as I don't know what was going on after Clausen's fumble, but I can tell you that it reinforced every negative stereotype about Clausen when he laid on the ground showing off his injury after the fumble.

Tate: 9 catches for 132 and a touchdown. Also made a great play on the onside kick to give us a chance to win. After Clausen missed on his fourth consecutive first down fade to Floyd in the fourth quarter, a student next to me lamented about Floyd's return, complaining that now less passes will get thrown to Golden.

David Ruffer: The kickoff specialist gave Notre Dame it's first touchback in a long time.

Bye Week: At least I didn't have to watch my Browns lose this weekend, too. If Notre Dame decides to cut ties with Charlie at the end of the year, the school might learn a lesson from the Browns, who have found a comfortable place in the cellar of the AFC North behind two former Belicheck coaches in Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini (who we inexplicably hired after he was fired from the Jets). Our next coach should be proven, either with BCS appearances in college or with rings in the NFL. Notre Dame should be an attractive coaching job, and we need to stop trying to find the next breakout coach and make a hire with less risk.

That's it for the Duds and Studs segment. Go Irish! Get a freakin good win, please!

Photos from the AP.

Charlie's Army

UND.com’s football page has links to a 4 diary entries written by head coach Charlie Weis to document his recent trip to the Middle East. The article’s are all relatively short, and there are a few touching moments about the coach’s experience meeting the troops that make the read worthwhile.

One theme that stood out in all of the articles was the alarmingly large representation of Notre Dame fans over seas. The ND Bookstore donated several thousand 2007 student shirts (most of which Weis autographed), and they were readily accepted by the plethora of Notre Dame fans that coach encountered:

There were kids from South Bend. There were kids from Mishawaka, kids from Fort Wayne. [. . .] You’re in the middle of signing [autographs] for people in this long line, and you hear this voice saying “Yeah, I went to John Adams. If you’re going to my house, you turn off Twyckenham…” Here in the Middle of the desert!

In addition to home grown Irish fans, Weis also has several good stories about ND grads from the rest of the country that he ran into over the course of the trip. One of my favorite stories, however, was actually about a USC fan:

Not everyone here is a Notre Dame fan, now. I have run into a whole bunch of Michigan fans, but Saturday it was a USC fan who really got my attention. This USC fan has a wife who is a Notre Dame fan. She's back in Scranton, Pa. He comes up for a picture (Saturday) night. He's got on a USC football shirt, and I refused to take the picture with him.
He goes, "C'mon coach, you can't do me like that." I said, "I'll tell you what. I'll put it up for a vote. I'll put it up to your buddies, see what they think." So I said, "How many of you guys think I should take a picture with him with this USC football shirt?" Everyone's saying "Noooo. Nooo. Boo."
"How many think I shouldn't?" And everyone raises their hands. He went and put on the green Notre Dame shirt. He said, "My wife is going to rag me for the rest of my life." It was one of the more humorous moments of the trip.

Other highlights of the trip included orchestrating an NFL-combine simulation on the deck of an aircraft carrier, where soldiers tried to impress with their 40-yard dash times and bench reps. Weis also coached a flag football game with the other coaches who went on the trip with him (Georgia's Mark Richt, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, Yale's Jack Siedlecki and Miami's Randy Shannon); the five of them seemed to have a great time:

Every single person over here is fired up about what they’re doing and why they’re here. It’s a very encouraging experience [. . .] If I were single, I wish this thing went on for a month. I could do this [for longer] but I miss my family.

If trips to the Middle East are at all correlated with regular season success, the Fighting Irish should be in pretty good shape for the Fall of 2008. After traveling to Kuwait to coach troops in a basketball tournament ("Operation Hardwood") last year, Mike Brey’s team overachieved on the court, finishing 2nd in the Big East, notching their first tournament win in several years, and finishing the season ranked 19th nationally.

Irish Land Another 4 Star

Charlie said in his latest presser that he wouldn't be working on anything but recruiting until December 17th, and it appears that this strategy has paid off; the Irish stole yet another recruit from Nebraska in Trevor Robinson, ranked as the third best offensive guard in the country and a top 100 prospect by Scout and Rivals. Following fellow commit Jonas Gray away from the Cornhuskers, Robinson made his decision the other night after an in home visit from Weis and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello.

While Irish fans still need to wait for national signing day to officially reel in the entire '08 recruiting class, this commitment seems pretty solid; Trevor will be enrolling early to get a head start with college academics and working out with the team. At 6'6" 304 lbs, opposing teams aren't looking forward to this hoss gaining an extra 6 months in the weight room.

In other ND recruiting news, local commit Braxton Cave wrote a nice article for the South Bend Tribune (That's right - Notre Dame recruits are actually writing before they get to college!). The write-up tells the story of Cave's recruiting journey, including some subtle knocks on other coach's recruiting tactics. Here are a few of the texts Cave received while being recruited:

“It’s 85 and sunny here, Big Brax. What’s it like in nasty South Bend?”

“No man should have to live in that weather you got up there.”

“If you come play for us you’ll start right away.”

“We have the biggest stadium in college football, don’t you want to play in front of all those people?”

I can't stand teams that recruit by knocking other schools, especially with weather (the stadium text wasn't a bad selling point, but playing in Notre Dame Stadium isn't exactly a bad thing either), so it was comforting to hear a recruit's opinion on the matter:

"These are just a few of the recruiting pick-up lines that I would receive on a daily basis. Sunny weather, big stadiums and early playing time are all great aspects. Don’t get me wrong, but to me, these capture lines only turned me away from the collegiate powerhouses."

I highly recommend this article not just to gain insight on the recruiting process, but to get to know a member of the Notre Dame family. I can't say how proud I am that a senior in high school took the time to put together such a well written piece for the local paper, and I can't wait to see Braxton on the field for the Irish.

God Bless.

Pressers and Such

Anyone searching for answers about the coaching/gameplanning/freshman alma mater singing will have to wait until December 17th to get any answers. That's because the Weis man will be spending the next few weeks taking full advantage of the time he is given to visit recruits, and despite the commitment that the young Fightin' Irish have displayed up to this point in the year, it is likely that the staff will have their hands full holding on to all of them. Running backs coach Mike Haywood potentially leaving to take a coaching job in his hometown with the University of Houston could potentially weigh in to Jonas Gray's verbal, and any other change in the coaching staff (offensive line...?) could factor in even more; this class currently has four offensive line commits. Because of the potential ensuing changes, it is important that the recruits can get to know not just their position coach, but other members on the staff as well, which is why Charlie is making sure that he and his gang will be taking full advantage of the given recruiting time.

Is Haywood on the move?

14 recruits will be making the trip up to snow covered South Bend to attend the annual post season football banquet. It isn't very difficult to sell the tradition of a Notre Dame football gameday to a highschooler, but sometimes a bad visit back to campus in the offseason can cause recruits to second guess themselves, which is why the entire weekend is stuffed full of special events for them. For instance, the team will be in the Joyce Center on Saturday night to watch the Basketball team win its record-breaking 25th home game against NIU.

Weis mentioned in the presser that he wasn't just looking forward to getting the incoming freshman on the field, but that two current freshman will be healthy enough to play next year. Harrison Smith and Gary Gray were both sidelined this season, and both of them coming back will add some more depth to the rapidly improving secondary.

With ND not playing in a bowl game, the team loses out on about an extra month of practice, but Weis said that the month of December won't be going to waste.

"we're countering that lack of practice time by the increased early start on strength and conditioning"

Good for them. Weis also specifically mentioned Clausen as needing to beef up a little.

Charlie did, however, give insight to the future of one coaching position. This season, Weis divided up the duties of the special teams position, the theory being that everyone would share responsibility, but without a return touchdown this season and the terrible kicking game, Charlie was pretty clear about how he thought his plan worked out:

" it has to be changed. I was not pleased with the way it went," adding on that he could see himself assigning the job to one person if he was the 'right guy.'

Wrapping up this Thursday quote segment, we'll lead into an article about the BCS system. Here's Charlie's thoughts on who got the short end of the stick:

"They (OSU and Georgia) were 3 and 4. Not that I'm a big fan of Ohio State or Georgia or anyone else, but if you're next in line and you don't play, and the two teams ahead of you lose, I think that you move up. I just don't know how you get penalized for not playing. I think right now if I were (Georgia head coach) Mark Richt I'd be out there whining today because wasn't he sitting 4 last week? So he's sitting 4 but now he moves down a spot. He doesn't play, he wins his last six games, one of the hottest teams in the country, and now he gets penalized. I don't think he's a whiner because I know the guy and I like the guy, but I think if anyone has a gripe today, it would probably be him. "

Happy Thursday and good luck to the Woman's Soccer Team, who will be facing off against Florida State in the NCAA semifinals tomorrow at 3:00.

Go Irish. Beat Seminoles.

Duds and Studs: The Last Hurrah

Congrats to the Fighting Irish for taking down the Cardinal in their last game of the 2007 campaign. The official box score was as follows:

Notre Dame: 35
Stanford: 14
Officials: -14
Duds:

ESPN: Electing to use the C-Team announcers to cover a more notorious game during rivalry week, ND was stuck with what appeared to be the J-Team, consisting of a field reporter with spray on hair and two announcers that couldn't help beating everything to death.

Announcer A: Look at number 20 for Stanford! That linebacker's all over the place!
Announcer B: I agree, if you had to take a guess for who made the tackle last play, you could say Clinton Synder and you would be right 90% of the time.
A: Clinton Synder is around the play almost 90% of the time.
B: He really is all over the place.
A: Well, B, that's because he was a 2 star recruit and he plays with more heart than 4 star recruits...

Officials: "The call on the field is reversed" seemed to be the most popular words out of their mouths, and the 'indisputable evidence' that overturned Grime's endzone circus catch might have caused riots if it became a deciding factor in the game. The primary reason these officials make the duds list, however, is that they failed to keep the game in control. There is absolutely no reason for the Notre Dame vs. Stanford game to escalate to FIU/Miami proportions. The drive where the announcer's son and his bash brother decided to headbutt Clausen after a play and de-cleat a stationary David Grimes after the whistle (respectively) could have resulted in ejections; labelling them as "off-setting personal fouls" was ridiculous. This foul play seemed to stem from Lambert's (even though it wasn't necessarily malicious or intentional) hit on Pritchard, and it was missing this call that really turned the game downhill for the officials.

Defensive Fundamentals: In a showing that made the Duke game look like a masterpiece, our defense seemed to forget how to take pursuit angles or break down when they were tackling. The preferred method of lunging at the feet of Stanford's players was able to quell a less than impressive offense, but it is obvious that Corwin needs to address this issue during the offseason.

O-Line: As opposed to positions like linebacker or defensive tackle, the problem at this position is that if one player misses an assignment, it usually blows up the entire play. Blitz-ford delivered as advertised and dished out 5 sacks on Clausen as well as creating several other pressure situations. To Weis' credit, he didn't mess around this game, pulling players in Lou Holtz fashion if they failed to properly execute an assignment. While Chris Stewart and Dan Wenger showed some promise, Sam Young needs to learn how to stop a speed rush; the opposing gameplan on him appears to encourage pinning back one's ears and sprinting around him. Fortunate for us, Young appears to have the talent and desire to correct this weakness.

Jim Harbaugh: I have to admit that I enjoy some of his outspoken nature, but could you imagine being Mrs. Pritchard and watching Harbaugh send your son back onto the field after suffering an obvious concussion? I think that he will have a hard time convincing parents to trust him with their children after that.


Studs:


Robert Hughes: Despite the Notre Dame v. Reggie Bush circa 2005 efforts by the Cardinal grounds crew, Hughes succeeded in becoming the first freshman to eclipse the century mark in back to back games since Autry Denson in the 95 season. It would have been nice to see him finish his two long runs, but it's becoming clear the Hughes likes his role as a feature back, turning 18 carries into 136 yards and a touchdown.

The D-Team: Darrin Walls, David Bruton, and Ian Williams join permanent resident Trevor Laws in this group. All performed well with Williams recording 6 tackles, Walls and Bruton providing good coverage, and Laws being Laws. The young outside linebacking duo of Kerry Neal and Brian Smith looked pretty decent as well.

Brian Smith says "Give me a low-five"

Duval Kamara: The late season Golden Tate, Kamara has proven to be ND's most consistent aerial weapon, however, Charlie could improve on mixing up his play calling to the #1 receiver. It seems like whenever someone catches a deep ball, Weis has to run 3 or 4 fly routes to him before reverting back to the out and slant patterns. Irish fans should be especially thankful for Kamara's consistency when considering the drop in production from Parris and the inconsistency of Grimes. While #11 is able to make a spectacular catch from time to time, his inability to haul in the gimme's could move him into the slot next season if he doesn't show improvement.

Tom Zbikowski: It was great to see Zibby back in his old form for his last game with the Irish. His punishing hits and momentum changing plays in the Stanford game serve as a reminder for what the Irish will be missing at the safety position next year.

Also, props to the Blue and Gold supporters that made it out to Palo Alto for the game; judging by the crowd noise, it almost sounded like a home game on TV. Good job sticking with the team throughout this struggling season. As former Irish head coach Gerry Faust said, "It won't be long before they're back on top again. Sometimes it's good to go through these things. It makes you stronger. The crucifixion has to come before the resurrection."

Go Irish. Beat Aztecs!

Duds and Studs: Senior Game

Irish Insider on campus had an interesting breakdown of the game before this weekend. The articles contained all of the similar text found in ESPN breakdowns of a Pats Colts game or an SI NBA Finals preview; each position was analyzed and the writers gave the edge to either Notre Dame or Duke. It was a decent read, but it lost a little credibility in my book when it gave the "Intangibles" to Duke. Against Notre Dame at home. On Senior Day... Come on, there's no way we're that bad this year, right? O well, one of the writers was the same that predicted us to go 11-1 in the regular season with our only loss being at UCLA... No one's perfect.

Duds:

Robby Parris: I've been a Parris fan all season long, but against Duke he was overshadowed by the performance of other players who stepped up at his position, going catchless with a few drops. The competition at the WR position will be something to pay attention to next game.

James Aldridge: I've been a huge fan of Weis' first prized recruit, but he has only been able to average over 4 yards a carry 3 times this season (5.1, 5.5, 4.4 yards against Michigan, MSU, and Air Force, respectively). I realize that Aldridge left the game early, but his mediocre production has given the other running backs on the team a chance for them to show what they can do during the games. I am obviously not including an injured player in the 'duds' column because he is injured, but because his injury just might lead to a position change at running back. The Stanford game could set the stage for a very competitive running back battle during the off season that I'll be looking forward too.

Every week I try my best to find players who sucked it up when we won (UCLA) and played well in a losing effort (see other 9 games), but for some reason, I struggled to do this with the Duke game. Even Aldridge and Parris played decently well, but the fact is that our defense looked very competent and our offense seemed to have a game plan for the first time all season. What's not to like about that?

Studs:

Robert Hughes: The first freshman to run for over 100 yards since Walker against Pittsburgh 3 years ago, Hughes showed some good potential in a great performance Saturday. Granted it was against Duke, but on senior day, a freshman was able to step up in a big way, earning some of the carries that Aldridge used to see.

Jimmy Clausen: Weis mentioned in a post game interview that Jimmy has benefited greatly from sitting out against USC and Navy, getting a chance to rest up a little bit and watch from the sidelines. Once again, his last two starts were against Air Force and Duke, but Notre Dame has been waiting all year for a quarterback that can move the ball without creating turnovers, and with 440 yards (50% completion rate), 6 touchdowns, and no interceptions in his last two starts, it seems that JC is starting to do just that.

Trevor Laws: Laws ended his final game in Notre Dame stadium with 7 tackles and a sack, continuing to make a case for being a first day draft choice. Hats off to him for playing solid game in and game out all year.

The Seniors: Everyone probably saw this one coming, but its still important to recognize the seniors for getting some playing time and making sure that they ended their final game in South Bend on a good note. This might just have been me, but I thought center Neal Kennedy looked good enough to get some snaps in earlier in the year...

As for the decision to play Zbikowski at quarterback, I'll say that Willingham probably wouldn't have played him like Weis did. Some might have viewed the move as disrespectful to Duke, but Zibby had been asking Weis for three seasons to get a chance to go under center. The fact that Weis didn't make any apologies for giving one of his most loyal seniors some requested playing time is one of the reasons that his players like playing for him. He knows how to reward good performance. Although after watching Zbikowski run the offense, I'm glad Weis chose not to put him in earlier in the season...

Go Irish! Beat Cardinal!

Fire Weis?

While I was perusing ESPN.com when I was supposed to be listening to a lecture on Microsoft Access, I came across an interesting Gene Wojciechowski article about Charlie Weis and Notre Dame. The article wasn't interesting because it addressed the age old Weis - Willingham comparison, but because it talked about fans turning their backs on the coach:

"Notre Dame alums and fans feel empowered by the precedent set when Willingham was dismissed. [. . .] Some of them want a new coach."

Over the last week, Charlie undoubtedly took some heat (even from the Nasties crew) for (among other decisions) not kicking the field goal against Navy, but I have yet to hear any students on campus challenging his job position. The ND blog roll also appears to be responding the same way, by criticizing the coaching, but not necessarily the coach.

"Weis is going to have to live with the "Fire Charlie" chatter"

Even though this season is breaking all sorts of bad records (only two other Irish teams have lost 8 games in a season), I feel that our fan base has been smart enough to tough out this season knowing, not hoping, that things will get better quickly. The reason ND locked up Weis with a big contract so early is that when he is given the talent to work with, the results have been two BCS bowl bids, and once this current Irish squad develops in terms of skill and experience, fans expect nothing less than a perennial championship contender.

Wojciechowski also was critical of Weis' recruiting, basically saying that even though his classes have been ranked very highly, it doesn't matter because high school player rankings can be so wildly inaccurate. On this point, I'd like to refer this professional ESPN writer to the research done over at the Blue-Gray Sky, where over the summer, the boys reviewed the high school rankings of the current college seniors and compared them to their on field performance, and here are some of the conclusions they found:

• 30% of the top 50 seemed capable of playing in the NFL after only 3 years of school
• Only 10% of the top 50 were considered true "busts"
• Purdue's top 50 players seem to bust more than others (just a fun fact)

Also interesting was that the BGS team found that the hardest positions to evaluate were the offensive line and cornerback positions, so I guess that the ranking of the upcoming class could be somewhat skewed given that it contains 7 o-linemen and DBs, but the point is that a top ranking seems to be a decent predictor of college success. Oh, and by the way, the #1 ranked player of the 2008 class just set a single game rushing record in the NFL. I think his name's Peterson or something like that.

Up to this point, I haven't been sucked into comparing Weis and Willingham at all. Actually, I think this might be the first time I wrote the word "Willingham" in a post. But given that I am criticising an article that discusses him, I think I should at least say something on the issue. Well, I'm not going to, but I will point our loyal readers to a Huskie blog (link courtesy of Her Loyal Sons) so they can see how they are doing with our former head coach.

The ESPN article also includes a very good video of Mark May and Lou Holtz breaking down Notre Dame. Lou talked about how Notre Dame needs to get back to the fundamentals of toughness and good technique; Weis seems to have had some difficulty with this in the 07 season, and my only rational for it is that he is used to coaching experienced players, but not yet used to developing inexperienced players. One of May's criticisms was that Charlie has been unable to translate the recruiting rankings onto the field, so hopefully Chuck can prove him wrong as he learns how to better deal with youngsters.

Commenting on the loss to Navy, Lou referred to the 1987 team that lost in the Sugar Bowl, saying that that loss was able to fuel the team over the offseason and allowed them to go after the championship the next year. I personally believe that ND has faced enough "adversity" between getting walloped in its last two bowl games, getting hammered by USC in four out of the last five contests, and losing a record eight games this season, but if snapping the 43 year old winning streak against Navy ends up being the catalyst that leads to future success, I'll take it for now. This leaves us with the quote of the week:

"[losing to Navy] could be the best thing that happens to [Notre Dame]" - Lou Holtz

When life gives you lemons... Beat Falcons!