NFL Irish

Congrats to the ND players taken so far in the 2008 draft. Hopefully a few more Irish players can sneak in towards the end of the day, but for now, welcome to Sunday ball!

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!