Some Photos of ND in Summer

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, taking it easy, and gettin ready for the college football tailgate season through 2 a day grilling sessions and various pork product eating contests. 

A few quick things....

Through my job this summer in DC, I have been thrown into alot of new situations meeting some higher up executives and what not, and one thing which the topic of conversation always go towards is ND football. It seems that everybody knows something about our program and has an opinion on it (mostly favorable) and can't wait to hear what a bigger fan than themselves has to say about the upcoming season even if they aren't big sports fans. This is something which I don't think Michigan can attest to on a national level.

Our buddy Rusty went through campus on the first week of July and took some pretty cool photos of the stadium and campus (****notice the green****). And with the first game some 6 weeks away it looks like it is going to be beautiful on campus, especially with the band going through the new Law School arch. 

I guess we're gettin a new scoreboard cus this is the old one outside the stadium. If we end up with a Univeristy of Texas sized new one, I will miss the tradition, but happily embrace something that can be seen from space.

My favorite spot in town, Cheers Lounge, has again upgraded its facilities to include a signed jersey of the Bookstore Basketball team "Chris Brown's Greatest Hits" featuring Ryan Ayers. Some of you may remember the Cheers Lounge of last season, and although I loved that place, it was revamped over winter break and is now a very classy, very reasonably priced, very friendly place to go. Charlie's Nasties will surely be holding a gamewatch here come fall. 

You stay classy ND nation.... and thanks for stopping by

 

Talking Bout.. Summer

I apologize for the month long hiatus. Following a brief return to the great state of Ohio, I packed my bags and headed to the Windy City for the summer, where someone thinks it is a good idea to pay me for telling people what to do. The job has been rough on this blog though as being on the road Monday through Thursday combined with working without internet during the day (not like I have much time to write there anyway) have tapped into my expendable time that I normally use for covering the Irish.



June is normally a pretty dull month in terms of football news, but with Quinn battling for a starting spot, recruiting hitting a hot streak, and some good positions battles (finally) set to take place during offseason workouts, the summer of 2009 is off to a good start.


NFL Irish: The Browns completed their first set of minicamps last week, and from all of the reports I’ve read, it sounds like the team is going through some growing pains with another new coaching regime. Playing for his third Belichik-tree coach in Eric Mangini, Brady Quinn's accuracy in the short game may trump Derek Anderson's strong arm in the new, more conservative offense. Of course Quinn couldn't have hurt his chances of starting by wowing the new coach with his off season workout regime:

“[The weight room] was something that allowed me to propel to start when I was a freshman coming in at Notre Dame, as well as giving me an advantage in high school. Then as I've gotten to the NFL I noticed guys become limited by injuries, and a lot of injuries happen because guys don't take care of their bodies. So I've always prided myself on hard work and that's just extended into the weight room. It's something where, not only do I enjoy it, but I feel like it gives me an advantage over everyone else, because I work so much harder there and do the little things."

-Brady Quinn


I feel like too many of my previous posts have dealt with Quinn, so I'll try to mix in some other NFL Irish news as well.


Video of John Carlson talking up the next season in Seattle

Even with the departure of Matt Birk, Vikings center John Sullivan knows he still has to win the starting job in Minnesota.

...ok so when I had the idea of doing a small NFL Irish segment I thought I would be able to dig up more on the rookies (Bruton et al), but so far I haven't found anything, so I guess that will have to wait...

Recruiting: The last week has been full of Notre Dame recruiting news as the Irish have landed 4 verbal commits in the last 7 days. Highlights include QB Hendrix (who BGS points out will continue the tradition of easily memorable ND signal caller names) and 4 star DE Blake Leuders.
There are a lot of blogs that recover recruiting more in depth than the Nasties crew, so if you want to dive deeper into the new commits, I’m going to recommend a new site that I’ll soon add to the ND Blog section. The Daily Shillelagh (besides having a nice ring to it) keeps up on its implied promise and cranks out quality updates on a frequent basis.

Thats all the time I have for now - Go Irish!

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!

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.

Quote of the Week... Talkin bout Practice

A few thoughts from all the Spring ball stuff thats been floating around with the start of practice this week.

I like what I've seen so far from the new coaches. Randy Hart has a very young group of defensive linemen to coach, and he hasn't been wasting any time. His drills involve a lot of energetic talking, a lot of rapid fire movement by the linemen, but most importantly, he is taking the time to correct technique. A spring a summer with Hart should have the trench men playing aggressive and off instinct.
Frank Verducci, while coming from the NFL (if you can call the Browns part of the NFL...), seems to have a good plan to mesh his coaching style with the college game. "The NFL is a more details game," Verducci explained to the media earlier this week, "whereas the college level is more about development." Adding that he hopes to teach linemen the details in a way that will "accelerate their development." What I like most about his coaching philosophy though is his expectations. Frank understands that the new techniques he is implementing may be new and mistakes may happen, but he is a guy that gets on people for repeat mistakes; that attitude will hopefully improve the consistency that Weis is hoping for this year.

My favorite coaching addition so far though has to be Tony Alford. As seen in the practice video, while the RBs carry the ball through routine agility drills, Alford is aggressively slapping at it, trying to dislodge it. The dirt on Alford coming in was that he is very intense about ball security, and while you can only tell so much from a 5 minute video clip, it looks like he doesn't plan on having his backs dropping the ball this year.

Furthermore, Alford seems to have already established a great relationship with his players, and he has instilled a mindset that will make them better. When talking to the media, Armando Allen was quick to point out how well his teammates have connected with Alford, but he also gave us this QotW gem:

"The difference between good and great is going out on the field and finishing plays. Not even in games, I'm talking about practice, walkthrough, its the little things for us." "We go out there everyday with the midset to grind, to do whatever we have to do to get better."
-Armando
That's it for now. Go Irish!

IBG - Still Searching

After an extended absence from the Irish Blogger Gathering, the Nasties crew is jumping back into it today by responding to Subway Domer's questions.

1. Take your temperature. A) What sort of things are you looking for the team to work upon to help the 2009 season? Group improvements, players improvements, new fertilizer... whatever. As general a question as you will find. B) Same question, but instead of just the 2009 season- the future of the program as a whole.

I'm registering a comfortable 98.6 right now, and the first part of this question is too easy to answer because it has just about until last month for my temp to come down to normal after being forced to watch our run game in 2008. It was comforting to watch our pass protection improve from 2o07, but with a senior heavy line this fall I am expecting big things from our backs. James Aldridge just before he points at enemy linebackers, causing them to explode into blue goo.
As for the direction of the program as a whole, I would like to see a few scheduling adjustments - less of this weird 7-4-1 format and the addition of a few good non-traditional teams on the lineup (no, Washington State does not count). Fortunately it looks like Swarbrick is making some improvements on the latter.

2. It remains to be seen if I will be traveling to the spring game. My wife may have objections to yet another birthday of hers being used for a game that essentially doesn't count. (I know, I know- she just doesn't get it.) Don't you think it's about time that the spring game was televised? You know ESPN is dying to get inside that stadium for a live broadcast. I don't think it would interfere with the NBC contract, and if it does- why aren't they televising this?

Not sure why its not on TV, but if it was I would have a much easier time watching the game at PigTostle.

3. What position battle will be decided this spring? Which one will have to wait for summer/fall?

I really hope that the Left Tackle position is decided by spring. Turk had a helluva year keeping pass rushers off Clausen's back, and while he is the only starter we lose, I fear that it could be a big loss. It should be Paul Duncan's job to lose, but a definite replacement will hopefully be settled on by spring.
I think the void at safety from Bruton's departure may take longer to fill, especially with so many unique options. Depending on the schemes used by Brown/Tenuta we could either see Harrison Smith, Sergio Brown, or Ray Herring in center field, but after the first few games, I expect one of the three to make enough plays to win a majority of playing time. Here's my bet:

4. If you could change anything about the way spring practice/ Blue-Gold Game is done- what would it be?

Of course this depends on the available depth at each position, but I've always favored a true scrimmage format to the weird offense defense option where teams get points for first downs and punts.

5. Name your 5 favorite players and change their jersey number. Tell us why...

5. Michael Floyd - #3 to... #3. To paraphrase Demetrius Jones, no one who is a bust ever wears #3.
4. Brady Quinn - #10 to #19. I like the idea of following in Koszar's steps.
3. Julius Jones - #22 to... #22. My favorite number for the best back.
2. Justin Tuck - #44 to #0. For a DE that was a black hole, swallowing QBs... probably not legal, but that would be pretty sick.
1. Ronald Talley - #99 to... #99. Anything else just wouldn't work.

6. Last year two sophomore's won the MVP awards for the Blue-Gold Game (Harrison Smith and Robert Hughes). Predict who this years MVP's will be using the same criteria. (Same class- 1 OFF. & 1 DEF.).

Brian Smith and Golden Tate for sure.

Get Excited

Quick quote of the week from Randy Hart about improving the defensive line:
"Football is twenty two people going out on the field in organized chaos. To be the eleven most excited people is the most fun."
Words of wisdom. Speaking of getting excited, the Nasties crew (my roommates and I) are taking a paid vacation (thanks Adsense) to Negril Jamaica, and we're getting ready to drive to Chi-Town in a few hours to catch our flight. Hopefully we can come back with a few good (and safe, legal, etc...) stories to share with everyone. But for now, happy spring break Domers, and good luck to the men's team in the Big East tourney!