Yesterday’s announcement that not 1, not 2, but 3 men are in the race for the starting quarterback of the 2007 edition of the Notre Dame Football Team came as a bit of a shock to a lot of people. And when a lot of people don’t understand something, they tend to come up with wild, speculative ideas on why that something occurred. Take a look at the Kennedy assassination, global warming, or trans-fats to see what I mean.

But a long time ago a guy named Occam came up with a wild idea himself that applies to, well, just about everything.

All things being equal, the simplest solution [/explanation] tends to be the best one.

This idea is known as “Occam’s Razor.” To see how well this idea applies, let’s take a look at some common situations in life and see how Occam would explain them away.

As you can see, most everything that really matters in life is explained pretty well by this principle.

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In the same press release announcing the reduction of QB Starter contenders by 25%, The Notre Dame football program made another, possibly even more important announcement:

“Finally, we will be using officiating crews from the Big East this season rather than Big Ten officials.“

Meaning that the Notre Dame program will import Big East officials to their away games rather than Integer refs.  This is great news.  While some conferences may simply dislike Notre Dame or feel some level of bias against ND, the Big Ten and their officials actually resent Notre Dame and have shown that resentment in the form of uncalled holding penalties for as long as I can remember.  I can’t imagine how many sacks Victor Abriamiri might have had this past season but for Integer refs.

This may also allow Charlie Weis to speak more quickly and in more hushed tones when speaking with refs during road games.

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Charlie Weis pulled a fast one on the Notre Dame fan base today as he’s narrowed the starting QB competition down from 4 potential starters all the way down to 3. Most had expected coach to narrow it down to 2 potential starters at the end of this month (today or tomorrow by elimination (See, Dad! All that tuition didn’t go to waste!)).

The “final 3″ are Evan Sharpley, Jimmy Clausen, and Demetrius Jones.

“After concluding spring ball evaluations, Evan Sharpley, Demetrius Jones and Jimmy Clausen remain as the main contenders. Each of these three young men brought something unique to the QB competition. Evan ran the operation the best, Jimmy threw the ball the best, and Demetrius made the most plays. For these reasons, they will compete for playing time.”

Some analysis (in bullet point form!), since we know you’re dying to know what we think about this development.

• Weis is not approaching this season as a rebuilding year. He likes to win, and he likes to win now. And so he’s keeping the 2 guys that give him the best shot to win right now in the race (Sharpley and Jones). Sharpley provides a consistent, trust-worthy ability to manage an offense. Sort of a “just don’t lose it for the rest of us” style of play. Jones provides the wild-card physical ability that can break some big plays and keep a team in contention for some important games.
• Clausen has the ability to start, but needs polishing. He’s throwing the ball the best. Great, so his mechanics/skills are the best, but he doesn’t have the depth of knowledge/decision making skills of Sharpley. Yet. Given that Charlie isn’t (we think) just accepting 2007 as a rebuild year, Clausen’s got some work to do if he wants to start. It’s quiet in South Bend in the summer, Jimmy (Believe me, I know.). Perfect chance to put in the work.
• We sincerely hope that Zach Frazer doesn’t leave the team as a result of this announcement. He’s “one of us” now. “Part of the family.” And Weis is the sort of coach that will play the best player, meaning that the door isn’t closed on Zach to move up the chart.
• Weis opted not to penalize DD for that little traffic stop/weed confusion from the past few weeks. At least not in the form of blowing him out of the running to start. I’ll bet there were private ramifications, however.
• I don’t think the old Lou Holtz maxim about “not having a number 1″ holds just yet. A) We don’t know if one of the “top 3″ is a clear #1 in Charlie’s mind. B) Charlie tends to like to go with the flow in tactics and strategy. He may just be going with the flow in a very competitive QB battle right here. C) By having a “top 3″ rather than a “top 2″ in the “QB Controversy” over the summer, you sort of dilute the overall pressure from media/fans on each of the contenders.
• There’s another tidbit in the linked press release about summer training camp being held on the regular (fenced) practice fields rather than the traditional, wide-open fields near the bookstore. Meaning that the name of the #1 QB will not be made public until Georgia Tech’s defense finds out just before the first snap of the ball. You and I think, “It’s just Georgia Tech,” but Charlie takes nothing for granted, including an element of surprise over an opponent - any opponent.
• More thoughts to come, maybe. Please throw in your 2 cents in the comments.

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We know it’s slow during the offseason, but that doesn’t give Dennis Dodd of CBSSportsline.com any excuses for the piece of fecal matter he’s published on their site (fecal matter gets no link here (unless you count self-referential links, of course)).  Then again, if we’re looking for things that need an excuse, just about everything Dodd has ever done in his entire life needs an excuse of some sort.

Anyway, here’s what Dennis has pulled out of his “hat,” and by “hat” we mean “butt.”  Bold text is my commentary.

As momentous occasions go, it’s not exactly the season finale of 24. In fact, you might just want to go ahead and TiVo it.

Uh, I believe Heroes proved that the season finale of 24 isn’t even the season finale of 24 anymore, Dodd.

The significance of Wednesday’s announcement at Notre Dame won’t be felt until the fall at the earliest, and maybe not even then. But this being ND, half the world will be salivating while the other half will be hating. So Charlie Weis might as well make an event out of it.

Media will be alerted. There might even be a press conference.

The Irish coach is not naming his starting quarterback in May. Nothing like that. Having taken a reasonable time to analyze the situation (39 days since the end of spring practice), he will merely cut the list of candidates from four to two.

Actually, Charlie’s never officially said he would make an announcement today (Wednesday).  He just said it may be sometime at the end of this month.  Stop going to the interns for facts, Dodd.

We’re here to spare you the suspense.

How?  You don’t know shit, Lebowski Dodd.

Freshman Jimmy Clausen and sophomore Demetrius Jones will compete for the job come August. You may now go back to your iPods and barbecue pits.

Where on earth did you come up with this, Dodd?  Seriously.  You may be right, but only by guessing.  It’s my guess too, but the “whispers” to which I listen to (and which are probably much more connected to the program than your “whispers”) are starting to place some doubt in my head - at least about one of the two.

Now onward with the juicy particulars.

Alert!  “Juicy Particulars” is a term used to subconsciously indicate that this is a piece written for the enjoyment of morons/ND haters.

Clausen didn’t grace Notre Dame with his prep All-America talent and enroll a semester early just to be a backup. But Jones didn’t sit around for a year — he didn’t see the field as a freshman — just to back up a prep All-American.

Uh, I’m pretty sure no D1 level talent ever recruited to play football in the history of D1 football has ever gone to a school looking forward to sitting on the bench and playing backup, Dodd.  Way to be insightful, Dodd.  Hey, I hear Christopher Columbus didn’t go sailing just to shipwreck and drown.  Have you heard anything illuminating about that, Dennis?

Let the hostilities begin. [Hostilities?  Competition is now synonymous with “hostility” now, Dennis?  Can we start calling terrorists “big competitors” now, Dennis?] Sorry, junior Evan Sharpley and sophomore Zach Frazer. Here’s some lovely parting gifts. No, really. A transfer might be in order for one of you. You might want to stick around for a while, though, if only to have club seats to the drama. This Clausen-Jones thing could get good. [It could.  It could also be incredibly boring. Know what else could have gotten really good, but turned out to be boring, Dennis?  Spiderman 3.]
More…

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ESPN starts reporting on uni changes by…MSU!

That’s right, our favorite team to hate-but-not-respect has gone out and gotten theyselves a new coach and some new tights to wear.  Boy are they cute!

These new uni’s have a few “cool things they can do” according to a Nike rep.  They’re supposed to fit better, weigh less, ventilate more freely, and manage moisture better.  Oh joy!  But, wait, can they help keep a team, program and school that is SO used to choking (and loving to choke) from choking?

Nike Rep?  “Ummm, no comment”.

The new uniforms, fondly dubbed “The Flag Protectors”, will be great when MSU goes out to plant their flag at midfield and/or defend their 50 yard line from would-be flag planters.  Like last year:

An MSU player agreed to comment, under the condition that she remain anonymous.  “Seriously, man, we are the ones that plant the flags. And this uniform makes it so much easier to bend over and plant that flag where it belongs.”

You can find pics of the new uni’s on MSU’s site along with a blurb that largely resembles the above.  But they sorta suck, so I’m not going to give them the bajillion five hits they’d get from us…

PS - I STILL can’t help but laugh at the small guy on the right.  What is he DOING there?  Someone tell me who he is, please?

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6-1, 300(!) pound Brandon Newman of Louisville, Kentucky has commited to dominating the line of scrimmage for future Notre Dame Football squads.

This is a massive commitment.

Welcome to the family, Brandon!

(Image via scout.com)

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We’re a little late with this one, but it’s such a gem we’ve gotta run with it.  Hat tip to IRT and the community of NDN for picking up on it first.

Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt recently got back to campus after an exhausting recruiting trip.  We’ll say this about the guy; he seems like a genuinely nice, hard working, and passionate college coach.  And except for our games with Pitt, we’ll always sort of be rooting for the guy (always like to see a bump in our SOS).

One other thing we can say for certain, Dave is an honest and smart man.

Wannstedt said, “but I do know this: If you want to get to the next level, unless you’re going to maybe Notre Dame or maybe USC, there’s no place and nobody that can prepare you better than I can.”

We love what you’re selling, Dave.

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So I woke up this morning to discover that my car had been stolen. Again. Talk about livid. I ran out of the house in my boxers, only to discover that the car was right where I left it. That, and 2 very traumatized neighbor kids waiting for the school bus.

It wasn’t what it looked like.

The Roundup:

• Pete Carroll (A girls name! Ha!) says that this year’s Southern Cal squad is “the most competitive team we’ve had.” That’s code for, “Ha! Suckers! You all actually believed it when I said you’d be the starting tailback! Haha! Fools! Thank God none of you can do basic math! Now go sit on the bench!”
• You’ve doubtless heard about and probably even seen the photos of Brady Quinn dressed in Village People attire and dancing at his sister’s wedding. They’re silly photos, but we decided not to post them here because we thought it was pretty lame that the photographer was using them on their site to promote their business. I guess it’s the thing to do if you’re promoting a business, but we gotta think that the photographer could have used some other photos that were a bit less blog-fodderish. Anyway, I think somebody be suin’ ‘der asses cuz dey be threatin’ ta be suin’ asses too. (Side note: Ever notice how most wedding photographers have an unnatural obsession with Shih Tzu puppies? No? Just us? Ok then.)
• BGS reminded us that today is Father Ted’s 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Father Ted! The guy once offered me a Coke while I was setting up a desktop in his office. It was the most visionary and faithful Coke I’ve ever had.
• SMQ has created an absurdly premature look at the 2007 Notre Dame football team, but that doesn’t make his analysis absurd. In fact, I can’t really find any fault with it when I replace my Notre Dame hat with my rational hat. So go read it and get a rather unbiased understanding of what this squad really faces this fall. Then put on your ND hat, dismiss it, and remind the world that you expect a NC every year! Besides, ND always wins the NC when it’s the head coach’s 3rd year.

• Finally, we get a little more insight as to why DD got pulled over (and then arrested (and then cleared)). Littering? That actually bothers me worse than the pot accusations, but I see it as no reason to hurt DD’s chances of grabbing the starting spot this fall.

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