I so don’t want to write this. This is actually my 4th 5th 6th attempt. The first one started off with how shocked I was to awaken and realize that we ranked Notre Dame so low. On Sunday morning. It’s damn near Wednesday Thursday, and I’m still struggling with it. See, when we did the poll, we made sure to try and remove our homer hats for a day and use our thinking caps instead. And this is what it got us. Her “Loyal” Sons turns it’s back on Our Mother and barely even ranks their beloved Fighting Irish in the top 25.
Now, to be fair, I think the one thing that sticks out in everyone’s mind here is how young this team is. Talented, yes, but young. And when you couple that with the brutal start to the 2007 schedule, it’s hard to have many rational feelings that this team will be a top team. For my own part in the poll, I judged teams based on how well I expected them to be playing by mid-season. And I fully expect this young, talented team to improve as the year goes on, but I expect it to be a very tough learning experience at the start. And then we’ll see improvement by leaps and bounds during the 2nd half of the year when the 2007 Irish can take a lot of the lesson they learned in the hard-knock first half of the season and use them to absolutely slaughter some lesser teams in the latter, admittedly easier part of the schedule.
Don’t get me wrong, as a “Loyal Son” I fully anticipate some miracles – some luck of the Irish – in the first part of the season, but my rational brain keeps yelling at me, “Fewest number of returning starters since 1994!” Remember how that year turned out? In fact, the Irish return just 9 starters from last year. That’s 4 on offense and 5 on defense. And, oh yeah, 2 of those people that aren’t returning are named Brady Quinn and Jeff, um, Shark.
We’ve seen how Charlie can take a bunch of, well, losers and convert them into a team that, at the very least, is dangerous enough to win on any given Saturday. (We’d say he turned them into “contenders,” but the last 2 BCS bowl games, where we ran into some truly elite talent, would beg to differ.) But those lovable losers (minus the previous coaching staff, of course) were relatively experienced. Quinn already had nearly 2 full seasons under his belt as a starter (if nothing else he learned how fast defensive ends can sack him at this level), the offensive line was fairly experienced, etc, etc, etc… Now we get to see what happens when Charlie has a fair amount of talent (a roster most of our opponents would love to have), but very young talent. One thing is for sure, the phrase, “The Best Players Play,” will be a fact, not just a mantra for this edition of the Fighting Irish. They have to play. There’s nobody left.
Charlie has said that, without Brady Quinn, Notre Dame would have been a .500 ball club. Well, now Notre Dame is without Quinn, but we don’t really think they’ll slump to .500 status. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t have been in the ranking at all (I’m looking at you, HLS Pollster who didn’t even rank them.). With Charlie at the helm, and a newly invigorated defense under Corwin “Spark Plug” Brown, we expect that the team will be “coached up” over the course of the season and may even provide some big thrills against opponents like Penn State and Michigan (who only return 10 starters themselves, including only 4 from last year’s nasty defense). We also have almost no idea what the 2007 Irish will look like. Aside from the occasional Zbikowski or Carlson, few players on the depth chart are truly “dug in.” Corwin Brown will be debuting a totally new defensive look with the 3-4 scheme, and Weis gets to go all mad scientist on us, if he chooses, with “x-factors” like Demetrius Jones at QB.
Let’s take a look at each side of the ball…
Offense: We have no clue who will start at QB. It seems quite clear that Clausen is expected to be ready for summer practices, but the “small procedure” he had done on his elbow will probably limit his conditioning this summer. Jones and Sharpley have both, apparently, made solid bids for the top spot, and, really, who’s to say that this depth chart will be written in stone at any point in the season? Jones is apparently the “play maker” of the group, and given Charlie’s propensity for “educated gambling,” we’ve got to wonder how much Charlie loves the idea of getting “DD” on the field as often as possible. Meanwhile the running back and receiver positions are both full of talent, but we don’t know who will establish themselves as leaders of either pack. Travis Thomas will certainly provide leadership and probably has the best grasp of Weis’ overall philosophy at this point, but some of the younger guys have talent that will just boggle the minds of those who haven’t been paying attention to this point. The offensive line is very young. It’ll be lead by John Sullivan at center who is the only senior on the line. We continue to look forward to what Sam Young can really do when he’s unleashed on opponents (especially after some really pretty down-field blocking during brief, successful campaigns against LSU in last year’s bowl). John Carlson, of course, is coming back, and that’s vital. Even if opposing defenses want to “key in” on Carlson, it’s darn near impossible. He creates serious match-up problem just against base defenses. Start tinkering to take him out of the equation, and you give the young talent at other positions a much easier path to success.
Defense: Clueless. Not them, us (Now that Minter is gone). We know what a 3-4 is supposed to look like. We know Corwin Brown’s pedigree. We do know that this squad will look a lot more aggressive than last year’s version. Let’s restate that: We know that this group will now probably blitz on just about every single down. What we don’t really know is who will play at what position. Maurice Crum has a hell of a nose for the ball. We can’t wait to see him loosed upon opponents. And a newly stream-lined Zbikowski is expected to perform as possibly the nation’s best safety, so long as the scheme truly lets him “just play” and stops forcing him to think and then react (and then chase from behind). The only thing I know for certain is that there will be times this season when some ND fan somewhere will complain over the exact opposite issue that they were complaining about last year. This year ND will get caught “being too aggressive.” But personally, I’d rather die trying.
Special Teams: Ugh. 2 questions continue to drive us insane here: 1) Why can’t any Irish kicker in the last, I dunno, 10 years, consistently kick the ball into the end zone? 2) When will a 30 yard field goal feel like a gimme to the Irish? The latter question probably worries me the most as I think Charlie may be able to put this squad in a position to win some games against top competition, but the kicking game needs to be there for precious point-scoring opportunities from just beyond the red zone. Punting should be pretty good this year, and with a healthy Zibby, so too shall punt returning. I’m also hoping for at least one ridiculous ESPN pun involving Notre Dame, a kickoff return for a TD, and a kid named “Golden.”
Facts:
- Notre Dame has brought in consecutive top-10 recruiting classes in 2006 and 2007 (#8 in both years). In 2004 and 2005, Notre Dame didn’t even rank in the top 25 (rivals.com).
- The position-group with the most “experience” anywhere on the field is probably the defensive secondary, returning Zibby, Lambert, and Wooden.
- EDITED – I was wrong. We play 8 2006 bowl teams in 2007. I was whacked out on goof balls when I was writing this before.
- Corwin Brown’s nickname while a player at Michigan was “Cornflakes.”
HLS Top 25 Meta:
- Highest spot on a HLS ballot: 20th
- Lowest spot on a HLS ballot: Not Ranked
- Average rankings on HLS ballots: 22.75
Why Alex Trebek Loves Them:
- 7.5 tons of leaves are collected from the grounds of Notre Dame every year (source).
I’m not thrilled with this write-up. My heart’s just not in it. I want to scream from the top of the highest tower that the Irish are the greatest football program ever, and no ridiculous thing like “rationale” is going to change that, but, for now, I’ve got to try and stick with the facts. It’s about 10am here. I think I’ll go drown myself in Guiness until I can’t feel what I’m feeling now: dirty.
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Editor’s Note: I. AM. A. FREAKING. MORON. But none of you actually read this site on Sundays anyway, so you didn’t see my previous gaff on the ranking numbers. Suckers! 
The Scene: A man and his wife return home for the day after a workout at the gym and a long walk home. Having walked home from the gym, the man feels he can afford a little dessert to end the evening and unwind, and begins to look through the kitchen to assemble said dessert. Meanwhile, the man’s wife goes to get the mail, and returns to the apartment with a bundle of mail, paying close attention to a magazine wrapped in plastic.
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