I looooove talking about how young this team was this year.  Well, I don’t really love it, I love that it’s in the PAST.  But, new data keeps coming up that I find pretty interesting.  So I share.  I’m a sharer.  And a dead-horse-beater.

Take that you freaking dead horse!

Much like my Soap Opera Post, this focuses on some stats that have been published recently about the percentage of production coming from our underclassmen this year.  This time, however, we have cumulative minutes playing data by position, and we have a BAR CHART! Thanks to Blue and Gold for the data…thanks to Bidness School for the ability to make nerdy powerpoint charts.

 Behold the bar chart!!!

To read the ‘youngness’ by position, essentially look for the grey.  It tells a pretty interesting story. 

Overall, underclassmen (Frosh and Sophomores) account for 38% of ND playing time this year.  If we ran this for last year (I am too lazy) and for many years before at ND, you would see a VASTLY different story.  This would be incredibly different for most of the teams out there as well, and for BC it would be pretty much all Red with their 840 5th Year Seniors. 

Again, this is not an excuse, I am just imparting the data.  But I do believe it’s one reason for our on-field struggles this year.

We obviously had a LOT of young players making up the bulk of time in a few key skill positions with the QB, RB, and WR positions each well over 50% grey.  Almost 40% of our OL play was by underclassmen, 86% of our OLB time were Frosh and Sophomores, and just under half of our CB time was by young guys. 

Some of the places where we had significant experience were not those places that one would generally consider the most prominent positions, though they can be in certain teams.  Schwapp gave us experience at the Fullback position, and Carlson at TE.  Our Safeties were experienced as were our Specialists.

The DL, anchored by big Trev and the ILB’s provided some experience on the defensive side as well. 

One aspect I’d love to tackle is the cumulative time by players that had significant playing time and/or starts prior to this season.  But that requires a lot more research, and I just make pretty graphs based on readily-available data, so that’s not gonna happen.  But I bet if you wanted to look at Experienced vs. Inexperienced players in a similar graph, you’d see even more grey.  Which means green players.  Wait, I’m getting confused…

The good news for Irish fans is that this won’t happen again on Charlie’s watch.  In the future we’ll have both talented, and very experienced, depth.  Especially with all of these young guys getting all those reps this year, and often as starters.  

UPDATE:  More Data.

Notre Dame had 30 returning lettermen this year.  That is 117th out of 119 BCS teams.

UPDATE 2:  Even More Data.

ND had 101 starts by freshmen in 2007.  In 2006, we had 26.  And in the 5 previous years we had:  2001 – 19, 2002 – 15, 2003 - 52, 2004 – 57, 2005 – 31.  101 is WAY MORE!  (How about that math?)

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Not that the headline is telling you anything that you, as a rabid ND fan, didn’t already know. But the Pac-10 is backing up the decision to reverse the correct call on the field from Saturday’s Stanford/Notre Dame game which said that this catch was a completion for a touchdown. The correct call, on the field, was made by Big East officials. The Pac-10 supplied the replay official.

Some selected images of The Catch

From the South Bend Tribune

Via Blue-Gray Sky

AP News, via Yahoo

Via Blue-Gray Sky Again!

Now, it’s one thing to fail to get this call right via incompetence. The standard by which a reversal of a call on the field (in this case, the call on the field was that the pass was completed for a touchdown) was not applied. When the re-play official decided to reverse the call, ESPN sought an explanation immediately because even the ESPN talking-heads were incredulous (remember, the re-play officials in college have no angles other than the ones provided by whoever is recording the game for telecast), and the re-play official explained that he (and I’m paraphrasing, but it’s close enough) thought that he could see the ball move up in Grimes’ hand after he landed, and so it must have touched the ground. The biggest thing wrong with that notion is that you don’t get to “think” you saw something and then infer something from what you thought you saw. The replay official, at least when first asked, never said anything about actually seeing the ball touch the ground. He just infered it. But that’s not the standard for reversing a call on the field in college football. In college football, there must be indisputable video evidence that supports a reversal. The Pac-10 re-play official didn’t apply that standard here. There’s no way any rational mind could watch the available video evidence and call any of it indisputable. And given the Pac-10’s recent history with video re-play issues, I’m almost willing to bet that the Pac-10 official didn’t understand what standard should be applied, thus he was incompetent. And I’m not even going to get started on the poor understanding of 6th-grade-leve physics that the official tried to apply in his “rationale.” But here’s a hint for all re-play officials in the future: If you find yourself having to rationalize a reversal, you don’t have enough video evidence to reverse the call!

So yeah, incompetence is one thing. But lying is something else entirely. Today the South Bend Tribune published a piece about the idiotic controversial call, and got this quote from Pac-10 head of officiating, Dave Cutaia:

“The replay official felt he had a shot that showed the point of the ball hit the ground,” Cutaia said in an email. “This is basically a judgment call on his part, as an on-field official might judge defensive pass interference.”

So apparently either the re-play official has changed his reasoning completely from inference to statement of what he perceives to be a fact, or the head of Pac-10 officiating has done that for him. Either way, someone, at some point, has lied. Either the original explanation was a fabrication (and really, why go to the trouble of that if you feel so confident in the ultimate explanation?), or the quote up above is an outright lie.

Essentially what the Pac-10 is trying to say is that they just don’t care. Notre Dame still won the game – a game between two bad teams with no bowl implications whatever. But the problem is this is just another big, prominent data-point in a trend-line that has existed long before video review of Pac-10 games. It’s clear that Pac-10 officiating is either as incompetent as long-feared of corrupt as long- suspected.

Further, no matter the result of the game, David Grimes has been cheated out of one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in any sport.  The still-photos don’t do it justice.  A blink of an eye before the catch was made, nobody on the planet, except, perhaps, for Grimes, thought he would even catch up to the ball enough to get a hand on it, let alone actually catch the darn thing.  And to rob him of a piece of Notre Dame/College Football History is an absolute crime.

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Given the fact that Donna Shala is still employed as president of the University of Miami, I suppose I shouldn’t be completely shocked by the news/rumor that Randy Shannon, the head coach of the Miami Football program, who was ostensibly expected to help clean up the program just as much as improve their win-loss record, will be cutting scholarship “student-athletes” from the football program.

Brody just passed along some wonderful news to me. From what Brody calls an extremely reliable source, we have learned that Miami has cut six scholarships of the students named below:

KIRBY
DALY
STEWART
C. JONES
FARR
MABRY

That’s just awesome. The Hurricane’s new slogan should be: “Miami Football: Come Play for Us Until We’ve No Use For You!” At least Michigan (sucks!) has the decency to try to be inconspicuous about it, letting guys just sort of flunk out, in a micro-Darwinism sort of way.

The face of integrity.

Oh, who am I kidding? Those Miami guys probably never went to class anyway. This will be the same as sitting the bench, but without the ban on firearms ownership.

(ht: EDSBS)

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How many ND blogs have used a soap opera as a metaphor for analysis?  None? Just us?  We are the first!  We rule. (or, maybe, we like “Daytime Dramas”. either one)

As has been much discussed, ND was a young team this year.  Some claimed ‘oh, but other teams are young, blah blah blah’.  I can shut down arguments based on blah blah blah anytime.  And in this case, I just respond with the overall young-ness of the team, both in age and inexperience.  Sure, some other teams have a frosh here or there playing a key position.  Generally speaking though, those freshmen are surrounded by more experienced players.

At Notre Dame this year, those freshmen were surrounded by…other freshmen! In very key positions. Or maybe a first-year starting Sophomore.  And once in a while, a first-year starting Jr/Sr/5th or someone with actual playing experience.  Yay for those guys!  But they weren’t the norm this year.   Recently, some great data was posted by some smart number-crunching types over on NDN by the names of “FunkDoctorSpock” and “Revue Party” that helps sum up our Young issue.   Clearly, these guys have their junk together.  Here’s the data:

Points by class:

Fr….118 points
So…..13 points
Jr…..12 points
Sr……6 points
5th….48 points

Yardage by class:

Receiving
FR: 635 yards
SO: 579 yards
JR: 258 yards
SR: 123 yards
5th:371 yards

Rushing
FR: 497 yards (including -165 for Clausen)
SO: 469 yards
JR: -71 yards
SR: 35 yards
5th 50 yards

So, breaking it down into percentages, here’s the % accounted for by Frosh and Frosh/Sophomores this year:

Points

Freshmen:  60%   Freshmen+Sophomores:  66%

Receiving Yards

Freshmen:  32%   Freshmen+Sophomores:  62%

Rushing Yards

Freshmen:  51%   Freshmen+Sophomores:  99%

Good Lord!  The team is young as all hell! Not only that, those young players account for 66% of points, 62% of receiving yards and 99% of rushing yards!  Craziness.  And Charlie knows it:

“All along we knew we were playing with some talented young guys,” Weis told reporters after the Stanford game.

“And that there was going to be a growing process that takes place. There are some growing pains that take place when you’re doing it…”

Young, yes. 

Restless? 

After this year, you better believe it…

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I was stuck at a family event the night of the Stanford game, and missed the entire second half. Given that I’d be away from Sunny California for 4 days at that point, I didn’t have a chance to get the Tivo programmed.  Plus, I just wasn’t going to wait until Sunday to know the result after such a crazy first half.  So, I got the play by play from Bad Kermit.  This is what it’s like to catch the 2nd half of such a crazy game via text messages from BK, while munching on a massive feast of Chinese food in China Town, Philadelphia over Thanksgiving weekend.

BK:  Bulls&*^!!!

BK:  Throw the &*^%ing ball away!

(these were texts I received before asking for the play-by-play updates, as I was attempting to use Yahoo and ESPN box scores through my PDA.  but then that phone died, and I went to BK for help)

Biscuit:  What’s the score?  Pulled away to fam dinner. Could use updates

BK:  14-14.  Twelve min left

Biscuit:  We didn’t score after zibbys return to the 30?

BK:  No, Got a td catch reversed.  Bs —

Biscuit:  %^*&.  Keep me updated? Would appreciate it

BK:  No prob.

Biscuit:  Thx

BK:  Stan driving after nd dumb pick.

BK: (out of nowhere)  Oregon down 16-0

BK:  Stan missed fg

Biscuit:  Nice

BK:  Hughes looks great.  on the nine after big run –

Biscuit:  Hells yea.  Hughes is a pimp

BK:  Td!  Six min left.

Biscuit’s Sister:  What’s the score?  dad wants 2 no

Biscuit to Sis:  21 14 nd is up.  5 min left

Biscuit’s Sister:  Keep us updatd.

Biscuit to BK:  tell me we r holding them

BK:  Fourth and goal.  30 sec left

Biscuit to Sis:  Seconds left. 4th down, stanford ball on ND 6.

BK:  No good!

Biscuit:  &*%^ yeah!

(at this point I stood up and cheered at the table.  my wife’s family was confused, as were all of the asians in the joint.  i think they may have thought of me as a very strange man, playing video games on my cell phone during dinner and all…)

Biscuit’s Sister:  Tell us final

Biscuit to Sis:  Stopped!  ND wins!

Biscuit’s Sister:  Ha ha ha.  finally. yippee! 

Biscuit to BK:  What play did they run?  How’d it happen?

BK:  Dropped pass back of end zone

Biscuit: Fan-freaking-tastic!  We should put this playbyplay up on hls…

BK:  Ha!

Biscuit’s Dad:  yo yo go irish the dad

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With the coaching changes, there are some interesting assistant coaches floating around right now:

• Brian Jean-Mary: Former Linebacker coach for Georgia Tech. Who’s watched a GaTech game recently and didn’t like the play of the LBs?
• Joe D’Alessandris: Former OL coach for Georgia Tech. They managed the 16th ranked rushing attack in the NCAA despite Tashard Choice being injured for a long period of time. Also seem to give up very few sacks.
• UPDATE: Arkansas has just fired Houston Nutt, leaving former Lou Holtz/ND GA and now former Arkansas OL Coach/Run Game Coordinator Mike Markuson up in the air.

As we noted before, there will be a lot of assitants looking for work in the next few weeks. If you know of a good one, pass his name along to us. Charlie Weis reads this site!* And if you have thoughts about those I’ve mentioned (or will mention as I discover them), let us know!

*This is a lie.

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Perhaps it’s just that they got sick of trying to beat Ohio State and Jim Tressel, or that they’ve realized they can’t beat Notre Dame and Charlie Weis at recruiting even when ND goes 3-9, but the recent and rampant rumors about Michigan (sucks!) Head Coaching search seem to indicate they no longer take football seriously.
Meanwhile, if the Ferentz to Michigan (sucks!) rumors turn out to be rumors, maybe Michigan (sucks!) could set their sites on Chan Gailey! Apparently GaTech is starting to take football seriously. Hey GaTech, I know a coach with experience coaching football at a school with “high academic standards.”

With this Monday Bloodbath and the previous bloodbaths of the weekend, you’ve got to start wondering about what assistants now have a lot of free time on their hands. If any of you know of really good, really unemployed assistants, please let us know about them. Yeah, we all know about Tenuta, but we don’t need a DC. Think he’d make a good LB coach?

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Charlie Weis and Notre Dame have won and will win as many games against Pac-10 teams in 2007 as Ty Willingham and Washington (2 wins each).

Bonus Fun Schadenfreude Fact of the Day:  Weis has won just as many games against Pac-10 opponents as Ty Willingham since Weis has been at ND and Willingham has been at Washinton (a total of 6 wins each since 2005).  Sub-bonus fact:  Weis and ND’s winning percentage against Pac-10 teams: 67%.  Willingham and UW’s winning percentage against Pac-10 teams: 23%.

(Hat tip to multiple sources across many ND Fan boards.)

Fun thing to ponder:  What are the chances of a Weis coached ND team beating a Willingham coached Washington team in 2008?

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Hey, remember when Texas A&M really meant something in football?  They had real pride in the program, had some interesting if not “cool” traditions, and were known for some excellent defense?

Well, apparently Texas A&M no longer takes football seriously.

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M apparently will not waste much time in naming a replacement for football coach Dennis Franchione, who resigned under pressure after Friday’s win over Texas in the regular-season finale.

A new coach could be introduced as early as Monday but more likely Tuesday.

Texans assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Sherman, a former A&M offensive line coach and head coach of the Green Bay Packers, appears to be the leader in a three-man race.

Others under consideration are former Notre Dame coach and A&M defensive coordinator Bob Davie and Boise State coach Chris Petersen.

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Things are looking up.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish scraped, scrapped, flailed, and clawed its way to a win against the gloriously inept Stanford Cardinal, coached by the criminally negligent Jim “If you can’t feel anything, you must be ok” Harbaugh. Despite the fact that this win was about as sloppy as it could possibly be, there are a number of reasons to feel very good about the win and how it bodes for the 2008 season. Primary among those reasons: Notre Dame was blatantly a better football team than Stanford.

Now, immediately the Pollyanna Detectors in some heads just started blaring, but let me explain. To be sure, there are several reasons to be a bit concerned about the 2008 season, but I’ve learned that when things are bad, it’s time to remain positive. When things are good, it’s time to get critical. And we’ve been quite critical of several facets of the 2007 edition of Notre Dame Football already, so I’m going to remain pretty positive in this post. And I’m positive that Notre Dame was just a blatantly better football team than Stanford.

So how can I say that? Didn’t Stanford have a shot to tie the game with just seconds left in regulation? Yes. But the opportunity wasn’t created because Stanford was an equal team to Notre Dame. The situation was created by a number of singular moments in the game combining to the advantage of The Cardinal and the determent of the Irish, and yet the Irish won.

Easy Bullet-Pointing To Help Make My Argument Without the Need of Much Flow!:

• Wretched Officiating: When Robert Hughes fumbled the ball at the Stanford 4, and there was no flag for the obvious helmet-to-helmet/spearing by, I believe, #20 of Stanford, I knew it was going to be a bad day for the refs. I’m not sure the refs were outright “jobbing” the Irish in this game, but they did a crappy job of not looking like they were trying to cheat. The hit on Hughes was practically ripped from a film used to teach officials how do identify spearing. Hughes was stopped dead in his tracks, he was on his way down to the ground, he had zero momentum left, and #20, who by the way is the sort of kid I used to taunt in high school, went with the sort of cheap shot a kid like #20 would go with. But no flag. Nope. Because that would be too obvious. These Refs were going for irony or something. And don’t come to me with the argument that they called the game poorly both ways, so it’s okay. They called a bad game both ways, and when that happens it tends to help the lesser team. Poorly officiated games have a tendency to nullify exceptional play, and if there was one team on the field that was executing anything close to “exceptional play,” it was Notre Dame, not Stanford. And hey, speaking of “exceptional play,” the best touchdown pass/catch Notre Dame has executed this season will never go into the record books because the review official is a blind fool with a poor understanding of physics. And possibly the best return of an interception for a touchdown this decade was nullified by the tickiest of tackiest calls against a defensive end who, when not sacking QBs or stuffing runners, was being tackled by the Stanford offensive guard. Yeah, the refs made some lousy calls against Stanford, but I didn’t see Stanford return any interceptions 98 yards either. Great singular moments in the game being eliminated by singular moments of really pitiful officiating.
• Turnovers: This is one of those funny things where everyone acknowledges that turnovers are as much a part of the game as blocking and tackling, but they’re also considered “game changing moments.” And why? Because the better blocking/tackling team will tend to win over the lesser team, but the turnovers can serve as equalizers. The better team, ND, committed 2 costly turnovers, fumbles, in the redzone. And not just “in the redzone” as in “yeah, but you were still 19 yards away.” They were committed at about the 4 and the 8. Even with the Notre Dame kickers, those 2 drives were all but guaranteed points. Points this Irish squad were poised to score because they were out-classing Stanford. That took, at minimum, 6 points, and probably 10-14 points, off the board for the Irish. Now, the Hughes fumble should have never happened. The whistle should have been blown before the fumble, and even after the fumble, a penalty for spearing, as we discussed earlier, should have been called. And the Schwapp fumble should never have happened because ASAPH SCHWAPP SHOULD NEVER BE HANDED THE BALL EVER, EVER, EVER! Again, singular moments in the game cost the better team the ability to show that it was a far superior team.

And that’s really what the game came down to. Yes, Notre Dame had 7 offensive drives that went for less than 20 yards, but they also had 4 drives that went for 70, 56, 75, and 68 yards respectively. They had 28 points taken away by fumbles within the opponent’s 10 yard line or idiotic officiating. While Stanford laments that they should have won a game in which the Irish and Refs gift-wrapped so many opportunities, the Irish just have to thank God that so many singular moments could have gone against them, and they still pulled off the win. That’s how I know that the Irish were a blatantly better football team than the Cardinal: ND survived all of those mishaps while the Cardinal weren’t able to capitalize on them. And sure, had ND made all of those mistakes against a non-boneheaded coach and a team that could be both “chippy” and competent, ND would have never survived. But that’s not the point. The point is, it took all of those weird calls/no-calls/reversals and turnovers to enable Stanford to even keep it close with ND. Take away either the turnovers or the wretched officiating, and ND would have won the game by 21.

So I’m feeling quite positive about how this game bodes for the 2008 season of Notre Dame football. ND has, arguably, become a “fair” football team in the last 3 weeks. And as disastrously as the 2007 season began, going from, “Oh my god, I can’t look” to “fair” is pretty encouraging. And no. Obviously that’s not “good enough” for Notre Dame football on the whole, but in order to progress to excellent, you have to make strides in the right direction. The last few weeks, even including the 2nd half of the Air Force game, have amounted to a nice first step.

Once the bowl-season is all over, and after I manage to bring HLS Expert Picks back from the dead, I’ll post more on the topic, but here are a few things that need to happen in the off-season for ND to take the next step towards becoming good on the way to becoming great.

• Make sure Clausen and the Receivers See Routes in their Dreams Last off-season, both in the winter and the summer, Clausen was unable to participate in voluntary workouts with the receivers because of his elbow problem. The result has been several talented guys playing football together, but not really having great on-field chemistry. I don’t mean it’s kept the QB and receivers from being friends. I mean they just don’t have that innate sense of what the other will do given certain conditions on a play-by-play basis. It’s something that Quinn had with his receivers and that made Quinn and those receivers so capable on the field. Every available moment should be spent by Clausen and the receivers working on passing and receiving.
• Lift Everything If a girl drops 17 chemistry books on the quad while walking back from the bookstore before 2nd semester classes begin, there had better be a football player volunteering to pick them all up and carry them back to her dorm. Hopefully it’s P.E. or P.W. or another dorm that will provide that player with a suitably long walk carrying 110 lbs. of knowledge. And when he’s done with that, he should just head over to Loftus and dead-lift the equivalent of a cement truck since he’s already warmed up. A lot of the talent on this team is very young, and, thus, physically immature. You can’t catch up completely to a senior when you’re a sophomore, but you sure as heck can minimize that difference.
• Beat the Heck Out of Each Other I know Weis has already said that his Spring and Fall camps will be much more physical now, but that attitude needs to be bought into by the players. The team’s players need to understand that the pain now will pay off later, as cliché as that sounds. We’re (hopefully) going to hear about some dings and injuries from spring practice as a result of the amped up physicality. Hopefully it isn’t catastrophic. If it doesn’t wipe out our 4 best players, it will result in vastly improved performance on the field.
• Road Trip! It’s already been highly-publicized and highly-scrutinized that Weis will be visiting the Patriots in the off-season to get some self-scouting and criticism done. I think it’s a great idea. And since that work will probably only take up a week worth of the off-season at most, I hope Weis takes another trip or two to visit a couple of southern, preferably SEC, schools during their relatively early spring practices. Not to pick the minds of the coaches at those schools, but to observe how their practices are run.

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Update 33 and 1/3rd! Deyfiehe’m!

re-UPDATE! Bill Callahan? He gone.

UPDATE! Dennis Franchione just “resigned” from Texas A&M. He “wishes the best to everyone.” Not sure he means “everyone at A&M.”

No doubt this could cause Michigan (sucks!) to try and boost the speed of their own coaching search. Texas A&M is nothing if not dedicated to their football program. They’ll be hunting for big game. This all, of course, assumes neither A&M or Michigan (sucks!) have already lined up their next HCs.

The Roundup:

• First, a tip o’the cap to Coach Croom at Mississippi State. Just a year ago, his last name was slang for losing to someone you shouldn’t have ever lost to. At this rate of improvement, getting “Croomed” will just mean you got your ass kicked by a really good team. I’ll probably post more about this later, but if Croom doesn’t win coach of the year, it’s a crime.
• GaTech fans may have finally gotten tired of going 7-5 year after year after year after year after year after year.
• Few coaches have done less with more than UCLA’s Dorrell, and arguably nobody has done so in such a maddening and inconsistent way. Yeah, his team’s been really banged up, but that does little to mitigate games in which the Bruin don’t even look like they practice.
• If “sources” (Not my sources. I have no sources. Wanna be my source? No? How about friend?) are correct, and Notre Dame doesn’t keep improving this weekend, then ND is at serious risk of only beating teams in the 2007 season who fire their coaches before 2008.
• Dey prolly nogonaledimsday
• And after today, has Houston Nutt saved his job? Does he care?

Ok! I’ve got an idea! Give it to McFadden. Yeah. Again! Seriously!

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There aren’t a lot of things that we’ve loved about Kevin White during his tenure at Notre Dame.  He’s screwed some stuff up.   This interview in the Chicago Trib on C-dub and the state of the ND Football Program is not one of them.  Say what you want, but White is a well-spoken man.  And here, he says the right things. 

A few highlights, the bold is mine:

KW:  We were inexperienced and underprepared at almost every position, compared to the most recent teams we had. So we knew there would be a learning curve, and there has been one heck of a learning curve.   You can say that again. And again…for everyone, including us here at HLS.

Trib:  Does the “transitional seam” explain all of 2-9? You used the word underprepared …

KW:  When I say unprepared, I’m not talking about coaching. I’m talking about player preparation. I just think kids were unprepared to play at this level, this quickly.  He does a good job of not calling Weis out on this, but some of that lack of preparation, as has been discussed ad nauseum here and elsewhere, falls to Weis.  Of course they should have been better prepared – the ‘playing a bad hand poorly ‘ in poker analogy is tired.  But I have no creativity to create another.  So I’ll just move on…

Trib:  What’s your evaluation of Weis?

KW:  I wouldn’t evaluate any of our coaches publicly. But do Charlie and I speak very candidly? Absolutely. We have a responsibility here at Notre Dame to get this football program back to where it needs to be. Nobody is shirking that responsibility.  Nice to hear.  Now let’s get on with the results now that this mess of a season is almost over.

Trib:  When you speak with him, are you hearing what you want to hear? Does he acknowledge things he could have done differently?

KW:  The only thing I’ll say publicly is I’m hearing from a professional that he is willing to do whatever he has to do to take our football program back to the elite position.  And this, my friends, is exactly where any similarity to the Willingham situation ends.  Of course, it’s very different in many respects – how we got to the similar records, willingness to make staff changes, actually caring, etc.  But what it really comes down to is work ethic.  When Ty would’ve been off working on his putts, Charlie is killing himself.  KILLING HIMSELF reviewing film, working with players, and recruiting recruiting recruiting.   Want to know the difference between Charlie and Ty?  It’s simple – about 40 hours per week of less sleep for Charlie and probably 30 strokes on the FRONT 9.  Thank God.

Trib:  Did you think you got more of a finished product when you hired Weis?

KW:  That would be an easy cop-out for me, to say, “I didn’t quite know what I bought, and I got something a little bit different.” I can’t say that. … The guy we hired is the guy we have. I think we knew just who was coming here.  Did we think there would be, to use your expression, a learning curve from the NFL after 15 seasons? Absolutely there would be a learning curve. But we continue to be in this thing for the long term.  I am sure no one expected it in the third year, but this is the first time where it really had to hit home given what Charlie had to work with his first 2 seasons – a veteran team in both age and experience, with some quality senior leadership.   About as close to an NFL situation as he could’ve hoped for.  Once that was out, time to get your learn on…

Trib:  And that’s OK? To be on a learning curve at Notre Dame?

KW:  We thought he was the very best person suited for this position. I don’t care who came in here. There isn’t anybody who would come in here and not have a learning curve.  We knew there would be a transitional period for him. In his first two years, I think most people were really pleased that he had made a very successful transition. And then we got into the “seam.” I don’t care who found themselves in what I characterized in our “seam”—anybody would have struggled.  KW is referring to the clusterF that Ty left behind when he says the ’seam’.  The lack of numbers, experience and relative levels of talent in the upper classes.   Just FYI.
Trib:  His record is about the same as his predecessor’s. Why is Weis not in danger?

KW:  The moment we were managing in 2004 was singular. And you make the very best calls you can make when you’re in a process, and you’re at a particular place within a process. Now we’re in a bit of a different process, and we’re in a bit of a different moment.  Really the only thing I want to speak to in particular is the recruiting. … Charlie has been an outstanding recruiter. If you look at the freshman and sophomore classes, and the prospect of a very strong class in 2008, there’s enough—at least for me—evidence that we will move through the “seam” and come out the other side and have a pretty darn good football program.  Not to mention, his predecessor caused a big part of the seam through his complete lack of recruiting.  All of it?  No.  And Charlie hasn’t handled the seam well.  But at the least, with C-dub’s recruiting, you know there isn’t going to be any seam in the near future at ND.   Unless you call cupboards stacked full with 5-star recruits a seam….

Trib:  What constitutes progress in 2008?

KW:  Well, we won’t know until we get there. … At this point, I just want to continue to see improvement. I can’t quantify it, I can’t even qualify it at this point. Nor would anybody who does what I do.  Politically correct crap.  And the 100% right answer for the media.

Trib:  How much time does Weis have?

KW:  We’re seriously committed to him—we did that contractually, and we did that by design. We are going to do everything we can to put Charlie in position to be very successful here.  Rah rah, go Charlie, we love you.  What the heck else is he going to say?  “If we don’t get 9 wins next year, that’s not acceptable to us and he’s out”?  Then he’d sound like every ND message board poster in town.  Right answer.  And I’m glad he’s sticking by the contractual guns.  Regardless of what it looks like now, he has to.  And he’s hoping he’s right.   Big time.  So am I.

Trib: What kind of feedback do you get?

KW:  It’s amazing to me how many “hang in there, be patient” and positive notes I get compared to the negative notes.  I don’t think many ill-informed ‘net fans have access to Mr. White’s note box, but at least those with the access are supporting Charlie.  Or, KW is lying. But that would be okay with me. 

Trib:  Have people put pressure on you to do something, or to put pressure on Weis to do something?

KW:  There has been zero pressure. Zero. Internally or externally. People are committed to Charlie and want him to be successful.  By people he means himself and his superiors.  For now.  And that’s the way it should be.  He’s your guy until he’s no longer your guy.  I’m betting that Kevin White made the right move with Charlie, and that he’ll be the guy for a long time.  With the on-field and off-field success that goes along with it. 

Any other thoughts on KW’s performance?  Hit us up in the comments.

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That’s how the kids talk these day, right?

Whatever. Here’s the reason for this post. I’ve bolded some interesting parts…

The Most Valuable College Football Teams
By Peter J. Schwartz, Forbes.com
November 20, 2007

In the past few years, there’s been a big push by major college football teams to increase revenue through massive stadium expansions, lucrative premium seating and rich sponsorship and broadcast deals – the same blueprint the National Football League used for decades to create billion-dollar franchises.

The game plan is working in college, albeit on a much smaller scale: Last year, 10 college football teams raked in at least $45 million in revenues – among them, the University of Notre Dame, University of Georgia, Ohio State and Auburn University – compared to none five years ago.

[...]

The University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish, worth $101 million, is the most valuable team in college football. Unlike the other programs on our list, Notre Dame’s athletic department operates under the umbrella of the university and is not run as its own distinct entity. As a result, a much higher share of profits are retained by university for academic use. The football team’s contribution to academics totaled $21.1 million for the 2006-2007 season – that’s as much as the next five most valuable teams contributed to their respective schools combined. Operating independent of the conference system allows Notre Dame to keep the entire $9 million in annual television revenue it gets from NBC.

The University of Texas Longhorns, worth $92 million, was football’s most profitable team last season, earning $46.2 million, of which $4.7 million went to academics. When the Longhorns play at home, Travis County sees an estimated $9.4 million of incremental spending associated with the game, a virtual tie with South Bend County during Notre Dame home games.

And here’s an interesting thing to think about: ND is the “most valuable” program in the country while being the smallest in the top 5 by enrollment.

1. Notre Dame: ~8500 undergrad.
2. Texas: ~49,000
3. Georgia: ~32,000
4. Michigan (sucks!): ~26,000
5. Florida: ~51,000

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At some point, it’s no longer funny.

This past weekend was that point.

Someone get him off the field before he gets killed. That wouldn’t be funny either.

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ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.  ZZZZZZZZZZzzzz.  Wha-what?  Lymon arrested? Again?  Oh, ok.  ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.  ZZZZZZZZZZzzzz.

Purdue’s “number 1 player“ was arrested again this weekend, on drunk-driving charges.  This makes his 3rd legal offense in the last 2 years.  Lymon was arrested before for drunk driving, and was already awaiting trial for his related participation in a fight last Spring outside of a nightclub where he was stabbed. 

Charges from that incident are Class A misdemeanor operating a vehicle while intoxicated, Class A misdemeanor operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher, Class A misdemeanor battery, Class B misdemeanor disorderly conduct, Class B misdemeanor false informing and Class C misdemeanor illegal possession of alcohol.

As a result, Lymon had an ignition interlock device (think a key that requires you to pass a breathalyzer test before you can start the car) installed in his car and was forbidden to drive any car that did not have one. 

 This past weekend, Selwyn once again did his best to make W. Lafayette exciting…

Sheriff’s deputies arrived and saw a red 1998 GMC truck leave and park in a handicapped space. Lymon was driving the truck. He was found to have a blood-alcohol content of at least 0.15, nearly twice Indiana’s legal limit.

When the police arrived, Lymon tried to make a run for it.  But couldn’t start his car.  Then he pissed himself. 

Nice try Selwyn.  I mean, you did your best – and parking in the handicapped spot was a nice touch. This is the most exciting thing to come out of Purdue in years! But sorry, still boring.
EDIT:  Purdue’s own Boiled Sports has jumped on the Boring Bandwagon.  I am glad they’ve come around (bold is mine):

Here are some teams who are currently playing how Purdue once did:
(I mean they compete with everybody, beat good teams, are exciting to watch, attract national attention and get this- look like they’re having fun playing. Reference The Golden Era.)

 

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