Following what will apparently be today’s theme, I decided to take a look at age trends in the 4 season-opening starting lineups that Charlie Weis has put together. I don’t know, call me a masochist. I guess what I really wanted to see, what I really was hoping to see, was that this year’s starting lineup is so vastly superior in terms of talent over previous versions that the relative youth of the squad wont matter all that much. I’m not entirely sure I got that.

Here’s how the starting lineups looked for Pitt ‘05, GaTech ‘06, and GaTech ‘07, along with the starting lineup for SDSU tomorrow.

In 2005, there were only two players, Darius Walker and Mo Crum, on the Irish starting lineup who were either a Freshman or Sophomore. And Walker had actually played quite a bit in 2004, so to call him “green,” (Note my clever use of green highlighting?) would probably be pretty inaccurate.

In 2006, there was only one player, Asaph Schwapp, sitting on the 1st string as a Freshman or Sophomore. And he’s a fullback. While Charlie Weis loves him some fullback, the dude is, still, “only,” a fullback.

In 2007, things started to change tremendously. We’ve talked a lot in the past about just how many freshman managed to get into the 2-deep throughout the season, but just during the very first game, the starting featured 6 freshmen or sophomores.

But that’s all changed this year, because with all that youth being “served,” last year, we’ve got us a… um… uh… well, we’ve got us 8 freshmen and sophomores starting against SDSU tomorrow. That’s right. We’ve actually added 2 underclassmen to the count.

There are a few reason to feel encouraged. Young guys really did get a ton of experience last year, and so 6 of the starting sophomores in 2008 already possess starting experience. Whereas in 2007, only 2 of the “green” guys really had much playing experience at all.

Also encouraging, though I try not to get too excited about it, is that the average talent on the team (as measured by a rather ugly amalgamation of Rivals and Scout.com star rankings) has leaped from a 3.0 star rating to 3.59 from 2007’s opening day starters to 2008. In a way, you could say that by some subjective measure, this lineup is about 20% more talented.

So yeah, the Irish are still very “green,” as a team, and stats like the one Biscuit provides below do give one pause, but with a somewhat hard-to-define jump in “talent,” plus a fair number of much more experienced - if not aged - guys, plus a rather mushy looking schedule, I’m predicting… pain. But this time the pain will be inflicted by, not upon, the Irish.

Green and dangerous.

*Note, I listed Neal over Ryan as a starter only because I have a hunch about the way things will play out tomorrow, and thus who I think will get the most reps in this “OR” situation. Also, I had to dig for some of the star ratings of some of these guys, so you may have a different star rating for certain players than I. I tried to be as accurate as possible.

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