Strange how a football season can unfold in such a way that the sort of thing you were expecting for 12 straight games could suddenly present itself in such unexpected ways for game number 13. A final record of 7-6 isn’t good. It’s not even non-miserable, but it’s sort of in line with what I expected (8-4ish). The problem, really, is the means to the 7-6 end. Had all, or even, say, 4, of the 7 wins looked as good as the 1 in Hawaii, I have to wonder if I’d have decided it was time to call for Weis’ job. Heck, had ND had 3 regular season performances like that, it doesn’t seem like a big leap of imagination to guess that they may have had the sort of momentum that results in 2 or 3 more wins as a result. Just try to imagine the mood of many ND fans with 9 regular season wins coupled with a bowl-ready squad like the one we witnessed on the 24th. That’s not to say we were “just a few plays” from such a result. In fact, we were a boat-load of plays away from that specific result. But is it encouraging or maddening to know that this squad is or ever was capable of such results?

This win reminded me of a particular ex of mine. The one who was never as fun or interesting as I’d always wanted her to be. The one that never seemed interested in anything that interested me. The one who, once I finally dumped her, seemed to change completely, and became everything I’d always wanted her to be. You know the type. Everyone knows the type. Nearly everyone has a similar story. And of course I haven’t “dumped” the Irish, though you might be able to construct a good argument that I’d completely given up on the 2008 edition. Christmas Eve’s performance by ND is enough for a guy who used to cheer for the Pats, Celtics, and Red Sox back when they sucked to get a bit solipsistic and wonder about his personal powers to jinx a team simply by maintaining a vested interested in that team. If, as a result of some cosmic joke, it is, in fact, my own interest in the team that’s managed to really clobber ND football for the last 12 years, let me apologize, but let me also warn you: I’m not likely to stop watching my alma mater on Saturdays any time soon.

And contrary to what a particularly ape-like “analyst” at ESPN may say about ND and our expectations, there’s no crowing about this win. This win simply serves as justification for keeping our expectations very, very high for 2009.

Other Stuff…

• More surprises in the way expected events came about: Had I been making confidence picks about which members of the 2008 ND coaching staff would now be on the 2009 ND coaching staff, I’d probably have picked Coach Haywood as by top pick. Not because I thought he would be outright fired, but because I couldn’t see Weis giving Haywood the playcalling duties for a 2nd time, and I figured Haywood could catch on as a play-caller elsewhere. Never would I have guessed he’d be moving on to something “bigger and better.” Congratulations to a fellow ND alum. We’ll be watching your career arc with great interest, Coach Haywood.
• In a Game of Coaching Connect Four, It’s Hard To See All The Angles: With Haywood leaving for a HC gig, that means Haywood is looking for assistants. And as he’s mentioned, he got permission from Weis to speak with “certain” members of the ND staff. It seems doubtful that Haywood would manage to lure anyone away for a lateral career move to Miami (OH), but he now has the chance to give some position coaches a nice career bump with coordinator and “assistant HC” titles. In fact, I’ll bet he’s looking to fill both an OC and DC position. He just strikes me as the sort who would want to be a real “executive” HC. This makes me nervous. I’ve got a really strong feeling that, for as much as we want to see some turnover in the ND coaching staff, we’d like to see it executed surgically. Haywood could well show up and effectively take a sledge-hammer to Weis’ best-laid plans.
• Bigger, Faster, Stronger: I’ve read a number of eye-witness reports from both ND and Hawaii fans who recount the way ND’s athletes simply out-classed Hawaii’s. Hawaiian fans reportedly lamented that UH would never be able to compete with “the big East Coast teams.” When David Bruton intercepted a deep pass and then brought the ball back toward the UH goalline with breathtaking immediacy (never mind that he didn’t score), the difference in speed was remarkable and clearly visible over cable television. While this might be more of a comment on UH’s own talent levels and S&C program, it was nice to see the Irish looks so much more physically capable than the opponent in a game that didn’t involve any military academies. As for ND’s future S&C plans, we’ll be watching the position of S&C Coach keenly. Something was amiss here in the 2007-2008 offseason. We actually think Ruben Mendoza can get great results towards whatever S&C goals he lays out for the Irish, but we’re wondering about what those goals might be in 2009. And who’s laying them out, Mendoza or Weis? Or will Weis look for a new S&C Director? Should he? We’re not sure.
• Do it with more… intensity. I don’t know what the hell ND did to prepare for that bowl game, but I wish they could replicate it every week of the 2009 season. If they did, they’d win at least 10 games. But I also realize that it’s harder than hell to replicate the preparation of a good steak every single week, let alone the preparation of 18-22 year old boys, so let’s just leave it at this: The 2009 squad, particularly the leaders - official and unofficial - need to remember the feeling, the vibe, leading up to this game so that when the same sort of intensity and fire is missing at some point in 2009, they recognize it. It’s only half the battle, and they’ll still need to manage to find ways to instill motivation in their teammates when it’s missing, but at least they know what real preparation looks like now.
• Not good enough, but effective enough. Anyone looking to roll a typhoon over the happy-fun-time that some of us choose to have in enjoying the bowl win are quick to point out that ND averaged an abysmal 1.9 yards/rush against a lousy run defense. It’s not good, and yes, it does put an exclamation mark on the fact that priority 1A-with-all-else-a-distant-second for ND in 2009 is real improvement in the running game. However, the way the Hawaii Bowl played out, the rushing game was arguably effective. Of Hughes’ 17 runs, one went for 15 yards, another for 12, another for 13, and another was a 2-yard TD rush. Until the game was arguably well in-hand (always debatable with this Irish squad) at 35-7, Hughes was averaging 3.6 yard/carry and managing to break 1 our of every 3 carries for 10+ yards or a score. You get in a grinder type game with a guy doing that, and I like our chances. Still, it would have helped ND’s cause and Hughes’ rushing numbers if he could have just broken at least one rush for 20+ yards. And as much as the OL needs some serious work, the RBs really need some work on getting into space. As big as Hughes might be, there’s no excuse for having no 20+ yard carries this year (didn’t look that up, but I’m pretty sure of it). And Allen only had 1 20+ yard carry (against Purdue, a team playing walk-ons at LB that day). Remember that hit Allen took against SDSU that made us wonder if his season was over? The one where he had a big-gain coming and essentially ran right into a concussion? That’s what we’re talking about. ND needs to coach whatever that habit is right out of these guys. Lots of good rushing teams have good RBs who only get 2 or 3 yards on most carries, but those guys also manage a few 20+ yarders here and there to help the statistics and the game planning.
• Nice Watching the Big Screen One of the areas where ND really, really struggled in 2008 was with the screen pass. The OL just never seemed to be in good position, and the RBs always seemed to miss their reads. Against Hawaii, the team looked like they’d had an epiphany about how to execute the play. What also really helped was Weis’ improved timing on calling the play. It was much more 05/06 Weis versus 07 Weis. Heck, in one scoring drive, Weis and Co. used the screen twice to rack up 59 yards!
• The Stars Were a Little Less Bright. One really encouraging thing about the bowl game: for the first time in a long, long time, ND didn’t make a household name out of a member of the opposition. UHFootball warned us about defensive end David Veikune, but I’m happy to report he only recorded 1 solo tackle and an assisted sack.
• It’s been a “Haka”-va Year too. I don’t think we’ll have time for a 2008 retrospective, but we did have some highlights, and the way our readership has grown since December, 2007, I figured maybe I’d post links to some of my personal favorites. Maybe the other Loyal Sons can do the same in other posts or the comments. Don’t think of it as self-congratulatory. Think of it as sharing a laugh among friends - like the Oscars, but with a sense of humor.
  • In January, we did what we love to do in the offseason: Call out mainstream media types for being idiots. We also created one of our finest photoshop jobs ever.
  • In February, we tried to change the look of the place, which was met with the sort of dislike we hadn’t seen since Jr. High, so we changed it back and made promises we were never going to fulfill. We also celebrated the awesomeness of an awesome recruiting class. Meanwhile, we continued with our dogged spotlighting of Reggie Bush’s character flaws.
  • March was sort of slow, so we covered basketball. Once. And we looked at POTUS candidates as offensive coordinators. And we celebrated the Hot Pocket.
  • April brought warm weather, Spring Football, Hope, some Discouraging Info, a National Championship Game, and some dumb luck.
  • May was right around when Biscuit got really sick of Urban Meyer. He also reminded us all of all the top programs who weren’t so top for quite a long time. And then, to end the month, we got the best news ever.
  • In June we confirmed that Matt Zemek sucks and that he googles himself to find sites like our little corner of the ‘net. Fr. Birdonell made his debut (he’s a bit reclusive). We tried to define what a good, new AD at ND would look like. And we laid it all out on the line with the start of our Pre-season Top 25.
  • In July,we rounded out our Pre-season Top 25, looked at the correlation between wins and draft picks, and we took a look at some “leaders” in college football.
  • August was a time of reflection on the id of the program, and a time to bone up on the Commandments of ND Fandom. We also tried to help the ND leadership committee with some shining examples. And we mucked around with some running back stables. Oh. And Biscuit started his trend of scaring us all with weird pictures.
  • In September, we started to freak out about the high production of ND’s safeties. Biscuit was pretty calm though. Still, we started to notice that turnovers could be a real problem for the Irish too.
  • In October, Biscuit started putting his MBA to good use with the clever use of charts. Our war of words with Matt Zemek continued. And we finally got to say goodbye.
  • November was when pretty much everyone lost their cool. Except Biscuit, of course. No. Wait. Biscuit was sick of Tom Pagna’s crap. I wrote something with which Biscuit took issue. There was a lot of rage. And then it got worse.
  • December became “Youth Manifesto Month.” Biscuit and I kept fighting. BK made light of the situation. And then I wrote a letter to Santa.

  
  
  All in all, a pretty good year for blogging, though a pretty lousy year for football. Don’t worry. Biscuit and I aren’t fighting in real life, just the fake, imaginary life of the intertubes, but in that life Biscuit pretends he’s a unicorn, so things can get a little weird anyway. Happy New Year!

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“I felt it was a good decision for me not just in a football aspect but also a life aspect,” said Wood, a 6-foot, 195-pound five-star running back from Santa Clara (Calif.) Oxnard.

“When you’re an athlete, you should have more than just football to rely on. You should have also a Plan B and that’s why I chose Notre Dame. They have one of the strongest alumni systems out there. I wanted to be connected that way and be set for life after football.”

And, he thinks ND is the local nerd that gets beat up and has his lunch money stolen (DomerMQ can tell you all about this dynamic), and Cierre is the hero coming in to save the day:

“It’s like (Notre Dame is) the nerd that everybody is picking on,” Wood said. “Basically, I want to go there and not just me but everybody else who is coming too, we want to go there and change things around. We want to be known as the class that changed things around.”

Also, Cierre Wood is fast. That is good too.

Article.

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• Cierre Wood is All Good
• Nation’s Top Running Back is Irish!
• Quality. Quality. Quality.

Weis’ surgery today was a success.

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis underwent successful knee replacement surgery Monday on his right knee.

“The severe deterioration of the bone explains the severe pain he suffered the last three weeks,” Dr. Willard G. Yergler of South Bend Orthopedics Associates said in a statement released by the school.

Let’s all hope Weis’ rehab goes better than “Tommy’s” has gone.

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• Knee, Jerk, Reaction
• Brady Quinn Impresses at Pro Day
• HLS Exclusive: Michigan Fans’ “Game of the Apocolypse” Gear Revealed!

Although he talked about it over the summer, and there were rumors to confirm it, it’s now confirmed:  one of ND’s top cover corners of the 2007 season will return - Walls is back.

Given the amount of contact he had with the team over the season, it may be like he never left for some.  Walls attended three home games this year, and kept in almost constant contact with his best friend on the team, and replacement, Raeshon McNeil. 

Walls will compete with McNeil, frosh standout Blanton, Sgt Slaughter, and Gary Gray for the starting job next Fall.  Once again, the Irish will feature a talented and deep roster of cover guys, which should allow for increased focus on the running game from the LB corps next year.    Although rumors of Gray’s transfer were abundant after he didn’t make the trip to Hawaii, there has been no confirmation and so for now it looks like he’ll remain on the team.

Walls will come back to ND for the off-season training and Spring ball portions of the program, starting 1/9 with a renewed sense of perspective.

“My dad and I were talking about this yesterday, the lessons learned from this experience,” Walls said. “I don’t regret anything I’ve done in the past. I’ve just learned from my mistakes. And I learned not to make the same mistake over again.

“Once you see everything from a bird’s-eye point of view, you really get the true definition of what it’s like to be a part of something or not be a part of something. No matter what you’re going through, you’ve got to keep your head up and keep going, because life goes on.”

“What kept my spirits up was the support from my teammates, the coaches and my family,” Walls said. “But the main thing that helped me was God. That’s one major change in my life I made during this time. I went to church almost every Sunday. I prayed and prayed. And somewhere along the line, I was able to come to peace with it all.”

I expected Walls to be a big leader this Fall, and it was disappointing to lose him.   Blanton was a great surprise as a true Frosh though, and McNeil filled in admirably.  While I think it will take Darrin a while to get back into the swing and to gel with some of his new teammates (and old), I think he’ll be right back in the mix by the Blue-Gold game, and could still manage to become that leader we expected in 2009.

Welcome back, Darrin.  Glad to see you stick it out. 

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• Good Indication on Walls
• HLS Christmas Contest: And The Pics Are Rolling In!
• The Envelope, Please…

Yeah, I’m a couple days early, but I’ll be back on the road before I know it and just wanted to wish the HLS and Notre Dame family a happy and healthy new year. 

We still may have a bowl recap of some sort, but I think Domer and myself are pretty much planning to just chill over the remainder of the holidays, and take in some bowl games.  While I’d love to say that we’d have a bunch of new content in the coming weeks, I think we’re both in a bit of a relax (me)/hibernate (domermq) mode after a long season with a very-long final chapter. 

But, I will share with you my New Years resolutions as they pertain to this blog.  In this new year of 2009, I resolve the following:

1)  I will rant less

2)  I will use ALL CAPS WHEN TRYING TO MAKE A POINT LOUDLY less

3)  I will use the word freaking less

4) and I will use the word FREAKING in caps less

Ha, yeah right, as if I am even remotely capable of this list. 

THERE’S NO FREAKING WAY THAT WILL HAPPEN!!! As long as Poodle Pete FREAKING PAYS KIDS TO PLAY and Urban has convicted FELONS ON HIS FREAKING TEAM and ND Football is working to CLAW it’s way out of the FREAKING CELLAR, I will rant and rave and ALL CAPS and FREAKING my way through it all.

Happy New Year!

-Biscuit

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• Happy New Year to All of You Out There in CFB World!
• Happy Birthday to the Founder of the Feast!
• There Is A God, And He Wants Me To Be Happy

Just as Tom did for us, we answered a few questions for Tom and his readers at UHFootball. Check it out and then let me know where you think we’re wrong.

Thanks very much to Tom for participating in our little Q&A session. I really enjoyed learning a bit more about the Hawaii program. And if you haven’t already, make sure to bookmark UHFootball. The site is so thorough in their coverage of UH that they manage to cover quite a bit of the overall college football landscape along the way.

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• Multiple Points of View
• Friday Roundup: The “Merry Christmas To All” Edition
• Better Know A Bowl Opponent: Q&A With UHFootball

As soon as we found out that ND was going to be playing in the Hawaii Bowl against Hawaii, we went seeking a good Hawaii Football blog to have a little Q&A session. It didn’t take much seeking. UHFootball is not just a great Hawaii Football blog. It’s an excellent football blog period. Heck, I’ve spent much of this month checking out Tom’s site to get the latest information about Notre Dame, let alone all the Hawaii info he supplies at an exhaustive rate.

Below, we’ve got a few questions we sent to Tom and he was kind enough to answer. We’ll post a link to our answers to his questions in a little bit.

1. Any college football fan that pays attention knows about Hawaii’s phenomenal season last year. In 2008, the Hawaii football program has had to adjust to the loss not only of some really talented offensive weapons, but also the loss of head coach June Jones. How would you say that adjustment has gone in 2008?

   Even with June, Colt, and the receivers gone, I expected the transition to be fairly seamless. It definitely wasn’t. Coach Ron Lee, who learned the run and shoot offense from Mouse Davis and coached the receivers under June Jones, was taking over as offensive coordinator. Tyler Graunke, brilliant as Colt’s backup last year, helping to win some games when Colt got injured, was set to be the “heir apparent” in his senior year. But then he had academic issues and missed most of fall practice. Through that, injuries, and bad luck, UH ended up starting three different quarterbacks in the first three games of the year, and the team began the season at 1-3. Inoke Funaki eventually took the reins, and UH tweaked the offense to take advantage of his running skills. However, he had a few bad games coupled with injuries, so he was replaced with Greg Alexander mid-way through the season. Since then, with Alexander’s steady improvement, it’s looked more and more like the offense we’re used to, though it’s not as prolific as it once was. At least not yet!

2. Various parts of the country are practically defined by their obsession with particular sports. Having grown up in South Carolina, I can attest to the notion that football is a religion in the south east. Going to Notre Dame, while football is king on campus, the state of Indiana hold basketball most dear. When I lived in Boston, baseball stood tallest. Where does the game of football stand in the hierarchy of the sporting world of Hawaii? How closely does the state follow the UH program? And given the fact that a lot of ND fans are obsessed with all-everything recruit Manti T’eo, what’s the high school football scene like out there?

   Though the per capita rate of rabid die-hard football fans might not match up with the rates in the South, football is definitely huge in Hawaii. Aloha Stadium holds 50,000 people, and while it rarely gets sold out*, there are thousands of people who watch the games on live pay-per-view, the internet, or listen to the games on the radio. The fans that do make it out to the stadium keep the place loud and rocking (literally rocking - it’s kinda scary). When the team is successful, like it was last year, Warrior-mania takes over the state and many t-shirts get sold. When the team isn’t so successful, like it was earlier this year, UH football is still very popular, though “Warrior-mania” takes on a different meaning as people go nuts and think they can coach the team. Football is also huge on the high school level, with great rivalries, great teams, and lots of great players produced every year, as Notre Dame and other schools have discovered.

3. One “tradition” ND seems to have made for itself in the last decade or so is that of creating the “next big thing.” Unfortunately, “the next big thing” is wearing the wrong colors. Who on the UH squad has the potential to make a first round draft pick out of himself against the Irish on Christmas Eve while the world watches? And what’s that guy done this season to sort of foreshadow such a performance?

   He might not be a first-round pick, but defensive end David Veikune has been a beast, especially in the last half of the season. He’s racked up nine sacks in the past six games, and leads the team with 16 tackles-for-loss. I’ve seen his name mentioned on NFL draft sites, and it’s expected that he’ll get an invite to the Senior Bowl. I would definitely like to see him have a big game, especially against Notre Dame’s improved offensive line.

4. With the annual coaching carousel spinning right ’round, baby, right ’round… uh, ahem… who on the current UH assistant coaching staff stands out as a real superstar and for which unit is he responsible? Who has the potential to be Hawaii’s Will Muschamp?

   Coach Greg McMackin has said that associate head coach Rich Miano is head coaching material. And Miano’s definitely been a great asset to the program, coaching the secondary under June Jones, coordinating the walk-on program — which has brought in a lot of great players over the years — and being UH’s pro football liaison.

5. In 50 words or fewer but more than 20, what’s your prediction for this game?

   I think UH will come out fired up and try to score early and often. They’re still smarting over the tough loss to Big East champs Cincinnati and I think they want to make a big impression against a great program like Notre Dame on national TV. Prediction: UH 32, Notre Dame 24

Thanks to Tom for his thoughts!

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• Q&A with UHFootball: HLS Answers
• Cotton Bowl, Gator Bowl Interested in the Irish
• Friday Roundup: The “Merry Christmas To All” Edition

There’s a solid article on Rivals/Yahoo on the debacle that is the bowl system.  And nevermind whether or not you ‘believe’ in the BCS, this is about cash-money-records, and the schools are getting screwed.

Shocked?  You shouldn’t be, and I doubt you are.  Considering that this whole thing is a byzantine system that has grown up through complete randomness and a collection of leaders from different institutions over time, and that the current leadership thinks the BCS is the best way to pick a champion - not shocked at all.

But here’s the thing - who steps in to run the bowls if not these 3rd parties?   The “conferences”, which are just a loose affiliation of schools that are somewhat geographically centric?  Nope.  The “BCS Organization”?  Heck no, they can’t even figure out how to do a playoff, let alone run mega-events.  ESPN?  No way they’re going to pay whatever price ESPN would take, even if it would result in the schools/conferences taking more home at the end of the day (which is a huge assumption).  They don’t want anyone that’s competing with their “Conference Network” to get in on the action.  Maybe a single school could take over a bowl each year?  HAHAHAHA.  Schools aren’t equipped to do these things either.

So yeah, it’s a messed up system that’s extremely wasteful and schools are throwing away money left and right.  But they do so because they have no other choice.  So these 3rd parties run amok and crazy and take their share and leave the affiliated schools with scraps, if anything, at the end of the day.  But they do get a big old party, and some of the school/conference big-wigs get some solid seats and a couple free steak dinners, so everyone’s happy!  To get it changed, you need either 1) visionary leaders or 2) incentives.  Right now, very few of the first exist at the right places, and there’s very little of the second.

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We’re probably only going to post once or twice next week. We have a little Q&A planned with UHFootball in anticipation of the bowl game. Speaking of bowls, we also made picks for the bowls, and I’ve got (as usual) an extremely clever way of presenting them, but we’ll see if that ever gets on the site because I’m swamped with end-of-year work too.

So just in case we don’t get to say it again, Merry Christmas!

The Roundup:

• Translation: Mack Brown’s gonna put up 150 on some opponents next year.
• Miami is being tough on an athlete who didn’t show up to class?
• Yeah. I’m starting to think Syracuse still isn’t really serious about football.
• You may have heard of T’eo. He’s kind of a big deal.
• I guess those “Notre Dame is my dream job” comments finally found their way to someone stupid enough to take offense. I’m sure the fact that he’s from the Orlando Sentinel will shock and amaze all of you.
• Butch Davis is not gonna get that Red Rider from Santa this year.

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• Friday Roundup: The Biscuit Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “Nobody’s In The Office” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “It’s All About Bob” Edition

By now, I’m SURE you’ve thoroughly read, thought about and analyzed Part 1: Offense and Part 2:  Defense of the Youth Manifesto.  So this post brings it all together.

Sorry DomerMQ, no cake (marzipan?) babies this time.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time commenting on the straight up numbers.  It’s not tough to figure out that ND is very young at this point (rated 3rd youngest in the FBS based on the 2-deep roster to start the season, I might add), and these numbers support that.  Great.  What I found a bit more interesting were the Offense-Defense matchups that the ‘08 schedule featured, and so I’ll dig into that a little post-numbers.

% Underclassmen Starters

Average Months in Program

Average Letters Earned

The Top 10 and ND’s Opponents, on average, feature underclassmen as starters 26% of the time (~6 out of 22 players are frosh/sophomores).  ND is at 45% (10 players).  Again, not at all surprising.  The match-ups of the very-young Irish O vs. opposing Defenses and the somewhat-young Irish D against opposing Offenses yielded some interesting results though.

Notre Dame Offense vs. Opponents Defense

Excluding SDSU (no stats), Notre Dame’s O faced one team with a defense as young as they are - UNC.  UNC’s D was extremely young this year, as was the ND O, and that’s the only time this was really close this year.  In every other game, the Irish offense was facing, on average, an older opponent.   In some cases, significantly older. 

Notre Dame’s Defense vs. Opponents’ Offense

ND’s D faced some opponents on both sides of the slate this year.  Three teams’ offenses pretty much mirrored the ND D in terms of age and experience this year - MSU, Pitt and Syracuse. Washington was also close - though older, they have fewer lettermen.  Michigan (sucks!)’s and UNC’s Offenses were the only units where ND comes out as relatively older on D.  The rest?  ND was younger.

So when we net things out, we’re looking at a schedule where almost every game featured an age/experience advantage for our opponent:

Against Michigan (sucks!) we had a pretty even match-up in terms of age/experience and against UNC we held an advantage, but otherwise we were fighting an uphill battle on both sides of the ball in many matchups, against older/more experienced players.

Once again, I believe this is a factor in how the year went.  Not an excuse, because we simply should’ve won more games.  But it’s a factor.

One last note - I did this on starters simply because it was faster and easier.   If you look at 2-Deeps, ND gets even younger.  ND’s offensive 2-deep is 64% underclassmen and averages only 1 Letter.  6 Irish backups had not earned a Letter coming into this year.  None.   So we get significantly younger among these players that do log a lot of minutes.   Compare this to USC’s Defensive 2-Deep, which is only 27% Underclassmen, and which averages 2 Letters per player, and that lack of offensive production isn’t so shocking (again, no excuses, just context). 

Okay, fine, CREEPY CAKE BABY!!!!

I have no idea why anyone would ever make this, and then ADVERTISE that they make it.  Ugh.

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• Notre Dame/Duke Prediction
• Looking Back on What’s To Come: Those Improving Huskies
• The Youth Manifesto - Part 2: Defense

Brock Spack, now-former Defensive Coordinator of Purdue, will be the new head coach at Illinois State. I live in Chicago and had no clue there was an “Illinois State.”

Spack’s most notable accomplishment was being Charlie Weis’ b****. Say what you will about Charlie’s hubris, but maybe when he made those “decided schematic advantage” comments way back when, he thought everyone in the college ranks was Brock Spack.

Congratulations, Brock. And thanks for the memories.

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• Cheeseburger - Had One!
• The Gauntlet
• ND Didn’t Play Anyone? Puh-lease.

Check our our Christmas Photoshop Contest from days gone by.

Are You There, Santa? It’s me, domer.mq. Look, I know it’s been a while, and I know I said some pretty rotten things about you and the reindeer and the irrational notion that you could give gifts to all the good little boys and girls in all the world considering most of them aren’t even Christians nor do they have chimneys, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what our football team, The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (you are Catholic, right? I mean, you’re a saint. Isn’t that required?), need, and I figure if you and your elves can’t find a way to make it all come about then the only one who can is the Big Guy Up There, and you’ve probably heard that I sort of ran out of “if X happens, then I’ll Y” promises during the 2005 Southern Cal game (By the way, fool me once…).

So if you could just read this list of demands for your safe passage over the South East United States requests, and maybe do your best to fulfill them, I… We… well, the children of the world would sure appreciate it. Besides, I figure you owe me a solid after those years of my childhood where my best friend, the kid across the street, Ryan, would wonder every year why all you left him was an orange in his tube sock hung up in his living room with a thumb tack while right across the street you’d leave me the GI Joe Aircraft Carrier, Optimus Prime, and/or the Millenium Falcon and I’d remind him it’s because his mom couldn’t afford postage to the North Pole. And since you never received a letter from Ryan, you could only assume he’s the sort at risk of scurvy. Every year, Santa. Every year…

1. Real Running Game Improvement: The 2008 Notre Dame Rushing Attack is ranked 98th in the country after facing the 118th, 49th, 72nd, 94th, 78th, 56th, 116th, 23rd, 7th, 39th, 101st, and 6th rushing defenses in the country. So they averaged just 3.39 ypc and 113 yards/game against an average rushing defense rank of 63rd. By comparison, ND ranked 115th in the country in rushing in 2007, averaging 2.07 ypc and 75.25 yards/game against the 20th, 7th, 58th, 30th, 54th, 14th, 2nd, 4th, 81st, 45th, 84th, and 77th ranked rushing defenses for an average rush defensive rank of 39. So you know where’s I’m going with this, Santa. The ND rushing attack actually regressed in 2008. ND only had 1 100 yard rusher all season and only 1 20+ yard rush through 12 games. If you could just send along a new offensive line coach, someone who designs rushing plays that don’t take 4 seconds to develop in the backfield, and a running back who could outrun at least 18 of the 21 other people on the field, that would probably help. I’m trying not to get too specific here, though, so if you’ve got some other ideas that will culminate in running game progress (real, not perceived) then I’ll trust your judgment. You’ve seen a lot.
2. A training table: No offense, Santa, but I’ve seen pictures. And given what I’ve seen of those pictures since the day you sat down for a portrait by Rockwell, you’d pass more for an offensive lineman than tailback. What I’m saying is I figure you’re probably pretty familiar with the North and South Dining Halls on ND’s campus over the course of your travels. Those places are a problem. Yeah, I know they have one hell of a Peppered Flank Steak, but what they don’t have is a proper training table, where the athletes of Notre Dame really have their food (aka fuel) monitored and measured. The top programs in the country tend to have really sophisticated nutrition programs. I’ve seen the brochures. ND has Mike, the meat dude, and Mike’s not shy about cracking on the players when they come back for 3rds on Peppered Flank Steak Night, but he’s also not going to deny the players their thirds. The result: Bad. Let’s put it in terms you might better understand. What if Blitzen could and did eat whatever the hell he wanted? That’s right, you’d name him “Sloth,” or “Blitzenevergetthere.”
3. A Mixed Cadence: We all loved the first half of the season when Clausen would start his cadence, then give a hard count, maybe get a guy to draw offsides, and if not, at the very least get the backers to give up their blizt plans, but Jimmy became too dependent on this trick, and by the Southern Cal game you could see guys like Cushing not even bother to get into position until the first candence was “simulated” and only then did the LBs get ready to attack. And since the first cadence was such a nice simulation of the second cadence, the LBs knew when the ball was about to be snapped as well.
4. Footwork: It’s impossible for me not to think ND would be at least 8-4 if only ND’s players took fewer “false steps.” Being that you do much of your work on rooftops, Santa, you must know the perils of a false step, eh? Between centers who take their first step backwards, and receivers who don’t actually plant their feet on out routs, linebackers who start their motions by standing up with no steps at all, and QBs who seem to be too busy tripping over their feet to actually read coverages on the fly, ND’s footwork is killing the Irish. Have you seen Clausen try to look back to his left after starting to his right on a 5-step drop? Look up Fred Astaire in a thesaurus and the antonym listing will include Clausen.
5. Education: You know, ND fans get a rap for being “unreasonable,” but I’m not entirely sure I can say it’s “bad.” We do enough to earn, “unreasonable,” by simply expecting the Irish to compete for and win national championships every single year, but we make it even worse by being really poorly informed about the college football world around us. Take the talk of who should replace Weis if he ever leaves ND. People throw out names like Butch Davis or Nick Saban without having any idea what sort of fit as a “ND Man,” those types might be. Ever google, “Butch Davis Nick Saban Over-Signing,” Santa? You should. Those 2 will immediately make your naughty list. Then there’s the folks like Mike Golic who, on his radio show, consistently repeats the fallacy that Willingham took ND to a BCS game. Can you end up with a lump of coal in your stocking simply for being wrong, Santa? My God, don’t even get me started on the debate over whether or not a zone blocking scheme can A) be a physical scheme, B) a successful scheme in college, or C) successful enough to win national championships. I guess what I’m really asking for Santa, is a little more time for all ND fans so they can take a look outside the little bubble so many of them seem to live in and really get an idea of what’s going on in that big world of ours. That’s what the internet is for, afterall, Santa; To make it possible for the entire world to know the name Joe Pendry. And to make it possible for the world to know Lane Kiffin only got hired at Tennessee because he’s bringing his father, Monte Kiffin, with him. And to make it known that Lane’s wife is quite beautiful

I’m not one to be demanding, so I’ll leave this year’s list at 5 items. Do your best, Santa. And enjoy your Hawaiian vacation after the big sleigh ride. I hear it’s quite lovely there this time of year.

Yours in giving,

domer.mq

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You know, we almost, sorta joke about how Monk Malloy tried to kill ND football while he was president of the university. Certain Auburn officials, who clearly hate football and really want to kill it, must have been watching his Machiavellian ways and decided that subtlety and patience were for pansies, so they replaced Tommy Tuberville, a man for whom I hold no admiration and barely any respect, with Gene Chizik.

Let that sink in.

Yeah. You probably don’t may not know who Gene Chizik is. He’s the now-former-head-coach of Iowa State’s football team. The same Iowa state that hasn’t won a game since September, and even then it was only a victory against a I-AA team. In 2 years as HC of Iowa State, Chizek “managed” a 5-19 record.

And this all comes after Chizek practically wiped out his entire staff just 2 weeks ago.

Surely it’s Chizik’s work before he took the Cyclones job that really impressed Auburn, right? Well, actually, that was Chizik’s first stint as a head coach anywhere. But he did have pretty impressive success as the Auburn DC a few years ago, so maybe he left the administration with fond memories. I don’t know.

Unreal.

Auburn fans, you’ve been put on notice: Auburn University doesn’t want to play football any more.

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I reviewed the offense here, and I’ll publish the same stats here for the D.  I felt like the defense progressed during the year, and I was pretty impressed with their development.  Despite a somewhat patch-work DL, they played well throughout the season.   The biggest issue was consistency (sound familiar?).  Just when it seemed like an opposing offense had NO shot at moving the ball against us, we’d give up a nice, long 70 yard drive for a TD.  A D that was stiff and stout and whatever-else-means-the-ball-ain’t-moving, would all of a sudden become soft and easy.  Some of it was a delay in adjusting to an Offense’s half-time adjustments.  Some of it was our guys getting tired when the O started going 3 and out repeatedly.  Some of it was probably youth and depth issues.  I’m not sure why, but those shifts seemed to happen in each game. 

Another aspect that never really materialized was all that pressure we were going to bring on the QB.  The blitz packages seemed more basic than what Tenuta did at Tech, but that could be a function of his personnel, his working with Corwin, or maybe both.  But whatever it is, I’m hoping we can get a few more Irish players in the backfield next year and really cause some disruption.

% Underclassmen Starting

Holy Lord, Florida is super-young on Defense too.  This is going to be a powerhouse of a team the next few years.  I really hope they get stomped in the NC.  This smells likey Dynasty, and I don’t like it.  PSU is a really experienced team, and I think it has a lot to do with how well they performed this year.  Yes, you can have a crappy team with a ton of seniors starting, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to build a winning season around seasoned players than raw guys straight from Prom.

ND’s D stacks up as relatively young compared to other Top 10 teams, but nowhere near the majority of young players starting on Offense for the Irish. 

ND’s offense definitely faced some pretty experienced squads this year.  Only UNC was a ‘fair’ matchup in terms of age, when ND’s 55% underclass offense faced a D with the same number of young guys.  The rest of the defenses were significantly older than the Irish O.

ND’s D falls right in the middle on % Underclassmen.  Next year I don’t expect much of a difference, with young guys like Blanton and Johnson likely becoming starters and keeping the youngness of the D intact.  But it will be nice to have a LB corps full of Juniors.  Hopefully Tenuta can use that experience to bring the heat for real next season.

Months in the Program

ND pops up the list a bit on this measure, as the upperclassmen are somewhat heavy on Seniors relative to Juniors, which bumps their numbers up a bit.  Kuntz, Bruton, Crum and company have been around for a while, and while they’re not the most heralded recruiting class, they helped form the core of the D this year.  New leaders will have to emerge next year. 

ND’s inability to put up mad crazy points against a young/crazy bad Syracuse D is also especially maddening when looking at where they fall on this chart.

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