Answer: James Aldridge, Armando Allen, Robert Hughes

Question: Who is the starting tailback at the University of Notre Dame?

Last week, Charlie Weis released a depth chart to the media, and, since the Irish finally have a nearly-full roster, most of the “OR”s are gone. You know, like our starting offensive line last year was “this guy OR this guy OR this guy.” But the one rather conspicuous spot on the roster where the “OR” remained was at tailback. Many (most?) Irish fans are really pretty okay with that. After all, these 3 young men seem to have a ton of talent, all three were highly recruited coming out of highschool, and usually when the subject comes up, someone inevitably mentions how wonderful it is that each one has a “unique” running style that should help give defenses “fits.” Also inevitably, someone brings up the term “stable,” as in “stable of running backs.” The term evokes a depth chart full of “thoroughbreds” ready to dash down the field while overwhelming the competition. But if you’ve got 3 “starters,” do you have one? How successful are teams that utilize such “stables,” and how are successful teams currently running the ball?

To find some answers, I took a look at the final AP Poll for the 2007/2008 season, and broke down their rushing statistics and analyzed their “stables” - the top 3 rushers. I did much the same thing with the top 25 rushing teams in football for the 2007 season so see how those guys make the ground game so effective as well. Please note: Many of these teams have more than 3 players with rushing statistics. Since we’re talking about the Irish’s three “#1″ guys, I decided to focus only on the top-3 of each team. Percentages, totals, and all other math are based on only the top 3 rushers of each team.

Here’s what I found. You can check out the spreadsheet below, but I really recommend you click here (pop-up) so you can see the full sheet. There’s a lot going on here.

I can’t recall, but I’m not sure Weis has completely committed to using a 3-man approach to the rushing game this year. In the pros, he’s used rushing platoons and he’s used more “primary” tailback approaches. He’s also used a lot of situational personnel packages. It goes with his usual M.O. of doing whatever he thinks will work right now rather than sticking to one formula year-in and year-out. But let’s just consider the breakdown of rushing attempts by ND’s stable last year, and go from there to get a sense of how it compared to successful teams in 2007.

In 2007, ND’s “3 horsemen” shared rushing responsibilities in the following way.

• James Aldridge: 121 rushes, 463 yards, 3.83 yds/carry, 47% of carries, 42% of yards.
• Armando Allen: 86 rushes, 348 yards, 4.05 yds/carry, 33% of carries, 31% of yards.
• Robert Hughes: 53 rushes, 294 yards, 5.55 yds/carry, 20% of carries, 27% of yards.

And all told, that resulted in a performance by our “#1 back” that looks like this: 260 rushes, 1105 yards gained, 4.25 yards per carry.

It’s hard to tell how much planning went into this sort of breakdown. For one, Aldridge was the more veteran player over Allen and Hughes, so his extra carries make sense. But later in the season, Hughes sure seemed to be the feature back. Aldridge’s injuries certainly skew things as well. But let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that the “goal” breakdown that Weis may have in mind for his stable is a 1a back with 45-50% of the carries, and 2 “1b” backs with anywhere between 20% and 30% of the carries each. In essence, you’d have a “feature back” that only does about half the work.

Looking at the AP Top 25, we find only three teams with a similar formula in 2007, but those teams are pretty good company: Southern Cal, Florida, and Auburn. At this point, I’m tempted to point out that Florida’s “stable” includes a QB, and thus isn’t really the typical “stable,” but Tim Tebow is far from a typical QB, and the Florida system certainly depends on the QB being a running back. Where things really get mucked up, looking at Florida, is their #2 running back is, technically, a Wide Receiver: Percy Harvin. No wonder Meyer hates his running backs.

So we’ve really got just 2 teams in the AP Top 25 that follow the Irish’s formula: Southern Cal with a RB workload split of about 50/25/25 and Auburn with a workload split of about 50/30/20. These are certainly great teams to emulate in the running game, but neither one is a top 25 rushing teams. Southern Cal came in as the 27th ranked rushing team while Auburn came in at #53.

What about the top rushing teams though? How many of them follow the Irish formula? Well, only 1 really comes close: Air Force, and while Air Force’s offense was a bit more “modernized” than their typical triple-option of previous years, they do still run the option, and their split is 49/23/29. So it’s hard to say the Irish formula really applies here.

Of the AP Top 25, the average “lead rusher” of each team carries the ball 54% of the time. Of the top 25 rushing teams, that number is 55.38. So the prescription for some improvement in the Irish running game at least seems to be: pick a feature back, particularly if you don’t run the spread or the option, and you’d like to be a Top 25 team.

Lots of random bits that I can’t put together coherently:

• The Irish stable rushed for 1105 yards in 2007. If you think of all of them as our #1 back, that’s not a bad number at all. The problem is, there were a lot of #1 rushers for other teams encased in a singular body that out-do that performance. In the AP T-25, there were 12 such players. And Knowshon Moreno, of Georgia, did it without starting the first 3 games of the season.
• The average yards/carry of each AP T-25 stable was 5.18. that’s nearly a yard better than the Irish stable’s 4.25.
• Average yards/carry of the #1 rusher for top 25 rushing teams was 5.69. That’s nearly a yard and a half better than the Irish.
• The average yards for the season of AP T-25 #1 rushers was 7 yards better than the total for Allen, Hughes, and Aldridge.
• If you want to be in the AP T-25, it’s a good idea to have a top 25 rushing team. 7 of the AP T-25 were in the top 25 rushing teams last season. But, you can be in the top 50 of rushing teams and still have a really good shot at the AP T-25. 16 such teams did that last year.
• Still the average rushing rank of the AP T-25 wasn’t stellar: 46.76. Good, but not stellar. And even the top 10’s average rush rank was only a “very good” 37.27.
• Having one of the best rushers in the land is quite helpful, but not as helpful as you might think. Of the AP T-25 teams that do have a top 25 rusher, their average rank was only 17.86.
• Of the top 25 rushing teams, only 5 had a “#1 rusher” with less than 46% of the workload. 17 of the top 25 rushing teams had a lead rusher with over 50% of the workload. 15 of those teams had lead rushers with at least 55% of the workload.
• The entire stable of AP T-25 rushers includes 60 running backs, 7 wide receivers, and 6 QBs.
• All but one of the AP Top Ten (Va Tech) were within the top 40 of rushing.
• Notre Dame ranked just 1 spot lower on rushing game than AP #19 Hawaii and actually beat out #22 Texas Tech by 4 spots. Of course, those 2 teams both threw the ball at least 70% of the time.
• Only 7 of the NCAA’s top 25 rushers were on teams that ended up in the final AP T-25.
• According to weird NCAA stats, where sacks count as rushes, ND ran the ball about 53% of the time. The AP T-25 ran the ball, on average, about 54% of the time. Of course, that includes Hawaii and Texas Tech again, and nobody gave up the # of sacks that the Irish did.

See any other trends or statistical weirdness I forgot to mention? Have any thoughts of the benefits of a platoon system versus a feature back?

Frankly, I’d like to see 1 guy get 55-60% of the carries this year, and if that guy isn’t pretty clear by game 3, I’ll be worried about the success of the 2008 Irish squad.

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Jack Rockne, The Rock’s last living son, passed away this weekend at age 82. 

RIP and God Speed sir.

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• Yes, Walker is Irish! No, We Do Not Live Under a Rock.
• Jimmy Clausen to Run Spread Option Against PSU
• Cleveland Now 21.84% Less Lame

Much was made last season of Notre Dame’s positively horrid offensive production, ranking 119th out of 119 teams. Just about any moderately engaged Notre Dame football fan could tell you that little stat. But what many, perhaps most, Notre Dame football fans don’t know is that the Notre Dame special teams were nearly as bad; ranking 94th in Kickoff Returns and 89th in Kickoff Return Defense. It has been said many times that one of the fastest ways to make a bad team a lot better is through special teams. So just how far do the Irish need to go in 2008 to get better on special teams?

In October, I began to really pay attention to the kickoff teams of Notre Dame, and here’s what I found of the 2007 Irish up to that point in the season:

Notre Dame’s Kickoff Return Team:

• Receives the kickoff, on average, just ahead of the 9 yard line (9.05).
• Returns a kickoff an average of 19.2 yards
• And starts a drive after a kickoff, on average, at the 28.25 yard line, meaning, on average, they must drive 72 yards for a touchdown on possessions after a kickoff.

Notre Dame’s Kickoff Team:

• Kicks the ball, on average, to the 11 yard line (10.92)
• Allows the opponent to return the ball an average of 25.23 yards.
• On average, force the ND defense to begin defending the field after a kickoff on the opponent’s 36 yard line (36.15), meaning they have an average of 64 yards of buffer between them and their end-zone.

Now, that post was done just after the Purdue game - 5 games into the season. Here’s what the stats for kickoff and kickoff return look like for the entire season:

Click here if you can’t see the embedded spreadsheet.

In case it’s not immediately obvious, “Opponent Kicks” represent kickoffs in which ND was the return team. “ND Kicks” represent kickoff that ND kicked and then defended, and to help key the rest of that sheet, just understand that ND’s kickoffs usually made it to the 10.4 yard line, after which, the opposition usually returned it about 23.5 yards to the 34ish yard line. Meanwhile, ND’s opponents’ kicks usually made it to about the 10.1 yard line, after which ND generally returned the kicks 18.5 yards to the 28 yard line or so.

Now, as bad as the season final statistics are for the Irish, they actually did improve over their 5-game marks. For example, after 5 games, ND was the 103rd ranked kickoff defending team in the country. So they improved by some relative measure over 24 teams over the course of the rest of the season. They also closed the gap between the top-25 teams in return yardage (#25, Wyoming, averaged 23.19 return yards at end of season) from 5.78 yards to 3.5 yards. So the improvement in ranking wasn’t simply because the other bad teams got even worse.

In October, I did write one thing (at least) that was really dumb.

Our kickers, who are much maligned in typical conversation (”Why can’t we recruit a kicker who can kick it into the end zone!?”), are not the problem. Compared to our opponents, they’re only giving up a little less than 2 yards per kick. That should be a pretty trivial amount. And, in fact, we’ve only faced one opponent in 5 that has consistently placed the ball in the end-zone (PSU). Granted, there’s no available statistics for things like hang-time or “pooch kick,” so these numbers may mislead a bit.

And the end-of-season stats show that ND’s kicks were making it almost as far down field as the opposition’s, but it was dumb because I forgot to take a look at one really critical kickoff statistic: Touchbacks. I didn’t make the same mistake this second time around, and it’s clear that, unless the kickers are being explicitly told not to accomplish touchbacks, a lot of the kickoff misery is on their shoulders. Notre Dame opponents averaged 10.25 touchbacks though the season last year. Notre Dame didn’t record a single touchback. That’s 10 times during the season that ND’s opponents didn’t have to worry about their opposition getting great field position. 10 times that ND opponents didn’t give their defenses craptastic circumstances. And 10 times ND didn’t do their own defense any favors. Only one ND opponent in 2007, UCLA, failed to record a touchback. In fact, only ND, UCLA, Arkansas State, La.-Lafayette, Mississippi, and Syracuse manage to not record a touchback in 2007. See a trend among those teams? Hell, even the 119th ranked team in Kickoff Defense, Utah State, managed to record 9 touchbacks. So if you want a preview of ND’s improvement or decline in special teams now that Charlie is taking over, watch for reports of how long the kicks are flying.

And here’s another dumb thing I said…

ND’s kickoff and kickoff returns teams are bad, but they’re really only bad in a relative context to the performance of other schools. Giving up 8 yards of field position via the kickoff game is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s also doesn’t look like it would be the source of a ton of problems.

And I have to tip my hat to one of the guys at BGS (can’t remember which) who pointed out on one of the ND fan forums that 8 yards or so is nearly an entire 1st down of production that the opposition would face in trying to score. When you think of it like that, 8 yards is a lot. The stat did improve as the season went on, dropping the difference in field position to about 6 yards, but there’s still a mental edge that the Irish were giving up by averaging their own starts in the rather “bleh” range of 28 yard line while opponents got to start their drives, typcally, around the 35. The field looks a lot shorter from the 35; particularly when the defense in front of you is exhausted.

I do look for serious improvement in the field-position losses here. If I could give ND a target, I’d say I expect them to level off the difference completely. In 2007, the 30th ranked kickoff defense team, Mississippi, gave up 19.91 yards on average. At the same time, the 30th ranked kickoff return team, Akron, have a 22.7 yard return average. So let’s set those numbers as goals this year. (Funny, by the way, that Mississippi, despite 0 touchbacks, still managed a top-30 kickoff defense. Stats are so weird sometimes.)

I think the goals are attainable. For one, I think it’s always very helpful to special teams squads when the Head Coach takes charge of the unit. Reading through Phil Steele, it always seems that the really excellent Special Teams are lead by the HC. Further, with ND’s new-found depth on the roster, there will be a lot of very capable guys looking for more opportunities to get on the field. What better way to do that than to excel on special teams, thus making your HC happy?

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• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Preseason Edition: #10 - Oklahoma
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Preseason Edition: #21 - TCU
• Good Luck, Chris

Video is available on NFL.com.  Zibby just simply destroys a guy at just past 1 minute, but of course NFL Network doesn’t show it twice.  It made SportsCenter, but no highlight here which is just weak.  Worth the watch though, cuz Zibby levels the dude.

And Quinn looks decent during 2 plays in the video here, from around 1 minute on.  His earlier highlight is a tipped pass INT.  And anyway, the world was only paying attention to Brett Fav-er-uh.

Enjoy.

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• Gene Menez: I’m Super, Thanks for Asking
• Nevin Folds Time and Space, Fits ND’s PSU Highlights Onto Video Running Less Than 1 Hour.
• RMN: Preseason prognosis calls for Irish sweepstakes

We’ve written a lot today already. We’re busy writing a lot more with practices starting today, and E.J. Banks already made this day awesome by committing to the Irish - something we didn’t quite see coming so soon, but we’re thrilled.

So, rather than writing too much, I think it’s better for you all just to watch this video.

Welcome to the family, E.J.!

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• Illinois Upset About Accusations Over “The Money.” Wait. Who Said Anything About Money?
• Friday Roundup: The “Tailgating Season Starts Tomorrow” Edition
• Yeah, Yeah. We Know. It’s National LOI Day!

So I did this last year.  I’d link to it but 1)  I can’t find the post and 2)  I was so horribly wrong it’s just not smart to link to it.  I predicted 8-4 on the upside and 7-5 on the down-side last year.  I way over-valued our returning O-line leadership, and way under-appreciated our lack of experience in many skill positions.  But, I’ve learned much in the past year.   Things like “you kick it on 4th and 8 from 43 yards out” and “the bottom isn’t there until you’ve hit bottom” and “to beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl, take out all of their QBs until they’re playing the local JV backup”. 

With that, here’s my annual game by game run-down of the season, complete with destined-to-be-accurate calls on points, game details and other happenings in, of, and around Irish Football.

I’ll also include a Confidence Scale this year, since no outcome can be predicted with 100% accuracy, with the exception of knowing 1000% that Michigan Sucks.  That is clear.   Here’s the Scale:

 This is just as likely to be wrong as it is to be right (aka the   BadKermit Effect)

  I’ve got a good feeling, but am leaving myself some wiggle room

This is a lock, I am a genius, I cannot be wrong.

Week 1 - San Diego State

ND will come into the Aztecs undefeated (whooooo hoooooo!!!!) and will be fired up and ready to play.  The Aztecs are in a fairly bad place - coming off a mediocre season, and having lost their 1 real player.  ND will focus on running the ball, what with 300lbs+ linemen teeing off on 148lb DL guys from the Aztecs.  Clausen will be allowed to stretch his arm at times, but ND will play it close to the vest on offense, moving the ball at will on the ground.  The Aztecs will try to run the ball on ND, but the athelticism of ND’s LB’s proves too much for them.

ND wins:  24 - 7.  

Interesting note:  Have you ever been to SDSU?  Probably not.  But if you go, you won’t want to miss the sights, so be like this dude in the middle and get it right:

Week 2 - Michigan

Ah, the glory that is Michigan sucking.  I could go on for hours about the off-season they’ve had (as they can go on and on about the season we had), but I won’t.  Mostly because I’ve already done so. 

Michigan comes to ND with a new coach, new system, no offensive players and steroids (maybe!!!).  They also come with a very experienced defense.   I see this game being a struggle for both teams offensively.  Michigan is going to be a freaking mess.  Maybe not 2007 ND in Ann Arbor MESS.  But a mess nonetheless, and Tenuta/Brown will be going after it to keep it that way.  ND will apply pressure throughout the day, and the inexperienced Michigan offensive line and backfield will struggle.  Their quarterback will scramble around for some short gains, and they’ll move the ball a bit with some quick/short tosses, but they’ll never get a momentum.  The Irish offense will struggle as well.  Moving the ball on the ground will be tough against a stout and athletic Michigan D.  However, this is the game where I see Clausen really coming into his own.  Assuming the O-line can give him more than .000001 seconds this year, I think he’ll start to find Kamara, Grimes and yes, Michael Floyd against the UM (sucks!) DBs.  It’s not pretty, but the Irish will put together 2 solid drives in the game, which will be the difference. 

ND Wins:  14-7.

Week 3 - Michigan State

Having beaten the weak 2008 Michigan team in Week 2, ND moves on to the school where you can major in Packaging (seriously) the next week.  Off to Michigan State, where since I can remember, the Irish win.  The ghost of John El will be in the house for sure this week.  MSU is fairly experienced this year, and we believe that Dantonio has the Spartans on the right track.  After 2 wins, the Irish are confident and hitting their stride.  However, MSU’s ground game is solid, and is complemented by a basic and functional passing game that helps them move the chains.  ND’s defense will bend but not break, and the offense will move the ball.  But it will be a tough back and forth battle, and one I think ND will drop.  Yes, super sad.

ND Loses:  21-17. 

Week 4 - Purdue

World’s Most Boring Week of College Football.  Purdue comes to ND playing for their retiring coach, and bummed out because they have lost everyone with any talent in the off-season, with the exception of their high quality QB.  ND will move the ball well against Purdue this year (as they did last year).  Hopefully C-dub and H-wood (okay, that’s lame, but whatever) are able to stick to the ground game here, and pound the ball a bit on the (yaaaaaaawn) Boilermakers.  That should help control the pace of the game, and break Purdue’s spirit early.  Haywood shouldn’t abandon the run, even if ND gets behind early.  Purdue will focus heavily on their passing game, which will allow Brown and Tenuta to load up and freaking TEE OFF on the quarterback.  The loss of Walls will be felt in this game, but the ND backfield is up for the challenge of a Selwyn Lymon-less Purdue receiving corps.  ND will take this one.

ND Wins:  31 - 20. 

This game will also set a record for number of people that fall asleep at a sporting event.  Simply due to the presence of anything/everything Purdue.

Week 5 - Stanford

The Cardinal comes to South Bend this year after a fairly miserable year, with the exception of their miraculous win over USC.   I like Harbaugh, but this team just isn’t that talented, and they didn’t seem to catch their stride last year at any point.  The ND game was a solid win for the Irish, made closer by 2 terrible calls that resulted in an 11 point swing in The Cardinal’s favor.   ND will roll on the ground in this game, dominating the line of scrimmage.  Clausen’s comfortable behind his O-line and is able to pick apart the Cardinal D.  ND stacks the line and blitzes with abandon, keeping the Stanford offense off the field.  This one’s a route.

ND Wins:  31 - 10. 

Week 6 - UNC

North Carolina is a bit of a question mark for me this year.  On paper, they’re somewhat similar to ND, but obviously with somewhat lesser levels of talent.  But there is some latent experience on the squad, and good leadership.  ND will come into this game feeling good, and I think UNC might sneak up on the squad.  Notre Dame should have an edge given their young talent, but UNC will be at home and fired up to be playing the Irish.  This could be a danger game for the Irish.   I’m really not sure what’s going to happen in this game given my relative lack of familiarity, and the weirdness of playing at UNC.  As a guess, ND drops a close one.

ND Loses:  24-21.    (Toss-up)

Week 7 - BYE.

I am going with ND on this one.   

Week 8 - Washington

ND flies out to the West Coast to take on Ty’s squad which, despite sucking royally at football last year, has an awesome team handicap.  Washington faces a brutal schedule this year, and ND is actually one of the relatively easier match-ups for U-Dub.  Too bad for them, they have Ty as their coach.  This means they have 1 offensive lineman on the roster, and they haven’t seen their coach at practice for a week as he worked on his short game.  ND is having a decent season at 4-2 and are hoping to keep the headlines calm with a win over Ty and the Huskies.  Seriously, the papers will just FREAKING LOVE IT if Ty beats Charlie.  Even though it shouldn’t be about that it will be.  And I expect Washington to give the Irish fits in this game.  They’ve lost their top defensive player, but are experienced, if not super-skilled, on both sides of the ball.  And Locker would be a Heisman candidate pretty much anywhere else in the country.  ND will have to contain him to bring home this win.   I expect an emotionally charged start, some penalties, and a brutal crowd.  ND will try to slow things down and dictate the pace through a steady running game, and it will work.  I think.  Hope.  But it will be close. 

ND Wins:  17-14. 

Week 9 - Pitt

Genac this!

The ‘Stache is coming to town, and he’s bringing his ’stache with him dammit.  Pitt will be a decent squad this year, and will match up well with ND.  Pitt has given ND fits in the past few years, and this game will be no different.  I expect a tight fought, hard hitting game.  A balanced attack from both teams, coupled with tough D.  Wann-stache has done a good job recruiting in Western PA, and Pitt should be in the upper 1/3 of the Big East this year.  ND once again has the edge in talent, but not in experienced talent.   This is another toss-up in my mind, but I’m giving Pitt the edge, simply because I know we have some work to do to get where we need to be. 

ND Loses:  28-24 

Week 10 - BC

BC looks a little like Michigan this year.  Everyone left on offense, D remains okay.  In general, though, the Eagles lost a lot - especially their leader in Matt Ryan.  But, they lost 17 5th year seniors from the roster in total.  17! That’s madness, and more than I think ND has had in 3 years.  With all that leadership and experience gone, I expect this squad to struggle more than most do this year.  I think ND takes this game, no problem.  It will be the Eagles trying to run against ND in this game, but I think the Irish will have the ground game figured out at this point, and they’ll perform well.  ND will need a balanced attack to move the ball against the Eagles, and will execute well.  Huuuuuuuuuuughes will be pounding the ball behind Stewart and Young, and ND will roll in this one.

ND Wins:  28 - 10. 

Week 11 - Navy

Navy’s year was last year.  At this point, if it was gonna happen any year, last year was it.  Fine.  This year?  Nah.  They’ll put up points, but a more aggressive and athletic/experienced LB corps will slow them down this year.  ND will capitalize on mistakes, and put up a solid score, relying heavily on Jimmy’s arm.

ND Wins:  38 - 21. 

Week 11 - Syracuse

Cuse struggle.   That is all.

ND Wins:  42 - 7 

Week 12 - USC

There are a number of folks tossing out that the Irish could come into USC undefeated.  Yes, and I could become President of the University.  I could, but it’s so extremely unlikely it’s not worth getting worked up over.   ND will come into this game with a decent season behind them, massive improvement, but still with some gaps.  It will be 2010 before the Irish catch up to USC in terms of talent and depth, and then I’ll call this game for the Irish.  This year, and yes, next year, ND will be behind in experience and won’t be able to pull this game off.  More respectable than last year, but still a tough loss to finish up the season.

ND Loses:  28 - 14. 

Yes, I hate putting 3 of these little bastards next to a loss.  It doesn’t mean I don’t give us a chance, but it’s a small chance.  I HATE being realistic!!!

Over the course of the season, we’ll see what the future of Irish football is.  We won’t see the full potential realized though, til late in the ‘09 season, and we’ll be in the NC hunt in 2010 with all the talent Charlie and Co are stockpiling.

ND will be respectable again, and a decent squad.  Charlie will be secure in his job, as he is now, and the program will continue to build for the future.  Which looks very bright.

Based on the above, straight-lined, I expect 8-4.  But given the number of toss-ups, a weighted average puts us right between 7-5 and 8-4.   Being a conservative Value investor, I’m going to hedge a bit and go with 7-5.  6-6 is our bottom, 9-3 our top if we get lucky and see vast improvement.   7-5 likely lands ND in the Gator Bowl, a potentially winnable bowl depending on how things go.  I wouldn’t mind this season with a Bowl Win.

I really hope I’m wrong though, and see 11-1 and another BCS. 

So where did I get it right?  Where am I dead wrong?

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• Expert Picks Contest Rules: 2006 Edition
• My Guess Was Right
• Farewell, Bill Walsh

We awoke to horrible news this morning when we discovered our favorite South Bend area restaurant that doesn’t serve massive burgers burned down last night.

Politios Italian Restaurant and Factory Direct Spas caught fire around 2 Friday morning, both buildings were destroyed.

Investigators say the Outback Steakhouse next door suffered heavy smoke damage.

Firefighters responded to the scene after heavy smoke was spotted at the scene.

As crews arrived, Bleachers Bar, which is a few hundred feet away, was evacuated as a precaution.

The owners of Politos and Factory Direct Spas were at the scene as crews battled the blaze.

Politos has been in the JMS Plaza for 12 years and both businesses have been in the area for decades.

Both north and southbound lanes of Grape Road between Indian Lakes and Edison were closed for a few hours, but are now open.

Today, I plan not to mourn the loss, but celebrate the 12 years that Politos graced this planet. I can recall such dishes as “Penne with Vodka Sauce,” and the delicious “Pepperoni Calzone with both ricotta and mozzarella.” And of course, who can forget classics like “Pepperoni Calzone with extra ricotta, mozzarella, and pepperoni with a side of Penne with Vodka Sauce?” I think I’ll do my best to recreate that dish for breakfast.

I’ll never forget what you did for me, Politos, and neither will my cardiologist.

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• Congrats Post - A New Domer Joins the Family
• Goodbye and Good Luck
• Farewell, Bill Walsh

We continue to interrupt our regularly scheduled Friday Roundup to bring you a bit of news from the Pac 10 in order to catch you, the college football fan, up on the Pac 10 before the season begins. If you missed it, check out our ACC Primer Roundup here and the Big 12 primer here.

The Roundup:

• Arizona: Coach Stoops makes me wonder: how good is this team when we talk about kumquats?
• Arizona State: No bunnies? Bummer.
• California: Bad puns using a player’s name are the Best.
• Oregon: Don’t you just love when 2 state schools name their rivalry game something that reminds us of the bloodiest war in American history?
• Oregon State: Janet Jackson would be so proud.
• Stanford: Having lived through the 2007 ND football season, I’d say this bodes poorly for the Trees. Then again, how much energy does a tree have, unless you burn it? (Trick question for you science nerds out there.)
• UCLA: Chow’s got them dreaming big.
• Southern Cal: I’m feeling baited by this headline.
• Washington: The Molder of Men is doing as fine a job as ever.
• Washington State: I just love it when a plan comes together.

And in honor of the Pac 10’s particular geography, this week’s Beer of the Week is Widmer Brothers’ Hefeweizen from Oregon. It’s ubiquitous stuff, but it’s pretty darn good ubiquitous stuff if you’re looking to get “accustomed” to this type of beer. Think of it as an entry-level Hefe.

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• Friday Roundup: The “SEC Primer” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The “Big 12 Primer” Edition
• Friday Roundup: The Biscuit Edition