SB Nation - Brian Smith

With Weis out, which of the Fighting Irish will go pro?

Mocking Dan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:55:57 -0000

More photos » by Darron Cummings - AP

According to several published reports, Notre Dame has fired head coach Charlie Weis. In five season with the Fighting Irish, Weis accumulated a 35-27 record. In the last three, though, Notre Dame went 16-21 with no wins against a ranked opponent.

Notre Dame players are meeting today vote on whether or not the 6-6 team will play in a bowl game, if invited. Athletic director Jack Swarbick has reportedly said he'd consider the player vote in deciding on a bowl trip.

One of the big issues now Notre Dame is which talented juniors will enter the NFL Draft. Typically when a coach is fired more players than usual will jump to the pros.

Chief among those eligible to enter early is quarterback Jimmy Clausen. There has been a lot of speculation of late about Clausen going pro. After a season in which he threw 28 touchdowns and only four interceptions, expect Clausen to be in the draft.

The next best player after Clausen is wide receiver Golden Tate. The junior's season really took off when he became the Irish's primary receiver following an injury to Michael Floyd that knocked him out of five games. On the year, Tate has 93 receptions for 1,496 yards and 15 touchdowns. A top special teams performer, Tate should go pro.

Leading rusher Armando Allen also has the choice to go pro. On the season, he has 697 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Allen has shown throughout his career that he projects to little more than a backup at the next level. Because of that, it might best for him to stay in school and hope to have a breakthrough 2010 campaign. The same can be said for linemen Dan Wenger and Chris Stewart.

It may be a coin flip situation for inside linebacker Brian Smith. He's second on the team in tackles with 71. He has good size at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, but isn't a playmaker.

If you're wondering about tight end Kyle Rudolph and Floyd, both are sophomores and ineligible for the draft. When they are, however, both should be considered first-round talents.

Survivor: South Bend - Usual Suspects, Notre Dame Hold Off Boston College 20-16

CW — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:48:36 -0000

More photos » by Michael Conroy - AP

about 1 month ago: Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate scores the game winning touchdown in the fourth quarter against Boston College in an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. Notre Dame defeated Boston College 20-16. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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If you find yourself playing the lottery, it seems like the luck of the Irish will be on your side if you toss out 5, 7, 23 and 28. The Irish defense alternated between getting completely gashed by another true freshman quarterback and picking him off, while Jimmy Clausen-to-Golden Tate resulted in two touchdowns. (With Tim Tebow tossing two pick sixes and Mark Ingram almost fumbling Rocky Top into an upset yesterday, why not Golden Tate for Heisman?) Kyle McCarthy had two picks as he again was perhaps the only redeeming part of the secondary, while Manti T'eo continued to add to his legend, leading the team in tackles and piling up two and a half tackles for loss. Armando Allen and Duval Kamara also had nice games for the offense, while Brian Smith's late interception sealed the game for the Irish after they allowed an unimaginable fourth and 17 conversion.

A lot of teams found themselves in struggles yesterday, and the Irish were no exception, but at least the streak against Boston College is over and the teams is now 5-2 on the season heading into the extremely unnecessary and weird Washington State game in San Antonio. The defense did a fantastic job bottling up Montel Harris, but the secondary couldn't have looked worse most of the time, with the same usual suspects looking completely lost, or being in position and not making a play on the ball. On offense, Kyle Rudolph was a non-factor again (1 for 11), while Roby Toma and John Goodman served as the third receiver behind a nice little game from Kamara (7 for 60).

Parts of the team are progressing nicely (defensive line, in particular) but there are still a lot of issues to be worked out. Overall, though, I'll take 5-2 over 4-3, and while none of the November games are going to be easy, all of them are very much winnable. Let's see this team take care of business against Washington State, plug Michael Floyd back in against Navy or Pitt and close the season out strongly.

Mid-Term Report Card: Grading The Irish On Their Bye Week

CW — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:16:38 -0000

More photos » by Michael Conroy - AP

3 months ago: In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, Notre Dame center Eric Olsen lines upp against Nevada during an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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There is obviously gigantic room for debate on almost all of these positions, but this is what I'm starting with. I went back and forth on a lot of them, but since they are just completely arbitrary grades, be gentle. In general, I think I was very demanding with the offense and a little more lenient with the defense, with games later in the season being weighed as more important, especially with young players.

Quarterbacks: A

I think this is the only legitimate grade here, right? James Clausen currently has the highest passer efficiency rating in the country. He leads the country in yards per attempt, has twelve touchdowns to two interceptions (one of which was a Hail Mary-type throw at the end of a first half, the other a perfect toss to Armando Allen that was volleyball set right to the defender). He is moving around in the backfield a thousand times better than last year, feeling the rush, avoiding it and stepping into the pocket to deliver smart bombs. With all of the natural biases and hatred harbored against him (some of his own doing, like the entire College Football Hall of Fame thing, some not), he has forced himself into the Heisman conversation and onto Kiper's big board. He's led four consecutive fourth quarter comebacks (the first of them forgotten after a failure to run out the clock and Forcier's counterpunch), he appears to be an awesome tutor and supporter for his understudy, his teammates seem to absolutely love him and he has great celebrations, from understated fist pumps, to jumping into a lineman's arms, to simply flashing the guns, like he did after the touchdown pass to Rudolph.

The only bad things I can say about Clausen at this point are that he was erratic in the first quarter against Michigan before settling into cold-blooded killer mode (which he did by halftime when he gave his team the lead) and that awful lateral/pass that got returned for a touchdown against Washington. Really, that's about it. He hasn't missed a beat with the loss of Michael Floyd, and as long as he's in the game, Irish fans can feel very good about their chances.

As far as his back-up goes, Crist has done a great job in relief, even though all of the bubble wrap hasn't even been removed yet. He led a bunch of great drives in the Purdue game and showed off his arm in mop-up time versus Nevada. Evan Sharpley continues to look astute on the sideline and I'm very confident in his ability to come into a game and handle business if need be.

Running Backs: B+

I originally had this as a "B," but then I started thinking about how Armando Allen was a top fifteen rusher before Purdue and how he simply destroyed Michigan. Or how successful the Wildcat was against Michigan State in the red zone, including that touchdown pass from AA. Then how even though Allen couldn't go late against the Huskies, Robert Hughes put the team on his shoulders and just cranked out tough yard after tough yard, including the critical two-point conversion (probably) and game-winning touchdown. Hughes was attempting to shed his "Thunder" label earlier in the season, but has embraced his role as a power guy - a quick one, but not a dancing back - and made a statement to fans and the coaching staff that he's back.

Save for a few young mistakes, the help in pass blocking has also been very good, assisting the offensive line in their efforts to protect QB1. You'd like to see Jonas Gray a little farther along (his fumble versus Michigan was a killer), but Theo Riddick has shown some pop as a freshman (admittedly, on a scant seven carries). When you consider that the starting fullback has been out since the opener and both Allen and Hughes are averaging over five yards a carry on the season, I think the "+" is acceptable here.

Wide Receivers: A-

This should probably be a straight "A" for the absurd efforts of Golden Tate and the late St. Michael Floyd (COLLARBOOOOONE), but I'm knocking it down a little bit because A) No one has clearly stepped up to replace Floyd opposite Tate and B) Every time they show St. Michael on the sideline in civilian attire, a little more of my heart breaks. (Plus I'm trying to be overly pessimistic here to get street cred with the dregs of the messageboards.)

Michael Floyd was on his way to an all-world season when his fragile clavicle betrayed him. He would get an A for his efforts so far this season, because from his absolute domination of Nevada to the gravity-defying touchdown against Michigan, he was perfection. Following a few dropsies in the Michigan game, Golden Tate took it upon himself to double his efforts in his wingmate's absence, catching the winning touchdown against Michigan State, switching to a running back/Wildcat to help out Crist against Purdue and setting up the touchdown in overtime against Washington. Versus the Huskies, Tate had ten touches for 275 yards of offense, which is patently absurd. His sweat glands also seemingly secrete some sort of grease that makes him impossible to wrap up and tackle, which is a handy talent for a receiver to have.

After the very top of the depth chart, things get a little hazy. Almost as if the stats were trying to prove my point for me, Duval Kamara, Robby Parris and Shaq Evans each have seven catches on the season. Parris has a touchdown, Evans has been steadily trending upward (4 for 34 in the last game) and sadly, Deion Walker hasn't gotten much burn at all. Tate and Kyle Rudolph force the defense to pay a lot of attention to two players, so it would be nice if this second tier could really take a step forward against Southern Cal, either collectively or with one lone wolf taking the leap and wrestling control of a starting spot.

Tight ends: B+

Kyle Rudolph has two go-ahead fourth quarter touchdowns in the last two weeks and is simply an impossible match-up against most teams. (Sadly, Southern Cal can just throw Taylor Mays on him, which could be the most interesting showdown of them all on the 17^th.) Rudolph's run blocking could be a little more dominant, but he's such a force in the passing game, I can honestly say "Who cares?". Bobby Burger has done a great job in his role as back-up tight end/H-back/fullback, although he's not really a threat in the passing game at this point. (He also had a bad false start at the goal line versus Washington which was very much not good.) The lack of fun, sexy Mike Ragone times - or really any depth at the position - is troubling, and why this group also takes slight nick.

Offensive line: B+

I'm not going to even pretend like I can explain to you the particulars of how an offensive line works, why this one is working well or what the great individual plays have been, but I can say this: after the debacle of the last couple years, this line is significantly better in every capacity. How much of that to credit to Coach Verducci and how much goes to the natural maturing process of young linemen, I have no idea, but I'll take it. Clausen has been kept clean most of the season - there have been some issues at the tackles with speedy defensive ends on obvious passing downs - and the running game has oscillated between "perfectly effective" and "absolutely dominant," so I couldn't be prouder. The tackles have struggled a little, but you can't say enough about the interior of the line just consistently dominating up the point of attack. Some unnecessary false starts and certain plays just falling apart from the word "go" knock the grade down a little, if only because they are very much avoidable and unacceptable for a veteran corps.

Defensive line: B-

This was going to be a lot lower before the Washington game, but after the trio of goal line stands, I have to heap some credit onto the guys up front. There is a definite trend upwards in the last two games, as the unit helped to suffocate a good Purdue running attack before repeatedly stone-walling Jake Locker. After having only two tackles the entire season prior to last Saturday's game, Kerry Neal had seven against the Huskies. KLM had another seven, while Ethan Johnson had five. Everyone up front has a handful of tackles for loss, and again, I think every Irish fan is pretty happy with how things are moving over the last couple games.

This unit is extremely young, but you can see lights starting to click, as Ian Williams is shedding blockers at the point of attack and the Johnson/KLM combo becomes more and more active. John Ryan has even gotten into the act, with a sack, a tackle for loss and a deflected pass. Bonus points tacked on for Johnson's extra point block versus Michigan State, which cancelled out one of the few Nick Tausch miscues of the season. There is a long way to go, but there are positive signs that the opponent's offensive line is going to have more and more difficulty as the season progresses. (Hopefully.)

Linebackers: C-

Again, trending upward, but there have just been too many missed tackles and not enough big plays to justify a high grade here. Some of it could be the youth attempting to adjust to Tenuta's scheme, but the blitzes aren't getting there, and when they do, there seems to be a strong aversion to wrapping up. (Brian Smith's shoulder block on Polk late in the Washington game is a perfect example of these troubles.) Barely anyone finishes runners off, and pass coverage is not what you would expect with a bunch of very athletic guys out there. In Tenuta's scheme linebackers are supposed to shine, but that is not happening through five games.

Before an injury hampered him against the Huskies, Darius Fleming was slowly starting to emerge, with seven tackles for loss and two sacks. Brian Smith has been solid, although he hasn't approached the ceiling some Irish fans thought he had in the preseason. The shining, sparkling gem of the group is Manti Teo, who had his reins loosened considerably against Washington and responded with ten tackles. As Tate, Floyd and Rudolph took the receiving corps to the next level, hopefully Teo can lead the advancement of the linebackers to an elite unit. The talent is there, but until tackling becomes more certain and coverage tighter, this group will have a lot of room for improvement.

Kyle McCarthy: A

Remainder of the Secondary: D

First off, let us bask in the glow of McCarthy's season thus far. Forty-nine tackles, three picks (one of which saved the Michigan State game, another turning the Michigan game in Notre Dame's favor), two passes broken up and a huge (CLEAN) hit on fourth down to end the Washington game. McCarthy's season has been so good that when he didn't dive to catch Locker's fluttering pass near the end of regulation, everyone was surprised and/or disappointed. He almost never misses a tackle, wrapping up perfectly every time - and there are a lot of times. He's almost always in the right place at the right time and without him, this Irish team would almost assuredly be well below .500.

The rest of the secondary? Not so good. Whether they're having the same troubles as the linebacking corps in adjusting to Tenuta's scheme, or simply being instructed to play soft coverage, there just have barely been any plays made by the defensive backfield. Outside of McCarthy, the unit has two picks on the year and many, many more misplayed balls that turned potential interceptions into big plays for the opponent. Tate Forcier and Kirk Cousins both looked like Heisman candidates against the Irish, and Joey Elliott wasn't far behind. Notre Dame is 105^th in the nation in pass defense, (linebackers struggling with coverage have assisted with this number) and with McCarthy's sterling play, that's simply unacceptable. Going into the season this is the unit many Irish fans had the most faith in, and so far in 2009, that trust has not been justified.

Special Teams: B

On one hand, Nick Tausch has been nearly perfect in his role as placekicker, basically winning the Washington game with his foot. On the other hand, there are still no touchbacks on kickoffs, kickoff coverage has not been stellar and punting has been so bad that Weis had to make a switch before the last game. Theo Riddick has shown a nice burst in the kick return game, but really the only good thing consistently happening on special teams is the marked improvement of the place-kicking. This was originally lower, but after so many seasons of the field goal kicking being an adventure, there's a nice bump for consistency in that realm.

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There is a lot to talk about here, and this is just an attempt at being a conversation starter. So please, play nice, use YouTube/stats whenever possible, and most importantly, enjoy your weekend.

UHND provides an Irish Scouting report

BoilerTMill — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:51:51 -0000

As mentioned earlier this week,t he official opponent preview is a little bit different. The noted Notre Dame blog. UHND.com offered to provide a scouting report on the Irish as long as I provided them a Purdue report. Frank Vitovitch posted my report over at his site this morning, and what follows here is his outlook on the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame's Offense

The Irish offense suffered a major loss when star wide receiver Michael Floyd broke his collarbone in the second quarter of last weekend's Michigan State game. Floyd was approaching uncoverable status after catching six touchdowns in his first nine quarters of football this year. Floyd's absence deals a major blow to what was quickly becoming the most explosive Irish offense in the Charlie Weis era.

Last year when Michael Floyd got hurt and missed the final two and a half games, the Irish offense really staled and was unable to sustain drives. The difference this year for Notre Dame is that the Irish actually have a running game to fall back on. Armando Allen has run for more than a 100 yards in back to back games after eclipsing the century mark just one time last year. That one time was against Purdue when he ran 17 times for 134 yards. Allen's been a much different back this year. He's run much tougher and is getting more yards after contact than he ever has in his Irish career.

The Notre Dame offensive line is vastly improved this year as well. The line, under new OL coach Frank Verducci, has officially only allowed two sacks in three games this year. Considering Notre Dame set a NCAA record for sacks allowed in 2007, that is quite a turn around.

Floyd's absence won't deter Notre Dame from passing the ball though. Junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen is having an excellent season so far and has been extremely accurate. Clausen has completed 62 of 91 passes for 951 yards with 9 touchdowns and zero interceptions ranking him second in the nation in quarterback rating. It's not just Clausen's stats that are impressive this year though. He's stepped up his game in all aspects including his leadership. Clausen was voted a team captain this year and showed a lot of heart playing most of last week with a very noticeable limp.

Clausen was injured against Michigan State and has a case of turf toe this week. All signs are pointing to Clausen playing this weekend though. He was limited in practice Wednesday, but is expected to fully participate Thursday. The Irish will then evaluate how Clausen responds. Based on Weis's and Clausen's remarks this week though, they fully him #7 lining up under center this weekend.

Assuming Clausen plays, he will still have star receiver Golden Tate to throw to. Tate has had back to back 100 yard games and has scored three touchdowns the past two weeks. Tate is one of the best deep threats in the country and despite a couple drops the past two games, he normally has great hands. Tate has developed into more than just a deep threat though. He is very dangerous with the ball in his hands and with Floyd out, I expect Weis to try and get Tate the ball in space much more than he's been in order to let him make some plays after the catch.

Tate received a lot of attention and double teams last year when Floyd was hurt and I expect teams to do the same to him this year until Notre Dame shows they have other options in the passing game.

Notre Dame has a lot of options to replace Floyd with. Junior Duval Kamara and senior Robby Parris are listed as the co-starters at Floyd's z-receiver position on the Notre Dame depth chart. Both are solid options, but neither are the deep threat that Floyd was. Kamara though is a huge target for Clausen and is tough to cover with a corner because of his size - 6'5"220 lbs.

The x-factor at receiver for the Irish with Floyd out is freshman Shaquelle Evans. Evans is one of the fastest players on the team and has pretty good size for a freshman at 6'3", 200 lbs. He's seen a little bit of action so far this year (2 catches for 15 yards), but Weis hinted that his role could expand now that Floyd is out.

Also helping to fill the void left by Floyd will be tight end Kyle Rudolph. The sophomore tight end is coming off a career high 95 yard receiving day and is very tough to cover one on one with a linebacker. He is going to have to become a much bigger part of the passing game for the Irish.

Notre Dame has also used the wildcat formation quite a bit this year. Against Michigan State, the Irish scored two touchdowns out of the wildcat - one on an Armando Allen run and another on an Allen to Robby Parris touchdown pass. Even before the injury to Floyd, Notre Dame used the wildcat quite a bit with Allen lining up under center.

If Clausen is unable to play this weekend or gets injured worse during the game, Notre Dame will turn to sophomore Dayne Crist. Crist is a former five star recruit who has picked up the offense well in his second season. If he has to play for any extended period of time this weekend though, it will likely drastically affect what the Irish are able to do.

Notre Dame Defense

The Irish defense has been the Achilles heel for Notre Dame this season. Jon Tenuta's blitz happy defense has been getting gashed for big yardage all season and has nearly allowed game winning drives by opponents in back to back weeks. Two weeks ago against Michigan the Irish defense let freshman Tate Forcier march the Wolverines down the field for the game winning score in the final seconds. Last weekend they nearly let Michigan State's Kirk Cousins do the same before Kyle McCarthy came up with the game and possibly season saving interception.

Notre Dame's been susceptible to both the run and the pass at times this season. Against Nevada and Michigan, the defense gave up large chunks of yards on the ground. That changed last weekend when Notre Dame allowed Michigan State to throw for 354 yards while limiting them to 105 on the ground.

The biggest problem for Notre Dame has been the pass rush or rather the lack thereof. Jon Tenuta's defense requires a lot of blitzing and so far this season, those blitzes have been largely ineffective. The rush has only gotten to opposing quarterbacks four times in three games which has left the Notre Dame secondary very vulnerable. The secondary should be a strength for the Irish defense this year, but the lack of a pass rush has really put them in some unfavorable situations.

Tackling has been a major issue for the Irish defense as well. Notre Dame has missed a ton of tackles this season and has shown some poor fundamentals. Notre Dame's linebackers specifically have done a poor job of wrapping up and making stops this year. The top two tacklers amongst the linebackers for the Irish, Brian Smith and Toryan Smith, have combined for just 25 tackles in three games.

There were, however, a few glimmers of hope for the Irish in an otherwise dismal defensive performance on Saturday. Defensive tackles Ian Williams and Ethan Johnson started to emerge a little bit and were getting nice penetration on running plays. Johnson, a converted defensive end, really struggled the first two weeks but started to come on a bit last weekend.

The Irish secondary also was in position to make some big plays last week, but just couldn't come up with them. Senior cornerback Darrin Walls had two sure picks bounce off his hands. As did fifth year senior safety Ray Herring on the game's final drive. Sophomore Robert Blanton had an opportunity for a fourth quarter interception that he failed to come up with as well. So there have been plays to be made for the Irish defense - they just haven't been making them. Most of these plays have come on the few instances when the Irish pass rush has put some pressure on the opposing quarterback.

Tenuta's scheme is very much a high risk/reward system which makes coming down with turnovers when they are there extremely important.

Notre Dame played a lot of different personnel last week which could suggest that they are still looking for who the best players are. Based on the defensive performances the past two weeks, it wouldn't be surprising to see some personnel changes this week. One such move could be getting Manti Te'o, the all world linebacker recruit, onto the field more.

Even with some personnel changes though, the Irish defense remains a major cause of concern for Notre Dame. The Irish will live and die by how much pressure they are able to generate on opposing quarterbacks this year and so far, they haven't been able to generate a whole lot of it.

Notre Dame Special Teams

Notre Dame was one of the best kick coverage teams in the country last season, but this year they are breaking in a freshman kick-off man in Nick Tausch. At timesTausch has had problems getting his kicks deep enough which has resulted in some big returns - most notably Darryl Stonnum's return for touchdown two weeks ago.

Tausch has been a little shaky place kicking as well. He missed an extra point against Michigan State and missed his first collegiate field goal attempt - a 28 yarder against Michigan. Since missing the 28 yarder though, Tausch is 4 for 4 with two of his kicks coming from over 40 yards.

In the return game, Notre Dame will look to get speedy freshman running back Theo Riddick the ball as often as they can on kickoffs. Riddick has a really nice burst and has had a couple nice looking returns already. If the Irish can create a seem for him to run through, it looks like he has the extra gear to exploit it.

Final Analysis

This weekend will show just how good of an offense the Irish have. It's impossible to replace someone with the skill of a Michael Floyd, but Notre Dame has enough talent at the skill positions to be able to get by much better than they did a year ago. I could see Notre Dame coming out in a spread out five receiver set like they did against Michigan State this weekend to spread Purdue out in an attempt to keep them from focusing too much on Golden Tate. I also think we'll see more of the wildcat this weekend to try and keep Purdue off balance.

This game will come down to which defense shows up for Notre Dame. Will the one that shut out Nevada and got to the quarterback or the one that got torched the last two weeks make the trip to West Lafayette? If it's the latter, this game will likely follow the script of the last two Notre Dame games - a high scoring affair decided in the fourth quarter.

Thanks for stopping by, Frank. Frank was also kind enough to provide some game wraps of Notre Dame's previous three games, as well as an outlook on how the Irish offense will adapt to losing Michael Floyd.

Positional Matchup Ratings to Determine Outcome of Saturday's Michigan Notre Dame Game

Beauford — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:24:02 -0000

via i2.cdn.turner.com

This weekend, Notre Dame plays Michigan. You may have heard. Yesterday, I gave you a brief history of the rivalry, which I'm sure has been committed to memory by now. Today, I give you positional matchups in an attempt to see where this game is going to be won or lost. Let us begin.

Quarterback

Notre Dame

Notre Dame returns Jimmah Clausen fresh off completing 105% of his passes (the extra 5% is for love, which Jimmah pours into every pass) for a bazillion TD's against various WAC opponents. In all seriousness, the dude finally looked like the QB that he was expected to be, albeit against inferior competition. The third year in any program will do that to a guy. He's got a solid arm, but a little bit of a gunslinger attitude, throwing 17 INTS compared to 25 TD's. Like him or not, he's poised to have a big year, and if he can not be such an INT machine, could (gulp...going to do something I've never done before...agree with Lou Holtz) toss his hat in the ring for that ceremony in NYC.

Michigan

Michigan will start Forcier, and all indications point to him getting the vast majority of snaps with Denard-flashes mixed in accordingly. I look for Forcier to have a bigger role and a more traditional "starter" presence in this game due to what looks to be superior competition. Less time to mess around. I liked Tate's ability to keep plays alive, although I think he pulled it in to run a bit too soon on a few plays. If he continues to not turn the ball over and play smart, I think he'll do fine. And Denard is always a threat, as evidenced by the broken play magic that I've literally watched on loop 15 times in a row. Still, they are both Freshmen, and therefore not Junior Year former all world recruits.

Advantage: Notre Dame

More after the jump.

Running Back

Notre Dame

Ok, so Notre Dame's got Armando Allen who went for 76 yards against Nevada and didn't need to do much more due to Jimmah's air attack that, again, featured 105% accuracy. Last season he averaged 4.33 YPC, and the Irish running attack was ranked 44th in the country. This isn't a run-heavy team, but any coach will tell you that establishing a running game is paramount for the passing game. If going deep off play action is what ND wants to do, it's going to take a rolling running game to make it work. Allen isn't going to win this game on his own.

Michigan

Much like the QB situation, Michigan finds themselves in a "split role" situation with Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor. It looks like Minor is going to play after being listed as probable. The Notre Dame D line, to be detailed later, aren't exactly man-beasts up front and could be susceptible to the stylings of MINOR RAGE. With Brown and Shaw and Leetle Vincent Smith there to bounce it to the outside and provide that spark, the advantage...

Advantage Michigan

woo.

Wideouts

via nbcsportsmedia2.msnbc.com

Notre Dame

Michael Floyd averaged 47.7 yards per reception last game against Nevada. Golden Tate hauled in 3 catches for 59 yards. These are some fantastic numbers, but a quick look at the record shows that Nevada also clocked in last year with the 110th ranked pass defense in the country. So impressive as last game's numbers are, and they are impressive, I'm not sure they hold up against a team with a real-life pass defense. That being said, Floyd and Tate are both legitimate WR's who are good on the deep ball and have solid hands. They will present a problem.

Michigan

Hemingway is listed as doubtful (which provides a lot of literary jokes that I won't make. Yay liberal arts). He is Michigan's primary deep threat, based on last game, and will probably be replaced by Darryl Stonum, who has underwhelmed in the Spring. That ain't good. However, the emergence of Kelvin "last seen missing layups" Grady and the presence of Odoms and Matthews makes the loss manageable. If Stonum can run the routes, I expect he'll be targeted. What's been rumored shaky has been his hands, so, well, god help us. This offense relies more on the leetle slot dudes anyways, so the loss of Hemingway doesn't necessarily mean death. But it ain't good.

Advantage Notre Dame

Tight Ends

Notre Dame

Kyle Rudolph caught 4 balls for 29 yards last game. Weis does utilize the Tight End in the receiving game, so Rudolph will have to be accounted for. According to the House Rock Built, he's definitely more a receiving TE than a blocker. He'll be one of those guys Clausen hits on a 3rd and short that causes me to throw things.

Michigan

Kevin Koger's Catch (via davidrizik)

I think Koger is more athletic, and like much of Rodriguez's offense, he seems designed to run seam routes and look for big plays. That waggle last game was a thing of beauty. Rudolph seems more like a grind the chains type, while Koger seems more the big play type. Both important, both pretty good...

Advantage Push

Offensive Line

Notre Dame

As has been detailed here before, Notre Dame returns 4 starters on an offensive line that features more 5-stars than a meeting of the joint chiefs. Over the past 2 games - including last year's bowl game, obvs - they've given Clausen enough time to sling 9 TD's. With Clausen taking the expected leap into Junior year awareness, and a line that might actually provide him some protection, the passing game of ND could be pretty fierce. That said, Weis has really tinkered with the left side of the line, and that's exactly where Brandon Graham lives. Given that Rudolph isn't much of a blocking TE, Michigan could get pressure with 4 rushing.

Michigan

Well, the line looked pretty good against Western. Molk had some dumb holding calls, but in all, a pretty even day. I'm not terribly concerned with Notre Dame's defensive line, especially given that Nevada racked up 118 yards of rushing, and had their starter average 6.3 yards per carry. Given that Nevada was hovering around the top of the NCAA last year in rushing, this can be explained away, but Michigan's offensive line is going to be bigger and meaner than the Nevada line that had Notre Dame on skates for a good portion of the game.

Advantage Michigan but not by much

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

Defensive Line

Notre Dame

Well, I kind of blew it up there in the O-line section, but yeah, they didn't look good against Nevada. I think they're going to have their hands full with the Michigan offensive line, especially if Michigan decides to employ MINOR RAGE runs up the gut.

Michigan

The defensive line is probably the strong suit of this Michigan defense, featuring already ferocious Brandon Graham, developingly ferocious Mike Martin (GET IN THE CAR), and an impressively ferocious for being a true freshman and such Craig Roh. If Michigan can get their pass rush out of the front 4, they will do well. If they need to bring in a LB or Safety, they will be gambling.

Advantage Michigan

Linebackers

Notre Dame

Toryan, Scott and Brian Smith (not related AFAIK) make up the corp of this experienced unit. These two combined for 8 tackles, four of which were losses. Freshman all-everything recruit Manti Te'o will play as well, and while he had a "welcome to NCAA" type game against Nevada, he is still a presence to be dealt with. As a corp they are fast and experienced, and will definitely provide more of a challenge than WMU's. Missed blocks against this unit will equal immediate tackles; probably not "gets hit but drags the dude for 3 more yards." The UM linemen are going to HAVE to put a body on these guys.

Michigan

Ok, so Stevie Brown was significantly improved at his new linebacker position, just like we all knew he would be. Anybody who watched him wreck shit at the line of scrimmage last year then screw up coverage knew this. Next to him is Obi Ezeh, who looked pretty good against Western, but was found to be hesitant on a few plays:

Roh(+1), in a two-point stance as Michigan moves to an under look, attacks the RT. RT doesn't look like he's attempting to block Roh, as the play is supposed to go up the middle. This is a mistake: Roh gets underneath the guy and blasts him back into the ballcarrier as he passes. An unblocked Ezeh—no Broncos got off their doubles—cleans up. Michigan was in a pure eight-man front here, BTW, with a blitz off the edge from Williams absorbing a pulling TE. Would like Ezeh to be a little more proactive here and shut this down closer to the LOS.

I have no way of telling whether the UFR is the end-all-be-all or whether Ezeh had other responsibilities, but this was a recurring theme.

Advantage Notre Dame but not by much

Secondary

Notre Dame

Senior Kyle McCarthy and Sophomore Robert Blanton both got picks last week as they shut down Nevada's passing offense. Nevada, however, is a known running team, and while the DB's got a bit of work in, they weren't exactly facing Tom Brady's Patriots here. I expect the unit to be improved, if only because they were starting a slow white boxer at Safety prior to this year. The jury, however, is still out on this unit.

Michigan

Michigan meanwhile returns Donovon Warren, who was very impressive in his Junior year debut against Western, and Boubacar Cissoko who looked good at times, and competent at others. Boubacar was held out of the second half against Western due to a tweak, and what we saw behind him didn't looke good. I foresee Justin Turner getting some reps this game if Cissoko can't go or re-tweaks something. As long as the four man unit of Warren, Cissoko, Woolfork, and Williams stays on the field, Michigan has a good secondary. If just one of these dudes goes down, we're in trouble

Advantage Michigan as long as they don't get injured. If Floyd sees significant time, this shifts to ND quickly.

Special Teams

This punt still hasn't landed.

In all seriousness, Michigan holds an advantage in this area given the Zoltan factor as well as the 44-yarder kicked last week by Olesnavage. Notre Dame is starting some sort of freshman walkon not named Rudy at kicker, which is questionable, and has a serviceable punter.

The Upshot

I think Michigan actually has a better defense provided that they are able to stay on the field without their feet and tendons bending the wrong way. Notre Dame's, however, is not far behind and given the fact that the Michigan offense is still new and still run by newbies, we might be in trouble. If Tate can still make the smart decision in the face of the TENUTA-BLITZ, we'll be in business. If he gets flustered, well, it might be time to start thinking about Central.

Conversely, the Notre Dame offense is definitely better at this stage than the Michigan offense. So we've got a superior offense going against a superior defense, and a shaky offense going against a comparatively shaky defense but not as shaky as I'd like.

Much like Brian and House Rock Built guy, I see this coming down to a few big plays. Notre Dame will throw deep, and probably connect on one. Michigan might catch a TENUTA BLITZ on a screen that goes the distance. If we can force Clausen into Yakety-Sax mode - which he's prone to do in the Big House - we'll be in business. If he starts converting 3rd and 7's with regularity, we're toast.

Score predictions up later today.

Know thy Opponent 2009: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

BoilerTMill — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:03:42 -0000

My proudest moment as a blog writer came two years ago. In my 2007 Notre Dame preview, I stated there was a good chance that Irish could start the season either 1-7 or 0-8. That led to the following comment:

1-7 or 0-8? Ay yes, and I'll believe that when me sh*t turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet ... Had you said 4-4, you might be making some sense. 0-8/1-7 makes you look like a biased fool. Do better. -- Gerry of College Football Nation on my July 12, 2007 prediction Notre Dame could start 1-7 or 0-8 in 2007

In the end, I was wrong. They started a delicious 1-9 with home losses to Air Force and Navy. It was a glorious season for Irish haters everywhere. To tell you where I stand, I think it was their best season in school history.

To be fair, Notre Dame has learned quite a bit from that season. Too much talent has too much experience now to think they will be that bad again. Last season was better for the Irish, but it wasn't night and day better. That is supposed to be this year. This game will likely be our only prime time appearance this year. Since most likely we're not going to win at Oregon, this is a good chance for us to make a little noise and show we're not as bad as people expect.

2008 Record: 7-6

Bowl result: Beat Hawaii 49-21 in Hawaii bowl

Blog Representation: Domer Sports Report , Irish Band of Brothers, Blue Gray Sky, Rakes of Mallow

Series with Purdue: Notre Dame leads 50-24-2

Last Purdue win: 9/29/07 at Purdue 33-19

Last Notre Dame win: 9/27/08 at Notre Dame 38-21

Last Season for the Irish:

Notre Dame leads the Shillelagh portion our rivalry 33-19, but a large reason for that is our 11 year drought during the Colletto/Akers years.

As for last season for the Irish, it is difficult to say if it was a step toward something bigger or the result of a weak schedule. Notre Dame played just two ranked teams, USC and North Carolina, and lost both games. Our game against them, especially in the third quarter, was one of the most embarrassing defensive efforts ever from a Purdue team. The Irish also lost games to good teams in Michigan State, Pittsburgh, and Boston College. The worst loss was a home loss to Syracuse. You can't draw much from their wins though. San Diego State was awful, yet the game was unnecessarily close. Michigan and Purdue weren't much better. Stanford and Washington didn't go to bowl games either (Washington epically so at 0-12). The only bowl team they beat in the regular season was Navy.

Much was made of Notre Dame's win over Hawaii in the bowl game. The Warriors are normally a pretty tough team at home, so it could be considered a good win. However, saying that the Warriors struggled with pass defense would imply that they had a pass defense. I do think more good came out of it than bad though. Jimmy Clausen lived up to his enormous hype for the first time in his career, and he has to show he can continue to do so lest he become Ron Powlus. Of course now that he has won a bowl game he is better than Powlus.

Everyone is talking about how easy Notre Dame's schedule is this year. I tend to disagree. The opener against Nevada is a game they should win, but the pistol offense that the Wolfpack runs could be tricky. If Michigan has any kind of an offense they can win at home the next week. Michigan State owns the Irish in South bend as well, so week three is no guarantee either. USC, Boston College, and trips to Stanford and Pittsburgh are far from guaranteed wins. I won't predict another 1-7 start, but those saying 10 wins are certain know nothing about college football.

Notre Dame offense:

This is why I am glad Brock Spack is no longer coaching for us. I got fed up with his inability to prevent players from having career days against us after last year's game. His run defense was pathetic last year against Notre Dame, especially in light of the Ohio State game against a better opponent. Allen ran for just 585 yards and three TD's on the season. He was #1 on the team in rushing yards and #2 in touchdowns for a poor running game. Against us, he had a career high 134 yards and a touchdown. To put that in perspective, his next highest single game rushing total was 73 yards against Pittsburgh. It is his only 100 yard rushing game to date. As a team, Notre Dame had 201 yards rushing against us, nearly twice as much as their season average. Notre Dame needs more of a running game to take the pressure off of Clausen. They proved that in our game last year as Clausen had plenty of time to throw and had one of his best career games. Allen, Robert Hughes (382, 4 TD), James Aldridge (357, 3 TD), and Jonah Gray (90 yards) all return, while speedy backs Cierre Wood and Theo Reddick come in has 4-star freshmen. With all that talent there is no excuse for Notre Dame to have one of the worst running games in America again.

I call him Jimmy Montana, Boiled Sports call him Pickles, some call him the Emu, but the kid has some talent.

As mentioned, that running game will be a big key to quarterback Jimmy Clausen's success. It will take a redshirt year and another medical redshirt year, both in which he wins the Heisman and the Irish win national championships, for Clausen to meet his original prediction. The junior quarterback improved greatly last season mostly because he wasn't running for his life every game. He is the unquestioned starter with 3,172 yards and 25 TD's last year against 17 picks. We failed to pick him off in our game and he threw for 275 yards and three scores. Clausen has a good completion percentage just under 61%. He can get a lot better by cutting down on his interceptions.

Clausen has plenty of talent to throw to led by junior receiver Golden Tate. Simply put, we cannot guard the guy. Spack knew nothing about covering him, and now there are other weapons to throw to so we can't focus on just Tate. Tate was far and away the best receiver last year (58-1,080-10), while Allen was second on the team in receptions. Michael Floyd (48-719-7) is a good second option who had a 100 yard day against us. He put up his numbers despite missing the final three games of the regular season. Kyle Rudolph (29-340-2) gives Clausen a solid tight end as an option as well. Duval Kamara, Robbie Parris provide depth as well.

The biggest reason for Notre Dame's turnaround was the improvement of its offensive line. They couldn't block anyone in 2007, but last year they gave Clausen some time. Senior Paul Duncan steps into the one vacancy, but it is at the all-important left tackle position. Sam Young has the most experience at right tackle with 38 career starts. Dan Wenger started every game at center last season, so there should be few problems with the quarterback-center exchange. Eric Olsen has 19 consecutive starts at left guard, while the other guard position appears to be Trevor Robinson's. The experience is a big key on this line. They have plenty of size and talent, but now they have the in game knowledge to back it up. Don't count out Chris Stewart with nine starts as well.

Notre Dame defense:

The Irish defense excels at getting tackles for loss thanks to its unique blitzing scheme. They had 60 tackles for loss last season, 1ith 18 different players having at least one negative result. 12 different players got in on a sack, so it is hard to point to one defensive player and say he is the key. Senior safety Kyle McCarthy is the leader on the defense with a team high 110 tackles and two interceptions. Stepping in for the departed David Bruton at the other safety position is Harrison Smith. Smith had 57 tackles and 3.5 sacks a year ago as a linebacker. Robert Blanton and Raeshon McNeil. Both had a pair of interceptions last season and each has plenty of experience in the secondary.

As mentioned, Notre Dame loves to blitz. It will do so repeatedly with linebackers Brian Smith, Toryan Smith, and Scott Smith. These guys are big linebackers, all over 235 pounds. Darius Fleming and stud recruit Manti Te'o should also see plenty of time in the rotation as Notre Dame goes with a linebacker by committee approach. Notre Dame is switching its main defensive scheme from a 3-4 to a 4-3 this year, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out with so much raw talent at linebacker playing a reduced role.

You can't go wrong with a giant Hawaiian linebacker who has public speaking experience.

The defensive line didn't have a huge star last season, but was fairly consistent in its 3-4 alignment. Kerry Neal will likely be used as more of an end in the new alignment where his speed will make him difficult to handle. He had two sacks last season, but will need more this year if Notre Dame is to create consistent pressure with just its line. Ian Williams and Hafis Williams continue the theme of generic last names (Smith and Williams) within the defense at the tackle positions. Ian is a space-eater inside that will make running the ball very difficult. Ethan Johnson will also likely see plenty of time. He tied for the team lead in sacks with 3.5 last season. Kapron Lewis-Moore is an unknown talent who hasn't played at all, yet had a fantastic spring by all sources.

Notre Dame Special Teams:

This was far from the team's strength as Brandon Walker hit on just 14 of 24 field goals. If we can keep Notre Dame out of the end zone he is far from automatic as a kicker. Tate and Allen will handle the return duties, as both split things almost evenly a season ago. Allen had a 96 yard kickoff return for a score in the bowl game against Hawaii.

Eric Maust is pretty good punter averaging better than 41 yards per kick. He is good at downing the ball inside the 20, doing so 16 times last year. The coverage teams are excellent, as much of the talent that doesn't get to play regularly excels on special teams. Opponents averaged just 6 yards per punt return and 16 yards per kick return in 2008.

Intangibles:

No one is facing more pressure to perform his season than Jimmy Clausen and Charlie Weis. Clause was fantastic against an awful Hawaii defense, but did virtually nothing against USC. Weis basically needs to get this team to a good bowl game or he is fired. I will agree that Clausen is getting better. I may even stop calling him Jimmy Montana. Until he has a good game against a real defense, however, I will remain skeptical. Our defense will be the strength of our team, especially early. We have very little chance of winning unless the defense plays worlds better than it did in South Bend.

A lot will depend on Notre Dame's psyche coming into this game. A 1-2 start is entirely possible before this game, especially if Michigan is markedly better. You cannot ignore that Notre Dames wins in the last eight games have come against an awful Washington team, Navy, and Hawaii. If they don't start 3-0 there will be questions.

Game Outlook:

This game gets into the realm of the unknown. It is hard to say what will happen until we see both teams play. Everyone says this is Notre Dame's best team under Weis, but is it really? What will people think if Nevada goes in and puts a scare into them in the opener? Conversely, we are supposed to be awful, but if we come in at 2-1 with a good showing against Oregon we should have some confidence. I remember how we embarrassed ourselves at home in a night game four years ago. I was so furious at that team I left the game before halftime. We can't let this game get out of hand like that one.

This could be a major turning point to our season. The Rivalry is already calling this an automatic win for Notre Dame. With our improved attitude and a good defensive performance this game will be much closer than people think. If our line can handle the blitz and we stay committed to the running game (something we always fail to do against Notre Dame) our offense should have some room to move. Notre Dame's defense is good, but we have showed the past three years we can move against it. We just need to score points to go with those yards.

Prediction:

I can't explain why I feel better about the Oregon game than I do Notre Dame. For now, I will give the edge to Notre Dame. Though I don't think Weis is as good of a coach as I used to, they have talent and experience we simply cannot match. Their passing game scares me a bit, and they showed last year they can run on us if necessary. We have to make them as one-dimensional as possible and get pressure on Clausen. This just feels like a game we'll be in a position to win, but we won't quite pull it out. If we do, however, everything changes just like it did in 1997. Notre Dame 24, Purdue 20.