Weis Presser Notes 8/14

Charlie Weis met with the media on Friday and had some interesting things to say about developing the underclassmen, the practice schedule for the next week, how much freedom Jimmy Clausen will have to audible at the line of scrimmage, and a bunch of other topics.  Here are some notes from what Weis had to say.

• Weis is encouraged with the increase tempo of practice since the team went to full pads and plans on keeping up with that mentality at least until the end of next week.
• On Monday and Tuesday of next week there will be a period of practice which will focus on Michigan. Monday will be a two a day practice while Tuesday will just be one. Wednesday and Thursday will be set up similarly with the period of each practice focusing on Michigan State. Friday will be a scrimmage and then the team will have some time off for freshman orientation weekend. This will give Notre Dame two weeks of preparation for Nevada.
• Because there are some bumps and bruises and in an effort to build more depth, Weis plans on pulling out starters in practice and inserting some backups to see how the players play together. Considering one of the knocks on Weis has been his inability to develop young players, this is a nice development. The starters won’t be held out of the period of practice which will be preparing the team for future opponents.
• Weis talked about not “banging” the players in practice as much in years past as he has learned throughout the process of being a college head coach. He also said that the staff is able to do this because of the increased depth across the board on this team.
• On the returnmen who will be used, Weis said that Armando Allen and Golden Tate are more likely to be used in the punt return vs. the kick return game because of his confidence in their decision making ability.
• Tyler Eifert has blocked better than Weis thought he would at this point. He talked about the weight gains Eifert has made since the day he offered him a scholarship.
• The reps at quarterback have been kept relatively even so far according to Weis but they are starting to be distributed in order of the depth chart.
• Weis talked about developing Dayne Crist and letting him throw the football if the opportunity presents itself. He said this was not generally his mentality, but that its necessary in order to get him ready for playing. This is potentially a major change in Weis’s philosophy of not running up the score and getting vanilla in the 4th quarter. This has bitten Notre Dame in the behind and is one of the last NFL traits that Weis needs to rid himself of.
• Weis talked quite a bit about recruiting philosophy Friday. One interesting note was that Weis talked about how if they hear that recruits stay out late on visits and give their hosts problems with curfew that Notre Dame will drop the recruit. He said it has only occurred rarely, but it has happened in the past.
• Weis wouldn’t comment on the comments made by Joe Montana about Notre Dame lowering expectations at Notre Dame.
  Weis hinted that Darius Fleming or Steve Filer would be the SAM linebacker over Scott Smith after saying that Smith with “old reliable” with Filer and Fleming being more athletic. He went on to say that ideally you’d want to start the more athletic player at the position. Translation – expect Fleming or Filer to start at SAM. My guess would be Fleming.
• Weis talked about Kyle Rudolph being a faster version of John Carlson. He said that Carlson was one of his favorite players, but that Rudolph is faster.
• Ethan Johnson and Manti Te’o were sat down together this week with Weis explaining how Te’o is in a similar situation that he was in last year as a true freshman who is capable of passing some upper classmen on the depth chart. Weis said the two have bonded a bit.
• Duval Kamara is progressing nicely after having his knee scoped earlier this week. Weis said he went from two crutches to one crutch to no crutches pretty quickly.
• Jimmy Clausen will have more freedom at the line of scrimmage this year, but won’t have free reign to call whatever he wants after he breaks the huddle. Weis said that most of the time, Clausen will have multiple plays that he can check out to if the called play doesn’t look like it will match up well with what he sees out of the defense.