Battle Voted Game MVP
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
September 6, 2000

Notre Dame, Ind - After the game on Saturday we posted a poll asking who should be the game MVP.  The choices we gave we Arnaz Battle, Joey Hildbold, Julius Jones, and Tony Driver.  Basically we thought Battle and Jones played the best on offense while Driver stood out on defense and Hildbold was killing the ball and kept Notre Dame in the game by giving A&M bad field position with some huge punts.  The fans have spoken, Arnaz Battle got 76% of the 691 votes that were cast.

We are hoping to have the fans vote on the game MVP every week after the game and then follow up on the next Wednesday with an article on the fans choice.  We will also be posting some of the comments that fans left as they voted.   So here goes.

Everyone knew Notre Dame's success would depend upon how well Arnaz Battle performs early.  He had no starting experience coming in and saw little time in any important situations in his first two seasons at Notre Dame.  One comment sums up Battle's performance very well, "Battle really needed to prove himself and he did."

Battle proved a lot of people wrong by throwing the ball rather well.  Some of his passes were off target, but his touchdown passes to Joey Getherall and Javin Hunter had very good touch on them.  In my opinion he is much further advanced throwing the ball than Jarious Jackson was at the same point in his career.  Jarious overthrew the ball A LOT early in his career.  Battle however was on target most of the day and played very well for a first time starting quarterback.

Arnaz also ran the option very well.  He kept the ball when he had and made the most of it.  He also pitched when he had to and his pitches were on target.  We all know that Jarious had troubles pitching the ball.   Battle also showed his strength and mobility on one play in the second quarter.   A blitzing Aggie linebacker flew into Arnaz, and Arnaz simply bounced off the defender and turned a sure sack for just about any other quarterback into a 9 yard gain.

He was not perfect, but who is in their first start?   The bottom line was that he threw two touchdowns, kept the ball where only his wide receivers could make the catch, and did not force anything when the pocket collapsed.   He also did not turn the ball over once.  It will be interesting to see how he reacts to his first fumble or INT of the year, but this week he was perfect in that aspect.  He and center Jeff Faine also had no problems with the snap even though both were first time starters.

Another comment from one of the voters says it all, " Calm, cool, and can take a hit."  Many times young quarterbacks get frazzled when they don't have early success.  Arnaz however kept coming out onto the field in control. 

Other Voter Comments

• No turnover plus 2 td's was great but a lot more will be needed for the Irish to upset Nebraska.
• I believe battle may have the quality important for a Notre Dame QB, the ability to make something out of nothing,  something we've been lacking.

The Other Candidates
Tony Driver is one of the best hitters on the defense.  More importantly though, Driver makes the tackle.  Too many Irish defenders were trying to make the knockout blow instead of the tackle.  Driver on the other hand did both.  When he hit someone, they went backwards.  He also read Farris the whole time on his interception and came up with the defensive play of the game.  All in all he turned in a tremendous performance for making his first start on defense in two years.

Joey Hildbold's performance also goes overlooked.   He was killing the ball after his first punt and his kicks kept Notre Dame in the game in the first half when field position was critical.  Notre Dame struggled moving the ball early and subsequently had bad field position.  Hildbold's punts of 59 and 69 yards however changed the momentum of the game.  All three kickers however had good games and helped big time.  McNew kept Texas A&M deep in their own territory with his booming kicks and Nick Setta gave the Irish kicking game some stability for the first time in years.

Julius Jones is the best player Notre Dame has.  He needs more carries though.  His 18 yard touchdown run was a thing of beauty and every time he touched the ball it looked as if he was within one block or one broken tackle of a touchdown.  He is exciting and electrifying and needs to touch the ball at least 25 total times for Notre Dame to beat Nebraska (I figure about 17 carries, 5 receptions, and then 3 touches on kicks/punts).  If he can get 25 or more touches Saturday he will make Nebraska pay.