Here are some highlight videos of Cam McDaniel that really highlight his athleticism and versatility.

Senior year highlights mainly of McDaniel as a running back.

Junior year highlights.

Sophomore year highlights of McDaniel specifically as a receiver.

More sophomore year highlights, this time of McDaniel as a kick/punt returner.

THE STREAK IS OVER.  Despite losing the turnover battle 4-1 and playing half of the game in a driving rain storm, Notre Dame ended USC’s 8 year winning streak over the Irish and capped off a roller coaster regular season on a high note.

I’ll get into my normal post game comments in a bit, but want to give everyone a second to savor this victory and appreciate just how far the Irish have come in a month.  On October 30 Notre Dame lost a heart breaker Tulsa a week after being dominated by Navy.  A month later Notre Dame is on a three game winning streak with victories over Utah, Army, USC.

That’s what I call a remarkable turn around.

Now, on to some observations from the game.

• Tommy Rees came back down to earth in the second half against USC after throwing 2 touchdowns in the first half to build Notre Dame’s 13-3 halftime lead.  His 4 turnovers led to all 16 of USC’s points and he struggled to make any down field throws.   Rees will have 15 more practices to prepare for the bowl game and he’ll need to use each one.
• What a performance by Robert Hughes.  Is there a better story from tonight’s win than Hughes game?  Hughes hasn’t been used much this year, but when his number was called Saturday night he ran like the big, bruising back that we’ve all been waiting to see since 2007.   Without Hughes, Notre Dame simply doesn’t win this game tonight.
• USC did a great job of getting their hands up and closing the passing lanes down for Rees.  Kelly is going to need to get Rees out of the pocket more for the Irish to continue this winning streak in bowl season.
• On Rees’s first interception of the second half, he had Cierre Wood wide open down the sideline for a big gain and on his last interception of the game he had Riddick one on one with a safety but threw the ball into triple coverage.  He’s going to be busy in the film room over the next month but should learn a lot from this game.
• Great job by the offensive line today.  They got a nice push throughout the game and kept Rees upright for most of the night.  They didn’t get a single holding call against a very good defensive line either.
• Riddick and TJ Jones weren’t featured much in the offense tonight.  Given their lack of practice time with Rees over the last month that isn’t too shocking, but given Rees’s limitations both will need to have a bigger role in the bowl game.
• Tyler Eifert made the heads up play of the game when he recovered Cierre Wood’s fumble on Notre Dame’s last drive.  Eifert was a match-up problem for USC as well but Rees had trouble getting him the ball.
• Duval Kamara gets props for his heads up play to reach the ball out over the goal line on his second quarter touchdown.  He had not secured the ball while breaking the plane until he reached the ball out before stepping out of bounds.
• With a more experienced quarterback, Michael Floyd would have had a monster game.  He was the glue that kept the Irish passing game in tact throughout the game, but he could have dominated the USC secondary if given the chance.  Floyd was a beast of a blocker in the run game as well.
• The offense is still very much a work in progress, and given all of the injuries it would be a tall order for it to be much more than that at this point.  With Jones and Riddick healthy and able to practice for the bowl game, the Irish passing attack should be able to develop some consistency.

Defense

• USC fans will say that the only reason Notre Dame was because of Ronald Johnson’s drop on their final drive, but in reality, the only reason USC was in the game was because of Notre Dame’s turnovers.  USC was given the ball inside the Notre Dame 40 four times on turnovers and could only muster three field goals and a touchdown.  Even their lone touchdown came on a 4th and goal after they started the drive on the 2 yard line.
• Bottom line, the Irish defense was flat out dominant against USC.  The only reason the touchdown-less streak was broken tonight was because USC started with the ball at the 2 yard line.
• USC averaged just 2.7 yards per carry and 4.8 yards per pass attempt.
• Brian Smith played the best game of his career.  He was all over the field from start to finish and came up with a huge pass deflection on the USC 4th down attempt that set up Notre Dame’s last second first half touchdown.   His career has been a roller coaster ride, but he’s saved his best football for the stretch run this season.  Hopefully he’s got one more game like tonight left in him.
• The defensive backs did a hell of a job tackling in the first half, but missed a few tackles in the second half once the rain started coming down.
• Gary Gray, Robert Blanton, and Darrin Walls were very solid in coverage other than Blanton’s blunder on USC’s final drive that could have cost Notre Dame dearly.  Blanton went for the ball but whiffed.  Luckily the ball was dropped.
• Harrison Smith nearly had an interception on the first play of the game, but ended up with an important one to seal the victory.  A few plays earlier Smith fell down leaving Ronald Johnson all alone with nothing but green in front of him – excellent response by Smith.
• Great job by the defensive line clogging the running lanes and stuffing the USC running game.
• It’s amazing to think that this is the same defense that got shredded by Navy just a month ago.  Not sure what happened, but I certainly hope Bob Diaco, Chuck Martin, Kerry Cooks, and Mike Elston keep doing whatever it is they’re doing.
• Additional tip of the cap to Diaco for his defensive game plans the last three weeks.  He took the brunt of the criticism for the loss to Navy – especially after his interviews following the loss – but he’s responded with some excellent coaching.

Special Teams

• Little bit on an inconsistent night from Ben Turk.  He had a couple nice punts in the game but ended up averaging only 37.5 yards per punt.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Kyle Brindza gave Turk some competition for the punting duties next year – especially if he ends up enrolling early.
• It was surprising to see David Ruffer miss an extra point after not missing a field goal this season.  Hopefully this is just an anomaly.
• Pretty solid coverage today on kicks and punts against some dangerous returnmen.
• The Notre Dame return game, however, remains to be a disappointment.  Hopefully Kelly and special teams coach Mike Elston spend some extra time with the bowl practices to work on the return game.

This week’s Irish Blogger Gathering is brought to us by OC Domer – a Notre Dame blogger subjected to USC much more than most of us.  Be sure to check out his responses to these questions with the link above and see my responses below.

1. Notre Dame played perhaps its best game of the year in a win over the Utah Utes two weeks ago. Utah remains ranked at #23 in the Associated Press poll. Notre Dame likewise took Michigan State (AP #11) to overtime before losing on a fake field goal. Therefore the Irish should have no trouble with this unranked Trojan squad. Agree or disagree? Show your work.

Manti Te'o seems like an obvious choice for team MVP this season, but Harrison Smith has quietly had an excellent season. (Photo - Icon SMI)

The transitive property of wins and losses never holds true in college football – especially in the case of a rivalry game like Notre Dame-USC.  That doesn’t taken into account USC’s recent dominance of the series either and despite their lack of a top 25 ranking this year, the Trojans are still a very solid football team with playmakers on both sides of the ball.

USC’s record might not be what most Trojan fans became accustomed to under Pete Carroll, but USC has played some very good football teams tough.  They took Stanford down to the wire and hung with Oregon for about three quarters until their lack of depth caught up to them and the Ducks ran away with it.

At the same time, USC was hanging by a thread for a couple of weeks before getting blown out by Oregon State last weekend.  Three weeks ago they squeaked by Arizona State and two weeks ago hung on to a three point win over Arizona.

The X-factor here is what USC team shows up?  The one that played Stanford and Oregon tough or the one that got blown out by Oregon State and doesn’t have a chance to play in a bowl game because of USC’s probation?  The lack of a bowl game can work for or against the Irish here.  On one hand, they could treat the Notre Dame game as their bowl game while on the other they could be lacking motivation after last week.

Bottom line – this year’s game is about as unpredictable as any Notre Dame – USC game in recent memory.

2. It is almost time for the OC Domer Player of the Year to be named. This award is intended to recognize the Notre Dame football player or players who played the best when it mattered the most. Suffice it to say that the primary criterion is a consistently high level of play, with significant bonus points awarded for exceeding expectations. Injuries have taken many of the pre-season favorites for this prestigious award out of the running. Who is your nominee for this award, and why?

The offense has been too inconsistent and injured this year for the award to reside on that side of the ball so I’ll turn my attention to defense where I see three candidates – Manti Te’o, Gary Gray, and Harrison Smith.  Te’o is the most obvious choice because of his tackle totals and his big hits, but Gray and Smith both deserve some serious consideration.  Gray has been as close to a shutdown corner as Notre Dame has had in years.  He doesn’t have a lot of interceptions because teams just have not been targeting him in the passing game.

Harrison Smith meanwhile might be the most improved player on the team.  Smith is tied for the team lead in interceptions with 3 and ranks second on the team in tackles behind Te’o.  He’s a completely different player than the one we’ve seen bounced around between linebacker and safety the last two years and he’s just starting to play his best football.

At the end of the day, I’d give it to Te’o, but with Gray and Smith both back for the Irish next year, the secondary should be in fine shape.

Side note – If Ian Williams had stayed healthy all season, he’d be the hands down winner here.

3. With a delicate flavor similar to beef, though slightly sweeter than other meats, horse meat can be used to replace beef, pork, mutton, and any other meat in virtually any recipe, though most aficionados prefer it in marinated or spicy dishes. Nutritionally, horse meat has around 40 percent fewer calories than the leanest beef, while supplying 50 percent more protein and as much as 30 percent more iron; and horse fat is considered an excellent health-conscious deep-frying alternative, especially for delicately-flavored foods that are easily overpowered by heavier oils. What is your favorite horse meat recipe?

Ummm…. I got nothing here.

4. Do you miss Pat Haden, who left the Notre Dame television broadcasts to become athletic director at USC?

I don’t miss Haden in the booth at all.  Mayock has been a much better color commentator because of his understanding of the game.  I could have done with him saying “Bobby Diaco” as many times as he has all season, but he’s been much easier to listen to than Haden.

Now, if only there was something we could do about getting the guy sitting next to Mayock replaced.

5. USC is the Notre Dame rival I love to hate. What Notre Dame rival do you most despise, and why?

Until the Pete Carroll Era at USC, I never had many ill feelings towards USC since the Trojans were Notre Dame’s oldest rival.  The Carroll Era changed that, but mainly because of the beatings his squads dealt out to the Irish over the last 8 years.  With Lane Kiffin’s polarizing personality roaming the Southern Cal sidelines now, it’s probably going to be even easier to hate the Trojans.

All of that said, Michigan is still the Notre Dame rival I despise the most.  Many people tend to forget that Michigan and Fielding Yost went out of their way to try and derail the Notre Dame football program before it ever got off the ground.   Back in the early days of Notre Dame football, Michigan was also instrumental in keeping the Irish out of the Western Conference (now the Big 10).  Throw in Bo Schembechler’s “to hell with Notre Dame” and it’s a lot easier to hate Michigan than USC.

6. Reggie Bush got a car, his parents a house. Rumors of  Cam Newton’s dad seeking money for his sons services aren’t going away.  Can Notre Dame compete for athletic recruits in this environment? Or do you believe these incidents are the exceptions to an otherwise clean recruiting landscape?

Of course Notre Dame can complete for recruits in this environment.  As recently as three years ago Notre Dame had the 2nd best recruiting class in the country according to most recruiting services after one of the worst seasons in Notre Dame history.   While Charlie Weis’s recruiting classes had some glaring holes in them from year to year (usually along the defensive line and defensive backfield), he showed that Notre Dame can compete for elite prospects with all of the other major powers in college football.

Notre Dame’s biggest problem in recruiting has had less to do with the weather in South Bend, the academic standards at Notre Dame, or any improprieties at other universities and more to do with the product on the field.   Until Notre Dame starts playing consistently well on both sides of the ball, there will be struggles in recruiting in some form or another.  Even when Weis was signing top 10 classes, the holes that existed came in areas where Notre Dame struggled.  It was no coincidence that the Irish had little trouble signing quarterbacks and wide receivers with Weis in charge but struggled landing elite defensive prospects.

If Brian Kelly can right the ship and point the Irish in the right direction, recruiting will take care of itself.  Kelly and staff have shown that they can recruit with the big boys already.  If they back it up with W’s, Notre Dame will just fine in recruiting.

Side note – one of the old staff’s biggest problems in recruiting was relying on stars and rankings and not focusing on getting great athletes.  Oregon doesn’t make a lot of waves in recruiting, but they have great athletes and coach them up. If Kelly can do that as well while backing it up with wins, the Irish will not have some of the talent ad depth issues that have been a problem in the past.

ESPN/ABC released the coverage map for this weekend’s game against USC and from the looks of it, a lot of Notre Dame fans are going to be watching the game online or shelling out $24 for ESPN’s Gameplan for the weekend.

Here’s the map with Notre Dame vs. USC in teal.

UPDATE (11/24/10 12:15 PM): As of Wednesday afternoon, Philadelphia, New York, and Pittsburgh ABC affiliates will be carrying the Notre Dame-USC game.  Alternatives for viewing in areas still carrying the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game outlined below are still applicable.

As you can, most of the country will be getting Oklahoma and Oklahoma State outside of the west coast and parts of the Midwest including Chicago, Indiana, and Michigan.

Luckily, the game will be available on ESPN3.com for free for users whose internet service provider makes the service available to them.   If you are not lucky enough to have access to ESPN3, the game can be purchased as part of ESPN’s Gameplan.  The weekend pass runs $24 and is available through most cable providers.

There is also a chance that the map changes slightly by the end of the week.  In years past, some local ABC affiliates have changed their games when Notre Dame was not originally slated to be on their stations.

Never thought I’d see the day when a Notre Dame-USC game takes a backseat to Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, but this is what happens when the two teams come into the game with a combined a combined 9 losses are combining for 10 losses a season ago.

UPDATE: This coverage map is not on ESPN.com yet, but it was posted on the official USC website.

Notre Dame lost its fourth commitment of the year on Monday when 4-star running back Justice Hayes committed to Michigan after being committed to Notre Dame for months.

Hayes had been considered a firm commitment to Notre Dame, but on his visit to South Bend for the Utah game, he changed his mind.  Hayes told Michigan live that he didn’t receive the attention he had hoped for on the visit.

“I had a better relationship with the Michigan coaches and wanted to stick closer to home,” Hayes said. “When I went (to Notre Dame) two weeks ago for the Utah game, I had no intention of decommitting at that time. I just wanted to go there to see how my team was doing and watch the game. Something happened with the coaching staff. Nothing bad, but I just noticed I didn’t get the attention I was looking for. Me and my family felt very uncomfortable.”

Hayes marks the fourth decommitment for Notre Dame joining Clay Burton, Justice Hayes, and Jordan Prestwood.  Luckily for the Irish, there are still some options for them at running to compensate for the loss of Hayes.

Savon Huggins, one of the most dynamic players in the country, has been on Notre Dame’s radar throughout Hayes commitment and he remains interested in Notre Dame.  Amir Carlisle, a Stanford commitment, is also still on Notre Dame’s radar and Texas native Cam McDaniel is also a possibility.

While decommitments are never a good thing, the one encouraging aspect of these decommits is the fact that the Irish coaching staff has contingency plans in place and is in a position to be able to withstand the losses.

Think back to where Notre Dame was when Omar Hunter decommitted a few years ago.  The only backup plan at the time was going after Mike Martin – a Michigan native who grew up a Michigan fan.  Martin has turned in to a heck of a football player for the Wolverines but not having any other contingency plans back then proved costly.

For now, it at least appears as though that won’t be the case this year with highly touted prospects still interested in the Irish at the positions where the decommitments have come.

Notre Dame became bowl eligible with a dominating defensive performance in the inaugural football game in Yankee Stadium Saturday night.  The Irish defense led the way for the second week in a row  as Notre Dame rolled to a 27-3 victory.

Here are some thoughts on the game.

Offense

• Tommy Rees wasn’t asked to do too much tonight, but what he was asked to do, he did fairly well.  Outside of his first quarter interception, which was a bad throw and decision, Rees played well in his second career start.  He showed nice touch on his down field passes to Tyler Eifert and at times showed some zip we hadn’t seen out of him yet.
• Brian Kelly deserves a lot of credit for having a true freshman as ready to play as Rees has been the past two weeks.  Kelly has also done a great job devising a game plan that hasn’t required Rees to do to much as well.
• Tyler Eifert has his best game since taking over the injured Kyle Rudolph.  He caught 4 passes for a career high 78 yards and came up about a yard shy of having 2 touchdowns in the game.    Eifert also drew some praise from Mike Mayock for his blocking during the telecast.
• Cierre Wood might be the most improved player on the offensive side of the ball this year.  He is making better decisions with the ball in his hands and ran with more power and authority against Army than he had all season.  Wood ended up with 88 yards on just 14 carries.
• Robby Toma continues to impress and could end up playing himself into a more prominent role in the offense in 2011.  The sophomore from Hawaii hauled in 4 passes for 63 yards.
• Michael Floyd had a quiet game with just 3 catches, but that had more to do with Notre Dame employing a run first attack.
• TJ Jones played sparingly leaving the Irish thin at receiver.  Notre Dame will need a healthy Jones next week against USC.
• Robert Hughes had a nice game before his 4th quarter fumble which I’m sure he’ll hear about during film sessions this week.
• John Goodman appears to be at the bottom of the wide receiver rotation at this point.  Even with an injured receiving corps, Goodman didn’t see much of the field other than in punt returning capacities (more on that later).

Defense

• Wow.  Who saw Notre Dame completely shutting down Army’s option attack after the clinic Navy put on last month?  Just a flat out dominant performance for the Irish defense for the second week in a row.
• Even Army’s first drive when they gained most of their yards, they needed 17 plays to go 78 yards and only put 3 points on the board.
• After that first drive, Army manage just 3 first downs the rest of the game.
• Army gained a meager 174 yards of offense.  Heading into Saturday Army’s season low in rushing yards was 233 yards – they gained 59 fewer total yards than that this week.
• Army’s Trent Steelman completed as many passes, 2, to Notre Dame defenders as he did to his own receivers.  Darrin Walls and Brian Smith both picked off Steelman with Walls scoring Notre Dame’s first defensive touchdown since Robert Blanton’s pick 6 against Purdue in 2008.
• Harrison Smith got off to a slow start, but ended up having a really good game.  Notre Dame let him room free with 10 men in the box and he helped contain the pitch man well after the first drive.
• Anthony McDonald made a heck of a play in the 4th quarter when he shed a blocker, made the stop, stripped the runner, and recovered the ball, but the refs ruled the runner down even though it wasn’t even close.  It won’t go down in the stat sheet, but I’m sure McDonald will get credit for it during film sessions this week.
• Gary Gray had another good game this week.  The game plan this week left Gray and Walls on an island with the receiver they were covering and both responded well.
• The entire defensive line played monumentally better than they did against Navy.  Sean Cwynar and Kapron Lewis-Moore especially played well.
• Since the Navy game, the Notre Dame defense has given up just 1 touchdown in 3 games.  Considering where this defense was last year and even last month, that is a remarkable improvement.  Props to Bob Diaco, Kerry Cooks, Mike Elston, and Chuck Martin for fixing their approach this week and having this defense playing it’s best football at the end of the season.

Special Teams

• David Ruffer continues to impress connecting on both of his field goal attempts including a 47 yarder.  Ruffer is now 15 for 15 this season and 20 for 20 in his career.
• John Goodman had a few opportunities for some return yardage on punts, but he was shut down pretty well by Army.  He has been a sure handed return man, but Notre Dame needs to start getting more yards in the return game.
• Ben Turk didn’t have to do much but he did have a 49 yard punt and 2 punts inside the 20.

With Notre Dame and Army set to renew their series in Yankee Stadium, ESPN had a nice video on the history behind the series today.

The video above is great, but if you have the time, read all of Ivan Maisel’s article on just how big of a game the annual Notre Dame – Army game used to be at the height of the rivalry.

A lot of people forget how much of the Notre Dame lore came from the Army series from the 4 Horsemen to the “Win One for the Gipper” speech to all of the games played in Yankee Stadium.   Maisel does a really nice job summing up the history of the series and why it went on hiatus for a while.  It’s definitely worth a read before Saturday.

Update:  A classic post from Blue Gray Sky has an excellent look at the ND-Army series as well.

Freshman Tommy Rees has 7 TDs in less than 2 full games, but he'll have competition for the starting QB position in 2011. (Photo - Icon SMI)

We get back into the IBG this week as the Irish travel to the Big Apple to take on Army in this year’s neutral site game.

1) Saturday’s result against Utah was a very pleasant surprise, but an unexpected one, to say the least. What was the biggest positive you took from the win over the Utes, and what concerns you most as the Irish head into their final two games of the regular season?

The fact that the Irish came out fired up and played hard from start to finish was very encouraging because it shows that the team has not quit on Brian Kelly after a very rough stretch of a few weeks.  The players have said all along they were all in with this staff and the effort shown on Saturday is proof they are still very much in Kelly’s corner.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how promising it was to see the Irish defense dominate the Utah offense from start to finish as well.  If you throw out the Navy debacle, the Irish defense has been much improved this season.

Army’s option attack.  I expect Notre Dame to play better against the option this weekend, but after how bad the defense looked against Navy, who knows just how much better the defense will look.  Notre Dame has to win this game.  Another performance like the Navy could derail this year’s recruiting class further.  A win this weekend also makes the Irish bowl eligible giving them some much needed extra practice time.

2) The Irish will have to take a completely different approach against the Army option than they did against the Navy attack a few weeks ago. Who do you see playing the biggest role in slowing down the Black Knight attack? Who will be the big performer on offense?

The defensive line is going to have to play much better against Army than they did against Navy in order for the Irish defense to have a better performance this weekend.  Ethan Johnson, Kapron Lewis-Moore, and Sean Cwynar are going to have to control the line of scrimmage and take up blockers.

If the defense slows down Army, the Irish safeties will be the stars of the show.  Think back a few years to the 2006 Air Force game.  The Irish defense shut down the Air Force offense and Chinedum N’Dukwe had a career day.  Against Navy the Irish safeties routinely played deep even though Navy had no intention of passing the football.  I expect to see Jamoris Slaughter and Harrison Smith play much closer to the line of scrimmage and help secure the edge.   If they do that effectively, Manti Te’o and Carlo Calebrese will hopefully be able to slow down the inside runs.

3) Should Notre Dame win one of their final two games, they’ll likely be going bowling. There are a lot of tie-ins that may or may not be fulfilled from other conferences that will likely end up deciding their postseason fate, but what bowl do you see the Irish playing in?

The new Pinstripes Bowl in Yankee Stadium would definitely be an interesting scenario for Notre Dame since it would mark three Notre Dame games in New York for the Irish in 2011.  With a couple high profile recruits in the New York vicinity, another game in the Big Apple wouldn’t be a bad a thing.

The best chance for Notre Dame to make a statement in a bowl game, however, would be in the Champs Sports Bowl.  For that to happen, the Irish would have to beat both Army and USC.   Should the Irish land in the Champs Sports Bowl, Florida State or Miami could potentially be their opponent depending on how the ACC shakes out.

4) This isn’t a question any of us thought would be an issue at the start of the season, but who do you see as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback against South Florida next year?

Right now, I think it’s too early to make any predictions on the starting quarterback.  Tommy Rees is playing strong enough to warrant him holding the starting spot going in to spring practice.  Fellow freshman Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa will have a say in the spring as well – especially if Dayne Crist misses all of the spring as many think he will.   The wild card here is Everett Golson.  Golson visited Notre Dame this past weekend and is looking to enroll early wherever he ends up which means he could be in the mix as well should he select Notre Dame.

One thing is for sure, Crist is going to have a tough time wrestling back the starting spot if he misses spring ball.  Tommy Rees has already looked more comfortable running Brian Kelly’s offense in limited action and the other quarterbacks on the roster will have all have more time to learn the offense.

5) We’re all very excited for Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, which is a nice turn towards some pretty exciting neutral site games (Miami at Soldier Field, Arizona State at Cowboys Stadium) after a rather lackluster start (Washington State in San Antonio). What are three neutral site games you’d like to see down the road?

• Nebraska in Kansas City at Arrow Head Stadium.  Two great programs with great histories in a great city and a great stadium.
• Alabama in New Orleans at the Superdome.  A rematch of the classic 1973 Sugar Bowl.
• Wisconsin in Green Bay at Lambeau Field.  How great would it be to see the Irish play in one of the most historic stadiums in the NFL?

Wow.  I don’t think anyone imagined 11 months ago when Brian Kelly was hired that we’d be discussing back to back losses to Navy and Tulsa, but after an ill-advised decision to throw the football in the final seconds, that is exactly where we’re at.  Here are some initial thoughts on the game.

Offense

• Despite the interceptions, Tommy Rees played about as well as could have been expected.  Freshmen are going to make freshmen mistakes and that’s what his final interception was.  He could have had a huge boost to his confidence if the Irish pulled this one out, but now he’ll have two weeks to think about that last interception.  Still, 300+ yards and 4 touchdowns off the bench was solid.   The 4 touchdowns
• Back to the final play.  With a solid field goal kicker and a true freshman quarterback, a play like that just shouldn’t happen.  If you are going to call a pass there, fine, explain to the QB during the timeout that he can only make the pass if the receiver is WIDE open.  If not, throw the ball away and play for the field goal.  Just a really, really bad call there.  Kelly is going to receive a lot of much deserved criticism for this call over the next two weeks and during the off-season if this game ultimately costs Notre Dame the chance to go to a bowl.
• Very tough break for Dayne Crist.  Almost a year to the day from his ACL injury he suffers another major knee injury to his other knee.  He had a lot of ups and downs in his first season as the starter, but missing the final 3 games is going to hurt his development quite a bit.
• Offensive line got little push in the running game.  There just wasn’t anywhere for Cierre Wood to go with the football most of the time.  Pass protection was solid though.
• Very rough game for John Goodman.  Multiple drops early on and a muffed punt.  Roby Toma came in and played well in relief of Goodman and looks like he could be a promising wide receiver in this offense.  Toma ended up with 4 catches for 67 yards.
• TJ Jones had a quiet game and is looking more like a freshman after his fast start.
• Up and down game for Tyler Eifert.  He had a very critical drop on 3rd and 5 in the fourth quarter, but came up with a few nice grabs and blocked well.
• The offense continues to be its own worst enemy.  They move well at times and then end drives with drops, missed receivers, penalties, etc.
• Notre Dame converted just 3 out of 14 third downs throughout the game.  It’s tough to win any game with that low of a success rate on third down.

Defense

• After a very rough start to the game, the defense settled in an kept Tulsa off the scoreboard until their last field goal.  Of the 28 points allowed today, 15 of them were given up by the offense and special teams.
• Despite the overall solid performance by the defense, Notre Dame’s lack os speed on defense was again evident.  That isn’t something that will be fixed overnight either.  It’s going to take a couple recruiting cycles before the speed on defense is at a high level.
• Notre Dame recorded 6 sacks with Darius Fleming and Ethan Johnson recording 2 of them.  Kerry Neal and Brian Smith each chipped in one as well.  Nice to see some production out of the outside linebackers.
• Chuck Martin needs to have the defensive backs practice catching drills all week.  Notre Dame has it’s hands on a couple interceptions that fell to the ground today.
• Ian Williams was missed in the middle of the defensive line.  Sean Cywar filled in admirably, but without Williams in the middle the Irish got very little push up the middle against the Tulsa running game.
• Kona Schwenke recorded a fumble recovery in his first action, but didn’t record a tackle.  It doesn’t say a whole lot for the other reserve defensive end son the roster, however, that Schwenke was in the game as an undersized true freshman.
• Robert Blanton got juked out of his cleats on the first Tulsa touchdown, but after that he responded with a nice game.  He blew up a screen pass and played well the rest of the game.

Special Teams

• This might have been the worst game for the special teams all year – a blocked PAT returned for 2 points, a punt return touchdown allowed, and a muffed punt.  Yikes.  Add in Turk’s booming punt through the end zone when a pooch punt was needed and it equals a very poor showing.
• Kick return blocking was weak again this week.  Bennett Jackson had a nice return, but overall there weren’t many lanes for Jackson.
• Notre Dame came in to the game as the best punt coverage unit in the country and then gave up the 59 yard return to Damarius Johnson.

This loss is going to sting for a while and the bye week couldn’t come at a better time.  Notre Dame needs to take these next two weeks to get healthy and regroup.  Getting to a bowl game is going to take a win against either Utah or USC now and after the last two weeks, neither look too likely at this point.  The coaches are going to need to spend some extra time working the phones to keep this recruiting class together as well because it’s going to be open season on commits by opposing coaches after this.

Michael Floyd found the end zone against Pitt this weekend, but the Irish are still having trouble getting him involved in the downfield passing game. (Photo - Icon SMI)

Notre Dame jumped out to an early lead for the second week in a row, but this time the Irish needed a late defensive stand to hold on for a 23-17 win over Pitt. Here are this week’s initial impressions.

Offense

• Dayne Crist is still a work in progress. He’s showing signs of really picking up the offense at times, but other times it looks like he is still thinking too much. He needs to trust his receivers are going to come down with the ball more too.
• Armando Allen ran really well again this week. He needs to get more carries week in and week out.
• One player who is clearly progressing each week is Theo Riddick. By the end of the year Riddick is going to be a very dangerous weapon in this offense. He’s going to break one of those bubble screens for a huge gain pretty soon.
• After a few hiccups early with the shuffled offensive line, the line played fairly well throughout the game. Crist had plenty of time to pass and there were some lanes open for the backs.  It was nice to see Matt Romine step in and hold his own at left tackle against a solid defensive line.
• Kyle Rudolph doesn’t look like himself and might need to shut it down for a week or two to get healthy. The overthrow by Crist was more of a result of Rudolph not being 100% than it was a bad throw from Crist.
• I didn’t mind the play calling on Notre Dame’s last drive before the kneel down at the end. The play call to Ragone was wide open and would have been a very simple first down if Ragone would have just held on to the ball.
• Overall, the offense is still too inconsistent. At times it looks like a well-oiled machine for a few series only to follow those up with three three and outs in a row. The three game stretch of Western Michigan, Navy, and Tulsa should give the offense an opportunity to gain a little momentum.
• One of the biggest issues holding the offense back right now is the lack of downfield passing. Most of Crist’s completions are coming on simple routes that aren’t allowing for many yards after the catch.
• Cierre Wood ran tough today when he got his chances. It was nice to see him bounce back after a rough outing last week.
• Michael Floyd played very physical today, but still isn’t being involved in the offense as much as he should be. Kelly needs to start calling more plays for him downfield where he can just run down the field and use his size to get the ball.

Defense

• For the second week in a row, the defense was pretty solid, but got burned deep on a coverage breakdown. Mike Mayock gave a pretty good breakdown of the Jonathan Baldwin long bomb during the game – Jamoris Slaughter can’t drop his coverage when he is the last line of defense to go after the quarterback.
• Speaking of Slaughter, he had a particularly rough game and might not have too much fun during film sessions this week.
• On the other hand, Harrison Smith played one of his best games in a Notre Dame uniform. He was all over the field and nearly had a game sealing interception.
• I’d like to see Notre Dame bring more pressure. When Notre Dame’s blitzed the last few weeks they’ve been successful more often than not.
• It was nice to see Prince Shembo register another sack. Notre Dame is really in need of edge pass rushers right now and Kerry Neal and Brian Smith have been largely ineffective in that capacity. Darius Fleming had one of his better games as well, but overall Notre Dame has been not gotten much of a pass rush out of the outside backers.
• At the same time, Shembo showed his inexperience on the bootleg touchdown run by Tino Sunseri and a play action pass later in the game. That is to be expected to a point, however, for a true freshman.
• Robert Blanton played a great game and made some very nice tackles, but he too got fooled on the Sunseri bootleg touchdown run.
• Ian Williams has become one of the better nose tackles in college football this season. He is playing exactly like how a nose tackle needs to play in a 3-4 defense.
• Kapron Lewis-Moore started to emerge against Pitt.  He made a couple nice stops in the run game and got some pressure on Sunseri.  Zeke Motta is also started to emerge and had his best game of the season.
• Today was a slow ay for Manti Te’o – mainly because Pitt threw the ball 39 times and abandoned the run for large stretches of the game. His roughing the passer penalty could be seen as a little ticky tack, but Te’o had enough time to stop or avoid any contact there.
• Outside of Dion Lewis’s 30 yard run on 4th and 1, the defense did a nice job bottling up the Pitt running game.  After the show Dion Lewis put on last year against the Irish, that was nice to see.

Special Teams

• Not enough can be said of David Ruffer’s performance this year.  Not only has he not missed a single kick, but he also broke a Notre Dame record with 15 straight field goal makes on a 50 yarder that cleared the crossbar by a few yards.
• The return game still doesn’t look right.  After a promising first game, the return game has not been a factor for the Irish.  Bennett Jackson has shown some promise, but there just haven’t been many lanes for him to run through
• Ben Turk had a whale of a game.  He struggled mightily at the beginning of the season, but he found his leg on Saturday with two 50+ yarders enroute to averaging 46.6 yards per kick.  Three of Turk’s five punts ended up inside the 20 yard line as well.  You never want your Punter to be one of your best performers since it means your offense isn’t moving the chains, but Turk was one of Notre Dame’s best performers against Pitt.
• John Goodman is proving to be a sure handed punt returner, but hardly had any chance to do much else with Pitt’s coverage reaching him just as each punt did.