Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

ESPN had Joe Schaad on campus today to report on Notre Dame’s first spring practice. Not a bad clip at all considering the source.

Another tidbit of news to come out of today’s press conference was the announcement that Charlie Weis will be headed to the Middle East this May along with four other college head coaches to visit US Troops.

From Notre Dame’s official release (full release here):

Weis will participate in meet and greets at various military bases throughout the Middle East from May 20-26 as well as coach flag football teams made up of servicemen and women. He will also take part in a symposium, allowing audience members to ask questions.

“I am honored to be selected to a group of collegiate football coaches to visit our troops in the Middle East the week leading up to Memorial Day,” said Weis. “My family and I believe this to be a small way to thank and support our troops for defending our country. As a proud Notre Dame alumnus, I consider this trip to be a privilege and I’m looking forward to this with great anticipation.”

The Irish head coach will be joined on the tour by Mark Richt (University of Georgia), Randy Shannon (University of Miami), Jack Siedlecki (Yale University) and Tommy Tuberville (Auburn University).

Weis also had a bit more to say about the trip at his press conference.

They had asked, I don’t know how many coaches they had asked, but they had come to me. And then, of course, I went home and talked to my boss and after talking to Maura and Charlie about this and what the Armed Forces were trying to do, I thought that was a small token of appreciation representing Notre Dame, just a small token of appreciation for me to be one of a group of college football coaches to go over there and try to mix and mingle with a whole bunch of our troops that have a lot more important job than any of us have. And I feel both honored and privileged to have been asked, and I’m looking forward to going, and I think this will be an enlightening experience.

Weis met with the media earlier today and had a lot to say. The full transcript can be found here, but here are some of the highlights since the full presser is pretty long.

On off-season improvements:

David Bruton, for example, we just finished testing as we finished the off-season program and his measurables are off the chart. I mean, his weight is a pound or two different, maybe a pound or two lighter but his body fat is like three and a half and he’s vertical jumping 41 and a half. He’s in phenomenal shape. He’s not alone. There’s a couple of those guys. Some of the guys you wouldn’t notice all the time. You look out on the field and watch the shape and conditioning of Sergio Brown in the secondary; watch the condition of Eric Olsen on the offensive line, you’ll see a couple of guys that are in phenomenal shape as we go into this off-season. Now I can’t say that for everyone but citing a couple examples, it would be very clear and obvious to everyone.

More on gains in the weight room:

Jimmy (Clausen), last year, started off at 194 and he’s walking in at 212 for the first day of training camp. That is obviously a significant gain. His body fat is status quo but has a lot more lean muscle. That’s pretty much the same — I’ll give you Dan Wenger last year started at 282 and he’s at 300 now. Sam Young started at 309, dropped to 287 by the end of the year and he’s at 330 right now.

On Mo Richardson and John Ryan moving to defensive end:

Also, you’ll notice Morrice Richardson and John Ryan for that matter, even though he’s not practicing, you’ll notice both these guys are now on their way to 260 and rising. They both are in the high 250s and we have moved them in the off-season from outside linebacker positions to defensive end positions and one of their biggest tasks in the off-season to continue getting bigger, slowly, methodically where we are not trying to gain too much weight too fast; to try to get them closer to the 260 to 270 range by the time we kick off in September, which is what our goal with both these players as they have been transitioned to having their hand up to having their hand down on a full-time basis.

Click here for more Weis quotes from today

Charlie Weis announced the hiring of former Notre Dame linebacker Kinnon Tatum to the position of graduate assistant on Wednesday.  Tatum will replace Kevin Loney who was promoted to offensive graduate assistant after Shane Waldron left for a position with the Patriots.

I hired an ex-Notre Dame football player Kinnon Tatum, he was here from ‘93 to ‘96 and graduated in ‘97, played linebacker here, went on to play for the Panthers for a couple years and was in training camp with Tampa Bay in 2000. The last few years he’s been coaching high school football in Charlotte, so he’ll be taking the position that Kevin (Loney) had, and Kevin took the position that Shane had.

Tatum was always one of my favorite players from the late 90’s because a) he was part of an outstanding linebacker corps along with Bert Berry, Lyron Cobbins, and Kory Minor and b) he was flat out awesome in the old NCAA Football games on my Sega Genesis.  Tatum was at Notre Dame the last time it could be said that linebacker was one of the absolute strengths of the team and it’s great to have him back.

Here’s a youtube clip of Tatum’s bone crushing hit against USC in 1995 when the 5th ranked Trojans came to town with title hopes and left with their tail between their legs.

Head coach Charlie Weis updated the health status of the team heading into spring ball on Wednesday. Here’s a quick rundown.

• John Ryan (Jr, DE) - OUT - “He had both a right shoulder surgery and a sports hernia surgery, so he had a double-whammy here after the season. So he’s running around pretty well but he’s going to be held from the spring.”
• Kris Patterson (Jr , WR) - OUT - “He had a right knee surgery back in October and he won’t be able to go this spring.”
• Robby Parris (Jr, WR) - Practicing - “He had a sports hernia. He’s practicing, but he’s probably not in the greatest shape because he did not run that much in the off-season.”
• Michael Turkovich (Sr, OG) - Practicing - “He had a sports hernia. He’s practicing, but he’s probably not in the greatest shape because he did not run that much in the off-season.”

The first depth chart for the 2008 season was released and there is plenty to talk about. Here’s are my thoughts and observations.

Position Changes

• Sam Young has moved from LT to RT and Paul Duncan has moved from RT to LT. These two have switched back and forth a couple times between these two positions a couple times now. Young’s weight gains (more later) might make RT a more suitable fit, but it still remains to be seen if Duncan is athletic enough for LT.
• Kallen Wade switched from DE to OLB. When it was announced that Corwin Brown would be running a 3-4 defense, Wade was immediately thought of as someone who fit the scheme well as a OLB, but Weis kept him at DE last year saying he had the frame for more weight. Wade never really looked comfortable with the extra weight though.
• Morrice Richardson has moved from OLB to starting DE. Not sure Richardson has the frame to play DE in a 3-4 defense as he is currently only listed at 258 lbs.
• John Ryan has moved from being a starting OLB to being a backup DE. Ryan did not look good at OLB last year. He had fewer tackles as a starter than the backup NT Ian Williams.
• Luke Schmidt is listed as a TE and a FB. With Wil Yeatman currently suspended, Mike Ragone was the only scholarship tight end on the roster heading into the spring. Schmidt is a very athletic kid and many feel he might be better suited as an h-back/tight end.

Click here for more observations and thoughts on the depth chart

The official “pre-spring” depth chart has been released by Notre Dame and I just added it to the homepage - 2008 Notre Dame Spring Depth Chart.

There were a bunch of position changes as well as weight gains/losses by a number of players. I will post my thoughts and observations a bit later.

According to yesterday’s South Bend Tribune, Sam Young has taken the lead in the Notre Dame weight room this winter and is up to 330 pounds after hovering above 300 last season.

Junior-to-be Sam Young talked the talk with Weis late last fall, in a not-so-secret, early-morning rendezvous. Since that time, he has shown plenty of signs of becoming what he hoped to be. The 6-foot-8 offensive tackle, who struggled to keep his weight above 300 last season, has set the tone in the weight room this winter and returns this spring at a ripped 330-plus.

Young has made it no secret that he wants to take on a leadership role on this team and he is showing it in the weight room so far this off-season.

The Notre Dame offensive line got push around a lot last year which makes seeing Young add some additional weight a pretty good sign. There were times last year when the ND line didn’t know its assignments and there were times when they were just overpowered. Bulking up won’t help the former, but it will help the latter.

When you consider the recent performances of Notre Dame offensive linemen in the bench press competition in the NFL Combine, this should be seen as a very promising sign. It’s been a long time since Notre Dame has had an offensive line that could knock a defensive line back on its heels - let’s hope this is a sign that we are getting closer and not farther away to getting back to that.

Well, if the first half went about as well as we could have hoped, the second half went about as badly as it possibly could for us.

• After getting a gift steal on the heels of a McAlarney 3 to cut the lead to 6 with 45 seconds remaining, Tory Jackson and Luke Zeller threw up threes from the corner that weren’t even close.
• McAlarney was not much of a factor until the final two minutes when he hit a couple 3’s to keep the game close and give the Irish some hope.  He wasn’t able to get open for the large part of the game though and it hurt the Irish offense.
• Despite having a good size advantage over Marquette, the Golden Eagles straight up owned the glass in the second half.  This wasn’t more evident than during a 1:15 long possession where Marquette got back to back offense rebounds before finally putting it in the basket.
• Tory Jackson played tough all game and was the only reason we stayed in the game over the final 10 minutes.  He was the only one able to drive and dish to create some open shots.
• The first game after being named Big East Player of the Year, Harangody had his most disappointing performance of the season.  Foul trouble early took him out of the game and in the second half he just couldn’t get it going outside of a 2:40 stretch where he hit 4 straight shots.
• Maurice Acker’s back to back 3’s were really the dagger for the Irish.  They took the life out of Notre Dame.
• ND’s loss means the only team with a bye advancing in the BE Tournament is Georgetown.
• Very disappointing trip to New York for Notre Dame who now could be looking at a 5 seed.

Since we’re still a few weeks away from Spring practice, I figured it would be a good idea to take a look back at a couple posts I made this time last year. The first one I’ll revisit was called 5 Things I Want to See in 2007 and was a quick little list of things I was hoping to see during the 2007 season. Here’s how those things played out.

“1. A Kick Return for a Touchdown” - Going into last season Notre Dame hadn’t taken a kick back for a touchdown in over four seasons. Well, we can make that five now. Golden Tate and Armando Allen looked pretty good at times in 2007, but the longest kickoff return the Irish managed was a 40 yarder by Golden Tate against Michigan in week 3. On the season Tate averaged 21.7 yards a return and Allen averaged 21.3. Both have the speed to take one the distance, but the blocking was just not there. Weis has placed Brian Polian in charge of special teams without having to coach an individual position and will be assisting in the special teams as well. With athletes like Tate and Allen returning kicks in 2008, there is really no excuse for Notre Dame to go empty in this department again.

“2. Touchbacks - Lots of Them” - Moving kickoffs back five yards in 2007 didn’t help Notre Dame out in this department much, but even when the Irish were aided by penalties, they couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. In 41 attempts, Brandon Walker and Nate Whitaker combined for 0 touchdowns. Notre Dame opponents netted 6 touchbacks in 68 attempts.

“3. A 50+ Yard Run” - Going into last season the last Notre Dame running back to bust a 50 yard run was Julius Jones. Today Jones is still the last Notre Dame back to break a 50 yarder. Both James Aldridge and Robert Hughes had runs of 40+ yards this year, but neither eclipsed 50. The offensive line play had a lot to do with Notre Dame’s inability to create big plays in the running game last year, but even Armando Allen, who many thought would be the big play guy, had a long of just 15 yards.

“4. Real 4 and 5 Wide Receiver Sets” - Mark this down as another thing that we’re still waiting to see. The wide receivers were inconsistent last year and while we had four wide receivers who were capable of playing, we still weren’t seeing four and five wide sets on a regular basis due to the inconsistency. With Duval Kamara, Robby Parris, and Golden Tate emerging last year; the additions of Deion Walker, John Goodman, and Michael Floyd this year; and the presence of David Grimes having effective four and five wide sets on a regular basis should be attainable in 2008.

“5. 3rd and Short Conversion”- And this one makes me 0 for 5 because last year third and short conversions were still an issue. The offensive line had a lot to do with this, but so did some ineffective running from the likes of Travis Thomas (2.1 yards/carry) and Asaph Schwapp (1.2 yards/carry). Will Robert Hughes and an experienced interior offensive line be able to make third and short failures a thing of the past in 2008? Let’s hope so.

Ok, so none of the five things I listed actually occurred in 2007. Maybe this spring I should make a similar post and say I’d like to see 1) a Michigan win 2) a USC win 3) Navy start its own streak 4) a win for Ty and 5) the return of Bob Davie to the Notre Dame sidelines. Maybe reverse psychology will work this year.