Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Yesterday I posted that former Notre Dame defensive end Ronald Talley was transferring to the University of Delaware.  A day later there’s been numerous quotes from Talley about why he left and they aren’t very positive towards Notre Dame..

Talley left Notre Dame, in part, because of a verbal disagreement with Weis about his role on the team. Talley said the coaches expressed a desire to move him from end to tackle. ”Basically, I lost trust in them,” Talley said. ”They wanted to do things with me to their advantage, not my advantage.” (Chicago Sun Times)

“Some things were going on that were unjustified,” said Talley, who was also considering transferring to Tennessee State. “I really just couldn’t trust the coaches any more.” (Central Delaware News)

“It seemed like the coaching staff would tell me one thing and then another,” he said. “The situation they wanted to put me in wasn’t in my best interests. It was only in their best interests. In the end, I really couldn’t trust them. It was enough for me not to want to be there anymore.” (South Bend Tribune)

Ok, so basically what I am getting from these quotes is that the coaches wanted to put Talley in a position where it was more beneficial to his team instead of where he preferred to play and he didn’t like that.

When coaches want to move you to another position its usually for two reasons.  Either you aren’t good enough at your current position or there is need at the position they want you to move you to.  Either way, in both situations, a position move is in the best interests of the TEAM not the coaches like Talley suggests.

None of the reports had quotes from Charlie Weis, and you most likely won’t see any quotes from Weis about Talley other than wishing him luck.

Former Notre Dame defense end Ronald Talley has decided to transfer to the University of Delaware after leaving Notre Dame in the middle of the season.  Talley was rumored to be upset with playing time, or lack there of, this season and was granted his release by Charlie Weis.

According to the Delaware News Journal…

Talley, 20, should be with the Blue Hens in spring practice and will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning with the 2007 season. His addition shores up a position where Delaware was plagued by injuries during its 5-6 2006 season and continues to have depth problems.

In 17 career games at Notre Dame, Talley had 34 tackles (10 solos), one sack and two fumble recoveries. He left the team after the sixth game of the 2006 season in what coach Charlie Weis termed an amicable and mutally agreed-upon parting that Talley felt was in his best interests.

Talley played hard while he was at Notre Dame and I wish him all the best at Delaware.  The Blue Hens play some local games in my area so I will try to check out a game next year and see how Talley is doing.

Log onto any Notre Dame football board these days and this much is clear.  ND fans want a change at the defensive coordinator position.  Will that change ND’s defense into a top 20 unit?  Certainly other schools have done it.  UCLA’s defense has seemingly been born overnight, and Michigan is clearly a different unit than they have been in recent years.   All the examples have me thinking.   Is Rick Minter a poor defensive coordinator, or is ND’s experience lacking at certain positions?

My only issue with Minter’s defense this year is a simple one.   At times, I can not identify with any real gameplan.   Against USC, what was the game plan?   Was it to take away the middle of the field and allow USC to work outside?  Was it an effort to take away the run and make Booty beat us?   I wasn’t sure, and even after watching the game a second time, I still don’t know.   My inability to identify a gameplan certainly doesn’t mean one didn’t exist.   I will say this.  Minter has shown an ability to make half-time adjustments.   The Navy game comes to mind. In the first half of that game, ND was getting beat on the edge.   ND took away Navy’s ability to get inside, and Navy simply started getting to the corner.   Minter made a very simple, yet effective change in the second half.   He moved Ndukwe up to the LOS on the wide side of the field, and the move work perfectly.   Navy was shut down for pretty much the entire second half.  

What teams beat ND last/this year?   Michigan and USC.   Add Ohio State from last year’s Fiesta Bowl.  What do those offensive teams have in common?  The most obvious is their athleticism.  Speed and size at the WR position.    Troy Smith, Ginn, Manningham, Jarrett.   Speed.  Size.  

To me as I look at the current ND defense, I would say talent is more of an issue right now than scheme.

What specific talent?   A pass rush off the edge.  For me this is the single most glaring need, and something that would change the defense’s identify overnight.   Victor Abiamiri is a very good defensive end, and he will be a solid NFL player for years to come.   He is the only pass rusher ND has right now.   However, it is pretty easy to negate him when all a team has to do is double him.   Our lack of a pass rush has a cascade effect on the rest of the defense.  It gives opposing QBs more time to throw, and isolates an already suspect secondary.   I am sure some of you will throw out, “Well why then doesn’t Minter blitz more?”, and that is exactly what Minter can’t afford to do.   Blitzing more asks him to isolate his coverage more, or worse…..it gets his LBs on faster players in open space.   The truth is Minter has tried to blitz.   Often.  However, our players are not getting to the QB.  Anyone recall the UNC game?  I won’t call out any player, but I will say ND has been in place to make a play or two while blitzing and failed to make a tackle.  The result was a big play for the opposing team.  

If coaching/scheme are really so poor, how can anyone explain the development of Terrail Lambert?  Someone is coaching him, and he is turning into a pretty good college defensive back.  How about Derek Landri?  He is a very solid defensive tackle.   Landri is ND’s best defensive player, and yet I rarely see anyone commenting on how well he and Laws have played this year.   Notre Dame players have grown, and they have improved.  

Notre Dame’s defense will change.  Charlie Weis will see to that.  It will start with the addition of a great pass rusher.   Maybe the player already exists on the team, maybe someone like Kerry Neal will fill that role.   I don’t know where he will come from, but I am certain that we will have such a dynamic player very soon. 

Minter may not be the popular choice for a defensive coordinator, but until he has the horses to line up with Michigan and USC, I will give him one more shot. 

Brady Quinn’s game winning 45 yard touchdown pass to Jeff Samardzija is a finalist for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the year.  The play will probably be the signature play of Quinn and Samardzija’s careers and a play that will live in Notre Dame lore forever.  The play also ending up saving Notre Dame’s BCS chances. Without it, the Irish would have finished the season with three losses and would be in the Gator Bowl instead of the Sugar Bowl as they are now.

There are some really great plays also up for the award, but when you take into account that Quinn to Samardzija ended up saving the game and in essence the season, it is truly a game changing performance.

Click here to go vote for the play.

Quinn may have lost out on the Heisman this weekend, but he was named a finalist for the Cingular Player of the Year Award which is vote on by fans. Colt Brennan, Ray Rice, and Troy Smith are the three other finalists so this figures to come down to Smith and Quinn like a lot of other awards have this year.

Here’s the details on how to vote according to the Yahoo! article…

Fans can determine the winner by text messaging “VOTE” to “87654″ on their wireless phone and casting their votes for the nominees. Fans who participated in the Player of the Week voting during the season will automatically receive a text message with the four candidates. This year’s winner will join former Texas quarterback Vince Young (2005) and former Texas running back Cedric Benson (2004) on the list of Cingular All-America Player of the Year award recipients.

Voting for the Cingular All-America Player of the Year is open until January 5 at 11:59 p.m. (EST). The selection process will culminate during the BCS National Championship game on FOX on January 8 when the Cingular All- America Player of the Year will be announced. (LINK)

Vote early and vote often. I certainly know I would enjoy seeing Quinn named the player of the year during the BCS Title game – especially if Florida happens to be winning the game at the time as I’m sure that would make the collective blood pressure of Columbus skyrocket.

Not even 12 hours after Brady Quinn “shocked” the college football world by winning the Maxwell Award, and some asinine Buckeyes fan writes an article quite nearly devoid of all substance or integrity.

Dave Berk of bucknuts.com says

Like most college football fans I’m still scratching my head on how the Maxwell Award goes to a quarterback with two losses and inflated numbers…What should have been the final piece of the puzzle during Thursday nights College Football Awards soon became the biggest joke of the night and possibly the season….

Look at all the numbers and not just the passing yards posted by the two….

Smith earned Big Ten offensive player of the year honors by throwing for 30 touchdowns and amassing 2,740 total yards….

Quinn had 35 touchdowns and passed for 3,278 yards but needed 135 more attempts to account for the extra yards.  When you break it down, Quinn only averaged 5.7 yards more per play in those 135 plays.

Dave Berk is right. I’ve seen the light. By all means, let’s “look at ALL the numbers.”

SOS

So Mr. Berk wants to talk “inflated numbers”? This season Troy Smith has faced a schedule in which 10 of Ohio State’s 12 opponents were unranked. Of the three Heisman finalists–Smith, Brady Quinn and Darren McFadden–Troy Smith has faced the least number of ranked teams. Per Jeff Sagarin, Ohio State’s strength of schedule is ranked 38th in the country, and Notre Dame’s is 20th.

TOTAL OFFENSE 

Is this the part in the analysis where, per Mr. Berk’s instructions, we throw out the passing yards as immaterial? I suppose we’d have to for Troy Smith’s benefit, given that his 209 yards passing per game ranks 33rd in the nation while Quinn’s 273 ypg is ranked 8th. As Mr. Berk points out, however, we should look at Smith’s 2,740 total yards for a more accurate barometer of greatness. After all, those 2,740 yds rank Smith 32nd in the nation. Pretty impressive.

Although not quite as impressive as Brady Quinn’s 3,343 total yards that ranks him still 8th in total offense out of all Div I-A players.

TOUCHDOWN-TO-INTERCEPTION RATIO

An oft-quoted stat in Troy Smith’s Heisman candidacy is his TD-INT ratio of 30-5. What’s conveniently disregarded is that Brady Quinn’s TD-INT ratio of 35-5 not only leads all Div I-A QBs, it’s a ratio surpassed by only one QB in the last decade (Phillip Rivers, NC State, 2003).

Speaking of these 5 interceptions, I need a clarification from Buckeyes fans. You’re always more than willing to trudge out (again) Troy Smith’s fewer pass attempts to support your arguments in regards to his “superior” efficiency–completion percentage, TDs-per-attempts, etc. Is there any OSU homer with a shred of character who’s willing to actually follow through on that entire analysis and point out that this also means Smith interception-per-attempt ratio is in fact worse than Quinn’s?

Smith currently has 30 TDs and 5 INTs on 199 pass completions. Quinn has 35 TDs and 5 INTs on 274 completions. If you projected these numbers out and had Troy Smith completing as many passes as Brady Quinn, Smith would have 41 TDs…and 7 INTs.

SACKS AND RUNNING GAME

Troy Smith plays behind an offensive line that’s surrendered 11 sacks all season, less than one per game. Brady Quinn has been sacked 30 times, and that doesn’t even take into account the hurries and knockdowns. Ohio State’s ground game is ranked 18th in the country, racking up more than 180 ypg, while ND’s 76th-ranked rushing “attack” accounts for a whopping 124 ypg. If Quinn had an o-line that protected him three times as well, and a Top 20 rushing game to take some of the load off his shoulders, does anyone honestly think we’d even be having a legitimate discussion about Troy Smith’s Heisman chances?

Mr. Berk calls Troy Smith “the most important player to his team’s success.” Well, if that’s one of the criteria for the Maxwell, the Heisman, or whatever, then why the hell are we talking about Smith again? Ohio State without Troy Smith still has those receivers, still has that o-line, still has that rushing game, still has that receiving corps, and still has that stifling defense. Without Smith, the Buckeyes are at worst #2 in the Big Ten and still headed to a BCS Bowl.

And the Irish? Hell, forget just two losses. Notre Dame without Brady Quinn is sitting at home right now with a 4-8 record. THAT is what you call an MVP.

BOTTOM LINE

Troy Smith will win the Heisman because he’s arguably (although not definitively) the best player on the #1 team in the country–nothing more, nothing less. Statistically, he’ll be the least impressive QB in my lifetime (and I’m 35 years old) to win the Heisman. I still can’t figure out why exactly he won the Davey O’Brien Award as the outstanding QB in the country, given that aside from ranking 4th in quarterback efficiency, he doesn’t rank higher than 32nd in any major statistical category.

Three QBs are more efficient than Smith is. Thirty-two QBs have passed for more yards. Thirty-one QBs have more total offensive yards.  Thirty-six QBs have more completions. And yet Mr. Berk insists the upcoming Heisman ceremony “will prove Smith is the number one player in the country.”

Indeed, Mr. Berk. Just like it did with other vaunted Heisman-winning QBs like Eric Crouch, Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerffel, Charlie Ward, and Gino Torreta.

Let the mass hypnosis continue. Troy Smith for Heisman! (I assume his handlers have reminded him to wear platform shoes to the ceremony. With NFL scouts watching and all, something has got to make up for that extra two inches the OSU media guide gives the kid.)

According to the Mississippi Sun Herald, Reggie Bush did not have Brady Quinn on his ballot, but did vote Troy Smith #1 and Darren McFadden #2.  His reasoning for not voting for Quinn?

When asked about Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn calling him after Saturday’s ceremony to complain, Bush responded by saying, “You have to have the big numbers and lead your team to wins in big games or a chance at the national championship.”

Maybe what Bush meant to say was, “you need to push your team to big wins in big games.”

Of coourse, Bush also could be upset that Brady might get drafted #1 overall, and not #2 behind some defensive end from North Carolina State…

And for the Ohio State fans out there who we know are reading Bush also offered this up in the same report.

“There was nobody who really had that standout season”

Did Bush watch any football this year?  Smith, Quinn, and McFadden all had huge years.  Not to mention some damn fine players who won’t be in New York Saturday like Steve Slaton and Ray Rice.  Last I checked, all five of these players had their teams in the top 5 at some point in the season, but I guess that doesn’t qualify as giving their teams a chance at the national championship.

And just for fun… according to ESPN’s profile of Steve Slaton, the sophomore running back is projected to run for 1,877 yards and 19 (17 rushing, 2 receiving) toucchdowns - both of which top Bush’s 1,740 yards and 18 (16 rushing, 2 receiving) toucchdowns from a year ago.

I know, I know, Bush had more receiving yards and the returns and all that, but the fact that you can find a running back who wasn’t even invited to New York as a finalist with more touchdowns and yards than last year’s winner makes a statement like “nobody who really had that standout season” seem just a bit assine.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one…
 

The pundits said they had no chance in their January bowl game. Outmanned and outgunned on both sides of the ball. Not enough depth. Not enough athleticism. Not enough speed. A slow, plodding team meets the irresistible force of the Southeastern Conference’s finest.

To be sure, there was the occasional voice in the wilderness. That Midwest beat writer in some random smalltown newspaper column who entertained the idea of the SEC being about parity more than superiority. “Is the SEC so competitive because the best are beating the best?” he pondered. “Or is it because the average are beating the average?”

But his was a lone voice. After all, the SEC was football country. And this was a two-loss SEC team a mere handful of points removed from a shot at the national championship game. “The best two-loss team in the country,” said many, adding, “This team is too good for such an overmatched bowl opponent.”

And just what had this “overmatched bowl opponent” and their rotund head coach done to earn such derisive nods from the college football talking heads?

An offense that had scored 31 or more points in 8 of 12 games was simply dismissed as a product of a “weak schedule”…

They had played a close game against a mediocre North Carolina team… 

Their defense was soft, giving up a lot of points to a lot of teams, good and bad…

They had lost to the only two ranked teams they played all season…

Final Score of the 2006 Capital One Bowl:
Wisconsin 24 – Auburn 10

Are last season’s Badgers this season’s Irish?

Could two storylines be any similar, down to the smallest statistic?

Probably little more than one of those completely random string of coincidences.

Then again, it always helps that a precedence has been established.

YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE.

GO IRISH!

After looking at the CBS Heisman rankings referenced in my previous post, reading the following article from the NY Sun was refreshing.  Allen Barra has an outstanding article up comparing Brady Quinn and Troy Smith and their respective Heisman resumes.  The article is a must read for Notre Dame fans.  Here are some of the highlight…

Until about 21 years ago, it was understood by seasoned observers that the quarterback for the no. 1 team in the country was seldom a legitimate contender for the best player in the nation, if only because if a team was good enough to be ranked no. 1, it was difficult to accurately assess the quarterback’s contribution. Before Florida State’s Charlie Ward in 1993, Notre Dame’s Angelo Bertelli in 1943 and Johnny Lujack in 1947 were the only quarterbacks for no. 1 teams to win the Heisman.

This is an interesting point that not too many pundits have brought up this year or even in recent years.  The last few seasons, its generally been a given that the best player on the best team is automatically at least a finalist for the Heisman.

Barra goes on to mention some quarterbacks who won the award without being on a #1 team.

Virtually all the other Heisman winners at quarterback, notably Navy’s Roger Staubach (1963), Florida’s Steve Spurrier (1966), and Stanford’s Jim Plunkett (1970), won their Heisman because of, not in spite of, playing on teams that weren’t national championship contenders. Their statistics were thought to be accurate reflections of their own abilities rather than their teammates’.

Mt favorite line of the article however has to be…

Thirty-five or 40 years ago, Brady Quinn of Notre Dame (no. 11) would be a clear favorite for the Heisman Trophy. Instead, no. 1 Ohio State’s Troy Smith, a fine player but perhaps no better than a dozen others at his position, will probably win it in a landslide.

Allen concludes his article with the following…

A careful look at the record convinces me that Troy Smith is destined to join their number. But whatever happens to Smith in the NFL, Brady Quinn put up numbers this year that were at least the equal of Troy Smith’s, and he did it against tougher opposition and with far less help from his teammates. By any objective yardstick, he deserves the nod over Troy Smith as the outstanding college football player of the 2006 season.

Now, while I can’t argue much with Smith winning as I think he performed at a high level all year and with his performances against Texas and Michigan, he clearly was at his best against the best.

With some people in the media, such as our boy Dennis Dodd, not even placing Quinn in his top 7 for the Heisman, its nice to see someone stand up for Quinn and state some obvious facts that some people fail to recognize.

Now, before we get a bunch of Ohio State fans over here commenting on how much more deserving Smith is than Quinn, I already acknowledged that I can’t argue much with Smith winning this year.  My point with this post, however, is to show that those who think Quinn doesn’t even deserve to be in New York with Smith are out of their mind.

The experts over at CBS, including Notre Dame fan favorite Dennis Dodd has a list of their Heisman rankings available online.  Seems the geniuses over at the Columbia Broadcasting System think Brady Quinn is not even worthy of being in the top 7 candidates.

My personal favorite is Dodd’s listing of Jamarcus Russell as his runner up.  Dodd doesn’t list Quinn in his top 7 but does list Colt Brennan third.  Dodd further shows his insightful analysis by ranking Mike Hart ahead of Darren McFadden.  Hart is a fine back, but please, McFadden has been down right dominant and without McFadden, Arkansas’s offense simply does not tick.

The best part of CBS’s rankings are their top three – Troy Smith, Colt Brennan, and Ian Johnson.  When the Heisman finalists were announced earlier today, only Smith was on the actual list of invitees to the Downtown Athletic Club.

Their writeup on Quinn is another gem…

Brady Quinn had a very good season and is one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, but failed to lead his team to victories against Michigan and USC. With Troy Smith being the top QB and Colt Brennan getting a late push, Quinn will probably finished third among QBs.

From the looks of things, Quinn will finish no worse than third overall.  What’s even more amusing about this list is that a few weeks back, there was quite a bit of chatter on the boards about CBS doing more to promote Quinn for the Heisman during the Navy game than NBC did all season.  I wonder if those sentiments still ring true throughout the Notre Dame faithful?