Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Victor Abiamiri has been turning in some impressive workouts during Senior Bowl practices this week.

From Rivals.com 

“An AFC scout who said he paid particularly close attention to the defensive ends said he liked Nebraska’s Adam Carriker and Notre Dame’s Victor Abiamiri during the North practice Tuesday morning.”

ESPN Insider also reported on Monday that Abiamiri was turning some heads this week and could find his way into the late first round.

Abiamiri came to Notre Dame as the most highly touted defensive end in years, but never really reached the level of dominance most felt he could achieve.  He certainly had a good career with the Irish, but it was marred by inconsistency.  Most of Abiamiri’s best games came against rather weak competition - most notably Stanford.

The defensive coaching that Abiamiri got over the last four years most likely didn’t help much.  He played on defenses that didn’t exactly make it easy for a defensive end to dominant.  He does have all the physical to be a top line pass rusher in the NFL.  If my Eagles lose Juqua Thomas to free agency, I would love to see them grab Victor at the end of the first round and pair him with Jevon Kearse and Trent Cole.

[tags]Victor Abiamiri, Notre Dame Football, 2007 Senior Bowl[/tags]

A report from the Senior Bowl on ESPN.com gives us the first public words from Minter that I’ve seen since his dismissal from Notre Dame…

Minter, whom Irish coach Charlie Weis replaced over the weekend with New York Jets assistant Corwin Brown, all but shrugged.

“I understand because I’ve been in his shoes,” said Minter, the head coach at Cincinnati from 1994-2003. “You have to make some hard decisions. Would I have let me go if I were in his shoes? No. But I think Charlie will be more comfortable with somebody from the Belichick-Parcells family. Charlie has brought in a young guy who doesn’t have my experience. But he’ll be more comfortable with him.”

Really? You wouldn’t have fired you if you were Charlie. That’s surprising. Shocking really.

Actually, it really isn’t because it explains why Minter isn’t a head coach anymore - he wouldn’t fire a defensive coordinator whose defense gave up 40 or more points in each of the three biggest games of the year while giving up over 1,100 yards of offense in the last two bowl games.

By the way, thank God Corwin Brown doesn’t have Minter’s experience - I’m hoping for a defensive coordinator that can keep people under 40 points and 500 yards in big games.

[tags]Rick Minter, Charlie Weis, Corwin Brown, Notre Dame Football[/tags]

Ben Maller of Fox Sports is reporting that the Oakland Raiders, owners of the #1 overall pick in April’s draft, are going to try to make a move for Michael Vick.

“The Oakland Raiders are preparing to make a run at Falcons QB Michael Vick, according to NFL sources. The Raiders package would include receivers Randy Moss and Jerry Porter plus the No.1 overall pick in the 2007 draft for Vick and the Falcons first round pick (10th overall).”

Should that deal go down, the Falcons would have an arsenal of wide receivers with Moss, Porter, Ashley Leilei, Roddy White, and Michael Jenkins. They would only have Matt Schaub at quarterback though. Schaub is a good quarterback, but with the #1 overall pick new head coach Bobby Petrino would most likely draft Brady Quinn.

Petrino loves to throw the football and with those receivers and quarterback like Quinn, he certainly would have the tools to bring his offense to the NFL.

I dunno though. Something about Quinn throwing to Randy Moss and being coach by Bobby Petrino just seems dirty…

[tags]Brady Quinn, Notre Dame Football, Oakland Raiders, Randy Moss, Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick[/tags]

I believe new defensive coordinator Corwin Brown will resurrect the the Irish defense. Name me another college DC who can list as references on his resume Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini. Paying attention recruits? That would be FOUR current head coaches in the NFL.

But are the Irish even that far removed from greatness?

A popular line these last few weeks seems to be, “ND hasn’t had an elite defense since the Lou years.”

Really?

2001: Irish ranked 14th nationally in total defense (304.91 yards per game, Notre Dame’s best figure in that category since 1996) and 10th in pass defense.

2002: Irish finished ninth in scoring defense (16.69), 10th in the nation in pass efficiency (98.24) and rushing defense (95.23), and 13th in total defense (300.00).

2003: Irish defense ranked 33rd nationally in total defense and was 29th in the nation against the rush, surrendering only 127.2 yards per game.

2004: Irish defense ranked third in the nation against the run, (88.2 yards per game) and allowed five rushing TDs during the entire regular season.

A couple things to note with these numbers: 1) Our “stout” rushing defenses 03-04 were arguably as much a reflection of teams being able throw at will on us as anything else; and 2) As much as he gets bashed (and as much as I detest him personally), Davie was an excellent defensive recruiter and defensive coach whose coattails disguised Willingham’s incompetence.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, if you need to depend on Davie’s coattails, you’re in a world of shit. But since 1984, care to guess how many ND defenses have given up less points per game than our 2001 or 2002 squads? THREE: the ‘88 team, the ‘89 team, and the ‘92 team.

By almost any reasonable yardstick, our ‘01 and ‘02 units were great. What KILLED both defenses was the inability of our offenses to move the chains, score points and keep them off the field. By season’s end, in 2002 especially, our D’s legs were gone. (For further reference, see ass whuppin’; USC ‘02; Gator Bowl ‘03.)

Going back to those ‘88, ‘89 and ‘92 teams, their defenses also had the benefit of playing alongside 3 of the 4 highest scoring offenses in ND history. The ‘92 team had one of the best scoring defenses in the country (14.8 ppg) and one of the best scoring offenses (34.1 ppg). But Davie’s ‘01 defense held opponents to 19.5 ppg while his offense was only scoring 19.4 ppg.

Montana’s Cotton Bowl heroics, Harry O’, Jerome Bettis in the Cheerios Bowl, the Snow Bowl…For my money, one of the truly more underrated “miracles” of Notre Dame football is Davie’s ‘01 team–a defense that surrendered less ppg than nearly every ND team of the last quarter century while at the same time having an offense that scored even less.

So go ahead and wax nostalgic about the bygone days of ND’s defenses smacking people in the mouth. But realize those days aren’t as bygone as you might be led to believe.

[tags]Corwin Brown, Bob Davie, Notre Dame Football, Ty Willingham, Lou Holtz[/tags]

It’s a shame we won’t be seeing anymore highlights like this from #83 after he decided to go with baseball, but he did put on one hell of a show for Notre Dame fans the last two years. Good luck Jeff.

[youtube DS2ftEUT0FU]

From an AP article on NBC Sports.com

“Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn will sit out the Senior Bowl with a minor knee injury.

Quinn still will travel to Mobile for the game, an audition for senior NFL prospects, Senior Bowl spokesman Vic Knight told the Press-Register of Mobile.

Knight said Friday he didn’t know which knee was injured or how the injury occurred.

Quinn was examined at Dr. James Andrews’ office in Birmingham, Knight said, and was advised not to play in the Jan. 27 game. “

There was no mention of when the injury occured or whether it happened during the Sugar Bowl or not.  Honestly, I was surprised Quinn was going to play in the Senior Bowl to begin with.  Usually a prospect whose draft stock is as high as Quinn’s, especially at quarterback, won’t play in these type of games.

Anyway, no Brady in the Senior Bowl which means we have officially seen the last of Quinn playing in a Notre Dame helmet (since Senior Bowl players were their schools helmet during the game).

[tags]Brady Quinn, Notre Dame Football, Senior Bowl[/tags]

Notre Dame announced the start times for all of the 2007 home games today and they are as follows…

• Sept. 1 Georgia Tech - 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Sept. 22 Michigan State - 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Oct. 13 Boston College - 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Oct. 20 USC - 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Nov. 3 Navy - 2:30 p.m. EDT
• Nov. 10 Air Force - 2:30 p.m. EST
• Nov. 17 Duke -  2:30 p.m. EST

Four of Notre Dame’s 2007 home opponents were in bowl games - Georgia Tech, Boston College, USC, and Navy.  Speaking of Boston College, the Eagles will be making their first trip to South Bend since 2004 after the series took a two year hiatus.  Players from the 2004 team will have plenty of motivation heading into that game after the Eagles took chunks of field with them after the 2004 game.

Stay tuned for the details of the UHND Tailgate for 2007.  A game hasn’t been picked yet, but it will most likely be one of lighter demanded tickets so USC and Boston College are likely out.  Last year’s tailgate was for the UCLA game and 2005’s was for Navy.

Last week it was announced that Jeff Samardzija was named to the consensus All American team for the second year in a row. Yesterday, however, the geniuses over at the NCAA realized they made a calculation error and that announced Samardzija was not on the team.

Oops. It seems un-congratulations are in order. Last week, the NCAA notified Notre Dame that receiver Jeff Samardzija had earned consensus All America honors. Tuesday, the NCAA sent out another e-mail, this one stating that an error in doing the calculations had mistakenly put Samardzija on the list. After re-calculation, Samardzija, who was first team All America only on the Football Writers Association of America team, was bumped. “Terrible mistake,” the e-mail from the NCAA said. (Chicago Tribune)

Nice job by the NCAA here. I mean honestly, how hard can it be to determine who is a consensus All American and who isn’t? This isn’t rocket science we’re talking about. An idiot with a simple excel spreadsheet should be able put together this team.

You would also think that the NCAA was admit their error but not take the honor away from Samardzija after handing it out last week. I guess they did the honorable thing though by sending out an email - that was classy.

[tags]Notre Dame Football, Jeff Samardzija, Consensus All American Team[/tags]

Peter’s Kings MMQB was just full of Notre Dame related news this week including this little nugget about Notre Dame’s search for a defensive coordinator…

“Corwin Brown got the Notre Dame defensive coordinator’s job, but the guy Charlie Weis really wanted was Jim Mora.”

Jim Mora? Wow. That little bit of news shows that Weis really was looking to hit a home run with this hire. Mora’s defenses in Atlanta were pretty good and prior to trying to win with a punt returner with a rocket arm at QB in Atlanta, he was the defensive coordinator with the 49ers.

Part of me likes that fact that Weis though about going after someone like Mora, but another part of me likes that we’ll be getting someone who will probably be sticking around for a while like Corwin Brown.

Mora is going to want to be a head coach again after having some great success in his first year in Atlanta when he took the Falcons into Philadelphia for the NFC Title game. A game he lost to my beloved Eagles :-). Mora would probably have been able to turn the defense around pretty quickly, but he also would have probably been here for a year or two before bolting for a head coaching gig somewhere.

Side note on Mora, personally, I haven’t liked him since his Falcons lost to the Eagles in 2004 for his rather snide “I hope it doesn’t take us four tries to get to the Super Bowl” post game comments, but I digress…

Back to Corwin Brown… Brown is a young coach who is will be looking to make a name for himself and will have to prove himself with the Irish before he is considered for a head coaching gig. Brown has also risen through the ranks of the coaching world very fast and who knows, maybe he grows into a great defensive coordinator and Weis grooms him to be his eventual replacement. Some people might be leery of that since the last time a successful coach left Notre Dame and recommended his defensive coordinator for the head coaching position, it didn’t exactly work out too well.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself here, Brown should probably be officially named DC before any speculation about his future with Notre Dame is really considered. Details. Details.

[tags]Charlie Weis, Notre Dame Football, Corwin Brown, Jim Mora[/tags]

SI.com’s Peter King reported Monday in his weekly MMQB (Monday Morning Quarterback) column that Weis’s buyout is worth $21 million.

“Let’s put all of the Charlie Weis-to-the-NFL possibilities to bed, shall we? I’ve got the real number it would take to buy him out of his contract, which has nine years left to run at Notre Dame. That figure plus the fact that he doesn’t want to leave should take him out of the NFL pool for the foreseeable future.

The rock-solid, no-exceptions buyout number for Weis from Notre Dame: $21 million.”

This is the first time we’ve seen a concrete dollar amount associated with Weis’s buyout. The highest amounts I had seen previously reported speculated that the buyout was in the $10-15 million range.

Hopefully this helps put an end to the Weis to the NFL rumors for a while. With a $21 million buyout, it would take an NFL team around $40-45 million to get Weis out of South Bend if you consider that Weis would probably command a contract in the $4-5 million range over five or so years by NFL standards.

Some non-Notre Dame fans will see this number and think its absurd, but tell that to Louisville fans who just saw Bobby Petrino turn them into a top 10 team and then bolt for the NFL because his buyout was a mere $1 million.

In this day of coaches hoping from big payout to big payout, it’s nice to know that Weis’s buyout should be enough to keep NFL owners from inquiring about Weis.