Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Here is the Cliff Notes version of Charlie Weis’s press conference on Wednesday.

• Travis Thomas was moved back to running back and Chris Stewart was moved to defensive tackle
• Everyone is healthy and “full speed” according to Weis, and that includes Jimmy Clausen despite the report yesterday in the Sun Times about an arm injury
• Weis doesn’t like other people talking about player injuries apparently
• Travis Thomas is a leader on the field no matter where he plays
• 5th Year applicants participating in Spring ball -  Tom Zbikowski, John Thomas, Carlson, John Sullivan, Trevor Laws, Dwight Stephenson, Joe Brockington, Ambrose Wooden and Geoff Price.
• Chase Anastacio decided not to come back
• Guys playing a spring sport - Evan Sharpley (baseball), Eric Maust (baseball), and Will Yeatmen (lacrosse)
• Sharpley won’t miss any practices, Yeatman will be at about 8 of the 15 practices, and Maust (a backup punter) will be there when he can
• Theme for the spring is “Tradition Never Graduates”
• All coaches will have a hand in special teams this year - THANK YOU CHARLIE!
• Weis would like to make the 4 horse quarterback race a 2 horse race by the end of Spring
• Coaches are excited about Stewart’s athletic ability to play along the defensive line
• Dan Wenger will work at center and guard, Michael Turkovich will work at guard and tackle
• Thomas Bemenderfer, a walkon offensive lineman, will be in the mix for playing time amongst the interior offensive linemen.
• Work on the offensive side of the ball will be personnel oriented with an offensive identity already established; defensively the work will be schematic and trying to establish an identity
• DJ Hord is healthy and at full speed, but will need to get over the mental road block coming off the knee injury just like McKnight last year
• Weis talked a lot about the flexibility the 3-4 defense will give Notre Dame as well as giving them the ability to confuse opposing offenses
• John Ryan is playing outside linebacker and is a prototypical 3-4 outside linebacker according to Weis
• David Grimes is also full speed and Weis talked to him a lot this off-season about wide receivers like Troy Brown, Deon Branch, and Wayne Chrebet - small guys that produced big numbers in the NFL under Weis
• Weis is encouraged about the play of the interrior offensive linemen from last year’s freshman linemen
• Trevor Laws will a defensive end in the 3-4 defense.

A Chicago Sun Times article on Tuesday implied that uber-recruit Jimmy Clausen’s arm is injured and may limit what he can and cannot do this Spring.

Jim Clausen Sr. said his son’s injury was discovered last summer.

”We’ve been aware that this was an issue,” the elder Clausen said. ”He played 15 games with the problem this past season, so you know he’s a competitor. But I think at the end of the season, he started to lose some velocity.

”At some point, if it’s causing that much discomfort, we’ll see what other option is best.”

Should the injury limit Clausen this Spring, it would throw a huge monkey wrench into the highly anticipated quarterback race.  The Sun Times is the only article I could find discussing the injury, but one thing is for sure, Weis is sure to get plenty of questions about it at tomorrow’s initial Spring press conference.

Here is a clip of Armando Allen running the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 13.82. Bold prediction for 2007: Allen returns a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown for Notre Dame this year.

[youtube VeKmgtYNK78]

Credit to Irish Universe for finding the clip.

Tuesday night Tom Zbikowski participated in a charity boxing event that, despite a lot of hiccups, ended up being rather successful with an estimated $40,000 being raised for three different charities.  The first glitch was Zbikowski’s original opponent, Ken Murphy of Chicago, having a positive test result in his suspension from the fight.  Then the ring didn’t show up until a few hours before the fight.  Zbikowski’s parents, who organized the event, found an opponent and the near sellout crowd was treated to three fairly entertaining rounds of exhibition boxing between Zibby and Ryan St. Germain.

Charlie Weis, the Notre Dame coaches, Zbikowski’s teammates, and recent Notre Dame commitment Braxston Cave were all on hand to attend the event

Here’s a couple good quotes from Eric Hansen’s article on the fight from the SBT.

“The juices started flowing, and you want to go for a knockout,” Tom Zbikowski said, “but this is an exhibition. It’s for charity.”

The crowd seemed to sleepwalk through the early bouts. But as the main event approached, the boxers got more physical and the crowd livened up. Then when Zbikowski finally made his entrance around 10 p.m., the audience literally surged toward the ring. 

Unlike last year’s fight which happened in between spring and fall practice, this will be the only fight for Zbikowski this off-season according to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

“I’m not planning on fighting any pro fights or anything big because I want to get ready for next year,” Zbikowski said. “All I want to do is do this for charity, nothing big.

And for those of who think Zbikowski needs to focus more on football and improving his game… he agrees:

“I wasn’t too happy with my season, and really I’m hungrier than ever just to go out and prove myself again and be the player I was,” Zbikowski said. 

Here’s my initial crack at projected the defense. Let me start off by saying, this is 10x harder than projecting the offense since we really aren’t sure what the defense will look like. Weis said the Irish were going to run a “3-4 personnel” as opposed to a traditional “3-4” defense, but didn’t give too much detail as to what that would mean.

Nose Tackle
Chris Stewart has been rumored to be moving over to defense for the last few weeks and is there a more natural NT for a 3-4 defense on the Notre Dame roster than Stewart? He’s been in the strength and conditioning program for a full year already after enrolling early last year and could be the force in the middle Notre Dame needs. I have Ian Williams backing up Stewart. Weis said they expect him to come in and get right in the mix and as the only true defensive tackle in last year’s class he could back up Stewart.

Defensive Tackle
With Stewart manning the middle, Laws could play to the side of Stewart. Laws is a pretty good fit for a 3-4 defensive tackle as he is not ideal size for a DT in a traditional 4-3, but also doesn’t have the speed to be a DE. For now I have Kuntz penciled in as Laws backup and as a junior he should have enough experience to provide some depth here.

Defensive Tackle
If he is healthy, I think Derrell Hand could start. Like Stewart, Hand had to transform his body once getting to Notre Dame, but after tow full years in the program, he could be ready to make an impact. Hand is another guy who could be a really good 3-4 defensive lineman. Sophomore to be Paddy Mullen should be ready for some playing time and has the quickness to be one of the off tackle positions.

Outside Linebacker/Defensive End
Ryan was a bit undersized for DE this year, but looked pretty good in spot duty. Using the outside linebackers/defensive ends of the Baltimore Ravens as a guide, Ryan fits in here in terms of size, but does he have the speed to play the position? I’m not completely sure, but if the Irish are indeed going to play a “3-4 personnel” as Weis suggested, Ryan is the most natural DE to play this position. An interesting possibility here is Dwight Stephenson. Stephenson has been a tweener almost since he landed at Notre Dame and he looks to be in the OLD/DE mold. Remember, Stephenson was recruited by a bunch of SEC teams, including Florida. Stephenson is my pick for the guy to come out of no where to earn meaningful playing time this year. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Stephenson challenged for a starting spot.

Inside Linebacker
Crum will probably still be playing in the middle of the linebacking corps next year. I still don’t think he is a natural inside linebacker, but he is the most talented and experienced linebacker on the roster. If he is lined up next to a bigger linebacker though, Crum could be a very, very effective linebacker for the Irish again this year. For now I have Scott Smith backing up Crum because he has the size to play on the inside.

Inside Linebacker
I don’t think the Irish coaches will be able to keep Smith off the field this year. Smith is a prototypical inside linebacker and could flourish in Corwin Brown’s defense. Smith saw a good bit of time in goal line and reserve situations last year and should be ready to make an impact on defense this year. The Irish coaches loved Smith when they recruited him and it should be time for him to earn a starting spot. Brockington should be back for a 5th year and will provide experience depth and a hard working mentality on defense.

Outside Linebacker
This is a pretty difficult position to project. I think both Richardson and Neal are perfect fits for the OLB in a 3-4 defense. Both can rush the passer and both have the speed and athleticism to drop back into coverage when need be. Richardson saw some playing time very early last year and showed a lot of speed coming off the edge, but was too small to be very effective from the defensive end position. If Ryan proves to not have the speed and coverage skills to play the other OLB position, I could see both of these guys starting at the OLB positions.

Corner Back
Walls took his lumps early last year, but with a year under his belt, he should step into a starting role. Walls is probably the most talent pure cover corner Notre Dame has had since Bobby Taylor and he should start showing it this coming season. Another talented under classman who should make an impact is Gary Gray. He enrolled early and should challenge for playing time immediately with Leo Ferrine and Raeshon McNeil for nickel coverage playing time.

Free Safety
This is some serious depth chart engineering here, but in an effort to get the most talented players on the field, Lambert could move to free safety and provide the deep coverage skills that the Irish have been severely lacking. Sophomore to be Sergio Brown brings a lot of talent and ability though and could challenge for the starting position here. Notre Dame has the talent and depth at corner back to account for Lambert’s move.

Strong Safety
A lot of people speculate that Zbikowski should move to linebacker but I just don’t see it happening. Zibby is a great run stuffing safety and could flourish playing closer to the line with Lambert in deep coverage. Ray Herring and David Bruton would back up Zibby here. The two are pretty similar and would probably battle it out for the backup position through the summer.

Corner Back
Wooden was slowed by injuries last year and lost his starting spot, but heading into the season I thought Wooden was going to become an upper echelon corner in the NCAA. I still think Wooden has the ability to be a top notch corner if he can stay healthy and have another season under Bill Lewis. Raeshon McNeil, however, will be tough to keep off the field and should at least be the nickel corner this year.

Missed yesterday’s post due to a little bit too much poker, but I’m back tonight with a bunch of links on the baseball and basketball teams and some more articles on the upcoming draft.  Sorry about the repeats in dome pics, I received a bunch through email that I just haven’t gotten a chance to post yet.  I’ll get to them this weekend.

• The bball team concludes its season tomorrow against Rutgers on the road.  Here’s a preview of the game I stumbled across.  If the Irish are to make a run in either the BE Tourney or in the Big Dance, this is the kind of game they HAVE to win.
• Speaking of this being a must win, here’s an article about Brey keeping his team focused.
• Tomorrow’s game in Jersey is a sellout despite Rutgers having a pretty terrible year in basketball this year.
• And as if we didn’t know this already, the Irish are a lock for the Tourney.
• The baseball team will play a double header on Sunday after Saturday’s game was scratched.
• Nice article from Eric Hansen on the coaches for the Notre Dame Spring Game.
• Just how fast will Jeff Samardzija be pitching in Wrigley Field?  Sooner than you make think according to this mlb.com article.
• Good post from HerLoyalSons about why Notre Dame’s linemen don’t seem to be too strong (at least based on their lifting numbers at last weekends combine).
• This guy thinks the Raiders should avoid drafting a quarterback.  And you know what?  I agree with him.  That team, in its current state, has quarterback killer written all over it.
• Just another article with some quotes showing Quinn knows how to say all the right things and that he’s got his head screwed on straight.

Today’s edition of Spanning the Dome features what is becoming a common mix - little bit of Brady Quinn draft news, little bit of news on the other Notre Dame players in the draft, and a couple basketball links.  By the way, what am I going to link to at this time next year without Notre Dame having one prospects in the draft?

• I haven’t given much love to Victor Abiamiri’s draft status in these posts, so let’s start off with a post from the Patriots website which mentions him as a potential outside linebacker in their 3-4 defense.
• Michael Rothstein has a good article up about Rhema McKnight’s path to the NFL.  If Rhema can turn in a good 40 time at the Notre Dame pro day, I think he can move into the third round.
• Another post from a Dolphins blog on Brady Quinn.  It seems like Miami fans are really warming up to the idea of Quinn and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dolphins trade up for him.
• Meanwhile, this guy thinks that neither Russell or Quinn should go first and his arguments are pretty good - both Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson are sick athletes.
• Seriously, this is the last draft link for today - Jason Kelly weighs on Quinn and the draft.  On a side note, how nice is it to have Jason Kelly and Eric Hansen at the SBT after having say… David Haugh a few years back?
• Remember when Notre Dame ended the season in the NIT?  The Irish won’t be there this year, but the SBT talks to Russell Carter and Collin Falls about ND’s recent NIT trips.
• The observer has a good article on the basketball team’s regular season finale against Rutgers and how much it can mean for their chances in the Big East and NCAA Tournaments.
• Another good article from the Observer about adding some size and muscle to the offensive and defensive lines.

I posted an article up on the main site with some information on Holtz and Ara as the coaches for the Blue-Gold game earlier tonight, but figured I’d post with a little more of my opinions over here.

First off, I love seeing Weis reach out to Ara and Lou. As a younger fan, I never had the pleasure of seeing Ara coach a game while at Notre Dame and still vividly remember Holtz as the coach of Notre Dame as I was growing up and as my addiction to Notre Dame football became more and more serious. Since Lou was the first coach I really remember from my childhood, I guess I didn’t realize how good we as Notre Dame fans had it with Lou. I just assumed that Lou did what Notre Dame coaches are supposed to do - win. Needless to say the 11 years since Lou’s departure from Notre Dame has given me a much greater appreciation for the job he did and as a fan, I can’t wait to see him on the sidelines for the first time in person.

One interesting plot line with Holtz as a coach and Tony Rice as a honorary captain is how Demetrius Jones will be used in the Blue-Gold game. Obviously Weis won’t be running the option, but it will be interesting to see what effect Holtz and Rice can have on a mobile quarterback like Jones. Even though they’ll only really have interaction with Demetrius for the day of the game, it’ll be fun to watch Holtz work with another mobile quarterback given his track record with such quarterbacks at Notre Dame.

On the other side of the field, how can any not love seeing Ara come back and coach another game for Notre Dame? As I mentioned earlier, I never had the pleasure of seeing Ara coach a game for the Irish so my “kid in a candy store” reference in the article on the main definitely will apply to me for the Blue-Gold game.

One other point I made in the article was how much of an effect on recruiting is really a good question. We as Notre Dame fans will be giddy to see Lou and Ara with headsets on on April 21, but how will a 16 or 17 year old recruit to act to seeing a coach, Holtz, who won his national championship at Notre Dame two or three years before they were born? Or in Ara’s case, a coach who coached his last game more than 25 years before they born?

The kids who this will have an impact on the most are going to be the ones who grew up Notre Dame fans and who have an idea of the history and tradition of Notre Dame. Recruits who might know of Notre Dame’s tradition, but who might not have a great understanding of it may not be as impressed.

Where I see having Ara and Lou coach having a real impact on recruiting is in the fan turnout for the game. To me having the likes of Ara, Lou, Tony Rice, Ross Browner, etc is much more of a treat for the fans than the recruits, but the end result of this may be the largest crowd to ever attend a Notre Dame Blue-Gold game.

First off, we have the much publicized quarterback race featuring this past year’s super recruit Jimmy Clausen who may have received more national coverage than any recruit in recent years has so there was already going to be a fairly large media contingent covering that angle. Now, throw into the mix two coaches who won three national titles at Notre Dame and the fan interest in this game is going to be off the charts.

So… some of these top line recruits might not be overly impressed with seeing coaches they may know very little about, but most of them should be impressed if say Notre Dame can draw 30, 40, or 50,000+ fans to a scrimmage.

Even if this year’s coaches don’t have an impact on recruiting, seeing them back in Notre Dame Stadium is something that every Notre Dame fan can appreciate and enjoy. I personally was already fairly excited about making the trip out to South Bend for this year’s spring game and today’s news has only added to that.

Earlier tonight I linked to the latest blog entry for Brady Quinn on his XBOX Community Blog. If read it carefully, you will find the following passage…

“Having Coach Weiss here at Notre Dame helps me out with the interview process. For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he used to coach with the New England Patriots and has been able to prep me for my time with the NFL teams.”

Someone should tell Quinn’s PR person writing these Brady that there is only one “s” at the end of Weis. Now, I’m the last person in the world to offer out spelling and grammar tips (God knows I have enough of them in my own writing), but I find it just a tad funny that Charlie’s name is spelled wrong here.

Other than that, it’s a pretty good post with some information and pictures of his training out in Arizona.

All stats are courtesy of FFLiveWire. They have the numbers for every athlete that participated in the combine.

Brady Quinn - 6′ 3 3/4″, 232 lbs
Quinn made some headlines for not participating in the throwing or running drills, but he may have done just enough to help stop some of the negative momentum he’s experienced since the Sugar Bowl. Quinn weighed in at 232 pounds and measured in at just under 6′4″ and was one of the more impressive looking athletes at the combine. Quinn also did 24 reps of 225 pounds which was more than a number of offensive and defensive linemen. Quinn may have been helped more by JaMarcus Russell’s appearance than anything else this past weekend. Russell was said to show up out of shape and not look nearly as in shape as Quinn which has raised questions about his motivation.

Darius Walker - 5″10′, 208
Of all of the Notre Dame prospects at the combine, Walker probably had the most to prove. Many people feel he should have returned for his senior. The major knock on Walker since he became the full-time starter was his lack of speed and his 4.56 40 yard dash time did very little to change many people’s minds. Walker did, however, turn in the 3rd best vertical jump of any athlete who participated which could help him. Still, Walker is probably still a late first day pick at best, unless he can impress at the Notre Dame pro day. If he can show some better hands than he displayed at the skills competition on ESPN a few weeks ago he could improve his stock some more. On ESPN he looked uncomfortable and almost unnatural handling passes from Troy Smith and the jugs machine.

Rhema McKnight - 6′1″, 211
McKnight didn’t run the 40 at the combine most likely because his 40 time is probably not going to turn many heads. McKnight is more quick than he is fast. His 4.16 20 yard shuttle time put him well into the top 1/2 of those who ran and his 11.28 60 yard shuttle was the fastest of the wide receivers - including being faster than Robert Meachem’s time of 11.3. Its tough to project where McKnight will go without an official 40 time beings as most scouts love to judge receivers on their 40 time.

Dan Santucci - 6′4″, 296
Santucci’s 23 repetitions won’t do much to improve his stock as an interior offensive lineman, but he showed good agility with a 3 cone time of 7.47 - tied for 3rd best among the offensive linemen. His 29″ vertical leap was, however, second worst among the offensive linemen.

Ryan Harris - 6′4″, 299
Harris ran a 5.09 40 time which was one of the better times for offensive linemen, but he only managed 22 reps of 225 which put him near the bottom amongst offensive linemen in that category. Harris was impressive in his interviews and gained some points in that regard. He was one of only seven OL to run the 20 yard shuttle and his time was 4.52. Harris may have gone from potential first round pick to mid to late second round pick with the 22 reps. His good agility numbers, however, should help offset his low strength numbers somewhat.

Victor Abiamiri - 6′4″, 267
Abiamiri’s 40 time of 4.8 surprised me - I thought he would run much better than that. His 4.8 was fairly averaged compared to the other defensive ends who participated - as was his 25 reps of 225. I really thought Abiamiri would be a workout marvel at the combine because of his athletic ability, but his numbers weren’t all that impressive. He’ll need a better showing at the pro day to get back into the early stages of the first day.

Derek Landri - 6′2″, 288
The only numbers listed for Landri were his 24 repetitions, which again isn’t going to turn many heads for a defensive tackle. Landri’s quickness has always been his forte so its a bit surprising he didn’t participate in some of the speed and agility drills. His weight of 288 is a bit surprising as well considering he spent most of his time at Notre Dame much smaller than that. I think Landri could be a very good special teams player early on in his career in the NFL because of his quickness off the line and work ethic.

Chinedum N’Dukwe - 6′1″, 206
Nedu ran a 4.51 40 time which is about the range I figured he’d run and maybe even a little faster. I’ve never really thought of N’Dukwe as a speed guy, but a 4.51 40 time is pretty good for a safety - not great, but pretty good. His 15 reps put him in the bottom half of the defensive backs and that stat did surprise me some.