Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Another set of interviews from Irish Illustrated via YouTube - this time sophomore starting outside linebackers Brian Smith and Kerry Neal.

Video oif Smith after the jump

No practice news today, but I’m still sifting through all of the quotes and videos from Day 1 and will be continually adding some more articles over the weekend.  Here’s the updates from today.

• Reggie Brooks has taken a position within the Monogram Club.
• Posted video clips of Jon Tenuta, Corwin Brown, Toryan Smith, Ian Williams, and David Bruton that were posted to YouTube from yesterday’s press conferences and interviews.
• Baseball obligations could cause Evan Sharpley, Eric Maust, and Golden Tate to miss a good portion of spring practice.
• Jon Tenuta and Corwin Brown seem to be playing nice so far and want to get aggressive on defense.
• Oh, and in case you missed Wednesday’s updates - check out the Day 1 Link Recap post for all the updates and articles we from day one.

That’s all for today.  Look for some more articles on Ian Williams, Toryan Smith, Kallen Wade, and Charlie Weis over the weekend and early next week.

Theres a number of videos from yesterday’s media interviews up on YouTube and all of them are worth watching.

First up is an interview with new Linebackers Coach Jon Tentua.

Click here for more videos of Corwin Brown, Ian Williams, David Bruton, and Toryan Smith

We had a ton of updates here on UHND for day one so I figured I would post a recap of all the articles and blogs I posted yesterday.

• The first depth chart was released and had a few position moves and weight gains.  Here’s a recap off all those moves.
• Weis addressed the media Wednesday, here are some highlights from the press conference.
• Former Notre Dame linebacker Kinnon Tatum was added to the coaching staff as a graduate assistant.
• A few players will be held out of spring practic, here’s an injury report.
• Notre Dame’s practices are about to get more physical than they have been in the past.
• QB Jimmy Clausen has bulked up and will be seeing most of the snap in practice.
• Jim Morse, Terry Hanrattay, Terry Eurick, Allen Pinkett, Bryant Young, and Ryan Grat will be the honorary captains for this year’s Blue-Gold game.
• ESPN was on campus yesterday and had a decent report on day 1 of spring ball.
• Charlie Weis will be visiting the troops in the Middle East along with a few other college coaches.

And that will complete the most updates we’ve ever done in a single day here at UHND.  Hope you all enjoy!  We’ll have some more articles Thursday night.

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