Bruce Feldman from ESPN has been doing some college football “year in review” type articles over at ESPN.com the past week or so and today came out with one featuring the “biggest disappointments and most dubious moments of 2007“. As you can probably have guessed, our beloved Irish earned a place on his list (rightfully so).
3. The Notre Dame offense: Starting with the failed spread experiment against Georgia Tech, the Irish O was shockingly inept. Despite having an All-American-caliber tight end (John Carlson) and a couple of returning starters on the O-line — including a three-year starter at center (John Sullivan) — to go with a host of hyped young skill talent, ND ranked dead last in Division I-A in total offense, 116th in scoring offense, 115th in rushing offense and 110th in passing. The 3-9 Irish also lost to Navy for the first time in 44 games.
Also on the list was Dennis Dixon’s knee injury, the FSU academic scandal, Dennis Franchione’s newsletter, and USC’s historic upset loss to Stanford. You know what wasn’t on the list though? Michigan’s embarrassing loss to Division 1AA Appalachain State. If USC’s loss to Stanford made the list, how in the hell did Michigan’s not find a home amongst the 10 biggest disappointments and dubious moments of 2008? At least USC loss to a division 1a school (barely). Michigan lost at home, on opening weekend to a team that should have been able to beat with their second string.
Back to Feldman’s comments on Notre Dame though. Did he actually make it sound like we were overflowing with experience on the offensive side of the ball? What he failed to mention was that despite having an All-American caliber tight end in Carlson, we had to start 3 OL who never saw any meaningful minutes prior to 2007, 2 new wide receivers, a new running back, and a new quarterback. Not exactly a recipe for success. To be fair however, there was more than enough talent to be ranked much higher than 116th in scoring offense and dead last in total offense.
On the bright side, the Irish did play a bunch of true freshmen, 11 in all. Linebackers Kerry Neal and Brian Smith were solid, as was NT Ian Williams and WR Duval Kamara. WR-KR Golden Tate flashed some much-needed big-play potential and QB Jimmy Clausen got a ton of experience. The Irish do lose a handful of key seniors, most notably DE Trevor Laws, their best player, and TE John Carlson. Still, Clausen should be better as Charlie Weis talked about him bulking up. His outside receivers will benefit from the added experience. And if Clausen doesn’t get better fast, then incoming freshman Dayne Crist may overtake him. Even though the Irish O-line loses three-year starting center John Sullivan, it should be improved from the dismal showing in 2007, when they looked bewildered every time they faced a blitz. Another big plus: The schedule is lighter. The Irish trade Georgia Tech for San Diego State; UCLA for Washington; Air Force for Syracuse and Penn State for Pitt, meaning they lose four bowl teams and get back none.
Williams finished his first season with 45 tackles, including 19 solo stops and 1.5 tackles for loss. He played in all 12 contests and started the final two games of the season for the Irish. Despite playing primarily as a reserve for much of the year, Williams ranked sixth on the team in tackles and was the only player ranked in the top-12 in tackles on the team who did not start at least four games.
He was one of six true freshmen named to the defensive unit on the FWAA Freshman All-America Team and was one of 13 of the 28 freshman All-America selections who was a true freshman this season.
Williams was named to the CollegeFootballNews.com all-freshman third team and was an honorable mention member of The Sporting News all-freshman team.
Williams was very effective at one of the toughest positions for a true freshman to play in the 3-4 defense this year and is expected to take over as the starter in 2008 if Pat Kuntz moves over to the end to take over the start spot vacated by the graduation fo Trevor Laws.
The emergence of Laws down the stretch this season as at least taken away some of the sting of the decommitment of Omar Hunter earlier this month. While he was not dominan, he held his own against double teams which in itself is impressive for a true freshman. Throw in the fact that Ian registered 45 tackles (more than starting OLB John Ryan) and his performance in 2007 is even more impressive.
On a side note, am I the only one who thinks it’s BS for redshirt-freshmen to be included on all of these All-Freshman teams? There is a big difference between a true frosh and a kid who has spent an entire year in the weight room at a major division 1 school.
Munir Prince, who Charlie Weis once said possessed “whoosh” type speed, has decided to transfer from Notre Dame according to the St. Louis Dispatch.
DeSmet coach Pat Mahoney confirmed that Prince is transferring to Missouri after two seasons at Notre Dame, where he played running back and then cornerback. Prince is expected to play defensive back for the Tigers and, after sitting out next year, will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Prince played in 10 games at Notre Dame this fall and registered three tackles and one pass break-up.
Weis confirmed the transfer in a statement issued Tuesday.
“After talking with Munir, he decided he’d like to leave our football team and the University. I appreciate all Munir has done for our program and Notre Dame and wish him well in the future.”
Prince played running back as a true freshman and showed excellent speed, but was moved to cornerback last spring. In 10 games of action this year, Prince will likely be remembered for his infamous punt miscue against USC which set up the Trojans with their first scored and turned the momentum in the game. Still, Prince is a tremendously gifted athlete and would have given the Irish some much needed depth in the secondary this year.
Brady Quinn entered to a standing ovation from the home crowd and made his debut for the Cleveland Browns Sunday, playing one series while Derek Anderson was sidelined with a hand injury. Quinn played for only one series, the Browns final possession of the first half. He was 3-8, for 45 yards.
Quinn’s first pass was tipped at the line and fell short of his intended receiver. His second pass was also short, but could have been caught if the running back was able to make a good play. Quinn then completed his next three passes for 15, 12 and 18 - all for first downs. With first and goal from the 49ers six yard line, Quinn passed three times. His first was thrown away to the right corner after good coverage negated a fade route. He threw a strike to Braylon Edwards in the back of the endzone. The pass went through Edwards hands as the combination of excellent coverage with a possible drop negated Quinn’s first opportunity at a touchdown. On third and goal, Quinn found Kellen Winslow Jr. wide open in the short center of the endzone, but his pass bounced off Winslow’s chest as Brady’s final chance at his first career touchdown pass, instead lead to a field goal by Phil Dawson.
In a postgame interview that can be viewed on the Browns multimedia site, Quinn was asked if he was disappointed only being in for one series. Quinn again showed the maturity of a team player that has been raved about by Cleveland teammates and columnists alike.
I’ve said this all year long. Every quarterback wants to be in there as much as possible until the end of a game. Of course going in there for one series was a little bit of a tease, but it was great just to get in there and have the experience. It keeps you hungry.
The Browns defeated the 49ers 20-7 to finish a 10-6 season. They missed the playoffs when the Titans beat the Colts late Sunday.
After the game, CBS cameras caught a midfield embrace between former Irish players Quinn (Browns QB), Arnaz Battle (49ers WR) and Bryant Young (49ers DT). Young had played the final game of his 14 year career.
Oldie hasn’t had much reason to make videos this year, but he released his 2007 season video this past weekend and despite not having a whole lot of material to work with, he churned out another top notch highlight clip. Enjoy… at least as best you can.
When it comes to being an All-American, Darren McFadden doesn’t have to settle for second. The Arkansas running back and two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up was one of four players voted to The Associated Press All-America team for the second consecutive season.
Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long, LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey and Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis were the other two-time first-team AP All-Americans on the team released Tuesday.
Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow joins McFadden in the backfield along with Central Florida’s Kevin Smith, who leads the nation with 2,448 yards and 30 touchdowns. Smith is the first All-American from UCF, which began playing major college football in 1996.
Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel, who finished fourth in the Heisman voting, was voted to the second team. Hawaii’s Colt Brennan, third in the Heisman voting, was the third-team quarterback.
A curious omission from the AP’s All-American list this year is Notre Dame’s own Trevor Laws.
Now, before all you ND haters get your panties in a bunch, this is not about Notre Dame. This is about Trevor Laws. The Irish stunk up the field this season, and there’s no way to sugarcoat that sobering reality. But by the same token, there’s no way the Associated Press can justify its blatant disregard of Trevor Laws’ on-the-field accomplishments.
How blatant? Well, you tell me. Of the 100 leading tacklers in Division I-A, 99 are either linebackers or defensive backs. Trevor Laws, at the #43 spot no less, is the only defensive lineman to make the list. To put that achievement in even more perspective, Laws’ 112 tackles are nearly twice as many as the 64 tackles accounted for by two-time consensus All-American Glen Dorsey. What’s that? Dorsey played the last five games of 2007 with a sore knee so the comparison isn’t fair? Okay then, how about this comparison: Laws’ 112 tackles in 2007 is two more tackles than Dorsey compiled in his first three years at LSU combined.
Look, no one’s disputing Dorsey’s abilities. He’s a beast with All-Pro potential, while Laws’ NFL fortunes are far less certain. (Although I think his quickness and perceived lack of size makes for a perfect Tampa-Two DL, but that could be just the wishful thinking of this Colts season ticket holder.) All I’m asking for is a little impartiality. Not only was Trevor Laws omitted from the AP’s All-American lists, he didn’t make second team, third team or even honorable mention. In 2007 the guy put up untouchable, once-in-a-generation stats for a defensive lineman, and the AP thought at least 15 other defensive linemen had better seasons.
There’s more to this than just a handful of hacks being editorially lazy. The Laws snub is a conscious effort by agenda-driven , so-called journalists to misrepresent the facts.
Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughes. Robert Hughes is going to be a heck of a running back for the next couple of years. Hughes doesn’t go down on first contact and shows some great vision and quickness. He needs to work on turning a 44 yard run like the one he had in the 4th quarter into a touchdown this off-season to elevate his game. On the long run all that separated him from the end zone was a defensive back and he got pushed out of bounds. Once he adds the ability to cut back in and make a defender like that miss he’s going to be a very tough back to handle for any defense.
Back to back 100+ yard games with under 20 carries both times is very impressive for a freshman no matter what defense.
Jimmy Clausen took a little of a step back today. I’ve been singing his praises for weeks, but today he made some mistakes he wasn’t making the past couple weeks. None really concern me because they were all freshman mistakes, but after the last couple weeks I thought we had seen the end of those kind of mistakes for Jimmy. The interception he threw was pretty bad - he’s got to take the sack there. On the flip side, he ran out of bounds a couple times for big losses when he should have thrown the ball away.
Clausen needs to work on his timing on the deep ball this off-season. If some of the jump balls were thrown on a line instead of behind the receiver, he would have had over 300 yards passing. There were some big plays to be made downfield, but Clausen’s accuracy on the deep ball was suspect. He still completed over 60% of his passes and on the short routes he was dead on. In the down field passing game, however, Clausen struggled and that is something he will need to work on this off-season.
Liked seeing more downfield passing today even if it wasn’t overly effective. We haven’t seen much downfield passing this year so it was a nice change. My only problem with it was the fact that Grimes was thrown a couple jump balls and that clearly isn’t his game. Duval Kamara still needs some work on those same jump ball type passes where the QB just hangs the ball in the air and lets the receiver go get it, but he is improving. Once he learns to use all 6 feet 5 inches of his frame, he will be a tough receiver to defend against.
Despite the five sacks, I actually thought the line looked good at times - especially in the second half. Some of the sacks were a result of Clausen holding onto the ball too long or rolling out of the pocket too early. Chris Stewart lined up at right guard a number of times and I would be surprised if he wasn’t the full time starter at the position next year.
Grimes touchdown was indeed a catch and there wasn’t a single bit of evidence I have seen that would make me think otherwise. Had the officials called it an incomplete pass on the field, I guess I could live with the replay booth not overturning it, but considering that it was a called a touchdown, I just can’t imagine what the hell they saw to overturn it. The explanation given by the official sounded like a lame excuse you told in 5th grade for why your homework wasn’t finished.
Would have liked to see more of Armando Allen.
Only play calling complaint I have is that Weis called almost the same screen on 2 consecutive 3rd and 20 plays. The first time it worked for a 40+ yard gain. The second time it was blown up for a big loss.
I think the field conditions limited what Weis would call after seeing Hughes and Allen both lose their footing in the backfield a couple times. In a perfect world, I think we would have seen Notre Dame run the ball more.
Fumbles. Fumbles. Fumbles. Too many turnovers. Two fumbles inside the redzone kept this game much closer than it should have been. Combine those blown scoring attempts with the two rob jobs on the Grimes TD and the INT return and this game should have been over by the start of the 4th quarter.
Defense
Trevor Laws went out in style. 8 tackles was enough to give him the record for tackles in a season by a defensive lineman at Notre Dame and he recorded a sack. His “personal foul” penalty on the last play of the half ended up negating an amazing touchdown, but it was ticky tack and probably wouldn’t have been called if it wasn’t the last play of a half that the refs probably felt was meaningless.
Speaking of that interception return, I was a bit surprised to see Bruton pitch it to Zibby, but it was a down right shame that it was brought back because of a stupid ticky tack penalty that like I said, probably wouldn’t have been called if the Refs didn’t think it was a meaningless play.
Zibby went out with a nice game as well. Led the team with 9 tackles, had a pick, and a nice return. Would have been great if he could have kept his footing and took the interception into the end zone, but none of the Notre Dame players could keep their footing all night.
Raeshon McNeil got his first career sack and looked good on the corner blitz. Next year’s secondary is going to be fun to watch with McNeil, a healthy Gary Gray, and a couple of talented frosh in Blanton and Slaughter to go along with Darrin Walls.
Speaking of Walls, he really improved as the season progressed and played well again today. He still needs to be more aggressive against the run in fighting off blocks, but he’s played well.
The young outside linebackers are also going to be a lot of fun to watch next year. Between Smith, Neal, and Richardson, the Irish have some real play makers on the edge.
Ian Williams held his own again which as I’ve said over the last weeks is a pretty big accomplishment for a freshman trying to play the NT position in a 3-4 defense.
David Bruton will be an All American next year.
Right now, my only concern for next year’s defense is replacing Trevor Laws. Across the board the defense should be faster, more experienced, and more talented at every position except Laws vacated defensive end position and that could pose a problem.
Considering the offense put them in some poor positions and turned the ball over 4 times, it was a pretty good performance by the defense to only give up 14 points.
I was pleasantly surprised by the contain on the outside runs - it was a vast improvement over what we were seeing only a few weeks ago. The defense is still very much susceptible for runs up the middle, however, and that should be on the top of Corwin Brown’s to do list this off-season.
Hopefully going more physical in practice from the start of Spring ball will improve the tackling on this defense because there were still a lot of missed tackles out there today.
Special Teams
It goes without saying that this area of the game should be Weis’s top priority this off-season.
Stanford and Notre Dame combined to miss 5 field goals with only 1 coming from Brandon Walker. Walker missed a 44 yarder wide right after Grimes touchdown catch was overturned. Considering Stanford also missed 4 field goals, field conditions may have been a factor, but we haven’t been kicking field goals on good fields this year either.
Kick return game is still not much of a weapon. There just simply isn’t a wedge being formed at any time. Weis and staff need to either bring in someone to fix the special teams or stop the special teams by committee approach.
Zibby had a nice return and had another one called back but his returns are more of his ability and not the blocking schemes.
Note to Charlie - please take some proactive steps to fix the special teams this off-season.
Other
Stanford’s grounds crew should be fired. That field was in TERRIBLE condition. I have never seen players slip and fall that many times in a game played under sunny skies. Why the hell was the field wet down at 5am??
What the hell is the point of a replay booth if they are going to make judgement calls on what they think happened instead of what they actually see on the video tape replays?? Unless there was some sort of angle that the replay booth had that we did not see on the ESPN telecast, there was NO reason whatsoever for Grimes touchdown to be overturned.
Today’s Chicago Tribune has an excellent article of an interview with Notre Dame AD Kevin White in which White comes to the defense of third year head coach Charlie Weis. It is a very interesting reading and I recommend you take a look if you have the time. Here is one passage in particular that I found thought provoking:
Did you think you got more of a finished product when you hired Weis?
That would be an easy cop-out for me, to say, “I didn’t quite know what I bought, and I got something a little bit different.” I can’t say that. … The guy we hired is the guy we have. I think we knew just who was coming here.
Did we think there would be, to use your expression, a learning curve from the NFL after 15 seasons? Absolutely there would be a learning curve. But we continue to be in this thing for the long term.
And that’s OK? To be on a learning curve at Notre Dame?
We thought he was the very best person suited for this position. I don’t care who came in here. There isn’t anybody who would come in here and not have a learning curve.
We knew there would be a transitional period for him. In his first two years, I think most people were really pleased that he had made a very successful transition. And then we got into the “seam.” I don’t care who found themselves in what I characterized in our “seam”—anybody would have struggled.
His record is about the same as his predecessor’s. Why is Weis not in danger?
The moment we were managing in 2004 was singular. And you make the very best calls you can make when you’re in a process, and you’re at a particular place within a process. Now we’re in a bit of a different process, and we’re in a bit of a different moment.
Really the only thing I want to speak to in particular is the recruiting. … Charlie has been an outstanding recruiter. If you look at the freshman and sophomore classes, and the prospect of a very strong class in 2008, there’s enough—at least for me—evidence that we will move through the “seam” and come out the other side and have a pretty darn good football program.
What I find particularly interesting is that White specifically mentions recruiting as the main difference between Weis and the “predecessor.” Recruiting is indeed the biggest difference between the two and is the main reason there is some light at the end of the tunnel in this horrible season. In 2004, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. We had a terrible recruiting year in 2003 and 2004 was shaping up to be just as bad. Those recruiting efforts combined with two back to back disappointing seasons were reason to believe that 2005 would have been no different under the previous regime.
Considering Weis took us to back to back BCS bowls and is recruiting his arse off right now, there is reason to believe that 2007 will be a blip on the radar and not the norm as it appeared would be the case under Ty.
Here’s an update from last week’s statistical comparison between Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen after this weekend’s Duke game. One more game will give us a nice statistical comparison since both will have had 9 starts under their belts.
Brady Quinn (2003)
Jimmy Clausen (2007)
Starts
9
8
Comp-Att-Int
157-332-15
119-213-5
Completion Pct
47.3
55.9
Att/INT
22.1
42.6
Att/TD
36.9
30.4
Yards
1831
1,058
QB Efficiency
93.53
103.74
Avg Yds/Att
5.51
4.97
Agv Yds/Comp
11.66
8.89
Touchdowns
9
7
Times Sacked
13
29
0 INT starts
2 (USC, Navy)
4 (MSU, UCLA, AFA, Duke)
2+ INT starts
4 (Pur, BC, FSU, Syr)
1 (BC)
3+ TD starts
0
2 (AFA, Duke)
0 TD starts
2 (FSU, BYU)
5 (PSU,.Mich, MSU, UCLA, BC)
300+ yard games
1 (BC)
0
<100 yard games
1 (Pitt)
4 (Mich, MSU, UCLA, BC)
Fumbles-Lost
6-2
4-2
Team Rushing
174.6
63.75
Record
4-5
2-6
Some comments on the updated numbers
Jimmy improved his yards/att and yards/comp this week with the best downfield passing he has displayed all year.
Clausen’s att/int improved to 1 interception every 42.6 attempts which is now almost half the rate at which Quinn threw picks as a freshman.
With 3 TDs this weekend, Clausen is now throwing one touchdown every 30 attempts which pushes him ahead of Quinn as well. Another 2 or 3 touchdown performance this weekend should improve those numbers even more.
The Duke game was Clausen’s 4th start this year in which he did not throw an interception and his second consecutive start in which he tossed three touchdowns.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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True freshman nose tackle 
Munir Prince, who Charlie Weis once said possessed “whoosh” type speed, has decided to transfer from Notre Dame according to the 
For those who haven’t been paying attention, on December 11 
Today’s 
