The first two undrafted Notre Dame players to sign free agent deals are long snapper JJ Jansen and running back/special teamer Travis Thomas.  Jansen signed with Green Bay and Thomas signed with Cleveland.

Both probably have a pretty good chance at making a roster because they can fill niche roles on a team.  Jansen is a pretty good long snapper and if he finds the right place, he can make an entire career based on long snapping.  Mike Batrum is a guy who comes to mind who has lasted in the NFL for years because he’s been able to be a very effective long snapper.

Travis Thomas will make an NFL roster if he can show in camp that he can be a special teams standout.  His running back skills alone will not get him on a roster and those skills alone probably wouldn’t have gotten him drafted.  Because he’s played a lot of positions though, he has a chance to make a squad as a utility/special teams guy.

UPDATE: Joe Brockington has now also signed a FA deal with the Buffalo Bills.

Offense

• It was great seeing Robert Hughes get in the end zone and even better seeing all of his teammates mob him on the sideline afterwards.
• If Clausen is healthy, he should be starting next weekend. Weis wouldn’t throw Sharpley under the bus, but he can’t be happy with what he saw. Saying Sharpley’s accuracy is suspect is an understatement. He just misses too many open receivers, takes too long to make his decisions, and is too careless with the football.
• Where did Armando Allen go? 91 yards on 16 carries but Aldridge kept getting the ball when he was clearly tiring out. By the end of the game Aldridge’s yards/carry was under 4.0 because he was wearing down. Allen is looking more and more like a potential big time back. Get him the ball.
• Robby Parris took another step back this week. He had a couple chances to make a play - most notably a dropped touchdown in the 3rd quarter.
• Duval Kamara meanwhile keeps improving and had his first career two touchdown performance.
• Why oh why can’t we run a damn screen? I’ve lost count of how many times this year that a screen play has been blown up by 1 single defender knifing through the Irish “blockers.” Turkovich was the lead blocker on two screens in particular where he didn’t touch a single Navy defender.
• What happened to Golden Tate? Navy did not have a single defender who could have kept up with him but we didn’t see a single deep pass thrown his way.
• Say what you want about Travis Thomas, but he had 3 runs in regulation that all ended with touchdowns and he got little to no blocking on any of them.
• Asaph Schwapp also had one of his better games and actually made some blocks. He’s been much maligned across all of the ND blogs, but he did OK out there this weekend.

Defense

• Linebackers really didn’t do a whole heck of a lot out there. Crum had a good first series but after that, the inside backers were eaten up and the outside backers played very undisciplined. John Ryan at one point in the first half went to tackle the Navy QB even though Brockington had him covered. Ryan still went after the QB and left the pitch man wide open. Navy got a 12 yard gain. Overall though, none of the outside backers played the option well.
• Laws is an animal. I feel bad for him because of all of the losses, but he made himself many more millions by coming back this year.
• Ian Williams played well filling in for Pat Kuntz. It would be nice if he could see more time at NT with Kuntz seeing some time at DE since that might be where he is at next year.
• Darrin Walls has improved a lot this year. In the beginning of the year he would shy away from contact in the run game, but he made some nice plays and his forced fumble could have been huge if there was any other Notre Dame defender anywhere near the play.
• Bruton didn’t play a lot because he was slowed all week in practice, but Weis did say that he was full speed by the end of the week. If he really was full speed I don’t see why he didn’t play more.
• Overall the defense did not look prepared to defend the option at all. Guys weren’t sticking to their assignments and as soon as Notre Dame stopped something, Navy just moved on to something else and stayed a step ahead of the Irish in terms of adjustments. This was Corwin Brown’s first game as a DC defending the option so let’s hope he improves a lot in the next week.

Special Teams

• Allen nearly broke a couple nice returns but still keeps getting tripped up right when you think he’s about to take it to the house.
• The only punt return by Zibby was excellent and should have set us up for the win.
• There’s really no reason or excuse for not having a kicker who can kick a 41 yard field into some wind to win a game. None. Whatsoever. Really, I’m at a loss for words on this one. Weis didn’t have a FG kicker when he got here and instead of waiting for Kai Forbath during his first class he handed out scholarships like he was hading out skittles and now we have three scholarship kickers - none of whom can kick a 41 yard field goal into some wind apparently. On the season, ND kickers are a combined 1 for 5 on all field goal attempts of 30 yards or more.
• Sorry, still trying to comprehend how the kicking game could be as bad as it is…. bare with me here.
• So anyway, here’s hoping Brandon Walker improves a lot this season and spends January-July kicking field goals all day long because I think the kid’s got some talent.
• Check that, Walker needs to do some lifting too because it would be nice to see a touchback every once in a while.

Coaching

• This might have been Weis’s worst coached game since taking over. The fake field goal, the no field goal, play calling, etc all were just bad. No excuse for them.
• Brown had a baptism by fire with the option this week and will need to make some major adjustments.

Charlie Weis met with the media Sunday and gave answered some questions about Saturday’s embarrassing triple overtime loss to Navy.  And by answered some questions I mean he just tried to defend some of his head scratching decisions.  Anyway, just a warning, the coach-speak level of his answers is registering at about a 9.5.

On why he went for it on 4th down instead of kicking the field goal at the end of regulation 

“It was going against the wind and in practice, he couldn’t make it from there. That’s why we didn’t kick it from there. That was a pretty simple one. We had a position on the field that we had to get to going into the wind. And we hadn’t gotten there yet.”

On how close the Irish needed to be to kick the field goal

About four more yards. We go by what we see, and the wind factors in. When you get to that, we weren’t at that spot. That’s what we did.

On the fake field goal in the first quarter

We had put that in situationally on that same spot. Once again, you know, we were having trouble kicking that way in pregame. We really had trouble kicking into the wind in pregame. We felt that if we got the ball the first time on left hashish, we had the one way. We were trying to get it in there. If we couldn’t, at least we could pin them back and not give them field position.

We figured maybe we could get ten yards if we didn’t make it and get them down to the 10 yard line and actually got the ball to the 15.

I’d rather, the way Navy plays, to have them play on a long field than play on a short field.

On getting Robert Hughes into the end zone

Well, I had told them — and, you know, Coach Haywood had gone to Travis to talk to him about it. I told him the first time we went down the goal line, I wanted to give the ball to Robert. I said I was going to give it to him every play whether we scored or not. He was going to get it every play until he got it in the end zone. Fortunately, he got it in on the first one. I think that was a pretty emotional time for both Robert and for the team.

When I got back a couple minutes later, I saw him on the sideline. He had that far away — those far-away eyes. You could see at the time he had just scored a touchdown, but he really wasn’t too much thinking about anything other than his brother.

On playing another option team next weekend

First of all, Air Force, I haven’t studied them a whole bunch but they are a different type of team than Navy is now.

You know, I think that obviously Navy is a grind-them-out team, two, two, two, two seven. It is just go, go, go and everything ends up changing.

Now, I think we made some plays. We made enough plays to put us in position to win the game, okay? But I think that at the end of the day when the game’s played in the 40s, we just didn’t make enough plays to win the game.

On if Clausen was close to going into the game

Well, the intent in this game was to go ahead and — was to play both quarterbacks in the game, but there never was an ebb and flow and it was not to play him as a replacement. It was, like, to substitute almost like the running back position. That was the intent in the game.

But there was never an ebb and flow in the game where making the situation was very practical. You know, so I think that there had to be a natural time to do that. Like, if we would have ever got in the situation where we were up two scores — what I didn’t want to do was replace Evan. Evan understood this, and Jimmy understood this, that this was a possibility that we were going to do that.

But it never — the right situation to go ahead and make a switch never came about.

On how the reps will be split this week between Sharpley and Clausen

We’re going to continue like we did this week, and I will have to wait and see the tape. I imagine Evan will still get more. Jimmy is getting healthier. I’m not saying he was — once again, he wasn’t injured but he has been hurting. And he’s getting better and better and closer and closer. And I think that Jimmy will continue to get more reps as well.

On Navy only have 5 sacks coming into the game yet still getting pressure on Sharpley

That’s the number that’s on the sheet right here. I will have to go back and look at it. Sacks happen for a different reason. One time we just blew it. I don’t know if people got run out. I will have to wait and go see it right there.

The bottom line is you put yourself in the position — there is only a couple plays that I was really dissatisfied on offense for the day to tell you truth. You can talk about the two-point play, but the strip sack fumble for the touchdown, obviously, was one play that sticks out for me.

You know, we dropped a touchdown pass. That’s another play that sticks out for me. But for most of the day, moving the ball was not the issue today.

On the significance of the streak ending

Time out, time out, time out. Streak doesn’t mean anything to me. I mean, this is — we lost to Navy. That’s who we lost to. Next year we will play Navy again.

I mean, the only streak is in your eyes. It is really not in the player’s eye. The streak they are worrying about is how many games — how many games they lost on the road, at home. That’s what they are worrying about. How many games we played since UCLA when last we won. That’s what they are worrying about. They are worrying about the here and now.

These kids are 17. Do you think they’re worrying about 43 years? They are worrying about right now. They would like to beat Air Force. I think that’s the streak they would like to beat on.

On if this was the low point in the season

Low point is when you get beat 38-0. That’s a low point. A low point is when the game is going okay and one team is pulling away from you and they’re making plays and you’re not making plays.

This was a — the low point for me is the fact that we didn’t win the game and I wanted Robert Hughes to be standing up on that chair singing the fight song in the locker room. You want to know what’s really important to me? That’s what’s really important to me. What you look at as important is different than me.

I wanted that Number 33 to be standing on that stool in the locker room singing a fight song so all of his teammates could be sitting there hugging him. That was really the most important thing to me today and that didn’t — that wasn’t able to happen.

And to me that’s what’s really important. So it is a little different for me because I look at it personally as well as professionally.

In the latest depth chart released by Notre Dame, freshman Duval Kamara and sophomore Robby Parris are list as the starting receivers. The two receivers have both seen their playing time increase over the last few weeks and they give the Irish offense a similar look to what Jeff Samardzija and Maurice Stovall gave this offense two years ago. While neither is developed to the point of Stovall or Samardzija at this time, they give the Irish offense two big targets who can’t get thrown around at the line. One of the problems with starting both David Grimes and George West was that they were both smaller receivers and in two wide receivers sets, they were easier to take out of the equation by opposing defenses.

Here are some other notes from the latest depth chart.

• Anthony Vernaglia is now listed as a backup ILB behind Mo Crum. Vernalgia played a lot of ILB last week in Crum’s absence and played reasonably well. With the emergence of Brian Smith and Kerry Neal at OLB, Vernaglia’s playing time on the outside was going to be cut short so this move could get him more playing time if Crum isn’t full go again this weekend.
• Kerry Neal continues to be listed as the starter at OLB and it’s only a matter of time until Brian Smith is also listed as the starter opposite him.
• Travis Thomas is listed as the starter at RB this week with James Aldridge banged up.. Given the state of the Irish running game and USC’s ability to stop the run, it’s obvious that Notre Dame will have to pass the ball a lot this week. Thomas is the most accomplish pass blocker amongst the running backs so this makes sense. I would still expect to see Robert Hughes and Armando Allen get more carries.
• Dan Wenger is listed as the #2 RG and C, but Weis said earlier in the week that he is the backup at all 3 inside OL positions.
• Chris Stewart is the #2 RT behind Paul Duncan even though he has been primarily listed as a guard in the past. Weis said earlier this week that Stewart has been practicing both positions.  If you remember back to when Stewart was being recruiting, he had some surprising agility for a big man, so maybe he can find a home a tackle.
• Ambrose Wooden is listed as an “or” along with Darrin Walls at one of the corner spots which I can only hope is Weis being nice because Walls is head and shoulders ahead of Wooden right now. Unless of course we are talking about getting pass interference penalties, then Wooden has Walls’ number.
• Geoff Price is listed as the #1 holder ahead of Evan Sharpley.
• Sergio Brown is now the #2 SS behind Tommy Zbikowski.

On the starting quarterback and injuries for the USC game:

First of all, a couple of our own personnel issues. Evan Sharpley will start at quarterback. Both Evan and Jimmy (Clausen) were told that yesterday afternoon after I had time to visit with our medical staff and our coaching staff, and that’s the way we’re going. So Evan will be one, Jimmy will be two.

In addition to that, the only person that I know that is listed as doubtful for this game would be James Aldridge. A follow up from a question the other day in here, he had a bit of a high ankle sprain, and he intends to play this week, but I’d say the odds of that happening aren’t real high.

On why Sharpley is being given the start this weekend:

I think there’s a lot of people with bumps and bruises. That’s not the sole reason why we’re doing this. But I think Evan this week gives us the best chance of winning. And it’s the exact same thing I told both quarterbacks, just so you know. I met with them yesterday and I told them exactly what I just said to you.

On all of the transfers this season:

Usually the guys that transfer got beaten out. That’s why they leave. It would be one thing if it was — if you’re telling me that John Carlson is transferring tomorrow, I’m going to start worrying, okay? But I really can’t worry too much about guys that leave that aren’t starting. I’ve got to worry about the guys that are playing.

On the development of both Sharpley and Clausen this year:

They’ve both improved from the start of last spring. See, neither one of them did I spend a whole heck of a lot of time with before last spring. Even when Evan was here last year, I spent most of my time with Brady. So now I’m spending almost all my time with, along with Ron, with these guys, and I’ve seen them both mentally and physically become much better players and become more capable of running more information each week in practice.

On the health of Mo Crum and David Grimes:

It sounds like both of them have a legitimate chance of playing this week. Mo is walking without a limp this week, and that’s a good thing. And David was close to being able to go on Saturday, but it’s always tough when you haven’t practiced all week long to try to go when you haven’t had a meaningful rep in practice. So I’ll have to wait until after today’s practice. I’ll probably have a better idea and be able to answer that one tomorrow.

On the lower number of early offers out to junior recruits at this point:

Because we don’t have very many numbers to be able to give out. That has a lot to do with it. When you have 70 guys on scholarship and you’re going to have a full 25, you can be more aggressive. But next year that number might be 15. So you’ve got to be very cautious.

On how permanent of a switch making Sharpley the starter is:

We’re just talking about USC. That’s all we’re talking about. Evan Sharpley is the quarterback for USC. That’s all we’re talking about. How would I know if it’s permanent? I don’t know that answer. It’s a permanent switch for the USC game.

On the development of Robby Parris:

He’s not acted like a sophomore. He’s playing with more savvy and somebody who’s got more real experience than he has. This is his first time really playing. He runs good routes. He’s dependable for the quarterbacks. They know where he’s going to be. He’s fairly smooth for a guy as big, and he’s got good hands.

On why Golden Tate wasn’t involved much in the BC game:

That was because we were going to play a significant amount of no huddle in the game, and in the no huddle our outside receivers do not flip flop positions, so they need to know both outside positions both as the weak side receiver and the strong side receiver. And really at his experience level, you want him to be able to play one position. Not where he has to know both the X and the F and know both right and left. That was not the type of game that you want a guy with very little experience to be involved in.

On how the running backs will be used if Aldridge can’t go Saturday:

I think what we would not do this week, since this is USC, is just throw Robert in and Armando in there right off the bat. I think that we would go a little heavier with Travis being involved in this mix, too, more than he has this year. I think that that would be part of that combination. I’m not saying by committee, but I think that he would probably take off some of the pressure of James, and obviously Robert and Armando would be much more involved.

On the status of Dan Wenger:

He’s back. I think I would list Tom down there, but I think if I needed a backup inside, Danny would be the first backup inside at all three positions. I know I only list him at one. I list him as the backup center but he’d probably go in first at right guard and he’d probably go in first at left guard, as well.

On wearing the throwback jerseys to commemorate the 1977 team this weekend:

We are 1 and 6. It would be a heck of a thing to come out wearing the green jerseys. But I think at the time it was presented to me, to get that out of the way then so you didn’t turn into doing it for the wrong reason, if we were going to use the jerseys for motivation, I’d use the ones that we have, the newer green ones that I really like.

These uniforms are ugly, but what the players like about them is that they’re throwbacks. Because they’re throwbacks, they’re unique. Remember what those jerseys looked like? Remember those ugly pants? That’s what they have to wear this week.

On the length of the grass this weekend

I knew that in that game, and I remember Desmond Reed got hurt in that game, okay, and no way do you ever want a player getting hurt from another team for any reason. But this is the Midwest, and we’re going to play five games in a row at home. That’s where we are right now. Now, fortunately this is only game two. But it isn’t like our grass grows like we’re living in the south. It is what it is. It’s patchy and it’s not the same as playing on Bermuda grass in the south.

On the players reactions to the retro jerseys this week:

When I showed it to them, I figured it was going to be an emphatic no. I brought them in here, `here’s this, do you want to wear it?’ `Yeah, yeah.’ I said, `you’ve got to be kidding me.’ It was unanimous. The captains, they couldn’t have been any more fired up about it. I told them at the time that we’re going to say it now, get it out of the way now, let everyone know that we’re doing it, and I think there will be a lot of people that like it. I like the new green jerseys that we wore last year. I like the color of those. But I got outvoted on this one.

On the 2005 game:

It was a great game. The problem is you hate to be remembered as the losing coach in an epic battle. You hate to be remembered that way. But it was a heck of a game. If I didn’t think the game was that big of a game, I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to let their players know that I thought it was a heck of a game because you knew that you had been part of something special. It just wasn’t just another regular season game. This was two teams going right to the end and them making a gutsy call at the end that ended up paying off. You’ve got to give it to them. Got to give it to the coach, got to give it to the quarterback, because it was ultimately his decision. You’ve got to give it to the running back for helping aid them in getting in there, a heads up play. I can whine all I want, but it was a heck of a game. I just wish it would have ended the other way.

On establishing the running game this weekend:

I think the more you can keep your offense off the field, the better chance you have of winning. I think that’s a very valid question because if you try to get into a score a thon with the lack of production we’re having, especially this year on offense, but even in the past, if you try to get a score a thon with them, it usually doesn’t turn out too well. So the more you control the ball, the better chance you have of winning the game.

On Stanford’s upset of USC two weeks ago:

I saw Stanford make a couple of lay up big plays where they threw the ball up for grabs a couple times and they made a couple of hellacious catches. I think for the most part USC has got the game under control. It was 23-14 with five minutes to go in the game, and it looked like the game was over. All of a sudden, they make a couple plays, you turn the ball over.

On the pyschological benefits from the Stanford upset:

Absolutely. They’ve seen that team lose at home. I think that any time you have evidence, any time you have evidence that - it’s one thing when you’re trying to get them into vision how you think the game is going to go. It’s another one when they actually can see it go that way. Stanford kept on plugging, they kept on plugging, next thing you know they kick a field goal and they’re down by six, and the next thing you know they get four shots from the end zone and they throw the ball and the guy makes a fabulous catch and now you win.

On whether or not Jimmy can play Saturday:

No, whoever is playing, plays. Questionable still means you’re playing. It’s when they can’t go, they can’t go. Now Jimmy can play; I don’t think he can play as good as Evan, that’s why Evan is going to quarterback.

On how the Notre Dame roster has changed since the 2005 USC game

Well, we’ve gone through significant changes personnel wise. That game we had a fairly veteran — very veteran offensive line, we had a veteran tight end, we had veteran receivers, we had a veteran quarterback, and we had a guy that had been starting for a few years at running back.

At defensive line we had a veteran defensive line. Linebackers for that game were two seniors and a sophomore, and in the secondary we had a couple kids who have gone on to fortunately make it to the NFL from that team, as well. So probably more than anything else there’s been — like every program — a significant transition. But the problem is the transition has been mainly to younger guys, not to another group of juniors and seniors. Although we have some very strong leaders in our upperclassmen, there’s significantly more younger guys involved in the mix now than there were at that time.

On the play of Kerry Neal and Brian Smith:

I can’t talk enough about them. I keep on saying how the arrow is pointing up on them. It’s not just because they get on the field and they make a few plays. It’s because they play this game with passion, and I think that any time you play the game with passion and have some athleticism, okay, you have a chance to be something special, and I think that both those guys have a chance to be. When it’s all said and done, by the time they leave here, they’ll be household names.