99 Days . . .

. . . until the Irish take the field against San Diego St. Not too much happening in college football until camps open in August, so don't expect much from this blog. A few tidbits of note over the past few weeks:

• Coach Weis visited soldiers in Iraq, touring with other college football coaches. By all accounts it was a great experience for Weis and the military alike. The coaches coached and refereed a flag football game on Memorial Day, staying afterwards to sign autographs for hours. Interestingly enough, the coaches were asked to write messages on some bombs to be dropped in Afghanistan. Weis wrote, "You will lose. Go Irish!" on his bomb, sparking the creation of t-shirts everywhere. I still say 2008's "The Shirt" for Notre Dame football should say: "Notre Dame Football 2008 - No more F_cking Around"




• Notre Dame appeared at #19 in Phil Steele's preseason poll, being released over this past week and next week. No that's not a typo, and no this is not for basketball. Phil Steele is known for his analytic approach and is incredibly well respected in the college football community. No doubt he sees the Irish much weakened schedule as a big harbinger of the Irish return to relevancy. Personally I think he is a bit optimistic, but its nice to see an objective analyst make a call instead of me/message board dude/Lou Holtz making the claim. Also nice to see BYU at #17 in his pole. Not sure why I mentioned that . . .
  
  
• Army and Notre Dame will likely begin playing again in 2010 or later. Great news for traditionalists, although many younger Irish fans are tired of playing service academies. The games will be at Notre Dame Stadium for Irish home years, and in neutral sites like Philadelphia, Orlando, Chicago, etc. for Army host years (similar to the Navy series). Every schedule has to have some "softer" teams, so ours might as well be service academies, which I have enormous respect for (insert Navy joke here). As long as we keep the Michigan and USCs, as well as some new fresh rivalries on the schedule (i.e. Oklahoma home and away in 2012 and 2013), I will be fine. Would be great to add more SEC teams like Georgia or Alabama onto the schedule, but that looks doubtful as the push is fore more neutral site games that essentially are under Irish control. Big, "premier" programs would only play home and home most likely.
  
• One transfer out, two players return. Freshman linebacker Aaron Nagel will seek a transfer after being buried on the depth chart and potentially behind incoming freshman this fall. Wish him well, and thank him for opening a schollie for someone else. In great news, last year starting defensive tackle Pat Kuntz will be returning to campus, after leaving due to academic reasons in the spring. Sophomore Tight End Will Yeatman has also returned, after being suspending for a drinking incident on campus. Yeatman missed the spring, which included his participation on the Irish lacrosse team, on which he earned National Lacrosse Rookie of the Year in 2007. At 6 foot 6, 260 pounds, Yeatman is the perfect size for a tight end, and also can lay hat on the lacrosse field. Both will start or at the minimum play significant minutes for the Irish.
  
• Talent levels in 2008 are arguably back to a competitive level, although not in the senior or 5th year senior classes. The "star" system for high school recruits has been pretty steady since about 2001, and many are starting to see a direct correlation between NFL draft picks and successful college football programs and the star rankings out of high school. In short, 5 star players have statistically shown to have a much higher chance of being a top 2 round NFL draft pick than 3 star players, as these high school talent evaluators are getting pretty good at what they do. The hard issue is how do you compare a senior in college that was a former 5 star signee, with a true freshman 5 star? Obviously the former is more valuable, and that's what the Irish lack. The Irish 1st - 3rd year players represent 3 straight top 8 ranked classes in 2006 - 2008 (and the top RB in the nation Cierre Wood (pictured) on the way for 2009); however, the lack of talent in the 4th and 5th year classes will continue to hurt the Irish in 2008. Come 2009 though, the Irish will have no excuses for not winning 9 games a year.

Hopefully the team is getting into shape and the incoming freshman will work hard to be ready to contribute come September. Probably won't be too much blogging on the Irish until a few pre-season posts come August. Talk is cheap, and all the Irish can do to gain respect back is to show up in September. My official prediction for the season will be decided later, but I look for the Irish to be much more competitive and enjoyable to watch this year.