News & Notes

Ok, the posting layoff is over. In the week's since Notre Dame's throttling of Hawaii on December 24th in the Hawaii Bowl, a few coaching and personnel decisions have been made:

• Will Yeatman, former starting tight end, has transferred to Maryland to play football and lacrosse (he was 1st team All-America in lacrosse as a freshman). Yeatman was one of the players at the off campus party in September, where he was arrested yet not charged for under age drinking. The 20 year old had an amazing .02 BAC level - making him 3 times below the legal limit of any state. ND promptly suspended him for the entire semester, largely based upon his previous DUI the year before. It was time for him to leave, although ND as usual treated him like a nefarious criminal for a very simple offense. Still no charges for that arrest because the officers entered the house without permission (illegally) and the cases are being thrown out. The best blocking TE on the roster, his loss will be felt. Lucky for us, the ND tight end talent is deep enough to cover, assuming no injuries.
  
  
  
• Offensive Coordinator Mike Haywood has become the head coach of Miami of Ohio. Mike was a good assistant coach and has the experience to take the jump. Its hard to be an offensive coordinator under Weis, so this loss is not huge. So far, the Irish program has not replaced Mike. There are rumors that no offensive coordinator will be hired, just a few offensive assistants under Weis. I am fine with this, as we saw how well the Irish offense performed in the Hawaii Bowl when Weis was in the booth, calling plays, just like an offensive coordinator.





• Defensive Line coach Jappy Oliver is gone, to pursue other opportunities. A few names are floating around for his replacement. There has been talk of Luke Fickell, Ohio St Linebackers coach, joining the Irish staff. Whether he would be defensive line coach or an additional linebackers coach is anyone's guess.





• Offensive Line coach John Latina is also out, having been replaced this week by Frank Verducci. You can read all about him and some insight at the great blog Blue Gray Sky. In short, he has about 12 years of college experience preceding his last 8 years in the NFL. He is a New Jersey native that is exactly what Weis wanted - someone that speaks his language (NFL) but has worked in college (recruiting). It doesn't hurt that Verducci's father and brother are football coaching legends in New Jersey, which always helps in recruiting. Verducci has been OLine coach for the Cleveland Browns the past few years, employing the often controversial Weis scheme of "zone blocking". Many old timers hate this, but its what the OLine and Weis are used to. This is likely the most important coaching hire in Weis's career, so hopefully he got it right. Time will tell.





• 2007 starting corner back Darrin Walls has returned to campus, after moving home for the fall semester for "personal reasons". Walls was the best corner on the team in 2007 (remember his interception and then 60 yard TD return against Penn St?), as well as a top 50 recruit 3 years ago. He has 2 years of eligibility left, and is adding to what most think is the strength of the Irish, the defensive backfield. Next season, the Irish will have have 4 highly talented and experienced corner backs - 1 senior (McNeil), 2 sophomores (Blanton & Gray [hopefully - there are rumors of academics or transferring]), and 1 junior (Walls). After improving significantly in pass defense from 2005 to 2008, 2009 will be our best defensive backfield in 15 years.




• One more tidbit, not personnel related: The Irish scored more points (49) than any other team in any of the 34 bowl games this year.
  

Of all the news and notes, the hiring of the offensive line coach Frank Verducci, is the most significant. During the 4 years of Charlie Weis, the Irish have experienced the 3 worst rushing years in Notre Dame history. Some blame the lineman, or the scheme, while others blame the coaching. No matter what is the reason, the inability to run the ball has been the biggest disappointment and potential harbinger of failure of the Weis era.

A good example of the importance of the run game was this season, for instance. Everything started off great for the Irish offense. We passed the ball deep, and it worked well. Once teams adjusted by dropping more defensive backs deep (2nd half of the North Carolina game) we had to respond, but couldn't. What should be the offensive response when the defense backs up? Run the ball. We were unable to do that, so we were screwed offensively. Teams figured this out, and just deep covered us to death, knowing that their defensive lines and inside linebackers could handle the Irish run game with no help. Against Hawaii the talent level showed and we simply outplayed them and had a great day against a poor defense.

If Weis can find a way to run the ball even remotely like our teams pass the ball, he will finish his contract. I truly believe this is the missing ingredient, as the defense and talent level are improving each year. The flip side of this is simple - if Weis and Verducci don't make significant inroads in the running game - this coming fall - then they will both be fired. Lets hope they do.

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.