ND vs San Diego St. - Recap

ND - 21 San Diego St 13

Game recap here

The initial impression that many have today is one of disgust or "here we go again" after watching the Irish yesterday. As ugly as it was, a win is a win. Last year's team would not have won that football game late like the Irish did yesterday. Much more can be learned after an ugly win than what could have been learned after a loss that likely would have been the beginning of the end of the Weis era. Now to address my specific game predictions from my Friday post, as well as to assess grades for the 4 areas of grading (Passing Offense, Rushing Offense, Defense, Special Teams), here we go:

• Rushing Game I predicted 10 carries at least each for Armando Allen, James Aldridge, and Robert Hughes. In addition, I predicted 300 yards rushing and 4 TDs on the ground. Wow. The rushing total finished at 105 yards, including zero rushing TDs. Allen had 17 carries, Hughes had 16, and Aldridge had none. I love giving all the carries to the more talented sophomores than the older, slower Jr James Aldridge. But where were the big 300 pound uglies that we heard about all off season? The run blocking was just plain bad for 90% of the rushing attempts. This must be fixed, because passing won't come as easy on other teams. Grade: C-
• Passing Game I predicted Jimmy Clausen would finish with 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and pass for 225 yards. Jimmy surpassed all expectations, especially late in the 4th quarter, throwing 3 touchdowns and 237 yards, against 2 interceptions. It should be noted that the two interceptions were likely both Kamara's fault, one hitting him in the face mask and another ball thrown his way that he wasn't even looking for. Jimmy's touchdown passes were beautiful, well thrown passes. He finished the game 10 out of his last 11, allowing the Irish to complete the comback with a victory. Pass blocking, unlike last year, was superb. Zero sacks for Jimmy Clausen, and only 1 hurry. This after giving up 58 sacks in 2007. Grade: A
• Defense Predicted 3 turnovers, 4 sacks, and 2 celebration penalties. The Irish defense got 2 turnovers, 1 INT and 1 Fumble. Overall, I thought the defense played fair. They definitely blitzed a whole helluva lot, which is encouraging to see. It's apparent though that our defensive line will not be able to get pressure by itself, so blitzing and leaving short passing routes open for the opponent - which San Diego St used all day long - will be a common situation our defense creates. The defense only got 1 sack, despite all the blitzes. We must get more pressure on the quarterback, while figuring out a way to better stop the short and intermediary passing routes. Our safeties and deep pass coverage was a plus. And hey, we only gave up 13 points and 345 yards of total offense, so I can't complain too bad. But San Diego State's ball controlling and short passing game was definitely a cause for concern. Grade: B-
• Special Teams A complete abortion on the kicking game. Numerous bad snaps by Freshman Braxton Cave, in addition to a field goal attempt that was not unlike a Chinese fire drill. We did partially block a punt, and had good coverage on our punts and kickoffs. Some decent punt returns by Armando Allen as well. But our inability to lineup and kick a field goal, with even extra points not even close to certain, this was a huge disappointment. Grade: D

A win is a win, but we all know the Irish will have to play better to beat any of our later opponents on the schedule. This win does put us on a 3 game winning streak. We'll see how much longer it can last when the Wolverines come to town next weekend. They have plenty of talent, but luckily haven't totally put it together yet either. More on that game later in the week.

Ian O'Connor: Irish Hater Extraordinaire

Ian O'Connor, former USA Today sportswriter, currently employed by Fox Sports of some type, does not like Charlie Weis. Nor does he like Notre Dame. No big deal, because he is entitled to his opinion. So am I. I figure that its time someone wrote about him, or more directly, about his misconceptions about Weis and the Fighting Irish.

 

Here is his first article, way back in 2004 when Willingham was fired and Weis was hired. The title of this 2004 article is "Sorry Charlie, but Hope Luck of the Irish is All Bad". (Notice the first article is in the pages of USA Today, a major national publication). Read the article here, its very interesting.

 

The basic premise of the article is that he's pissed off that Notre Dame has fired Willingham, being an Irish Catholic former fan of the University. He then follows the age old and extremely tired argument about Notre Dame selling its soul and becoming a football factory, no longer being any different than any other big football school. So cliche, so overdone, not taking into account the big picture of Notre Dame.

 

Here is a quote that sums up what I have a problem with in this first article (discussing Kevin White's words after the firing of Willingham): 

 

White said Willingham had dominated the line of scrimmage from Sunday to Friday, shaping Fighting Irish athletes into responsible and academically oriented young men. But then the AD talked about the one day of the week — Saturday — where none of that mattered, the only day of the week when Notre Dame keeps score.

 

O'Connor references the quote from Kevin White in which he said that Willingham was a great coach and leader of the program from Sunday to Friday, but not Saturday, implying that Willingham did everything right but win. O'Connor claims that Notre Dame now only cares about "Saturday" and winning, making us no different than major college programs.

 

My question to O'Connor is this  -  why can't you believe that Notre Dame strives for excellence Sunday through and including Saturday? Notre Dame is different because both on the field and off the field do matter. The school does not tolerate less than excellence in any arena of measurement. Yes, winning matters at Notre Dame. It matters a lot. But don't suppose that academics, ethics, and grades don't matter either! Yes, this sounds very idealistic, but its true.

 

The element of faith is mixed in with all that we do at Notre Dame. This faith element often creates a misconeption of arrogance to many outsiders, who do not understand that faith gives us the confidence and independence  -  also known as the Grace of God  -  to strive for success in everything from water polo to chemistry to football.

 

O'Connor's most recent article  -  on Fox Sports Network, no longer USA Today  -  again reaks of a dislike of Weis and Notre Dame, a dislike rooted in the Willingham firing. The title is "We're still waiting for Weis to prove himself." This article really says nothing more than he thinks Weis is unproven, overrated, and that he is still rooting against Weis and the Irish. A quote:

 

So far, the coach has done little to add to the mythology of Notre Dame football, and a lot to harden the myth of his own genius.

 

I don't have much problem with this article. Honestly, its pretty fair, unlike his first article. O'Connor says he thinks Weis is arrogant, not a great coach, and goes through the timeline of all the arrogant things Weis has said. All the facts that he presents are fair and truthful.

 

This article adds no new insight or opinion, just some things Weis said combined with a restatement of O'Connor's self proclaimed "rooting against the Irish. His article is akin to an awkward 10 year old boy standing atop the tree trunk on the playground, proclaiming to all the other school children that Johnny, the self described best 4-Square player, is losing his current match to Bobby. Sweet. Nobody cares. In reality, Johnny is otherwise like able and the match that he is losing is still only in the 1st quarter.

 

I'm entertained by writing like O'Connor's, because a lot of people dislike Notre Dame but aren't quite as transparent as Ian is. At least you know which side of the road he stands on. It's sad that there is a decent chance that O'Connor's writing about ND is the only way he can get attention nowadays.

Gametime: Irish vs San Diego St.

The Irish open up tomorrow at home against the San Diego St. Aztecs, with kickoff set for 2:40pm central standard time.

San Diego St. is not a good football team. I'm sure they will play hard and likely have a few athletes, but this is not a team the Irish should even play a close game with. San Diego St. lost to a very good D1-AA team in Cal-Poly last weekend, 24-22. They gave up 270ish yards rushing and only had about 50 themselves on the ground. They pass the ball a lot on offense, and don't play much defense. Their best players are in their WR, RB, and Defensive Back units.

It doesn't take a brainiac to know what the Irish are going to attack the Aztecs: on the ground. The Irish have said they are going to be a running team this season, and this is the perfect team to test run our ground attack on. I fully expect all 3 Irish running backs (#5 Armando Allen, #33 Robert Hughes (sophmores), and #34 James Aldridge (jr) ) will all get at least 10 carries in this game. I predict the Irish will have 300 yards rushing, and about 225 passing. Jimmy will throw 2 TDs, 1 Int, and then we will have 4 rushing TDs from the backs (Armando with 1, Hughes with 2, Aldridge with 1). Jimmy's passing TDs will be to Duval Kamara (soph WR) and Will Yeatman (TE, junior).

Jon Tenuta (pictured) and Corwin Brown's defense will create 3 turnovers (2 ints, 1 fumble), as well as racking up 4 sacks and 2 celebration penalties. The energy on the Irish defense will be crystal clear to all observers.

Final Score - Irish 45 Aztecs 17

Grizzlies Sign a 10 footer from Iran . . .

At the end of last week the Grizzlies signed 23 year old Hamed Haddadi, a 7 foot 2, 254 pound center from Iran. Wow, lets take all that in.

 

This signing was a surprise in many ways. Note only have I never seen "Iran" in the headlines without being near "war", "nuclear", or "Bush", but I didn't know Iranians play basketball. Apparently a few of them do very well, after reading up on Hamed and his Iranian teammates, who recently competed in the Olympics for the first time in the last 50 years in basketball.

 

Hamed averaged a double double, being the only player in all of Olympic basketball to do so. Apparently he was equally impressive on the defensive end. In fact, he led all Olympians in rebounds and shots blocked, despite playing a few less games than the teams in the medal rounds. Wow. You can read about him here on Grizzlies.com.

 

Interesting that he played so well in the Olympics, and also in the Rocky Mountain Review (an NBA summer league for draft picks, young players), the 2007 FIBA World Championships, and even in the Iranian Super League he plays in currently . . . yet he wasn't drafted at all. I know that he entered the draft in 2004 and wasn't drafted, but I assume he could have been drafted in any later draft, unless he just did not enter the draft at all.

 

Long term, he is a projected and has great potential to be a solid defender, rebounder, and prescence in the paint. In the short term, he has size and his most immediate skill appears to be rebounding, which we all know is a huge problem for last year's Grizz.

 

Sounds like this was a signing with nothing but upside. We don't know the details, but certainly the contract was not expensive. Even if we get a bench supporter then its likely worth the deal. If Hamed develops into a solid NBA center that starts or plays significant minutes, then of course this was a great move. We needed interior size, defense, and rebounding, and those three are Hamed's specialty. Not much else to add until we see him on the court.

 

I certainly wish we had some big American players down low, however. Marc Gasol (Spain), Darko Milicic (Croatia), and Haddadi (Iran) obviously provide a European flavor. But I think all Grizz fans will agree on this: if these guys win, nobody really cares where they're from.

Prediction Time for the '08 Fightin' Irish

I have talked quite a bit in the previous posts about my prediction. Well, here it is. I have made a few predictions below, one for each bullet point. At season's end we will check up and see how I did. Each week I will have a game preview and prediction that will not change the below. Here goes . . .

• The Irish go 7-5, with game predictions as follows:                                                       
• Wins (7) over San Diego St, Purdue, Stanford, Washington, Pittsburgh, Navy, and Syracuse.                                                                                                                                  
• Losses (5) to Michigan, Michigan St, North Carolina, Boston College, and USC.                      
• The Irish home record finishes at 5-1, while the road record is just 2-4. This is not a very safe split given the Irish home record last season (1-5, 2-4 on the road). The new grass at Notre Dame stadium is faster, which should help our team feel more comfortable and use our new found speed. Individual game predictions with more detail will come each week and are subject to change, but these are the predictions I will be judged by at the end of the season.
• At season's end, the one unit that will be seen as "most successful" and adding the most to the Irish season will be the Irish defense, particularly the linebackers coached by Jon Tenuta. Every unit will be improved, and the special teams field goal unit will be a close second.
• The Irish will face off against an old but very short lived rival, the Miami Hurricanes, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in North Carolina. Both teams will have finished 7-5, and the bowl game will prompt a home and home between the Canes and the Irish in the years 2013 and 2014.
• Jimmy Clausen will throw 20 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. The progress made will be substantial, and the hype for his junior season will begin with a great bowl game where he throws 3 TDs and leads the Irish to a  . . .
• Win over Miami in the aforementioned bowl game, 31-24. Jimmy has his best game of the year, starting the hype for his Jr. season in 2009.
• Offensive line only gives up 30 sacks, a nearly 50% improvement over the prior year. The sack improvement alone vaults ND's rushing yardage to very respectable levels, not to mention the 3 good RBs that the Irish have . . .
• Sophomores Robert Hughes and Armando Allen each finish with 800 yards rushing, while junior James Aldridge gets 400. Hughes and Allen each have 6 TDs, while Alridge gets 5. The Florida speedster Armando Allen is the most improved, and hits two runs for over 60 yards.
• Freshman Wide Receiver Michael Floyd combines with Duval Kamara to form a tough WR tandem for the next 3 years. Floyd ends up with 35 catches, while Kamara paces the Irish WRs with 55. Both earn some form of All-America, whether it be Freshman All America for Floyd, or some obscure third team mention for Kamara (sophomore).

That's about as many specific predictions as I can make (8). I would love to see 6 of my 8 predictions come true, with obviously the 2 I get wrong being missed on the not optimistic enough side. We'll see, but I'm cautiously hopeful that we can return to respectability.