Saw*Kick Media

After the debacle that was the Beat down at the Big House many Irish fans are grasping at straws for a silver lining. Fanatics on message boards are calling for the head of Charlie Weis and the rest of his staff. Talk shows cannot seem to talk about anything else other than how the Irish are faltering. We, as fans of the Irish are hearing so much of it, that unfortunately we are starting to believe it. Well I am here to tell you that Irish fans, keep your head held high for blue skies are ahead.

Charlie Weis IS the right man for the job.

It takes a special person to be able to understand and embrace the passion and tradition that is Notre Dame Football, and we have that man. Let’s face it; the only people that will ever truly understand what we have here are alumni. Being the head coach of Notre Dame is comparable to being the president of the United States. Quit laughing and bear with me on this. With both jobs as soon as you are hired/elected, half of the country hates you before you give your opening press conference. They are both thankless jobs with countless behind-the-scenes nightmares that we never hear about. I don’t know what’s worse, dealing with Boosters, or hearing your 20 advisors tell you how you should give a speech. The love/hate pendulum for Notre Dame fans is ridiculously extreme. If you are winning we are busting out the popsicles, if you are losing, we want to crucify you … there is no middle ground of patience and acceptance. We are going through growing pains now, but we have the right man to mold this squad. But like our team, he is growing into his position. He’s an NFL guy, and as Al Groh can attest to, the NCAA isn’t the NFL.

Weis has also taken plenty of flak for the fact that the Irish have not scored a single offensive touchdown through three games, despite his offensive pedigree. The most recent sound bite has been of Weis at his opening press conference talking about his advantage as a play-caller. Weis said, “They’re going to have to learn about us, OK? Let them try to stop a pro-style offense, which has multiple personnel groups and multiple formations. Let’s see how they are going to do. They’ve had their advantage because I’ve come into recruiting late. Well, now it’s X’s and O’s time. Let’s see who has the advantage now.” Why shouldn’t Weis have been arrogant? He had just come from New England, the only real dynasty of the 21st Century thus far (you can take your Camera-gate and shove it up your ass). He molded Tom Brady from a sixth-round pick into a franchise cornerstone. Put yourself in his shoes, if you can win a Super Bowl, why couldn’t you lead a college team to a national championship? His arrogance is not unfounded; it was even revered by Irish fans at first. We wanted a coach who knew he could get things accomplished, and had confidence in that fact. We got Charlie Weis, an NFL coach who is currently learning the college game.

The Offensive Line WILL get better

We have hit rock bottom for the offensive line. I have never seen a major college offensive line beaten as badly and as regularly as Notre Dame’s unit has been through their first three games. As a former collegiate offensive line coach, I can tell you that it is not just a lack of talent that these problems stem from; it is a lack of communication and basic fundamentals. John Latina, the much maligned offensive line coach of the Irish is only partly to blame for the debacle so far. I’ve seen Latina in practice up close and personal. He is a fantastic teacher of the game, but he hasn’t been able to get his players to carry over what is learned in drills over to the games. As a coach, you must see that as a personal failure, and figure out a way to get these young men to do what they are physically capable of doing. This is going to be the toughest job on the staff, as the psyche of the line cannot be worth a damn at this moment. They (for good reason) have taken the brunt of the blame for the catastrophic opening for the Irish.

My second point, communication, is just from a lack of real game experience. This offensive line was still being patched together when the true freshmen reported for camp in the fall. Ideally you would like to have your starting unit in place by the end of spring ball and be able to red shirt every single freshmen offensive lineman. There are only really two ways that it is acceptable to take off a players red shirt. Either that player is an absolute beast and can help you right away (Sam Young last year) or there is an alarming lack of depth (Matt Romine this year). What comes of all of this inexperience along the offensive front are missed assignments and blown line calls. For any offensive line to be successful, you have to gel with one another. It takes a very special person, both physically and mentally to play along the offensive line. On any team, the offensive linemen always travel in a pack on and off the field. This line has not had the proper time to learn the tendencies of one another or figure out who is the leader. It should be John Sullivan, but he’s having problems executing a basic shotgun snap. If our offensive line is giving up sacks to Duke and Stanford, then we can worry.

Jimmy Clausen IS the future, and he has help on the way

For a freshman, Clausen has shown remarkable pocket presence and poise commanding a sinking ship. Clausen still makes some of the mistakes you would expect a freshman quarterback to make. He holds on to the ball too long, taking unnecessary sacks and hits. I would rather have a quarterback that does that than throw the ball into double coverage when he feels the pocket collapsing. Clausen is doing what a young quarterback should do, limit mistakes, and put his team in the best possible chance of winning without trying to do too much. We just need to do a better job of making sure he doesn’t turn into David Carr. Since he announced his verbal commitment to the Irish back in February of 2006, Clausen has been under a microscope that has been over critical and unfair for any eighteen year old kid to handle. But, it comes with the territory of being the Notre Dame quarterback. This kid has stood in there, and taken the lumps. He’s our guy, and he’s going to be a great one.

The young weapons that Clausen has/will have are some of the best in the country. Remember, I said YOUNG weapons, not just weapons. All of these players need much more game experience to be considered truly dangerous in college football. But you can see the game-changing ability of Armando Allen and Golden Tate. You can see how Duval Kamara will be able to stretch the field. Before the season is over, we will get a better chance to see the bulldozer Robert Hughes and the underrated Luke Schmidt in the backfield, and play-making tight end Mike Ragone. I’m excited about the current crop of offensive skill recruits too. Kyle Rudolph and Joseph Fauria are going to make fantastic compliments to Ragone, while John Goodman is going to add another tall Samaradzija type receiver to the fold. We have the skill, we just have to be patient and allow them to mature along with the offensive line to mold into what could be one of the most feared offenses in America.

Corwin Brown DOES have the right idea with the 3-4, just not the right players

The 3-4 defense is not just the vogue thing to do for fun. Against today’s spread offenses, it is the most effective way to consistently cover the entire field while getting pressure on the quarterback. If a team spreads you out with four wide receivers and a shifty tailback in the backfield, you need to have a few badasses in the middle that can take away the threat of a draw or off-tackle power play. You need to have a few outside linebackers that can be tough against the read option play while also being mobile enough to cover the flats. And most importantly you need to have three hogs in the trenches able to control two gaps so the linebackers can roam. Notre Dame has players that were recruited to play the 4-3, and have only known the 4-3. Right now all that Notre Dame really has that is conducive to a 3-4 is a quickly improving secondary and Trevor Laws/Pat Kuntz in the front seven. I’m not really impressed with any of the other five players up front, including John Ryan (one of my favorite Irish players), who really needs to bulk up and put his hand down at end.

One only needs to look at the current recruiting class as to how this will be addressed. The Irish have amassed five defensive line commitments thus far that all perfectly suit what the Irish are trying to do defensively. They have also recruited four linebackers that all fit in perfectly with the 3-4 scheme. Our secondary is young, fast, and athletic. Hopefully you notice that almost all of the blown coverages so far have been committed by Ambrose Wooden, Terrail Lambert, and golden boy Tommy Zbikowski. You rarely catch David Bruton or Darrin Walls out of position to make a play. We also have loads of young talent that is seeing valuable time on special teams such as Rey Herring, Kyle McCarthy, Leonard Gordon, Raeshon McNeil, ect. Next year, when Gary Gray is healthy, and Dan McCarthy, Jamoris Slaughter, and my personal favorite Robert Blanton arrive on campus, we will have the depth needed to be able to defend any crop of wide outs in the country.

Bottom Line: We LACK depth

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, we can thank Tyrone Willingham for the critical problem of today. Saturday’s match-up with Michigan was a perfect example. Check out the scholarship breakdowns of the teams. Michigan has what Notre Dame is building, a solid continuous feeder system where players are allowed time to develop.

Charts provided by Scout.com

Look how spread how their depth is at nearly every position. Look at how many players have had an opportunity to red shirt, gaining much needed strength and coaching experience

Now let’s take a look at the break down of Notre Dame’s scholarship players.

Do you notice two critical positions that are lacking depth? The answer is the offensive and defensive lines. You win ballgames with solid line play on both sides of the ball. Look at our number of defensive tackle and linebacker recruits? That is embarrassing for a major college football program.

Notre Dame fans, be patient, the future is bright for the Irish. We have a lot to look forward to in the coming years, we just need to be patient and take the positives out of the Saturdays this fall. We have a young, talented, and soon to be bloodthirsty group of players that will be making us all forget about this season sooner rather than later.

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