Weekend scraps | by Jay

Short item in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as Heisler makes the Big East 3-game agenda official. Confirms what we had been hearing lately.

The Irish, a member of the Big East in all sports except football, will play three Big East teams each football season on a home-and-home basis. All eight conference teams will face the Irish.

The news, hinted at for months, came after Big East meetings in Ponte Vedra, Fla., where Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White first confirmed the games.

"We told (Big East Commissioner) Mike Tranghese not to expect us to become members if we did this," said Notre Dame associate athletic director John Heisler. "But the Big East has been a very beneficial relationship for us, and Mike T. encouraged us to do what we could, specifically if we would consider the prospect of making more of a commitment."

Pitt had already signed Notre Dame to an eight-game deal from 2006-2015, in addition to this year's season opener at Heinz Field. The Panthers' games will count towards Notre Dame's three games each year.

Notre Dame did not ask for a two-for-one deal, Heisler said. Notre Dame will play one of the three Big East teams on a yearly basis -- expected to be Rutgers or Connecticut -- at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, reportedly for recruiting and alumni purposes.

"We have every reason to want the Big East to work," Heisler said. "It was the most attractive and might have been the only option for us to remain independent in football. So if we can do anything to help, why not do it?"

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A short Tom Zbikowski profile from the Chicago Sun-Times. Starts as an update, ends as "Body by TZ".

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Also, a few interesting JACC updates & articles in the SBT this morning.

Time to Re-Joyce. Now that the Gug is almost complete, the south dome of the JACC is finally the "top priority" in the atheltic facility upgrade cycle, although the timetable and final cost of the project remains uknown. There's some fundraising to do, and White and co. have to hammer out the construction timeline. Still, there's nothing like a little pre-publicity to get the juices flowing, and the overhaul sounds intriguing to say the least.

While the questions of who and when remain, what will be done is known. Arena seating, which includes 4,997 padded seats, 5,763 bleachers and 658 platform seats, will become all chairbacks of one color and drop the current 11,418 capacity by 600 to 800 seats. A state-of-the-art four-sided scoreboard, complete with high-speed video, will hang at center court.

Notre Dame also has worked with HNTB Architecture to redesign the south end of the upper arena to include a two-tiered structure that looks out onto the floor and extends into the front section of the south parking lot. The first level would house the university ticket offices, which currently reside in a corner of the second floor. The second level would be a private seating area that also opens into a banquet/reception area similar to the upper floors of the Notre Dame Stadium press box.

I dug around the HNTB website and I found this artist's rendition of the revamped facility:

I love what they've done with Juniper in the foreground, widening it and adding palm trees. And the causeway out to the Pacific Ocean behind the JACC is a nice touch.

(Kidding. That's the San Diego Convention Center, also by HNTB.)

Whatever it ends up looking like, it's long overdue. Jordan Cornette said that he's "going to miss this Joyce Center. No matter how crappy it really [was]." But frankly, I won't. From a fan's standpoint, the place is atrocious.

Day-glo seating that was oftentimes half-empty. Accordion-style wooden bleachers that belonged in a high school. For a crowded game, if you got stuck in the bleachers, your legs and knees were so crunched up you had to sit sideways. No, I won't miss it.

One of the biggest complaints over the years was the placement of the student section, and sadly, it looks like this issue won't be rectified.

Officials had hoped the redesign would pull the student body closer to the floor from their current location behind the east basket, and ring the court in the first few rows of seats. But with the way the Joyce Center is constructed, digging deeper into the floor to allow students to stand for games while not obstructing the view of those seated behind them is not an option.

Raising the arena roof to better configure the bowl also is not possible.

"We've looked at that and it's cost-prohibitive," White said. "There are some constraints to refurbishing an old house."

And speaking of "improving the atmosphere" -- which, notwithstanding physical upgrades, is the JACC's #1 problem -- Jason Kelly has a few modest proposals along those lines this morning: get rid of the cheesy halftime promotions and sleep-inducing awards presentations, lose the hamster ball races, and shelve the rubber chicken tosses, all of which kill the excitement. When you stop the game cold with something called the "Dancing Grannies", any buzz in the building just went poof:

As a segment on Letterman these little diversions might be entertaining. Inserting stupid human tricks into the natural lulls of a basketball game just pollutes an atmosphere that should be electric with so much distracting static.

This parade of mindless amusements implied a slogan the marketing department probably didn't have in mind: Notre Dame basketball. Try to sit through it.

To be fair, this goes on all over. Notre Dame didn't invent human hamster ball racing, but that's no excuse for neutralizing its home court with a glorified carnival ride that falls as flat as a participant who doesn't watch his step.

And as cute as those little kids look winding up and whipping poultry for sport, that also contributes to the impression of a basketball game infringing on the county fair.

Keeping the atmosphere pressurized requires cultivating a culture that encourages it.

That attitude can't be incorporated into a blueprint. It must be infused into the bloodstream of the place or any renovation will be only superficial.

Whatever it costs to update the Joyce Center, it deserves a comparable emotional investment.

I realize true excitement at the JACC stems from on-the-court action, but even in a breathtaking game like the Boston College barn burner last fall these hoopus interruptus moments brought the energy to a standstill and just killed the atmosphere. In this next big project for ND athletics, I hope there's a line item on the budget for Spirit Rejuvenation & Development.

Schmidt Happens | by Pat

The number of known verbal committments rose to seven with the most recent verbal pledge from running back Luke Schmidt. Schmidt is a 6'3" 230lb bruising running back/full back from Jasper, Indiana who last year finished first in the state in rushing yards with 2592 yards and second in scoring after notching 41 touchdowns and 3 two-point conversions for a total of 252 points. Checking the state records, his rushing total is good for 14th all-time. (Quick aside. Check who's 5th all-time in Indiana career receiving yards.)

The addition of Schmidt to a backfield already consisting of speedy Munir Prince and versatile James Aldridge gives this recruiting class a loaded group of ball carriers, each with a slightly different skill set. Notre Dame has told Schmidt he will fill a fullback/tight end/H-back role, which basically means he will be lining up in multiple spots on offense. Adding to his versatility, Schmidt has lined up at wide receiver on occasion (which leads me to belive he doesn't have bricks for hands) and according to his coach will line up at linebacker this fall. And to top it all off, Purdue was recruiting him for defensive end as well as tailback.

Schmidt also seems to fall into another category that Weis has been focusing on with this recruiting class: speed. So far this spring Schmidt is in the top ten in his area in the 100M dash with a time of 11.12 seconds. Considering he probably outweighs the other sprinters at meets by 30-50 pounds, that is a very impressive number. Reaching back to high school physics, if force = mass times acceleration, then I can't wait to see Schmidt with a full head of steam hit a cornerback. I hope cleat marks wash out.

There are video clips of Schmidt in action on both Blue & Gold Illustrated and IrishEyes, so if you are members of each you can play armchair scout and see why schools such as Oklahoma, Purdue, and Louisville had already offered him a scholarship. Michigan was another school that had an interest in Schmidt, but due to a low number of scholarship offers had wanted Schmidt to come to a Michigan summer camp before officially extending him an offer.

A few months back, I don't think any ND fans would have guessed that recruiting would be nearly 1/3 done before June. I think it's safe to say that we can cross "unfamiliarity with college recruiting" off the list of negatives about hiring Charlie Weis.

We're all in this together. | by Jay

Brian at the Michigan site "mgoblog" (linked below) has a great rundown on the proper etiquette and coping techniques required for recruiting season. It's hilarious, and he really does offer some good advice for those of us gripped in the throes of recruiting fanaticism/paranoia.

Lesson #1: Don't Panic...

Pencils down | by Jay

First off, a mea cupla: BGS = morons. It was soon apparent after publication of the quiz that several of our clues were either misleading or simply wrong, and of course our intrepid readers here and elsewhere quickly zeroed in on the errors and rightly took us to task. We'll document below where our original text diverged from the Truth. (Note to staff: that new fact checker Jayson Blair doesn't seem to be working out.)

On to the answers...

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1. Who was Notre Dame's coach during the program's longest winning streak, how many games was it, and which opponent ended it?

Lou Holtz presided over Notre Dame's longest winning streak, a 23-game stretch that was ended by Miami in 1989. Frank Leahy coached a much longer unbeaten streak, going 39 games in 1946-1950 without a loss, but including two ties.

A couple of other "consecutive-style" records for you:

• The record for consecutive losses is 8, under Joe Kuharich, all during the 1960 season.

• The longest unbeaten streak at home is a marathon 93 games, lasting 23 years from 10/28/05 to 11/17/28 (with only 3 ties). Carnegie Tech finally knocked us off with a 27-7 victory.

• And how about consecutive games where the Irish gave up no points at all? That'd be 9 shutouts in a row, in 1903. I fully expect Charlie Weis to challenge this record in the near future.

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2. What was the last away game for which Notre Dame travelled by train to get there?

a. Army (at Yankee Stadium) (1941)
b. Navy (at Baltimore) (1954)
c. Michigan State (1966)
d. Pittsburgh (1972)

Answer: (c), Michigan State in 1966, also known as "The Game of the Century", the epic 10-10 tie that ended with ND running out the clock. As related by Rocky Bleier in his memoir "Fighting Back", the train ride actually had some impact on the game:

The train ride to State was another experience. Their fans were standing on the platforms in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, some even stood along the tracks, in cornfields and on dairy farms-jeering and holding sheet signs: "Bubba for Pope," "Hail Mary, full of grace, Notre Dame's in second place." None of that, however, was as bad as our arrival in East Lansing. As I disembarked, I noticed the metal steps were slippery with ice. Behind me, I heard a yelp. It was my roommate on the road, Nick Eddy. He'd slipped, missed his grab for the handrail, and reinjured his bruised shoulder. He was doubled over, crying with pain and with the instant realization that he couldn't play in the biggest game of his career. People called it "The Game of the Century" that year... which was not especially important, because somebody makes that statement about one game in nearly every college football season. What is significant is that even today, some experts are still calling it "The Game of the Century."

Notre Dame was ranked #1, State was #2. ND trailed 10-0 as late as the fourth quarter before pulling even. With the ball on his own 30 and 1:10 left, Ara decided to run out the clock and settle for the tie, sparking the heartarche, confusion and controversy that would live with this game forever. Bleier described the scene in the locker room:

Almost everybody was crying. The emotion of the game, the hitting and violent contact, was converted into the emotion of the locker room... the tears, the hugging, the trite phrases. Then Ara spoke to us, "Men, I'm proud of you. God knows I've never been more proud of any group of young men in my life. Get one thing straight, though. We did not lose. We were Number One when we came, we fell behind, had some tough things happen, but you overcame them. No one could have wanted to win this one more than I. We didn't win, but, by God, we did not lose. They're crying about a tie, trying to detract from your efforts. They're trying to make it come out a win. Well, don't you believe it. Their season is over. They can't go anywhere. It's all over and we're still Number One. Time will prove everything that has happened here today. And you'll see that after the rabble-rousers have had their say, cooler minds who understand the true odds will know that Notre Dame is a team of champions."

Ultimately, the tie didn't hurt the Irish, and they were awarded the National Championship after throttling USC 51-0 in the final game of the season. Michigan State ended up #2.

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3. Who was Warner Brother's original choice to play Knute Rockne, in Knute Rockne: All-American, only to have the choice nixed by Notre Dame administrators?

a. Humphrey Bogart
b. James Cagney
c. Ronald Reagan
d. Clark Gable

The answer is (b), James Cagney. According to IMDB, Cagney, eager to break out of gangster roles, lobbied hard for the part of Knute Rockne. But Cagney had signed a petition in support of the anti-Catholic Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, and Notre Dame, having control over all aspects of the filming would not okay Cagney for the role.

Now, as cherished as it is among Irish fans, "Knute Rockne, All American" really isn't that great of a movie, let alone a good football flick. In fact, I don't think it would be in my top ten football movies of all time (of the ones I've seen. I'm still holding out on PCU). Okay, it's kind of cool for the scenes on campus and the sight of Ronald Reagan punting footballs, but it's no North Dallas Forty.

10 Football Movies I've Seen That Are Better than Knute Rockne, All-American: The Freshman, Remember the Titans, Brian's Song, The Longest Yard, North Dallas Forty, Lucas, Horse Feathers, Jerry Maguire, Black Sunday, and yes, Rudy.

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4. One of Rocket's kick returns came against a team that hadn't allowed a kickoff or punt return for a touchdown in 37 years. Who was it?

Answer: Michigan, 1989. And as we all know, he did it twice that day. To quote a chastened Bo Schembechler: "He's faster than the speed of sound...and we didn't tackle him."

Video bonus: here's Rocket's first return. And here's #2. Clilps courtesy of Charlie Kenny, ND '63 -- and there's some more video available at his site.

I usually play these every morning when I get up, as sort of a daily affirmation. It helps start my day off on the right foot.

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5. Rick Mirer, Kevin McDougal, and Ron Powlus each had the same thing happen during their last game in Notre Dame stadium. What was it?

a. They lost.
b. They were knocked out of the game.
c. Their last attempted pass was a touchdown.
d. Their last attempted pass was an interception.

Ahh, the first of our mea culpas. The answer is (c) Their last attempted pass was a touchdown, but originally we omitted the "attempted" and that caused some confusion.

You see, in Mirer's last game at ND, the legendary "Snow Bowl" against Penn State in 1992, Mirer actually threw the ball one more time after the touchdown to Bettis, on a two-point conversion to Reggie Brooks to ice the win. In terms of official game statistics, however, a two-point throw doesn't count as an "attempted pass", and therefore our original wording was a little misleading. A couple of keen observers called us on it. Know-it-alls.

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6. Everyone knows that ND has seven Heisman Trophy winners. But over the years, there were eight players that finished either 2nd or 3rd in the Heisman voting. Name as many as you can. (Hint: a couple of them eventually did win it).

This might have been the toughest question in the quiz. A handful of names were repeatedly mentioned: Brown, Snow, Ismail, Theisman, Browner, etc...mostly people just taking wild stabs in the dark. Here's the complete list:

• Bill Shakespeare, 3rd, 1935 (first year of the Heisman)
• Angelo Bertelli, 2nd, 1941 (Bertelli was a sophomore)
• Johnny Lujack, 3rd, 1946 (eventually got it, so you can't feel too bad)
• Nick Eddy, 3rd, 1966 (Spurrier won it this year)
• Terry Hanratty, 3rd, 1968 (the Juice took the trophy)
• Joe Theismann, 2nd, 1970 (second to Plunkett)
• Ken McAfee, 3rd, 1977 (tough to unseat Earl Campbell)
• Rocket, 2nd, 1990 (screwed)

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7. Who was Notre Dame's opponent in the Dedication game for the new Notre Dame Stadium in 1930? Hint: They are on the 2005 schedule.

Another misfire on our part. Originally we had no mention of the "Dedication" game, and ShermanOaks over on NDN caught us with our pants down. "The hint suggests the answer is Navy, the team ND played in the dedication game of the Stadium, " wrote Sherman. "But the first game was actually played one week earlier against SMU -- who is not on our schedule in 2005 or anytime soon."

Sherman's right: the intended answer was Navy, who played in the Dedication Game in 1930. But SMU was actually the first opponent at ND Stadium.

This one might be good for a bar bet.

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8. Lou Holtz finished behind Rockne with the second-most career victories (100 to 105). What coach is third on the list?

Ara Parseghian, 95 wins. Leahy's third with 87. After that it drops off.

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9. And on the flipside of that...what Notre Dame coach has the most career losses?

That would be Lou Holtz, 30 losses. Faust and Davie came damned close, with 26 and 25 respectively. Of course neither of those posers had anywhere close to 100 wins.

In perusing the all time wins & losses list, it still amazes me at just how dominant Rock was. 105 wins...12 losses. In 13 seasons. Hell, Bullet Bob had 12 losses by the beginning of his third year.

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10. What are the three designs to ever appear on a Notre Dame helmet? (The little American flag on the back doesn't count.)

Okay, class...if you've been doing your required reading you know from Will's fantastic History of the ND Uniform we posted last week that the three designs were white numbers, a green shamrock, and little blue stars. A couple people mentioned a black stripe from the Lattner era, and I suppose that counts, too.

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11. Notre Dame had a self-imposed bowl ban for 45 years. What bowl games bookend this bowl game absence, and who were the opponents?

We played in our very first bowl game in 1925, beating Stanford in the Rose Bowl, then we promptly went into hibernation for 45 years before reemerging for the 1970 Cotton Bowl against Texas (a loss). I'm trying to think of an equivalent here...it's like Roy Hobbs disappearing from baseball for decades before coming back to the game, or maybe the Iceman being chipped out of the glacier by Arctic scientists and breathing fresh air again for the first time in years.

Interestingly, it was Father Hesburgh that gave the go-ahead to jumpstart our bowl participation again -- and chiefly because the $200,000 income could be used to finance scholarships for blacks and Spanish-speaking students. According to this ND Mag profile of Father Joyce, the money from the 1970 Cotton Bowl went, at Hesburgh's suggestion, to minority scholarships, reinforcing the policy that athletic monetary surpluses go for educational purposes, rather than, as the case at many big-time athletic schools, flowing back into athletic department coffers.

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12. Georgia Tech plays a decent role in Notre Dame's football history. Which is not true?

a. They were the program's 500th victory.
b. They are the only program that Rudy played against.
c. They were the last team to beat Coach Leahy before he retired.
d. They were the first team to play in the post-expansion ND Stadium.

The answer, as many guessed, is (c); they were NOT the last team to beat Leahy before he retired. That distinction belongs to Michigan State, who beat the Irish in Leahy's second-to-last year, 1952.

Leahy went undefeated (with one tie) in 1953, his final year under the Dome.

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13. In 1963, a Notre Dame game was cancelled on account of the death of President Kennedy. Who was the opponent?

The cancelled game was a November 23rd match at Iowa.

“That Notre Dame chose not to play Iowa in football is a small but significant tribute to a man who loved sports, the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” wrote the Scholastic at the time. In comparison, every NFL football game was played on Sunday, two days after the assassination. Many college football games were also played.

According to an article appearing in the New York Times immediately following Kennedy’s assassination, Fr. Hesburgh personally pledged to the Kennedy family that 100 Masses would be offered for President Kennedy in the weeks following the assassination.

In his tribute, Fr. Hesburgh wrote, “May this sad day be not one of darkness, no triumph for the powers of evil, but the birth of a great new light that will for years to come inspire others to great deeds, come what may.”

The last time ND cancelled a game was in the wake of 9/11, when an ND-Purdue tilt was rescheduled from its September date to later in the year.

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14. Four ND players have been selected #1 overall in the NFL draft. Who were they?

Another goof (!) on our part. I was going from memory on this one, but according to NFL.com, there were not four, but FIVE Irish #1 picks over the years:

• Angelo Bertelli, 1944, to the Boston Yanks
• Frank Dancewicz, 1946, to Boston
• Leon Hart, 1950, to Detroit
• Paul Hornung, 1957, to Green Bay
• Walt Patulski, 1972, to Buffalo

In terms of pro success, Hornung has to be frontrunner in this group. He played 11 years, was a four-time All-Pro, two-time MVP, won four championships with Lombardi's Packers, and was a first-ballot NFL Hall of Famer. He still holds the record for most points scored in a 12-game NFL season (176).

And all of this as a running back, after winning the Heisman as a split-T formation quarterback.

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15. ND has had many consensus first-team All-Americans through the years. What position on the field has produced the most Irish All-Americans?

a. Quarterback
b. Guard
c. Defensive back
d. Linebacker

This question gets a little tricky when you start looking back into the archives, because so many of the early-era guys were full two-way players and probably made their AA bonafides on both sides of the ball. Likewise, positional specifications changed over the years; do you group running backs with full backs? How about ends, tight ends and split ends?

However, in looking at the list, it's pretty clear that ND has produced more All-American Guards than any other position, with 13, and that satisfies our quiz question. Hunk Anderson, Dick Arrington, Jack Cannon, Gerry DiNardo, Larry DiNardo, Al Ecuyer, Pat Filley, Moose Fischer, Nordy Hoffmann, Mirko Jurkovic, Bert Metzger, Tom Regner, and Clipper Smith were All-American guards for Notre Dame.

The rest of the All-American positions break down thusly: Quarterbacks (10); Offensive Tackles (10); Running Backs, but not Full Backs (9); Defensive Backs, including Corners and Safeties (8); "Ends", listed as such (8); Centers (6); Linebackers (5); Split Ends and Flankers (5); Defensive Ends (4); Defensive Tackles (4); Full Backs (4); and Tight Ends (2).

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16. Since the inception of the new college overtime rules in 1996, ND has been involved in five matches that went to OT. What were they, and what were the outcomes?

At one point we listed the question with four OT games, but then I checked my stack of polaroids and my short-term memory kicked in and I remembered the Washington State game from two years ago. There are indeed five overtime games that ND's been involved in:

• 1996 vs Air Force. Lost 20-17.
• 1996 at USC. Lost 27-20 (ended the 13-year unbeaten run).
• 2000 vs Nebraska. Lost 27-24.
• 2000 vs Air Force. Won 34-31.
• 2003 vs Washington State. Won 29-26.

That makes Willingham undefeated in overtime, Davie .500 and Holtz O-fer. More useless trivia for you.

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17. True or False: Leon Hart is the only lineman (of any school) to ever win a Heisman.

Patently false; fellow end Larry Kelley won it for Yale in 1936, the second year of the award. After that, it's been all Quarterbacks, Running Backs and Wide Receivers as far as the eye can see. Except for Hart, of course, and Charles Woodson, who frankly owes his trophy to Tim Brown.

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18. What NCAA record does Tony Driver hold?

Most fumble returns for touchdowns in a single game, with two in the 2000 bout against Navy. Tony actually shares this record Minnesota's Tyrone Carter who set it in 1996.

As far as other Irish record holders go, John Carney's got a raft of kicking records on the books (Most Consecutive Field Goals Made 40-49 Yards, stuff like that). And there are a couple of other scattered achievements.

But Rocket's got the coolest record: he shares the distinction of returning two kickoffs for touchdowns in a single game with a few others, of course, but he's also the only guy in NCAA football history to do it twice in two games ('88 vs Rice, '89 vs Michigan).

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19. From Knute Rockne on, ND has had 15 coaches. How many of them attended Notre Dame as students?

This is quite amazing, and the answer fully surprised me. From Rockne on, 8 of 15 coaches have been students at ND.

That's right, Rockne, Hunk Anderson, Elmer Layden, Frank Leahy, Ed McKeever, Hugh Devore, Terry Brennan, and of course, Charlie Weis all attended Notre Dame, and everybody but McKeever graduated (he transferred to Texas Tech).

So when the coaching carousel starts turning again, you might pay better attention to those folks stressing the importance of a "homegrown" coach and clamoring to keep it "in the family". Turns out tradition's on their side.

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20. The namesake of this blog is taken from Grantland Rice's famous article on the Notre Dame win over Army in 1924. What newspaper was Rice writing for?

Grantland Rice penned his famous "Four Horsemen" article while a writer for the New York Herald-Tribune. UND.com's got the story:

It was 77 years ago that a dramatic nickname coined by a poetic sportswriter and the quick-thinking actions of a clever student publicity aide transformed the Notre Dame backfield of Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden into the most fabled quartet in college football history.

"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."

George Strickler, then Rockne's student publicity aide and later sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, made sure the name stuck. After the team arrived back in South Bend, he posed the four players, dressed in their uniforms, on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town. The wire services picked up the now-famous photo, and the legendary status of the Four Horsemen was insured.

"At the time, I didn't realize the impact it would have," Crowley said later. "But the thing just kind of mushroomed. After the splurge in the press, the sports fans of the nation got interested in us along with other sportswriters. Our record helped, too. If we'd lost a couple, I don't think we would have been remembered."

After that win over Army, Notre Dame's third straight victory of the young season, the Irish were rarely threatened the rest of the year. A 27-10 win over Stanford in the 1925 Rose Bowl gave Rockne and Notre Dame the national championship and a perfect 10-0 record.

And lo, a blog was born.

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Hope you enjoyed the quiz. If you have any good trivia questions for us, please don't hesitate to send them along, and we'll be happy to pose them to the constituency.

Eastward Ho | by Jay

There was a small item in the St. Pete Times yesterday about our AD's future scheduling agenda:

IRISH COMING?: Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White confirmed his school plans to schedule three football games with Big East teams each season, starting in 2009.

White said he has talked with USF athletic director Doug Woolard but has not discussed specific details of any future meetings. One game each season would probably be played at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, White said, but the rest would be home-and-home contracts.

Seeing as we've been playing three games a year against the Big East for quite a while now, this really isn't that big of an announcement, and with the expanded schedule, this figures to be part of the strategy to set up seven home games every year, with three or four away games and another game (or two) at a neutral site -- like the Meadowlands (as we've discussed here several times). As a certain television hero of mine is fond of saying, I love it when a plan comes together.

USF, by the way, is the University of Southern Florida, which moves into the Big East this year from Conference USA, along with former C-USA members Louisville and Cincinnati. In the reconfigured Big East, you might recall, Boston College has absconded to the ACC and Temple was kicked to the curb, which makes eight teams in the BE football lineup (as of today):

Not a great football conference; but not terrible, either. It's probably stronger with Petrino's Louisville squad than with Boston College anyway (though how long he stays put at L'ville is a factor of the coaching roulette wheel).

USF, though, isn't doing the Big East any favors. This is a school that only started playing organized football in 1997 (first game: 80-3 over Kentucky Wesleyan); only became a Division-1A program in 2001; went 8-8 in its two years in the sub-par Conference USA; has never beaten a ranked team, nor gone to a bowl game; and whose most famous football alum is the lesser of the Kicking Gramaticas. To their credit, USF seems intent on building and strengthening its program; when they were independent, they were scheduling teams like Alabama and Oklahoma on their own, and they've aggressively pursued conference membership with CUSA and now the Big East. Yet, the prospect of the Irish playing such a tenderfoot outfit seems so, I don't know...Kansas State.

Thanks to El Kabong over on NDN for the find on this item. Actually, this piece of news touched off an interesting thread on NDN, with some varied opinions on the merits of playing in NYC, the preponderance of BE football on the schedule (and the lack of SEC and Big XII opponents), and even a well-timed shot at JoePa for scheduling a limp Temple Owls team as PSU's twelfth-game opponent in '06. (This is why I don't like playing USF -- I want to be able to lord it over teams like Penn State when they hit up the pansy buffet).

News to me | by Jay

Mike Prater, sports editor of the Idaho Statesman, on the Potato State's #1 sports moment of 2004:

The top moment of the past season is obvious — football coach Dan Hawkins turning down potential job opportunities from places such as Notre Dame, Stanford and Washington. If he leaves, a lot of the magic we've witnessed over the past 10 months is gone. He's more than just a football coach; his presence in the athletic department raises the bar for everyone. And one of these days, he'll be the Broncos' athletic director.

Please take out a #2 pencil... | by Pat

One of the ways we here at BGS like to unwind after a busy day is to gather in the Grantland Rice Lounge (pictured above), engage in typically witty and urbane banter, and test our knowledge of Notre Dame history and lore. We feel we owe it to our readers to keep them nimble and alert-minded as well, so here comes the first of our semi-annual, fairly difficult and hopefully entertaining trivia challenges. Dylan (above right) has promised to deliver swirlies to anyone caught using google, so stay honest. No one likes a cheat.

Now then, on with the quiz...

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1. Who was Notre Dame's coach during the program's longest winning streak, how many games was it, and which opponent ended it?

2. What was the last away game for which Notre Dame travelled by train to get there?

a. Army (at Yankee Stadium) (1941)
b. Navy (at Baltimore) (1954)
c. Michigan State (1966)
d. Pittsburgh (1972)

3. Who was Warner Brother's original choice to play Knute Rockne, in Knute Rockne: All-American, only to have the choice nixed by Notre Dame administrators?

a. Humphrey Bogart
b. James Cagney
c. Ronald Reagan
d. Clark Gable

4. One of Rocket's kick returns came against a team that hadn't allowed a kickoff or punt return for a touchdown in 37 years. Who was it?

5. Rick Mirer, Kevin McDougal, and Ron Powlus each had the same thing happen during their last game in Notre Dame stadium. What was it?

a. They lost.
b. They were knocked out of the game.
c. Their last attempted pass was a touchdown.
d. Their last attempted pass was an interception.

6. Everyone knows that ND has seven Heisman Trophy winners. But over the years, there were eight players that finished either 2nd or 3rd in the Heisman voting. Name as many as you can. (Hint: a couple of them eventually did win it).

7. Who was Notre Dame's opponent in the Dedication game for the new Notre Dame Stadium in 1930? Hint: They are on the 2005 schedule.

8. Lou Holtz finished behind Rockne with the second-most career victories (100 to 105). What coach is third on the list?

9. And on the flipside of that...what Notre Dame coach has the most career losses?

10. (If you've been an avid reader of BGS, you probably know this one.) What are the three designs to ever appear on a Notre Dame helmet? (The little American flag on the back doesn't count.)

11. Notre Dame had a self-imposed bowl ban for 45 years. What bowl games bookend this bowl game absence, and who were the opponents?

12. Georgia Tech plays a decent role in Notre Dame's football history. Which is not true?

a. They were the program's 500th victory.
b. They are the only program that Rudy played against.
c. They were the last team to beat Coach Leahy before he retired.
d. They were the first team to play in the post-expansion ND Stadium.

13. In 1963, a Notre Dame game was cancelled on account of the death of President Kennedy. Who was the opponent?

14. Four ND players have been selected #1 overall in the NFL draft. Who were they?

15. ND has had many consensus first-team All-Americans through the years. What position on the field has produced the most Irish All-Americans?

a. Quarterback
b. Guard
c. Defensive back
d. Linebacker

16. Since the inception of the new college overtime rules in 1996, ND has been involved in five matches that went to OT. What were they, and what were the outcomes?

17. True or False: Leon Hart is the only lineman (of any school) to ever win a Heisman.

18. What NCAA record does Tony Driver hold?

19. From Knute Rockne on, ND has had 15 coaches. How many of them attended Notre Dame as students?

20. The namesake of this blog is taken from Grantland Rice's famous article on the Notre Dame win over Army in 1924. What newspaper was Rice writing for?

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We'll be back in a couple of days with the answers. In the meantime, feel free to take your best guesses.

Call Him Hardnose | by Jay

As long as we're on a history kick, I thought I'd share this Time magazine article from 1964 about Ara. It's terrific. Quite a few parallels between then and now...see how many you can find.

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Nov. 20, 1964

Toilet-paper streamers festooned the trees. Strings of firecrackers chattered like machine guns. Signs were everywhere. SONS OF ERIN, UNITE! they said. RUB THEIR NOSES IN THE IRISH SOD! Sturdy young men stopped strangers, flashed their "Hate State!" buttons and inquired politely: "You wouldn't be a State man, now, would you?" South Bend, Ind., was no place for the faint of heart last week. Notre Dame, the No. 1 college football team in the nation, was taking on Archrival Michigan State—and the Fighting Irish were in a fighting mood.

The Irish had not beaten State in ten years; inside the Notre Dame stadium, Athletic Director Edward ("Moose") Krause surveyed the sellout crowd of 59,265 and sighed: "We could have sold 250,000 tickets to this game." He could have sold a million—to all the Americans, the vast Subway Alumni, to whom Notre Dame is and always has been the one and only college football team. To the Bronx taxi driver who has never seen the inside of a college but lights a candle to Our Lady every Friday night. To the San Francisco dock walloper who hasn't the foggiest notion where South Bend is but knows every player on the Irish squad. To the nuns in convents, whose radio-side prayers on Saturday go something like this: "God's will be done . . . but please let Notre Dame win." And what about the two Indiana priests who walked into a polling booth last Nov. 3 and wrote in the name of Ara Parseghian for President?

On His Knees. Down beneath the stands, wearing his lucky brown trousers and a blue sweater with NOTRE DAME lettered across the front, the Subway Alumni's candidate stood in the middle of the noisy locker room. "Everybody stay where you are!" he yelled. Then, pounding his fist into his palm, Ara Raoul Parseghian, 41, began to talk. "Boys (bang), you read the newspapers (bang). The predictors (bang, bang) say Michigan State is going to beat us. But we (bang) are a better team than they are. We're going out there (bang) and prove it (BANG)!" Then, along with the rest of the Fighting Irish, Coach Parseghian, a French-Armenian Protestant, sank to his knees and bowed his head. "Hail Mary, full of grace . . ."

Sportswriters had billed it "the game of the year." It was that—for Notre Dame and for the 35 million fans watching on nationwide TV, the millions more clustered around radios in bars and stores and barbershops. A good game might have been enough; a narrow victory would have sent them into ecstasy. What they got was beyond their wildest dreams.

In the next two hours, a great team systematically took a good team apart. Michigan State did not get a first down until it was two touchdowns behind. Only twice in the whole first half did a Notre Dame running play fail to gain. First it was Halfback Nick Eddy, spinning off tackle on the second play from scrimmage, racing 61 yds. for a TD—while Coach Parseghian matched him step for step, shouting "Go! Go! Go!" Then it was Fullback Joe Farrell, cracking the Spartan line on three straight plays for 15 yds. On the fourth play, he faked a line buck and zigzagged downfield to take a pass from Quarterback John Huarte. That put the ball on the Michigan State eight. Another Farrell fake, another Huarte pass—touchdown.

Ara Parseghian prowled the sideline, lips peeled back over his teeth. "Pursuit! Pursuit!" he screamed at the Notre Dame defense, and again Michigan State had to give up the ball. "More! More!" he yelled at the offense, and again the relentless Irish began to march. The massive (219 lbs. per man) Notre Dame line ripped gaping holes in the Spartan forward wall, gave Quarterback Huarte so much protection that he could have tied his shoe laces and still had time to pass. A screen to End Jack Snow gained 19 yds., a flare to Fullback Bob Merkle picked up 26. Then he turned Nick Eddy loose. In five carries, the 195-lb. halfback racked up 40 yds. and his second TD of the day. A pass to Snow was good for two extra points, and Notre Dame led at half time 20-0.

Anything & Everything. Back came the two teams, and the excitement leaped a notch. Desperate now, the Spartans tried anything—and for a while everything worked. They shifted from the T into a short punt formation and drew the Notre Dame line off side. They caught the Irish secondary napping, with a 51-yd. pass that cut the gap to 20-7. Luck helped a lot: two Notre Dame touchdowns were nullified. But now the aroused State defense was starting to harry Huarte. Somehow he still managed to get the ball away—sidearm, underhand, any way at all. And when he couldn't pass, he ran like a halfback—ripping out of the grasp of three tacklers for 21 yds. and a touchdown that made it 28-7. After that, the spectators stole the show. Twice, play was stopped while the sheriff's deputies chased fans around the field. That was enough to frighten even Parseghian. Off came the first team; in went the subs. Another Irish touchdown. Final score: Notre Dame 34, Michigan State 7.

The victory was doubly sweet because it was the sort of thing that wasn't supposed to happen in 1964—and did anyway. It was the season of surprises, the year the experts all guessed wrong. This was the year a Penn State squad that lost four out of its first five clobbered unbeaten Ohio State 27-0, the year Texas did not win the Southwest Conference championship, the year mighty Mississippi had to settle for a tie with weak little Vanderbilt. It was the year free substitution and the platoon system came back to college football—if the coaches were willing to take penalties to get their subs into the game. It was the year collegians outdrew the pros—when attendance in the Big Ten averaged 59,000 a game to 49,000 in the National Football League. And, most of all, this was Ara Parseghian's year, the year a restless vagabond from Ohio took over a demoralized Notre Dame team that had spent five years forgetting how to win—and taught them how again.

It all started innocently enough, with a 31-7 victory over Wisconsin. But when Notre Dame licked Purdue to the tune of 34-15, people began to wonder, including Purdue Coach Jack Mollenkopf. "They're big," warned Mollenkopf, "as big as the pros." As victory piled on victory, so did the pressure. Everybody was laying for Notre Dame. Air Force leaped into a 7-0 lead on an intercepted pass. Notre Dame still won 34-7. "That line," sighed Falcon Coach Ben Martin. "At first they came like a wave and pushed the blockers back into our quarterback's lap. Later they just picked them up and threw them back." U.C.L.A. Coach Bill Barnes thought he knew a way to beat the Irish. "Play for breaks." Barnes should have said a couple of Hail Marys. Notre Dame won 24-0.

Brokenhearted. Stanford was next: the Indians did not reach midfield in the whole first half, did not get a first down until 7 min. into the second, and fell 28-6. But one tearful Irish lineman was still dissatisfied: "I was really brokenhearted when they got that touchdown," he said. Fully recovered from an early-season injury, Navy's brilliant Quarterback Roger Staubach did his best to stop the Irish rampage —with 19 completions in 36 pass attempts. But Notre Dame's Huarte completed ten of 17 passes, and the score was the measure of the teams: Notre Dame 40-0.

After that, Pittsburgh figured to be easy pickings. The Panthers had won only two games all season. When Notre Dame scored two quick touchdowns—one on a pass from Huarte to Halfback Nick Eddy that covered 91 yds. it looked like a rout. But then everything went wrong. Halfback Bill Wolski fumbled on the Pitt two, and Snow dropped a pass on the Pittsburgh goal line. Banging away at the Irish line, Pitt picked up 199 yds. rushing—16 yds. more than all six of Notre Dame's previous opponents lumped together. Finally, it was the fourth quarter, and Pitt had the ball, fourth down and one on the Notre Dame 16. Pitt gambled on making the yard. The Irish held and eked out a 17-15 victory.

"Well," said Parseghian, "at least we won." With Michigan State out of the way, the Irish led the nation in rushing defense (63 yds. per game), ranked second in total offense (409 yds. per game), fourth in passing. Now, Iowa (season's record: 3 wins, 5 losses) and Southern Cal (5-3) were the only obstacles remaining in Notre Dame's path to the national championship and its first umblemished season in 15 years.

Ara Parseghian was not cheering yet. "With the kind of schedules you play today," he gloomed, "it's almost impossible to go through a season undefeated." But from Scollay Square to Fisherman's Wharf, the Subway Alumni, who thought anything was possible, sang still another chorus of the most famous fight song in the land:

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame.
Wake up the echoes cheering her name.
Send a volley cheer on high
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be, great or small,
Old Notre Dame will win over all,.
While her loyal sons are marching Onward to victory.

"Dear Sir." The nation's best-known football foundry is a Johnny-come-lately to the game. The University of Notre Dame was barely out of the log-cabin stage when Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate football game in 1869. The Fighting Irish had a school cheer in 1879 ("Rah, rah! Nostra Domina"), but they did not have a team to cheer for until 1887—eight years after the famed Golden Dome of Our Lady first cast its glint across the Indiana plains. It wasn't much of a team at that; in two years, Notre Dame lost three straight to Michigan, prompting the coach to dash off a plaintive letter to Yale's Walter Camp: "Dear Sir: Will you kindly furnish me some points on the best way to develop a good football team?" Whatever Camp's advice was, it worked: the Irish were unbeaten m 1892 and 1893; and in 1903, they ran up 292 points to their opponents' zero.

They also began to run out of opposition. Schools in the Intercollegiate Conference (today's Big Ten) flatly refused to play them, and the frustrated Irish had to content themselves with belting the likes of Franklin (64-0), Loyola of Chicago (80-0) and St. Viator (116-7). In 1913, casting around for games. Coach Jesse Harper hooked a whopper Old Rivals Harvard and Yale had dropped off Army's schedule because the Cadets refused to sell tickets to their games. Desperate for a "filler" Army agreed to a $1,000 guarantee, and Harper's eager Irish headed East. Undefeated in four games, Army was a powerhouse—and there were chuckles all around when somebody discovered that the visitors had 18 players but only 14 pairs of cleats. Army was the overwhelming favorite: its line outweighed Notre Dame by 15 lbs. per man. and fans were so sure the game would be a slaughter that only 3,000 bothered to turn out.

The Rock. It was a slaughter all right—just like David and Goliath. In those days football was a mannerly game: teams were expected to punt on first down inside their own 20-yd. line and never, never throw a forward pass. The upstarts from Indiana punted only on fourth down—and passed the Cadets goggle-eyed. In one fantastic flurry. Quarterback Gus Dorais completed 12 in a row. His main target was a balding bandy-legged end named Knute Kenneth Rockne, who at 5 ft. 8 in. and 145 lbs. was probably the smallest man on the field. Army defenders could not help admiring Rockne's courage; the game had barely started before he was limping noticeably. Late in the first period, with the ball on the Army 30 Dorais dropped back to pass. Nobody noticed Rockne, hobbling painfully down the sideline. Suddenly, the limp disappeared; he was running full tilt toward the Army goal, reaching up for the pass. Touchdown! Before the long afternoon was over, Notre Dame's passing attack had clicked for 243 yds. and two TDs, and the unknown Indiana school had upset mighty Army 35-13.

It had to be foreordained that Rockne would return as coach. And there he was in 1918, the son of a Norwegian carriage maker, carving his name as one of the game's enduring geniuses. He pioneered the platoon system, perfected the forward pass, lifted (so the famous story goes) the Notre Dame "box shift" from the routine of a dance-hall chorus line. His teams traveled from coast to coast and South to the Gulf, playing 122 games and winning 105 over 13 seasons. Five times they were unbeaten; three times they won the national championship.

They called themselves Irish, but only a healthy handful were. Poles, Germans, Italians, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, everyone flocked to South Bend. One September, 90 high school captains turned out for the freshman team. No school in football history produced such stars: Frank Carideo, Marchy Schwartz, Johnny O'Brien and the incomparable George Gipp—Notre Dame's first All-America, who drop-kicked a 62-yd. field goal in his first college game, gained 332 yds. against Army, and died of pneumonia at 25. There was the "pony backfield" of 1924 that averaged 158 lbs. per man and won immortality on the typewriter of Grantland Rice: "Outlined against a blue-grey October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."

Then there was Rockne himself, the master psychologist who once ran the Four Horsemen behind a third-string line and shouted from the sidelines, "Show 'em your clippings! Show 'em your clippings!" He was the sly pessimist who advised, "Never tell 'em how many lettermen you've got coming back. Tell 'em how many you've lost." He was the locker-room orator who called his team together before the 1928 Army game and talked about George Gipp—his perfection, his ability to come through in the clutch, and his deathbed request: "Sometime, when things are going wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win one just for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock, but I'll know about it and I'll be happy." Notre Dame beat Army 12-6. But that was hardly surprising to Rockne: it had worked the first time he tried it-seven years before.

The Robot. Rockne died in a plane crash in 1931, and for a while it looked as if Notre Dame's football fortunes were riding the same plane: the Irish experienced their first losing season in 45 years. But in 1941, Notre Dame got a new coach—an Irishman, yet—and the leprechauns became giants again. Tough and tightlipped, Frank Leahy had nothing in common with Rockne except a ferocious desire to win all the time. His players called him "The Robot," and he drove them mercilessly. "I want to see blood on the quarterbacks' hands when you snap the ball," he told his centers. Rival coaches ac cused Leahy of teaching "dirty football," of flagrant recruiting violations, of "twisting" the rulebook with his "sucker shifts" and faked injuries. But one thing nobody could argue with: his success. With such stars as Johnny Lujack, George Connor, Johnny Lattner, Leon Hart and Ralph Guglielmi, Leahy won four national championships, ran off a string of 39 games without a loss, retired in 1953 with an overall record of 87 wins, eleven losses, nine ties.

After Leahy, the deluge. Terry Brennan took over as coach, did reasonably well (32 wins, 18 losses)—except by Notre Dame standards—and gave way to Joe Kuharich in 1959. Kuharich, a top pro coach with the National Football League's Washington Redskins, was no improvement. Over two seasons, 23 of his players had to be operated on for knee injuries. What's more, Notre Dame's president, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh (TIME cover, Feb. 9. 1962), was determinedly hauling up the school's academic standards, saw no reason to grant exemptions to football players. The upshot: Kuharich lost 23 out of 40 games, quit in 1962 to go back to the pros (he now coaches the Philadelphia Eagles). Finally, last year it was poor Hugh Devore's turn: he reluctantly agreed to fill in for one year as "interim" coach—and suffered through a dismal 2-7 season.

Football had not really been de-emphasized at Notre Dame; it had de-emphasized itself. In the golden years of Rockne and Leahy, the $500,000-a-year take from football paid faculty salaries, built dormitories and a stadium. Now, when the cost of Notre Dame's sports program was deducted, there was barely enough left over to pay the coal bill for an Indiana winter. The Irish still wanted a winning team —"We are dedicated to excellence," said the Rev. Edmund Joyce, Notre Dame's executive vice president—but not enough to pay for it. The school awards only 30 football scholarships a year, and they are strictly limited to board, room and tuition—no "walking-around money." Under those ground rules, what coach would gamble his reputation? What coach indeed—except Ara Parseghian?

"I'm the Greatest." The wonder is that it took him so long to get to South Bend. Handsome and raven-haired, Parseghian could pose for anyone's image of the spirit of Notre Dame—wearing Leahy's shoes and Rockne's suit. He has to win because the laundry bill is too high when he loses; his wife has to change the sweat-soaked bed sheets each morning. Navy Coach Wayne Hardin delights in telling of playing partners with Parseghian in a golf match a few summers ago: "We came up to the 18th hole and had to win it to take the match. Ara stuck one on the green, about 40 ft. from the pin. He stepped up to putt, paused and asked: 'What state are we in?' 'We're in Pennsylvania,' I said. 'All right,' said Ara. Then I'm the greatest putter in the state of Pennsylvania.' He swung and, sure enough, the ball went over four or five breaks plunk into the cup."

It stands to reason that Parseghian must have been a beautiful baby. His father named him after a mythological Armenian king named "Ara the Beautiful," and his mother kept him in dresses until he was six. As soon as he graduated to pants, he started sneaking off to play tackle football with the older kids in Akron, and the only way mom could get him home was to come after him with the sawed-off broomstick she used to stir the family wash. As an eighth-grader, Ara was everybody's nomination for Toughest Kid in school—even the Board of Education's. "They were having a lot of trouble with vandals breaking windows," recalls Older Brother Gerard, 43, a Toledo businessman. "So they just hired Ara to patrol the grounds. The checks came directly from the Board of Education. He was real proud of that."

At South High School, Parseghian is remembered as a kind of Jack Armstrong with Wheaties coming out his ears. "He worked like the dickens for his S," a classmate recalls. "If he saw somebody wearing a letter who hadn't participated in athletics, he'd take it away from him and tell him to turn out for the team." Ara's mother was violently against football; whenever she went to a game, she spent the afternoon hiding under the stands, praying for Ara's safety. It would have been kinder to pray for the other fellow. South High Coach Frank ("Doc") Wargo remembers one encounter against Steubenville High, an Ohio Valley team made up mostly of miners' sons. "Ara was tough. But Steubenville had a tough fullback too. On the first play from scrimmage, the two of them met headon, and you could hear the helmets crash. Both boys went down. After a few seconds, Ara jumped up. They carried their fullback out."

Call Him Hardnose. Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron, spent two wartime years in the Navy: then back to football he went, this time at Miami of Ohio, a small school with an uncanny knack for producing big-time coaches—Army's Earl Blaik and Paul Dietzel, Ohio State's Woody Hayes, the pros' Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank and Sid Gillman. In 1947, a solid 190-lb. halfback, Ara led the Redskins to an undefeated season, won All-America mention and a pro tryout with the Cleveland Browns.

"Hardnose" was the Browns' name for him, for the fierce way he slammed into blitzing enemy linemen. He had a bad ankle, but he was still Coach Paul Brown's regular halfback. "He'd hurt it and I'd take him out of the game," remembers Brown, "and next thing you know, he'd be limping up and down the sidelines until he could walk on it again. Then he'd beg me to put him back in."

In 1949, another injury ended Parseghian's playing career permanently. Flicking through an opening in the Baltimore Colts' line, he cut to avoid a linebacker, sprawled headlong with a badly torn cartilage in his right hip. His hip has never been quite right since, and he is bothered by occasional arthritis.

Married, out of work, Parseghian went looking for a job. "There was only one thing Ara didn't want to do," says his brother Gerard, "and that was coach. He thought coaches had to be nuts to put up with the stuff they did." But when Miami Coach Woody Hayes offered him the freshman team, Parseghian leaped at the chance. Then everything happened at once. The frosh team went undefeated. At season's end Hayes packed off to Ohio State. And at 27, Ara Parseghian became the youngest head coach in Miami's history. "I thought you said all coaches were nuts," smirked Gerard. Sighed Ara, "Buddy, I've got the bug."

In five years Parseghian won 39 games, lost only six—and two of those victories came at the direct expense of the powerful Big Ten. In 1954, the day before Miami was scheduled to play Indiana, he deliberately dressed the Redskins in tattered old practice uniforms, sent them through a ragged workout before the eyes of the grinning Hoosiers. Next day, faultlessly attired in new uniforms, Miami upset Indiana 6-0. Frank Leahy would have approved. Next year, against Northwestern, Parseghian even sought out Rival Coach Lou Saban to plead for mercy. Saban, says a Parseghian associate, "really swallowed all that stuff." Miami upset the Wildcats 25-14, and at season's end Saban was out of a job. Who was in? Parseghian, of course.

"They'll See You." When Parseghian arrived in 1956, things were so bad that Northwestern's student newspaper was calling for the school to withdraw from the Big Ten. Northwestern had lost 27 of its last 31 conference games, had not won any game at all in 1955. The only private school in the Big Ten, Northwestern's entrance requirements were the highest in the league, while its men's enrollment (3,936) was the smallest. Why not call it quits? Snarled Parseghian: "If I thought that way, I wouldn't be here. All right, maybe it's an obsession thinking we can do what everyone says is impossible. But we can win." No U.S. Marine recruiting officer ever crooned a smoother pitch. To Chicago high school athletes who thought about going away to school, he said: "Your future business contacts are here in Chicago. They'll see you out there, they'll know all about you."

The Wildcats never wound up higher than third in the Big Ten, but there were plenty of moments to savor: a 21-0 victory over Ohio State that ended the Buckeyes' 14-game unbeaten streak, the 45-13 crushing of Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma team on nationwide TV-and the four straight victories over Notre Dame that, more than anything else, convinced the Irish that Parseghian was the man to put a new coat of gold on the dome.

In the Spotlight. Parseghian's move to South Bend last January was more like a homecoming than an arrival. He was introduced between halves of a basketball game, and the students gave him a ten-minute standing ovation. In mid-February, 3,000 turned out in two feet of snow for a mammoth pep rally. If it was spirit they wanted, spirit he gave them. At spring training he whipped out a letter written by a former Notre Dame player who had been seriously injured in an auto accident. Rockne couldn't have done it better. Voice quavering, Parseghian read the letter to the spellbound team: "Being a Notre Dame football player automatically puts you in the national spotlight, more so than players from any other school. Don't let those fans down. Be honest with yourself. Give that second and third effort. Bring Notre Dame football back where it belongs."

The spirit might be willing, but it takes a powerful amount of flesh to make a football winner—and the most optimistic experts did not figure Notre Dame for much this year. The school hadn't had a winning season in five years; 22 out of 38 lettermen had graduated from last year's squad that lost seven of its nine games. Parseghian rebuilt the team as though he were running a fire sale.

Out went Notre Dame's old uniforms and pads ("too heavy," he said), replaced by new lightweight gold pants, plain blue jerseys, and helmets whose color was keyed exactly to the Golden Dome itself. Out went the old split T formation, with its quarterback keepers, replaced by the pro-style slot T and the dazzling stacked I—in which three backs line up in a straight line behind the center, then shift suddenly to one side or the other. Out, too, went the old system of calling signals in the huddle. "In the pressure of the game," explains Parseghian, "you don't have time to listen to somebody yell '32' and ponder which hole is the three hole and which back is the two back. We just describe our plays in the most accurate way possible—like 'power sweep right,' or 'belly sweep left.' And we haven't had a badly busted play all season."

In spring training Parseghian wandered around the field like an Arab horse trader. He spent hundreds of hours studying last year's game films, analyzing each man's potential. Finally one day he sauntered up to John Huarte, a quiet Californian who had played just 50 minutes of football in two years, and said: "John, you're my quarterback for the season. I don't care if you throw six interceptions in the first game. You're my quarterback. You're gonna live with me ten weeks this fall." Parseghian's next visit was with Jack Snow, the 6-ft. 2-in., 215-lb. end whom he had singled out as Huarte's No. 1 passing target. Between them, Huarte and Snow have already broken practically all of Notre Dame's season passing records.

Finally, there was Linebacker Jim Carroll, a 225-lb. Georgian who was to be the key man in Parseghian's prostyle 4-4-3 defense. Last year Carroll was credited with 59 tackles; this year he has already made 120, to lead the team. He shrugged off a painful knee injury to stack up a last-ditch Pitt drive two weeks ago, and he was easily the angriest man on the squad last week when newsmen suggested the possibility of Michigan State's upsetting the top-ranked Irish. Maybe that's because he is Irish. "Listen," he growled. "We're No. 1. I've played with losing teams all my life, and nobody's going to take No. 1 away from me."

Nobody is going to take it away from Ara Parseghian either—not if the everliving, ever-loving spirit of Notre Dame can help it. On a "Clobber Board" in the Notre Dame locker room, messages supposedly sent by rival teams are posted to stoke the fires of effort. "Your luck has run out," read one signed The Panther. "I will beat you this Saturday because I am bigger and stronger and meaner than you are." Everywhere the team goes, the coach goes—instructing, cajoling, just being there to keep an eye on everything. After the Wisconsin game, Parseghian told his wife Kathleen not to meet him at the airport—"I want to go with the team to the campus." Before the Navy game in Philadelphia, local Notre Dame alumni had a motorcade all arranged to whisk Irish officials from the airport to the hotel. Parseghian turned down the car, insisted on riding in the team bus.

For Ara Parseghian, the man who cannot stand to lose, the day begins at 5:30 a.m. with four cups of coffee, usually ends with a tranquilizer and the Late Late Show. Even when he eats, he has a pencil in the other hand, diagramming a play. Is there something he has forgotten, some minuscule detail he has overlooked, some new way to win? There has to be, there always is at Notre Dame. Last week, bone-weary, he paused in Memorial Building to confront a bust of Knute Rockne. "You," he said softly. "You started all this."

Pulling Rank | by Michael

Every year thousands of college football fans generally salivate over the rankings of the recruits who signed letters of intent to play for their favorite team. Despite the fact that these kids may play different positions in different offensive and defensive schemes against different levels of competition, the recruiting "experts" generally come up with these rankings based upon their own personal opinion and the scholarship offers a player receives.

But how accurately do these rankings predict future success?

It's certainly not an easy question to answer, but I've decided to give it a shot using the rankings from February 2002. Three years have passed, and now most of those recruits are entering their fourth year of college football. Now is as good a time as any to look back and see who has panned out, who hasn't, and whatever happened to...?

This unofficial study relied upon the Rivals Top 100 list and the Insiders Top 101 list for the 2001-2002 season. The scoring system was simple. Points were assigned according to a player's numerical ranking, and obviously, if a player did not make a top 100 list, he received zero points. Points from the two lists were then totaled and the players were ranked, highest to lowest. In the case of a tie, the player who received the highest individual ranking in either list won the tie-breaker and received a higher ranking.

And on that note, here is the Rivals/Insiders consensus top 50 from February, 2002...

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#1 - Lorenzo Booker, RB (Florida State)
Overrated. Booker has played well (887 yards, 5.4 ypc) for the Seminoles but the argument could easily be made that he's not even the best RB at Florida State - see Leon Washington (#48). Booker has not nearly been as dominant as one would expect from the #1 player in a class, and to make matters worse, he's also an awful roommate.

#2 - Haloti Ngata, DT (Oregon)

Ngata is without question one of the most dominant defensive linemen in the country. A starter by the end of his freshman year, Ngata missed his sophomore year with an ACL injury but he bounced back last year to finish with 46 tackles, 8.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks. To mention that he blocked 2 kicks, too. The big man is also a Heisman candidate, at least according to this guy.

#3 - Vince Young, QB (Texas)
The MVP of last year's Rose Bowl enters 2005 as a certain Heisman Trophy contender. His off-season development as a passer (10 INTs vs 11 TDs in '04) may determine if he takes home that piece of hardware, and whether or not the Longhorns ultimately play in the BCS Championship game.

#4 - Ben Olson, QB (Brigham Young)
Overrated. After returning from his 2-year LDS mission, Olson transferred to UCLA this past winter. Many expected him to win the starting job this spring while last year's starter, Drew Olson (no relation), sat out with an ACL injury. Unfortunately for one Olson but fortunately for the other Olson, Big Ben's game had trouble shaking off the rust. Karl Dorrell and Bruin fans are holding their collective breath that their savior will regain his old form this summer.

#5 - Chris Davis, WR (Florida State)
Overrated. Big things are expected of Davis now that the depth chart has opened up a bit. After an ACL injury forced him to miss his freshman year, Davis has just 37 career receptions in 2 years. Those modest numbers are simply not good enough for a player ranked this high. He may have all the moves and explosiveness desired in a WR, but at this point Davis hasn't made the on-field impact of a top 5 player.

#6 - Ryan Moore, WR (Miami)
Injured. Moore caught 44 balls in 2003, but only caught 9 passes last year because a sprained foot limited him to 6 games. With Roscoe Parrish gone to the NFL, it's imperative that Moore return to his 2003 form, and indications from spring practice suggest that it's going to happen.

#7 - Kai Parham, LB (Virginia)
Overrated. Parham has been a steady player for the Cavaliers but he's been outperformed by teammate Ahmad Brooks (#19). Why Parham was ranked ahead of Brooks in the first place is a little unclear, but thus far, he has certainly played more like a sidekick than a top 10 national player. I've also seen Parham listed in some places as a DE coming out of high school, which causes me to wonder if one reason he may have been ranked so high was because he may have had an impressive highlight reel where he got to the QB a lot in high school...but that's simply an inference on my part. I could be completely off the mark.

# 8 - Ciatrick Fason, RB (Florida)
The graduation of Ran Carthon left a gaping hole in the Gators' backfield, and Fason took advantage of the opportunity. He led the SEC in rushing (1,267 yards, 5.7 avg), caught 35 passes and scored 12 TDs. Next year he'll be playing for the Minnesota Vikings, who drafted him in the 4th round; Fason left UF early in order to support his wife and two children.

#9 - Dishon Platt, WR (Florida State)
MIA. Has anyone seen Platt's face on any milk cartons recently? As best as I can tell, Platt signed with Florida State, but failed to qualify academically. He then decided to attend South Florida, and he was planning on going to a JUCO for a year or two before he'd be able to start at USF. But the last article I saw on him was from August 2002.

#10 - Trent Edwards, QB (Stanford)
Overrated. However, it's Buddy Teevens' fault. What's more likely, that Edwards has a ton of talent squandered in Teevens' absolutely pathetic offense, or that Edwards was overrated coming out of high school? Or, as Teevens would explain it, "With intelligent kids, transition can be more difficult." Personally, I expect Edwards to blossom this fall under Walt Harris and reemerge as one of the nation's top QBs...but for now, he falls in the overrated category.

#11 - Devin Hester, CB/KR/PR (Miami)
Hester may be the best special teams player in the country; he's not just a return man capable of taking back every kick to the house because last year he blocked two FGs, both of which he returned for scores. The Miami staff has finally settled on plaing him at CB, although he reportedly struggled this past spring because he relied too much on his athleticism rather than technique. The rest of the ACC is anxiously hoping he doesn't pick it up, because if he does, he could easily become one of the best corners in the country.

#12 - Justin Blalock, OL (Texas)
After redshirting in 2002, Blalock has been a two-year starter at RT and finished last year as an All-Big 12 selection. He enters 2005 on many pre-season All America watch lists.

#13 - Michael Johnson, RB (Virginia)
Overrated. Despite his lofty ranking, Johnson has been stuck behind Alvin Pearman and Wali Lundy, who was actually a much lower ranked RB in this same class. Johnson did rush for 383 yards (6.1 ypc) last year and was a decent kick returner, so he has some talent, but Lundy has already reclaimed the starting position (which he lost to Pearman halfway through 2004).

#14 - Gerald Riggs, Jr., RB (Tennessee)
After a slow start to his Vol career punctuated by maturity issues, Riggs finally lived up to the hype and had a fantastic 2004. He rushed for 1107 yards (5.7 ypc) while still splitting time with Cedric Houston (also a 1000+ yard runner). Now that Houston has graduated, Riggs' numbers should reach higher stratospheres in 2005.

#15 - Brandon Jeffries, OL (Tennessee)
Overrated. Although he originally signed with the Vols, Jeffries is now at NC State. Buried on the depth chart at Tennessee, he has said the coaches suggested he wasn't big enough or strong enough to make an impact. After poor grades caused him to spend 2004 at a junior college, he picked the Wolfpack and enters the 2005 season with a chance to show the Vols staff they were wrong.

#16 - Reggie McNeal, QB (Texas A&M)
College Station has been in the shadow of Austin for some time now, and the same holds true for this Aggie QB; he plays in the shadow of Vince Young (#3). His numbers improved tremendously from 2003 to 2004, as he cut his interceptions nearly in half, threw more TDs, rushed for more yardage and improved his completion percentage from 51% to 58%. A&M's record also improved from 4-8 to 7-5 during this time as well; if the same improvement occurs this off-season, look for a monster year from McNeal and Dennis Franchione's Aggies. Of course, with all the attention on Young, no one may know about it.

#17 - Ricardo Hurley, LB (South Carolina)
Overrated. Considered by some one of the best OLBs coming out of high school, Hurley has had a somewhat inconsistent career. He played a little as a freshman and showed terrific athleticism and instincts, but injuries nagged him his sophomore year. Last year he returned to make 53 tackles but only 4.0 tackles for loss...not exactly the kinds of numbers you'd expect from someone ranked this high.

#18 - Mike D'Andrea, LB (Ohio State)
Injured. Injuries limited D'Andrea to only 4 games last year, and as a back-up player in 2003 he managed 24 tackles. D'Andrea is still not 100%, however, and in his place Buckeye LBs A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel have stolen the show. Last year Ohio State experimented with a 3-4 alignment to take advantage of their talent at LB, but given the guys in front of D'Andrea, and younger talents like Marcus Freeman nipping at his heels, his role is a bit uncertain.

#19 - Ahmad Brooks, LB (Virginia)
Brooks, a two-year starter, has had two consecutive seasons of 90+ tackles and was a finalist last year for the Butkus Award, awarded to the country's best linebacker. Brooks sat out spring football to rest his knee, which bothered him at times last year, and rightfully so, there are huge expectations upon him heading into 2005. Brooks might be the first LB taken in next year's NFL draft.

#20 - Pat Watkins, FS (Florida State)
After giving it consideration, Watkins decided to return to Florida State rather than enter the NFL draft this past April. A first year starter in 2004, the 6'4 Watkins had considerable playing time his freshman and sophomore years, and he will now focus on bulking up and having a big senior year in preparation for next year's draft.

#21 - Marcus Vick, QB (Virginia Tech)
Overrated. Vick played like a freshman in '03 (2 TDs vs 5 INTs in limited action), and too many run-ins with the law caused him to miss all of 2004. After pondering a transfer, he returned to Blacksburg, where he had a strong spring and was named the starting QB. Still, most of his contributions thus far have been detrimental. Hokie fans have their fingers crossed.

# 22 - Derek Morris, OL (Ohio State)
Morris originally signed with Ohio State but academic issues caused the Buckeyes to release him from his letter of intent. He then enrolled at NC State in January '03, and he has been a starter since halfway through the '03 season. The mammoth RT was plagued with an ankle injury last year, but still played well. He'll enter the 2005 on most preseason All-ACC lists and on some All-American watch lists.

#23 - Marcedes Lewis, TE (UCLA)
Quite arguably the best TE in the country, Lewis possesses great size and speed. If Drew Olson were a more consistent QB, Lewis would be more of a household name. The second-leading receiver for the Bruins in both '03 and '04, Lewis is capable of having a monster season...but then again, he could easily end up with another 30-catch, average season. Jury is still out on Lewis.

#24 - AJ Nicholson, LB (Florida State)
When Kendyll Pope graduated, Nicholson took over his starting spot last year and shined. He made 88 tackles and 4 sacks, and now Nicholson enters the 2005 season as one of the leaders of the Seminole defense. Nicholson will be a four-year player, and he has lived up to the hype; it should be a shock if he's not at least a Butkus Award semi-finalist this year.

#25 - Zach Latimer, DE (Oklahoma)
Overrated. A dominant pass rusher coming out of high school, Latimer's lack of size has given him fits as a run-stopper. He has moved to MLB, where his size may better suit him, and he excelled this spring.

#26 - Maurice Clarett, RB (Ohio State)
Clarett's career has been well-documented...he's now the problem of the Denver Broncos. When he did play, though, he was definitely one of the best running backs in college football.

#27 - Rodrique Wright, DT (Texas)
Fans in Austin breathed a sigh of relief when Wright announced he would return for his senior year. Despite some injuries that nagged him last year, Wright has managed to accumulate 181 tackles, 27 tackles for loss, 13 sacks and 5 forced fumbles in his 37-game career at UT, and he has started 32 of those games. You just don't see those kinds of numbers all too often from defensive tackles.

#28 - Darren Williams, CB (Mississippi St)
MIA. A very productive player for the Bulldogs, Williams was kicked off the team this spring after violating "team rules." The latest rumor has Williams playing for Division 1AA Delaware this fall.

#29 - Aaron Harris, LB (Texas)
There was more to last year's Longhorn LB corps than just Derrick Johnson. MLB Aaron Harris was overshadowed by Johnson, but he still collected 118 tackles last year. Known as a big hitter, Harris will enter 2005 with lots of experience under his belt. He played as a true freshman, then began to earn some starts his sophomore year before finally emerging last year.

# 30 - Darnell Bing, SS (Southern Cal)
Entering his third year as a starter for the national champion Trojans, it shouldn't surprise anyone if Bing is a finalist for the Thorpe Award. Big and fast, he loves contact: exactly what a coach wants in his strong safety.

#31 - Deljuan Robinson, DE (Mississippi St)
Overrated. Ever since missing his first year because of open heart surgery, Robinson's career with the Bulldogs has been an up and down one, and this spring he recently made the transition to DT. While he has played well, especially considering the personal turmoil he's faced, he hasn't played up to expectations.

#32 - Rhema McKnight, WR (Notre Dame)
McKnight has quietly moved up the Irish career receiving charts, and entering the 2005 season, he's only 59 receptions short of tying the career mark (157, Tom Gatewood). McKnight should break that record now that former offensive coordinator Bill Diedrick is coaching in the Canadian Football League.

#33 - Derek Landri, DT (Notre Dame)
Injuries had slowed Landri's first two years but in 2004 he posted the most tackles (40) by an Irish interior lineman since Lance Legree had 50 in 2000. Landri's numbers should be even better in 2005 since defensive coordinator Rick Minter wants his linemen to get into the backfield rather than tie up the OL, and Landri's quickness is definitely suited for this scheme.

#34 - Jerious Norwood, RB (Mississippi St)
Norwood has played well on a bad Bulldog team. Last year he rushed for 1050 yards (5.4 ypc), and he had good seasons in '02 and '03 (another 1000+ yards, 5+ ypc). Note to Sylvester Croom: Mississippi State is 0-5 in games where Norwood has less than 20 carries.

#35 - Gabe Watson, DT (Michigan)
Tackles like Watson are what make 3-4 defenses possible. However, as good as Watson played at times last year, he also struggled in the second halves of games because he was out of shape, and coach Lloyd Carr called him out on it this spring. While constantly facing double teams, Watson was still able to make 37 tackles and 2 sacks, and it should be interesting to see how new Michigan DL coach Steve Stripling impacts Watson's play in 2005.

#36 - Julian Jenkins, DE (Stanford)
Jenkins had a very nice 2004 season with 47 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Overall, he has played in 31 of the 33 games that Stanford has played since he stepped on campus. He's been a productive player but not a dominant one. Personally, I have always thought that Jenkins' quickness should be utilized as a DE in a 4-3 scheme, rather than a 3-4 scheme, but then again, what do I know?

#37 - Kedric Golston, DT (Georgia)
Overrated. After suffering a broken leg during his senior of high school, Golston bounced back to contribute as a freshman. However, injuries caused him to miss half of his sophomore season, and since then, he hasn't been the same player. In fact, he had 34 tackles in 14 games and 3 starts in 2002; in 2003-2004, he had just 40 tackles in 20 games and 18 starts. His 2005 has started off poorly, too, as he recently got into a little trouble with the law that will cause him to miss the season opener against Boise State.

#38 - Nathan Rhodes, OL (Washington)
MIA. Unfortunately, Rhodes suffered a back injury that caused him to quit football in 2003.

#39 - Edorian McCullough, RB/CB (Texas)
Overrated. After failing to qualify academically, McCullough enrolled at a junior college, and this past winter he transferred to Oregon State, where he's expected to contribute immediately at CB. However, if you haven't contributed yet, you're a bust in my opinion.

#40 - Winston Justice, OL (Southern Cal)
This could definitely be one of the most underrated recruits in the top 50. From the moment he stepped onto the Trojan campus, he has dominated. Unfortunately, after starting his first two years, Justice missed all of last year due to a "student conduct violation" that stemmed from this case. Of course, it probably didn't matter much that in 2003, Justice had gotten in trouble for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. That said, look forJustice to have a phenomenal 2005 season before moving on to the NFL.

#41 - Marquis Johnson, WR (Texas)
Overrated. Johnson originally signed with Texas but failed to qualify, so he ended up at a JUCO. Prior to 2004, he signed with Texas Tech and last year he spent most of the year learning the offense. Anyone else wondering why you'd hear the following written about a supposed top 50 recruit? "Johnson, who has a limited football background, got into games only briefly last season as coaches worked to refine his techniques."

#42 - DeShawn Wynn, RB (Florida)
Overrated. Wynn got stuck behind Ciatrick Fason (#8) and only ran for 217 yards last year (81 of them came against Middle Tennessee St). You'd think that he'd try to take advantage of Urban Meyer's new system and the departure of Fason, but apparently he had other things on his mind. According to this account of the spring game, Wynn was busy running laps rather than playing.

#43 - James Banks, QB (Tennessee)
MIA. Banks started off at QB but eventually got moved to WR, where he looked like he'd be a dynamic performer. Unfortunately, off-the-field problems caught up with him. He's currently out of college football after being kicked off the Tennessee football team for failing a drug test earlier this year.

#44 - Kamerion Wimbley, DE (Florida State)
Overrated. After a dominating spring, Wimbley is being mentioned in the same breath as former Seminole stud pass-rushers Peter Boulaware and Reinard Wilson. With only 4.5 career sacks, though, he'll need to earn that praise on the field this fall.

#45 - Gavin Dickey, QB (Florida)
Overrated. Or, not as good as Chris Leak. Take your pick. With the QBs that Meyer has brought in, and is bringing in, and considering Dickey's baseball skills, it's hard for me to believe that in a year or two he'll still be playing football. It's just incredibly hard to balance both sports when you're not a pitcher, and Dickey has been losing valuable time according to coach Urban Meyer. "This is not a 20-hour a week offense," Meyer said. "This is a 35-hour a week offense and he's not giving us 35 hours, so he's behind."

#46 - Marvin Byrdsong, LB (Mississippi St)
MIA. Like teammate Darren Williams, Byrdsong has left the Mississippi State team because of problems with coach Sylvester Croom. Last year Byrdsong had 54 tackles and zero sacks. He has since transferred to Northwestern State.

#47 - AJ Davis, CB (NC State)
Overrated. Davis has logged time the last two years as a key nickel/dime reserve for the Wolfpack but he hasn't lived up to his recruiting hype, most of which was created by his blazing speed. He's expected to move into a starting role this fall opposite Marcus Hudson, a much less heralded recruit from 2001 who has developed into a star in the Wolfpack secondary.

#48 - Leon Washington, RB (Florida State)
Last year's Gator Bowl MVP averaged 6.9 ypc while racking up 951 yards in a backfield he shared with Booker. Washington's stock would be higher if Insiders actually placed him in their Top 100; he was #9 in Rivals' list.

#49 - Jonathan Mapu, DT (Tennessee)
MIA. Great early returns on Mapu's play in '02 and '03 but he decided to take his LDS mission in January '04. Because of that, he won't be back until 2006...will it be with the Vols? Probably, but then again, you never know.

#50 - Aaron Miller, CB (Oklahoma)
Overrated. See Edorian McCullough (#39). After failing to qualify academically, Miller enrolled at a junior college, and this past winter he transferred to Oregon State, where he's expected to contribute immediately at CB. However, if you haven't contributed yet, you're a bust in my opinion.

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After putting this list together, I noticed some trends. These are great for discussion and future studies, and because of the small sample, I’m hesitant to draw any concrete conclusions. But here are some thoughts to throw out there...

• In the top 10, 6 players haven’t lived up to the hype and a 7th is nowhere to be found. At the bottom end of the list, 12 out of 14 players haven’t lived up to the hype. Is there possibly a bell curve when it comes to projecting collegiate football success? Are the best players necessarily the best, and could there be not that much difference between the 40th-ranked player and the 70th-ranked player?

• All of the DEs on the list have yet to make a significant impact -- or else they’ve been moved to another position. Is that a coincidence? Where do the great college pass rushers come from?

• There were 4 OL in the top 50, but entering 2005, only 2 of them had logged significant minutes. There’s a line of thinking that suggests OL is the hardest position to evaluate. Had Rhodes not been injured, he could have been the swing vote.

• Are great CBs found or made? Look at the list again: Hester, Williams, McCullough, Davis and Miller. Williams was a consistent player before he ran into trouble and Hester, despite having made his mark as a kick returner, hasn’t established himself as a corner despite being reportedly the best one coming out of high school.

• Finally, if there’s something the recruitniks do well, is it evaluating DTs? Look at the list again. Golston is listed as overrated, yet he played very well earlier in his career, as did Mapu before he went on his LDS mission. Every other DT has played at least up to their expectations.

Again, this is only a one-year sample, so it's difficult to draw any hard and fast conclusions. But if there's one thing this type of retrospective suggests, it's that evaluating high school players is more speculative than scientific. And that's a good thing to keep in mind as the recruiting hype starts to heat up.

Honoring Huarte | by Jay

Irish Heisman winner John Huarte was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame yesterday. Here's UND.com with the scoop:

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - John Huarte (pronounced HEW-ert), former Heisman Trophy-winning University of Notre Dame quarterback from 1964, is one of 11 former college players and two coaches named today to the National Football Foundation's 2005 College Football Hall of Fame Division I-A class by Jon F. Hanson, chairman of the National Football Foundation...

Huarte's Heisman Trophy victory ranks as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the award considering he missed much of his sophomore season due to injury and didn't even play enough as a junior to win a monogram (second and third in the voting were Tulsa's Jerry Rhome and Illinois' Dick Butkus - and other candidates included Alabama's Joe Namath and Kansas' Gale Sayers).

Behind the aerial efforts of Huarte and fellow Californian Jack Snow (he caught 60 passes that year for 1,114 yards and a Notre Dame-record nine touchdowns), Ara Parseghian in his first year turned Notre Dame from a 2-7 team in '63 into a 9-1 squad that came within minutes of the national title.

A consensus first-team All-American as a senior, Huarte threw for 270 yards in the '64 opening-game upset of Wisconsin -- including TD tosses of 61 and 42 yards to Snow -- and ended up finishing the year ranked third nationally in total offense (2,069 yards). He set 12 Irish records that year and earned back-of-the-year and player-of-the-year honors from United Press International. He was named MVP of the College All-Star Game in Chicago in 1965.

A second-round draft pick of the AFL New York Jets (and a sixth-round pick of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles), Huarte played in the pro ranks for eight years with Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Kansas City and Chicago -- prior to retiring from the World Football League Memphis entry in 1975.

Originally a 6-0, 180-pound signalcaller from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., Huarte becomes the 41st Notre Dame player to be chosen for the Hall of Fame since inductions began in 1951. Five former Irish coaches also have been selected. No other school has produced more than those 46 enshrinees, the most recent being Joe Theismann in 2003.

A couple of other good articles on Huarte's selection here and here.

By the way, Mater Dei in Orange County is the same high school that current Heisman QB Matt Leinart attended. (Also elected to the Hall this year was noted Irish nemesis Anthony Davis, but we won't mention that.)

Huarte winning the Heisman in '64 was sort of a "cinderella story, boy from nowhere" event. He logged only 5 minutes of playing time as a sophomore, and a mere 45 minutes as a junior. But then his senior year, Ara Parseghian was handed the coaching job and immediately began looking for a quarterback among his roster. From a 1964 Time magazine article:

In spring training Parseghian wandered around the field like an Arab horse trader. He spent hundreds of hours studying last year's game films, analyzing each man's potential. Finally one day he sauntered up to John Huarte, a quiet Californian who had played just 50 minutes of football in two years, and said: "John, you're my quarterback for the season. I don't care if you throw six interceptions in the first game. You're my quarterback. You're gonna live with me ten weeks this fall." Parseghian's next visit was with Jack Snow, the 6-ft. 2-in., 215-lb. end whom he had singled out as Huarte's No. 1 passing target. Between them, Huarte and Snow have already broken practically all of Notre Dame's season passing records.

Huarte busted out his senior year, setting nine Irish records and tying another. Career stats:

	Att.	Comp.	Int.	Yards	TD	Pct.	Rush	Yards
1962	8	4	0	38	0	.500	3	-14
1963	42	20	0	243	1	.467	11	-53
1964	205	114	11	2062	16	.556	37	7
TOTAL	255	138	11	2543	17	.541	51	-60

Huarte's 74-point Heisman win over Jerry Rhome of Tulsa was the sixth-slimmest margin in Heisman history (Illinois linebacker Dick Butkus finished third.)

Perhaps the only heartbreak for Huarte during his Heisman season was a 17-20 final-game loss to John McKay's USC that probably cost the Irish a National Championship (they still topped one national poll, but Alabama walked away with the AP & UPI titles). It wasn't for lack of heart on Huarte's part, in fact, the game came down to a last-ditch Hail Mary to Snow that fell incomplete.

The New York Times had a nice story on Huarte this morning:

In a football career that lasted until he was 32, John Huarte had only three memorable years.

In 1964, his senior season at Notre Dame, he won the Heisman Trophy after leading a team that finished 2-7 the year before to a 9-1 record and, in some polls, the national championship.

Fast forward to 1974 and 1975, when Huarte was the starting quarterback for the Memphis Southmen in the World Football League, which struggled through two money-losing seasons before folding.

"It was fun while it lasted," Huarte said.

Yesterday presented another moment to remember when the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced that Huarte was one of 11 and 2 coaches from major colleges who had been elected to the shrine in South Bend, Ind.

In a telephone interview from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Huarte called his election "an incredible honor and a surprise."

"That's my other life," he said. "I haven't thought too much about college football."

Until his senior season, there was not much to think about. In his first three seasons at Notre Dame, he played a total of 50 minutes. But as a senior, he passed for 2,062 yards and 16 touchdowns. The Jets signed him for $200,000.

They also signed another rookie that year, Joe Namath, for $427,000, and Namath went on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Huarte ended up on the Jets' taxi squad, which is now knows as the practice squad). In six N.F.L. seasons, Huarte played in 24 games, completing 19 of 48 passes and throwing one touchdown pass.

"I started one game," he said. "Except for that, I was a backup to Joe Namath on the Jets, Babe Parilli in Boston, King Hill and Norm Snead in Philadelphia, Len Dawson in Kansas City and Bobby Douglass in Chicago."

Finally starting with Memphis of the W.F.L., Huarte was teamed with the former N.F.L. stars Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield before the league folded.

"I liked it," he said.

"I was looking for something I could get my teeth into," Huarte said. "I got into stone, ceramic tile and granite. I've been doing it for 27 years now."

After football, Huarte went into the stone and tile business. He started Arizona Tile 17 years ago, and the company has more than 900 employees and 20 offices in the United States, the Czech Republic, Brazil, China, Italy and Mexico.

"Pro football was very frustrating," he said, "but you go on to another career. I got football out of my system. It wasn't all bad. I met my wife when I was with the Jets. New York was golden to me."

His wife, Eileen Devine, was a student at St. John's and a part-time elevator operator at Shea Stadium when they met. The Huartes have five children and eight grandchildren, all in California.

"Am I having a good life?" Huarte said yesterday. "Well, I'm working about half the time. This morning, I went to the drugstore and had breakfast with my 3-year-old grandson. That's pretty good."

One quick story. It seems my aunt went on a couple of dates with John Huarte back in college. Flash forward to two years ago: my uncle (her husband), my cousins (her sons) and I are at the ND/USC luncheon before the game at the Coliseum. We get a chance to meet Huarte, and he's the nicest, most gracious guy you'll ever meet. The story comes out that Aunt Pat used to date him.

The whole ride home, my cousins rode my uncle mercilessly. "Why did you get in the way, dad? We could have been athletes!"

Uniformly Excellent | by Jay

(Today's piece was compiled and written by our friend Will. Enjoy.)

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"You have to look good to play good." -- Jerry Rice

Freshly-painted golden helmets, glinting in the sun. Jerseys of deep, rich blues and stark, crisp whites: simple, unadorned but for a small interlocking ND, numbered yet nameless. Flat-finish pants, golden-brown, almost dun-colored. There is no better feeling for Fighting Irish fans than to be sitting in Notre Dame stadium on a fall afternoon waiting to see those pristine Golden Domes above navy blue jerseys emerge from the tunnel and run out onto the field. It's not just a game anymore, it's reliving tradition.

Of course, the uniform is more than simply the clothes you wear when you play the game, and more than just your battle insignia that tells you apart from the other team...it's also a tie to your cultural heritage, your own personal link to the past. After all, when you think of a football team, the first thing you remember is its colors, its unique coat of arms: Michigan's winged helmet, for instance, Alabama's classic white numbers on crimson, Penn State's martial simplicity. These cultural signifiers are as important to a team's identity as its nickname and its mascot. And when you put on the mantle of your alma mater, you're wearing the tradition of hundreds of players and fans to go before you.

It's funny, though. As traditional as we think ND's uniforms are today -- and they've been largely unchanged for a while now -- we've actually had quite a variety of interesting styles since the early days of football at Notre Dame. Two-tone jerseys and shamrocks on the helmet; names on the back and logos on the front; stripes, and flanks, and little blue stars have all made appearances at various times throughout our history.

I've always been interested in sports uniforms and logos...so, I thought I'd explore the history of the ND uniform, and see if I couldn't piece together the evolution of, well, tradition. Let's take a look.

(For any of the pictures below, go ahead and click on them to bring up a larger version.)

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The pre-Rockne years (1887-1917)

Very little research material is available on the very early Notre Dame uniform. The first ND team, in 1888, wore an all-white uniform with an "ND" written across the chest (right). It is around this time when the blue and gold colors became the official school colors. At the time of its founding in 1842, Notre Dame’s original school colors were yellow and blue; yellow symbolized "the light" and blue "the truth". However, sometime after the Dome and Statue of Mary atop the Main Building was gilded in 1886, blue and gold became the official colors of the University.

The 1900 team is pictured in a photo wearing uniforms that look anything but uniform (left). It's likely that there was no standard uniform during this time. ND at this time was fairly strapped for cash, and so players probably wore whatever was readily available to them (as a result, these guys look like extras from the cast of Braveheart.)

In 1914, ND coach Jesse Harper scheduled a game against the Pop Warner-coached Carlisle Indian School. The game was to be played at Chicago's Comiskey Field and believe it or not, it was considered a very important game in Notre Dame's quest to become a national college football power.

To render the game more attractive to spectators, Harper decided to have the players wear numbers, and he wrote Carlisle asking for a list of their players and the numerals that Warner would assign them. Rockne is often credited with this innovation but he merely copied what he observed as Harper's assistant coach.

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The Rockne Years (1918-30)

The first uniforms of the 20th century were very simple, a dark blue jersey with no numbers or logos. The now-familiar interlocking ND logo seems to have made its debut around this time on letterman sweaters. Seen here on Rockne in 1913, as well as on George Gipp’s sweater now on display in the Reagan library (below right).

Rockne’s first team wore the simple blue jerseys that he had worn as a player (below left). In addition, the green jersey is believed to have made its debut during Rockne’s tenure when he assigned them to the freshman team, while the varsity squad wore blue. The green jersey then made its debut for the varsity team, when it was worn in the early 20’s simply for purpose of distinction when the Irish opponent also came out in blue.

In the late 20’s, contests against Navy featured green-clad Notre Dame teams, to avoid confusion with Navy’s blue uniforms. Ever the innovator, Rockne began the tradition of using the green jersey as a psychological ploy, a strategy that would be copied by numerous Irish coaches in the years to come. When Notre Dame played Navy in Baltimore in 1927, Rockne started his second-string reserves. As the Midshipmen were scoring a touchdown in the first 5 minutes of the game, reported George Trevor in the New York Sun, Rockne made his move:

“Instantaneously the Notre Dame regulars yanked off their blue outer sweaters and like a horde of green Gila monsters darted onto the field. From that moment on Notre Dame held the initiative, imposed its collective will upon the Navy.”

The Irish came from behind to win that one 19-6. Later that year in the contest against Army, Rockne had more uniform tricks up his sleeve:

"The ND coach prepared a number of surprises: to help his passers see their targets better and his ball carries locate their blockers more easily in the Yankee Stadium twilight and against the dark Army uniforms, he substituted bright green outfits for the regular dark blue Notre Dame suits; he also changed the players' numbers from those he had sent to Harry Stevens for the game program, thus confusing the fans, the press corps, and, he hoped, the Army coaches."

The green uniforms also helped the Fighting Irish nickname gain momentum. The New York Herald-Tribune reported that when the team ran onto the field, the "Celtic representation" in the crowd "took to this display of green immediately and cheers from all their sections" arose.

Rockne then did the same thing the following year in Chicago’s Soldier Field, this time beating Navy 7-0. The 1928 edition of the Scholastic Football Review included this description:

“Mr. K. K. Rockne may, or may not, be a psychologist. But, he did array his Fighting Irish in bright green jerseys for their battle with the United States Naval Academy. Mr. Rockne evidently surmised that garbing a band of native and adopted Irish in their native color is somewhat akin to showing a bull the Russian flag.”

Throughout his career Rockne continued the practice of having his players switch uniform numbers for big games against Army and Navy in order to confuse the opposing team. This prompted several New York newspaper columnists to chastise the coach for having his players wear uniform numbers that did not correspond to the official program.

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The Leahy Years (1941-53)

Frank Leahy’s first game as head coach, versus Arizona in 1941, featured an unusual two-tone jersey, modeled here by Angelo Bertelli (left and below).

At the time, the Irish also donned leather helmets with the player’s number on the back (below left). It is unknown whether this jersey was worn again, but with his 2nd game against Indiana, the uniform returned to solid blue (right). Also, if any of our readers are aware of the two-tone colors, please let us know.

It's hard to tell exactly when the fabled gold helmet first made its appearance, but we do know that Leahy painted the helmets gold for at least part of his tenure, and they've been in use in one version or another ever since.

Leahy was also quite fond of the green jersey and his squads wore it often, some years exclusively. Bertelli in ‘43 (below), Johnny Lujack on the cover of Life magazine in ’47 (below), and Johnny Lattner on the cover of Time magazine in ’53 (right), all wore the green jersey those years. Notice the black stripe down the center of Lattner’s gold helmet.

I found it interesting that Notre Dame football players once graced the covers of national magazines such as Time and Life. Would we ever see this again?

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The Brennan Years (1954-58)

Terry Brennan continued the practice of wearing green almost exclusively as seen here on Paul Hornung in a 1956 issue of Sport Magazine (left). The leather helmets during this time featured 2 dark stripes: one going from front to back, the other from side to side.

The number of the player also appeared on both sides of the helmet as seen here in the celebration of Notre Dame's upset of Oklahoma in 1957, ending the Sooners' 47-game winning streak (right).

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The Kuharich Years (1959-1963)

Joe Kuharich made the most drastic changes to the uniform than any Notre Dame head coach before him.

In 1959 Kuharich added gold UCLA-style shoulder stripes to the jerseys along with a shamrock on the sides of the helmet (below). The shamrock is of particular interest since it’s one of only 3 designs to appear on the side of a Notre Dame helmet.

Kuharich returned the primary uniform color to blue, after an absence of many years. However, he still broke out the green jerseys on occasion, still featuring the gold shoulder stripes.

____________

During Hugh Devore’s one-year stint in ’63, he kept the shoulder stripes but replaced the shamrock on the helmet with Alabama-style numbers (right). Even after wearing navy blue all season, Devore switched to green in the finale against Syracuse at Yankee Stadium.

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The Parseghian Years (1964-1974)

Ara Parseghian changed the uniform to a very simple blue home jersey and white away jersey, with the player’s number on the sleeves. The photo on the left must have been taken during the spring practice or in the fall before the first contest, because the Hugh Devore numbers on the helmet were gone by Ara’s first game versus Wisconsin (right). The stripes and shamrocks from the previous coaching regime were also removed.

Notre Dame has continued to use the plain gold helmet ever since, which makes it the longest-running unchanged helmet design among the NCAA Division I-A colleges. Ara would keep these simple jerseys for his entire tenure, never once having his squad wear the green jerseys that were so favored by previous Irish coaches.

There are at least 2 games where Ara’s squad wore jerseys with names on the back. The ’73 Sugar Bowl and the ’75 Orange Bowl featured the Irish clad in jerseys with names. The names are believed to have only been used in the bowl games since the names did not appear on in regular season games, such as ’73 USC.

Ara did institute one unique change to the ND helmet; he handed out blue stars for big plays, a la the Ohio State Buckeye (right). The 1-inch stars were stenciled on the front of the helmet.

At first, the stars were given out only to defensive players for recovering a fumble or getting an interception, but this changed sometime around ’71 or ’72 when the awarding of the stars was extended to offensive players such as Tom Clements (right, below).

____________

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The Devine Years (1975-1980)

Dan Devine made 2 changes to the uniform; he discontinued the use of the blue merit stars and he added names to back of the jerseys (left). Devine’s major mark on the history of the ND uniform would come on October 22, 1977 in Notre Dame Stadium.

The 11th-ranked Irish were taking on 5th-ranked USC in another important battle between the two rivals. The spirited students made an enormous Trojan horse and Coach Devine pulled out his biggest trick: after warming up in standard blue jerseys, the ND players stormed the field for the game in green jerseys (right). Led by Joe Montana, the Irish went on to destroy USC 49-19. Notre Dame would wear the green jerseys with gold numbers through the rest of the season, including the 1978 Cotton Bowl that gave Devine his one and only national championship (below left).

The jerseys worn in the USC game did not feature names on the back, but names were added sometime before the Cotton Bowl. Devine would outfit his squad in the green jerseys throughout the rest of his time at Notre Dame.

____________

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The Faust Years (1981-85)

With the arrival of Gerry Faust the Notre Dame uniform went through another rather drastic change. Not only did he do away with the green jersey that was worn during the last half of Devine’s career, but he also decided to change the shade of blue from the color worn during the Parseghian years. The new Irish coach suggested some research into the University archives to determine the history of Notre Dame’s gold and blue colors.

Those findings indicated the blue color was actually Madonna blue, a light blue shade, as opposed to the navy blue shade that had been most common in recent Notre Dame uniforms. The royal blue jerseys featured three one-inch stripes on the sleeves, two gold surrounding one white. The away jerseys also had 3 stripes, two blue surrounding one gold. The stripes were eliminated on the ’84 tops, which didn’t feature any trim other than the white numbers on the navy blue shirts.

Faust also continued the practice of having player’s names appear on the back of the jerseys.

Faust made use of the green jersey on two occasions. He outfitted his squad in green in a 27-6 win over USC in ’83 - six years to the day after Devine first went to the green in a win over those same Trojans. The Irish also wore green during the second half of the 37-3 win over USC in ’85.

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The Holtz Years (1986-96)

Lou Holtz made a few changes to the uniform beginning in ’86. These involved adding the interlocked Notre Dame logo to the shoulder of the jerseys (replacing the numbers) and to the left front side of the pants. Holtz also removed the names on the jerseys that were featured by the previous two coaching regimes. Holtz's uniforms were largely a throwback to the era of Ara, and the Irish would wear this uniform through 1991.

Champion was the manufacturer of the uniform and in ‘92 they made a couple of additions to the jersey. These changes came in the form of a gold sleeve edging, a gold collar, and a small Golden Dome stitched at the bottom of the “V” on the collar (below left).

At the same time the away uniform had a blue sleeve edging and a blue collar added. Another minor change was made when the color of the small interlocking ND logo on the front of the pants was switched from blue to green beginning in ’95.

Holtz hauled out the green twice, the first time in the 1992 Sugar Bowl when the Irish donned white jerseys with green numbers and green socks (bottom right). With the help of 3 touchdowns by Jerome Bettis, the ND went on to defeat #3-ranked Florida 39-28. The last time the Irish had worn their road white jerseys with green numbers was in the Superdome in Notre Dame's loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl 17-10, exactly 11 years earlier. Notre Dame again wore green jerseys for Lou in a 41-24 loss to Colorado in the ’95 Fiesta Bowl.

____________

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The Davie Years (1997-2001)

Under Bob Davie, the Champion-made jersey underwent a slight modification in ’98 when the piping on the sleeves and collar was changed to a gold/white/gold stripe pattern (left).

The uniforms stayed unchanged through the first few years of Davie’s career until 2001 when Adidas was given the contract to manufacture the uniforms, replacing Champion. The home jerseys remained similar to the Champion jersey, except for the addition of the Adidas logo to the right shoulder, a small shamrock replacing the Golden Dome at the “V” in the collar, and a script “Irish” appearing under the shamrock.

Notice that a small green shamrock was also added to the left front side of the pants, replacing the standard interlocking ND logo. The American flag was added to the left shoulder and the back of the helmets in remembrance of the September 11th tragedy.

The 2001 away uniforms also underwent changes. In a move unpopular among many Irish fans, gold flanks were added to the sides of the jersey (right).

Davie’s one use of the green jersey also turned out to be unsuccessful, as the Irish donned the green against Georgia Tech in the ’99 Gator Bowl and lost, 35-28.

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The Willingham Years (2002-04)

The regular Adidas-made uniforms remained the same under Willingham until 2004 when they underwent several changes. The green shamrock and small script Irish were replaced with a small interlocking ND logo while the logo on the front of the pants was changed from green to blue. The ND logo on the shoulder sleeves was replaced with the number of the player and the gold flanks were finally removed from the away uniforms.

Like his predecessor, Willingham’s one attempt at the magic of the green jersey ended in failure. After starting out the 2002 season 8-0 and ascending to the #4 ranking in the nation, the Irish were set to face Boston College. The students and many fans had been wearing that year’s “The Shirt”, which in its many printings evolved into a bright neon-green color.

Coach Willingham outfitted his team in similar bright green jerseys, and explained his reasoning: “We have been talking about the sea of green all season, and I wanted to get our team involved in it. The sea of green is important, because it talks about attitude. It talks about the Notre Dame family and football team coming together as one. I thought it was a good time for our team to become a part of that oneness, the single mindedness and the pursuit of victory.”

Boston College took the jerseys to mean something entirely different. Coach Tom O’Brien: “The kids were excited when we saw the green jerseys. They took the green jerseys as a sign of great respect, as if we were something to be reckoned with.”

The Irish played terribly in the game, losing three of seven fumbles and losing by a score of 14-7. This last appearance of the green left a bad taste in the mouth of many Irish fans, and I think it's safe to say that most Irish faithful are probably leery of seeing the green again anytime soon.

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The Weis Years (2005+)

It's not clear that Charlie Weis has any changes planned for the uniforms (as of yet), and if we can use the spring game as a guide, then it looks like the uniforms will be exactly the same as last year's.

As far as the green goes...during his 6am "wakeup" meeting with the students during his first days on campus, someone asked Charlie about the green jerseys, and requested that we only use those for the big games. Charlie said something to the effect of, "That rah rah stuff only lasts about 10 minutes. Preparation is the reason you win -- not emotions. Emotions can carry you only through part of the 1st quarter and then it comes down to who is better prepared."

So look for Charlie to not do anything radical with the uniforms, and don't hold your breath waiting for him to use the green jerseys as a motivational ploy. That doesn't seem to be Charlie's style.

Then again, all-green was in vogue when he was a student...

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In conclusion, if you were to ask the average ND fan what his or her idea of the traditional uniform was, you would likely get the following response: an unadorned gold helmet, a simple navy blue jersey, and plain gold pants. No names on the back...no designs on the helmet. Classic and elegant. And above all, traditional, right?

Yet it's interesting to note that the "traditional" style of uniform was only worn from ‘64-’77, and again from ’86 to the present.

It's possible we consider this style as "traditional" due in large part to the success of the coaches who used them. Not only were Ara and Lou fabulously successful on the field, they can rightly be considered the most popular coaches at ND in the last fifty years. (Also maybe not-so-coincidentally, the two coaches that made the most drastic changes to the uniform, Joe Kuharich and Gerry Faust, are also two of the least successful and least popular in the history of the program.)

Probably, though, the "traditional" look is accepted as such simply because of its inherent style. The nameless jersey, the classic blue & gold, the no-frills simplicity and elegance...

It's just so damned beautiful, no matter the era.

The Green Jersey games Since the 1977 USC game, the green jersey has taken on a slightly different significance then it did under Rockne and Leahy. It is now associated with a special occasion, or a motivational ploy for an important game. Including the ’77 USC game, the jersey has been worn on 7 occasions. Notre Dame’s record in these games is 4-3 with the past 3 games all resulting in a loss.

The Green Jersey games as ranked from 'most successful' to 'least': 1977 vs. USC: (above right) This game matched 11th ranked ND against 5th ranked USC. The inspired Irish destroyed the Trojans 49-19, a win that propelled ND to their 10th National Championship. 1993 Sugar Bowl vs. Florida: (second from top) The Irish were the underdogs in this game to the 3rd ranked Gators. As Lou Holtz explained, “I was having dinner with my family at a restaurant just prior to taking the team to New Orleans in 1991, and our waiter came up and said, 'What's the difference between Cheerios and Notre Dame? Cheerios belong in a bowl.' That didn't make me feel real good and when I repeated it to our players in New Orleans, I think they understood how our team was viewed coming into the Sugar Bowl.” The Irish, clad in white jerseys with green numbers, beat Florida 39-28. Within a week after the Sugar Bowl victory, General Mills-maker of Cheerios-sent 120 boxes of the breakfast cereal to Holtz with a note that said, "Like the Fighting Irish, we have been one of America's favorites for years. And as your team dramatically proved, both do belong in bowls." 1985 vs. USC: Both teams were mediocre at the time, the Irish would finish the year 5-6 while the Trojans would end up 6-6. Gerry Faust's 1985 team took a 27-0 halftime lead against USC and then donned the green jerseys for the second half, en route to a 37-3 win. 1983 vs. USC: Faust’s first use of the green jerseys resulted in a 27-6 win over a USC team that finish the season 4-6-1. 1995 Fiesta Bowl vs. Colorado: (middle picture) The magic of the green was not enough for the unranked Irish to beat #4 ranked Colorado. ND was crushed 41-24 and would end up the season with a record of 6-5-1. 1999 Gator Bowl vs. Georgia Tech: (second from bottom) Bob Davie’s one attempt at the green jerseys resulted in a 35-28 loss to the Yellow Jackets. 2002 vs. Boston College: (bottom right) The heavily favored Irish played terribly against Boston College, losing 14-7. This game would start a downward spiral for Coach Willingham with ND losing 10 of their next 17 games.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank the guys at BGS for all of their help in the research, writing, editing, and layout of this article. I would also like to thank the following websites and books for supplying background information and pictures:

Irish Legends

Sports Illustrated Covers Gallery

The Helmet Project

The Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

The Notre Dame Archives

Echoes of Notre Dame Football

Rites of Autumn

Shake Down the Thunder

-- Will

And so it begins... | by Dylan

Purdue dives head first into the trough to feed on some Division I-AA Sycamore meat. I'll post the entire text, because it's just too good:

Purdue will fill the opening for a 12th game on its football schedule next season by hosting Division I-AA Indiana State.

The Boilermakers and Sycamores will play Sept. 2, 2006 at Ross-Ade Stadium, Indiana State sports information director Jason Yaman said. It will be the season opener for both teams.

Purdue coach Joe Tiller said last month when the NCAA passed legislation permitting a 12th game for Division I schools that he hoped the Boilermakers would be able to play at home against a lower-level Division I team or nearby Division I-AA team.

Indiana State will receive a $250,000 payout, Yaman said.

“We thought it (the 12th game) would lend itself to us and other members of our league to having some opportunities like this,’’ Yaman said.

Indiana State is a member of the Gateway Conference. The Sycamores play at Indiana University in 2007.

The addition of Indiana State means Purdue will play its first four games at home in 2006. It also will play 13 regular-season games for the first time in school history because of a game at Hawaii, which doesn’t count toward the 12-game limit.

This game makes PU's '06 campaign look like this:

09/02 Indiana State
09/09 Miami (Ohio)
09/16 Ball State
09/23 Minnesota
09/30 at Notre Dame
10/07 at Iowa
10/14 at Northwestern
10/21 Wisconsin
10/28 Penn State
11/04 at Michigan State
11/11 at Illinois
11/18 Indiana
11/25 at Hawaii

This redefines cream-puffery. Indiana State, Miami (OH), and Ball State, all at home. Hawaii on the road. Indiana, Northwestern, and Penn State are gimmes, be they gifts from the Big 1?. Eight patsies in one year. Since Hawaii doesn't count (?), if they go 2-2 against Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, they will have 9 wins and will be BCS eligible.

The NCAA really, really sucks.

Weekend Wrap-up | by Jay

A couple of articles you may or may not have seen from over the weekend.

First up, Taylor Bell's got a piece in the Chicago Sun-Times that works as sort of a snapshot of where we are in the Weis era. A few choice quotes from Chaz:

Growing up in New Jersey, Weis was bitten by the Notre Dame bug while watching sportscaster Lindsay Nelson describe Irish football highlights on television on Sunday mornings. Church had to be scheduled around the show.

''That planted the seed,'' Weis said. ''By my junior year in high school, Notre Dame was the school of my choice. I still feel the aura of the school when I'm there, when I'm walking down the Quad. When you are on campus, I tell recruits, 'If you can't feel it, you probably shouldn't come here.'''

Weis left South Bend, Ind., on April 28 and won't return until May 27. During that time, he estimates he will have visited nearly 100 high schools in 24 states. He personally evaluated 30 prospects in the first seven days. He dumped some luggage in Rhode Island so he could travel lighter. He has obtained oral commitments from six blue-chippers and hasn't gained a pound.

'We're trying to make our presence felt, not only with seniors but with rising juniors and sophomores,'' he said. ''The most important thing we have to do is find blue-chippers all over the country, starting with the Midwest, then compete for them. We can't think that they will come here because it is Notre Dame. We must go up against schools that recruit nationally and try to beat them. That's part of being competitive..."

''My team will be known for being a team, for being prepared, for going into each game expecting to win, for playing for 60 minutes,'' he said. ''Team player. That's my trademark. You can talk about offensive or defensive gurus but I was part of a team at New England. Egos were suppressed. Team was what it was all about.

''Today, most kids dream of playing in the NFL. I coached in the NFL for 15 years. If our recruits are good enough, I should have a clue about showing them how to get there.''

Check the last part of the article for some speculation that prep QB Demetrius Jones may be Irish-bound.

Also, following on the heels of the BCS gerrymandering, there's a leak from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that our AD is talking with some of the second-tier bowls about postseason alignment (for years in which ND is not BCS-worthy, of course). It would be similar to our current arrangement with the Big East and their tie-ins with the Gator, Insight, and Continental Tire bowls (for some background on how the setup works, take a look here). The article speculates about a possible three-bowl parlay just under the BCS that includes the Cotton and the Capital One Bowl and tie-ins from the Big XII and SEC.

But here's the interesting thing:

Notre Dame Senior Associate Athletic Director John Heisler confirmed the Fighting Irish are having conversations about how best to marry themselves in the next round of postseason arrangements.

That might mean a continuation of Notre Dame's deal with the Big East. That might mean Notre Dame aligning itself with the Big 12. Or that might mean Notre Dame forming its own four- or five-bowl arrangement.

It's nice to know that we're being proactive on the second-tier possbilities, and a tie-in from the Big XII means that we could get ourselves into the Capital One and Cotton Bowl, where we have a little bit of history. But this raises an issue with regards to our recently-announced deal with the BCS that limits our bowl payout to a measley $4.5 million instead of a full share.

Some folks mentioned when the deal was announced that Kevin White and ND simply didn't have enough leverage to negotiate a better deal for the Irish from the BCS. Now, the Cotton Bowl and Capital One bowls are the highest-paying bowls outside of the big four (now five) BCS bowls: Cotton payed out $3 million last year, and Capital One payed out roughly $5.2 million. Raise those payouts a bit for next year, factor in the Irish TV ratings, add in the $1 million BCS courtesy fee to Notre Dame, and suddenly you're in the same neighborhood as the BCS.

In light of a possible tie-in with the Big XII, could we have negotiated more from the BCS? Who knows. But the fact is, we now face the bizarre possibility of actually taking less to play in a BCS bowl game than the Cotton or Capital One. That's right: it might be worth more to us, on paper anyway, to stay out of the BCS in those years where we're not in the title game.

The scenario isn't that implausible. Say, for instance, we go 9-2 next year ('06 season) yet still aren't ranked #1 or #2. Perfectly reasonable. We qualify for the BCS, and we get to go to the Fiesta, or something, according to the BCS rules, and reap $4.5 million playing another BCS team. Yet with Oklahoma playing in the title game (in our example), our Big XII tie-in has Capital One clamoring for an Irish appearance. Let's say their payout is $6 million by then.

You do the math. Awkward, no?

The War Room | by Dylan

This is a rush transcript - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

Emergency Meeting - 5/1/05 8:00 AM

Attendees:

Pete Carroll
Lloyd Carr
Tyrone Willingham
Ed Orgeron
Phil Fulmer
Steve Spurrier
Joe Paterno
Bobby Bowden

Minutes transcribed by War Room secretary Urban Meyer

Coach Carroll: Okay. Hey fellas, this is great. Let’s rock and roll, alright? Man, I’m jazzed to be here. I’m just, like, totally jazzed and ready to PARTY! PHIL! Easy on the bear claws!

Coach Fulmer: grmphl shruotnbbsgf...

Coach Paterno: WHA? Whoozat? (snort)

Carroll: Sorry, JoePa! Sometimes I get a little jazzed, you know? Psyched! I’m totally jacked! You might wanna turn down your Miracle Ear. Anyway, I brought you here because we have to talk about Notre Dame.

Coach Orgeron: AAGHHH you sonsabitches! I dare any one of you to squat with me. Who wants to kick me in the jimmy? I said, WHO WANTS TO KICK ME IN THE JIMMY?!?

Carroll: Uhh, coach. Put your shirt back on, please.

Orgeron: You pansy mothereffers, I’ll whip every frackin razzamuffin batch packin one of you!

(Orgeron barrels out of the room, knocking the door off its hinges)

Carroll: It's 8:02 and we're already down a door. Urban, make a note to take it out of Orgeron’s check. That dude is JACKED. Like I was sayin’, we got a problem. There’s something brewing in South Bend, and I don’t like the smell of it.

Coach Spurrier: Hold on a sec, Pete. Urby, you clean my clubs? You're loopin’ at 6:30 sharp, and they better not look like they did this mornin’. Got that, sweetheart?

Carroll: HA! You're totally fleepin' hilarious, but can it wait Steve?

There's a knock at the door.

Carroll: EVERYBODY DOWN! Bobby hit the lights. I think it's Ricky! Steve-o, you can hide under the table with me!

Neuheisel: Guys? Hey, guys? Awww, c'mon! Lemme in, guys. Fine. I'm slipping my resume under the door....and some bracket sheets for next year's tournament.

Neuheisel walks off.

Carroll: Whew! That was close! My heart's totally jacked, like a thousand beats a minute. Ball Coach, touch my chest and feel that sucker!

Spurrier: I'll defer on that one, sugar.

Carroll: Like I was saying, we got a problem here. We gotta figure out what to do about Charlie and the Irish. He’s getting players, he’s getting buy-in from the alums-

Fulmer: Buy-in? How much? If it's more than $200K I gotta git my agent on the horn, pronto. Gimme that bacon.

Carroll: Not like that, Phil. Dang! Stay with me, fellas. Fans, alums, players, the new administration, they’re all on board. Everyone's getting fired up. We’re in a whole heap of trouble, my friends.

Coach Bowden: Whoa, now just hold on there just a dang ol’ second. I seen this here Weis up’n at the dang ol’ Boston team there in them Super Bowls winnin’ Gawd knows what all in the freezin’ cold with the other guys who was just like ‘em. It's just a dang ol’ football coach is all.

Carroll: Bobby, that’s a GREAT point! So we gotta ask the question, "how are we gonna fix this?" I’ve invited Coach Willingham to join us today to give us the inside dirt on Notre Dame and how to keep 'em down and out. What's the story, Ty? What makes them tick?

Coach Willingham: First things first, okay? It is our sincere intention to make the most out of the upcoming season and the experiences that our young men experience, okay? Football is a very precise and physical game, which one plays.

Carroll: Right. Now about Notre Dame?

Willingham: Well, in order to understand it, you need to address the foundations that one brings into these circumstances, okay? As one builds that knowledge base, you have a situation where the rest falls into place in the way our young men apply important principles. Okay?

Carroll: And? Anything in particular?

Willingham: The Irish are a vicious animal?

Willingham sprints stoically from the conference room with his arm raised, giving a #1 sign.

Carroll: I apologize for that, fellas. Don’t know what I was thinking. I figured he must have picked up something. (dejected) He's so not jacked. Alright, so how do we handle this guy Charlie?

Coach Carr: Don't ask me. I never wanted these guys on the schedule to begin with. Football fans aren't interested in Michigan-Notre Dame. They want to see Michigan-UCF. Michigan-Buffalo. You know, marquee matchups.

Fulmer: Does Horsey Sauce go on a cinnamon twist? And to hell with it anyway, I ain't sweatin' Notre Dame.

Spurrier: C'mon Phil. I saw you sweat through seven of them awful orange t-shirts against 'em, and it was November. Seriously, it looked like you were carryin' two greasy pumpkin pies under your arms.

Paterno, who has been dozing off, suddenly wakes up.

Paterno: HOLY CRAP, did he run outta here in a hurry! Ara gets along pretty good for a guy his age. Looks like he’s been playing too much golf, though. Pansy shouldn’t have played for the tie against MSU last year. I remember the first time I coached against him. Like it was yesterday. It was 1958. My 63rd birthday. Dottie, wheel me closer to the light...

Carroll: Oh, brother. C’mon dudes! Get with it! Steve, you’re a genius like me. I love this guy! You were a legend at Florida and coached against the Irish when they were a powerhouse. How did you beat them?

Spurrier: Well, ahh, first you gotta git yourself a good visor...

CRASH! Orgeron has returned.

Carroll: Make that two doors.

Orgeron: Bazzle dunkin flip swattin' pieces of donkey puke, WHO WANTS A PIECE! But to your point, Pete, it is my contention that the real problem is that the Irish are going to be, as Charlie has foreseen, "nasty" this year. In years past, they were not. They were poorly coached. They were soft. They were abandoned on game day. They were anything but "nasty." Mr. Chairman, we cannot allow a "nasty" gap!

Paterno: Mein Fuhrer! Heh...I'm sorry. Mr. Orgeron.

Orgeron: Has anyone seen my pants?

Fulmer: Lloyd, you gon’ eat that? Mmff...Petey, what the hell are you doin?

Carroll has wrapped himself around Spurrier's right leg.

Bowden: Like some kind a dang ol’ schnauzer done just got out a prison and ain’t had a lady in 30 years so’s he’s all worked up like a runaway piston engine with some kind a foofy haircut looks just like a dang ol’ poodle is all.

Spurrier: First Dan Snyder, now you? You owe me five million clams, twinkie.

Carroll: Sorry, Steve. But I’m just so daggone JACKED I can hardly take it anymore! Ed, you were saying? Ed?

Coach O is sanding the fireplace with his forehead.

Carroll: Dang, fellas! I gotta beat this Weis guy. Who’s gonna tell me how to…what’s that Urban? Norm Chow on two? Okay. Hello, Norm. Yes, of course. What’s that, Norm? You're in Nashville? No. No, Norm, there must be some mistake. No, I'm certain of that. I'm perfectly certain of that, Norm. Just a second. (puts down phone) You know what he says? He says he never got the contract extension....Norm? Norm? I think he's hung up on me.

Fulmer: When's lunch git here?

Carroll: Phil, it's 8:15. We need to get back on track, fellas! I'm a little worried. I'm hearing Weis use words like "adjustments" and "personnel" and "scheme." I'm gonna have to game-plan these guys now, and that makes, like, three games a year I gotta work on! I'm spread too thin, and when I'm spread too thin, I can't get partied up. I need help!

Carr: C'mon, Pete. You can handle it, right? You used to coach the Patriots just like Charlie Weis. Can't pad your schedule with teams like Eastern Michigan there, can you? How'd that turn out, anyway? You got fired, and he won three Super Bowls?

Carroll: I released myself on my own recognizance. Lloyd, the NFL's overrated anyway. The PAC-10, now THERE'S a challenge. But hey, why are you picking on ME? Spurrier flamed out in the NFL too! Pick on HIM!

Suddenly, the temperature in the War Room drops thirty degrees. A disembodied voice says...

Disembodied Voice: I have seen the future...beware the blue and gold...beware the IRISH!

Bowden: Well I'll be a free-loadin', hog-ridin', monkey chaser! It's Joe Paterno's ghost!

Paterno: What the hell are you doing here?

Paterno's Ghost: I was about to ask you the same thing.

The coaches run screaming from the room.

Paterno: But I'm not dead yet!

Paterno's Ghost: The hell you ain't. You've been dead for three years. You bought it when you tried to run down that official in Columbus. Haven't you noticed that when you take a leak, dust comes out?

Paterno: Well, now that you mention it...

Paterno's Ghost: And that the only guy who talks to you is that kid from The Sixth Sense?

Carroll: Fellas! We gotta finish the meeting! Somebody's gotta help me with this ND thing. I mean, they might actually be good again!

Paterno's Ghost: Well don't look at me, toots!

(Paterno's ghost disappears in a puff of grey smoke)

Paterno: (sobbing) STOP! TAKE ME TO THE LIGHT!

Carroll: Dang! Coach Paterno's ghost is JACKED!

Making it up as they go along | by Jay

So the lodge meeting of the International Order of Friendly Sons of the Raccoons -- aka, the BCS -- just let out last week, emerging from a Phoenix resort in a haze of cigar smoke and the charred remains of C-notes wafting through the air. After the the hangover wore off, Cramden and Norton had some announcements for us.

We noted the new ND "arrangement" with the BCS last week, but there were (at least) four other noteworthy schemes dreamed up by the good 'ol boys over Cohibas and blue-label scotch out in the desert that are worth discussing. So what polished turds did the Grand Poobahs of college football bestow upon us this year?

• A 12th game added to everyone's schedule. Now on its face, this one isn't so bad. I like the possibility of a 12th game, as it carries with it some natural advantages for a team like Notre Dame that has a fairly dispersed fan base. As previously mentioned here, ND's been working on this possibility for the last half-year or so, trying to set up some neutral-site games (in Chicago, Orlando, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Dallas, or at the Meadowlands in NYC) against regional opponents. Not only will this enable our far-flung fans to catch the Irish in action, it will naturally boost our recruiting profile in those areas. (Of course, not every team will use its 12th game for such munificent purposes, as we shall soon see.)

As nice as a 12th game is for Notre Dame, its fans, and the rest of college football, giving the fans some more action and filling the coffers with some extra loot, there's a lingering note of skepticism amid the hoopla. Way back in February, when the 12th game idea was first floated, we opined that expanding the schedule undercuts one of the chief arguments by the BCS against a true college playoff. Last week a number of commentators picked up that ball and ran with it:

An extra game, huh? It makes sense to add one to the bowl schedule, but not the regular season. A "plus-one game" might have ensured a juicy Auburn-USC matchup. College presidents, including some on the NCAA board of directors, continually dismiss a playoff system on the premise that it would lengthen the season, ignoring the fact that Divisions I-AA, II and III determine their champions well before New Year's Day. If those "student-athletes" aren't adversely affected by such a format, then their Division I counterparts should play in a similar system.

And we agree. If you're going to argue that a playoff structure -- or even just one more lousy game to determine a champion -- is going to so severely disrupt the studies of our student-athletes, maybe you shouldn't be extending the schedule for all of college football.

Lou Holtz chimed in about the 12th game, and his words are equally applicable to the possibility of a playoff.

"Everybody talks about, well, players don't want to play any more games. Well, that's nonsense. They just don't want to practice. They might say, 'I don't want a 12th game,' then they go play in three all-star games."

Okay, so minor annoyances aside, the first proclamation from poolside at the Royal Palms Resort and Spa wasn't so ill-conceived.

• a 5th BCS bowl game. Now things start to unravel. The BCS also added a 5th Bowl game, ostensibly a National Championship bowl, to be played a week after the regular bowls (so, January 8th, for instance) starting in 2007. They complain about extending the season...then go ahead with a 5th BCS bowl that is played a week after the normal 4 BCS bowls...which have already been pushed back from Jan. 1 to Jan 2-5. Make sense?

So did they use the opportunity to invite another bowl with some clout and tradition -- the Cotton Bowl, for instance -- to join the BCS? No. Instead of enjoining an already-established name brand, they just recycled their own and tacked it onto the already-bloated bowl landscape. And amazingly enough, they didn't even incorporate a new venue -- this "Super BCS Bowl" will be played at one of the stadiums that already hosts a BCS bowl game. For 2007, it's at the Fiesta Bowl.

Yes, that's right: two games, a week apart, played at the same venue. The first one is still called "The Fiesta Bowl", but now it's second-fiddle to the bigger (as-yet-untitled) Title game. Sound awkward? You bet. This transforms the original Fiesta Bowl into the equivalent of a kid's Mass downstairs in the parish rec room. (When you're getting your Fiesta Bowl tickets, read the fine print carefully and make sure they're to the right one.)

Is this new game is going to be a playoff game between the top 2 teams emerging from the other bowl games? Of course not -- that would make too much sense. The new bowl game is really just a shiny new wrapper for the #1 vs #2 matchup that already takes place. Basically, the BCS just gets to invite two more teams to a BCS game and reap the rewards of exploitative branding. Not that any game other than the (as-yet-untitled) Title game really matters, but that's beside the point: each game the BCS adds means more revenue for the BCS schools. Heck, they could add a dozen more "BCS Bowls" and co-opt the entire status quo if they wanted to. It wouldn't make a lick of difference.

Two Fiesta Bowls. Two Rose Bowls. Two Orange Bowls. I'm seeing double. Still with me? It just gets better from here.

• Games against Division 1-AA schools now count towards your win total for bowl eligibility. Yes, you heard correctly: now you can schedule a lower-division creampuff every year (if you weren't already), and your wins against Nicholls State and Georgia Southern and Tennessee Tech go in the books (and into the computers) the same as any other win. Previously, the Sagarin ratings (for one) didn't even look at non-Division 1 teams.

This is like the Lakers playing the Washington Generals and treating it like a legitimate matchup, or maybe in baseball, if wins against the Devil Rays would actually count in the standings. (Wait a second...do they?)

Now, this is great for the pocketbooks of the D1-AA schools. But these games shouldn't count towards bowl eligibility. I can't figure out the justification for it. Gutless programs have traditionally opened their seasons with glorified scrimmages against "directional" schools, yet now the polls are going to reward them for their racketeering.

And here's something to ponder: is 'strength of schedule' going to be an ingredient in the new BCS soup? If so, Jeff Sagarin and company are going to have to whip up some serious cookery.

As Jason Kelly of the South Bend Trib put it, "Now it's feeding time -- as long as Kansas State leaves enough for everybody else."

Onward.

• Replacing the AP poll...with an old coaches' braintrust? Due to the controversy that has surrounded the BCS selection process in three of the past four seasons, the AP announced in December that the BCS would no longer be allowed to use its poll in compiling the weekly standings. (For the backstory on why the AP dropped out, click here.) So that leaves the USA Today/Coaches Poll, plus the various computer rankings. But emanating from the desert last week was the possibility of a replacement poll, made up of...well, the Chicago Trib has the scoop:

Barring a late reversal, the BCS plans simply to replace the Associated Press poll with a panel of perhaps 40 to 60 former coaches and administrators.

"Clearly that's where our focus is," BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said Tuesday.

Weiberg, the commissioner of the Big 12, said he and the other league bosses assembled here need to identify who would serve on the panel and whether they would be willing to disclose at least their final rankings to the public.

BCS officials also would like the first poll of the season to be no sooner than October. Auburn officials believe part of the reason they were excluded from the national championship Orange Bowl last season was that the Tigers began the season ranked no higher than 17th in the two major polls and were never able to overtake fellow undefeated schools USC or Oklahoma.

"It's important for voters to see the results of those early-season games," Weiberg said.

But even if the replacement poll has transparency and delay, as BCS officials put it, questions will loom about its credibility. The panel's membership, which also might include former players and reporters, will invariably have ties to certain schools or conferences.

This is delicious. As if the current coaches' poll isn't already fraught with conflict of interest, partisanship and gaming the system, now we're about to multiply that by who knows how many old grudges, biases, and in some cases, outright cheerleading. As you might expect, all the old guys are ready and rarin' to go:

"I've heard some talk about this thing, and I think it's something that would be attractive to a lot of coaches," former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum said.

Former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes said: "I think there are certainly people who would love to do that. They want to stay in the loop or they want to have a little ink, which is fine. They would be great at it."

Steve Hatchell, the former Big 12 commissioner, is president of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Inc. Hatchell told BCS officials last Monday that his group would create a poll using 30 coaches and administrators from five regions of the country.

"We probably gave them 50 to 60 names," Hatchell said. "We showed them on our PowerPoint presentation that these people had to be above reproach and have unquestioned reputations."

Hatchell suggested former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne or Michigan's Bo Schembechler as potential voters. Former Georgia coaches Vince Dooley and Jim Donnan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week they'd be happy to vote.

Former Texas coach Darrell Royal was the first name Hatchell mentioned when asked who he'd consider from Texas.

"I don't have anything to comment on, because this is the first I've heard of it," Royal said. "Nobody's contacted me."

Hatchell said he'd love to have former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer vote.

"Tell him I definitely would be interested," Switzer said. "I would be honored to be a part of a group like that.

"We see there's such a saturation of football on television on Saturdays. You're just throwing darts once you get past the first five teams anyway. You're influenced by won-loss record. The ones that know the game, those people are going to recognize talent levels."

I don't know about you, but when I think of guys who are "beyond reproach" and who have "unquestioned reputations", the first guy that comes to mind is Barry Switzer. But hey, Hatchell's got it all worked out on Powerpoint. Who am I to question?

Even better: how would you like to see ABC analyst Terry Bowden pulling the lever?

"I would love to do it," Bowden said. "For a guy like me, that's what I do for a living."

Bowden acknowledged that he might not be asked to vote in a BCS poll because his father, Bobby, is the Florida State coach and his brother, Tommy, the coach at Clemson.

"Some might think there's a conflict there," Bowden said.

Oh, you think?

As you can guess, this wouldn't be good for Notre Dame, notwithstanding the possibility of Lou Holtz on such an august panel. There are just too many old ball coaches out there with an axe to grind against the Irish.

One of the first names to pop up on the radar for this thing was Bo Schembechler. Bo loves Notre Dame. You can bet he'll be unbiased when it comes to voting. After all, Bo was the guy who said this when Big 10 talks were heating up:

Q: Do you see a suitable team for the Big Ten?

A (Schembechler): If they want a 12th team, they'll find one suitable.

Q: What would you think of Notre Dame's being that team?

A: I don't think it will happen.

Q: Would Notre Dame be a strong addition for the conference?

A: Why? What would they contribute than any other 12th team can't contribute?

Q: The name, the tradition, the Notre Dame history, perhaps?

A: They may find out what (Penn State Coach) Joe Paterno found out, which is, it was a lot easier when they were playing Syracuse and Rutgers and Temple. When they went into the Big Ten, they found out they couldn't go to the Rose Bowl every year.

More blech from 'bechler:

Former Michigan coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler is decidedly less diplomatic on the issue.

"I have absolutely no interest in Notre Dame. Zero," Schembechler said. "There really isn't a logical expansion, because, frankly, I don't want Notre Dame."

Thanks for the consideration, Bo. You're sure to be "fair and balanced".

There are a couple of aspects of the new polling proposal that if I squint my eyes real hard I can see as positive developments. First off, the regular USA Today Coaches Poll will no longer be confidential (and I'd assume the Old Timers' poll would be the same). It's going to be much harder to rig the vote to help yourself or your conference-mate out. There have been stories going around college football over the last few years that coaches don't even fill out the poll themselves, farming it out to their grad assistants. So there's hope that the coaches might actually get more involved and take this responsibility a little bit more seriously. Plus, for us fans, it'll be interesting to see where Lloyd sticks ND, for example, or where Urban puts Spurrier (and vice-versa).

The second aspect I like is that they're apparently going to delay the publishing of the polls until sometime midway through the season, possibly into mid-October. The way it stands now, as I'm sure you realize, the preseason polling unfairly slots teams as either too high or too low, and as a result some teams have a much shorter (or longer) ladder to climb to reach the BCS. Ask any Auburn or Cal fan what I'm talking about, and you'll get an earful.

I don't know exactly what the correct solution is in regards to polls, but I will say that a playoff -- even a small one -- would diminish the necessity of the polls in the first place, and mitigate a lot of poll-related angst.

In conclusion, one thing's increasingly clear: the BCS is a power-hungry, money-hungry, self-sustaining and self-interested beast, with no clear accountability to anything but the almighty dollar. Student-athletes? Nowhere to be found at the Royal Palms. The fans? Nobody cares what they think -- as long as they keep buying tickets and watching TV. The one truly interesting thing they could have discussed in Arizona, and the one thing that the average college football fan probably has an opinion about -- the idea of a true college playoff -- was tabled yet again.

Meanwhile, what did our Raccoon lodge brothers spend their time on, between snifters of brandy and cracking wise? Let's see: 1) Making it easier for the big boys to win (see: Division 1-AA games); 2) making more cash (see: adding a 12th game another BCS bowl game), and 3) half-assing their way to a new poll (which they only addressed because the AP hung them out to dry).

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle sums it up nicely:

All that having been disclaimed, the plain truth remains -- the BCS remains an absurd, borderline dishonest way of dealing with the football postseason conundrum...

It is clear that there won't be a playoff system. We know that because the NCAA is now pushing for a 12th regular-season game. It is also clear that the coaches poll is by its very existence an exercise in Soviet-era democracy, and should be either drastically diminished in importance or discontinued altogether. It is finally clear that a new poll would essentially make television an even bigger player in the national championship picture than it already is.

In short, this is a system that is headed straight for this scenario:

"By vote of the BCS committee -- the ESPN College GameDay crew, plus Dick Enberg, plus Tom Hammonds, plus Brent Musburger, plus six athletic directors, who have to balance their own budgets every year and need all the BCS money they can glom onto, the championship game will again pit either USC, or the SEC champion, or the Big 12 champ, or whatever can be verified to get the largest national TV audience, because that's all we're after anyway and we may as well stop making any pretense about it."

Really the only saving grace here is that the BCS is about as consistent as weather in the midwest, and no doubt by this time next year we'll have a whole new raft of patches and fixes to mull over. Heck, even they know a lot of this stuff is short-lived, and one day it all might come crashing down:

It's possible that Division I-A commissioners will dismantle the oft-derided BCS and revert to the old bowl tie-ins.

"There was some sentiment along those lines when we were going through our television negotiations," Weiberg said. "I certainly had some of that from my own conference - from presidents, chancellors, a few athletic directors.

"We've committed to a new four-year contract, so we're moving forward - but if we decided that it just doesn't work, I think we would more likely go down the path of returning to the old structure, the old bowl system as it existed prior to a BCS."

Orange Bowl Chief Executive Officer Keith Tribble said: "No option is closed at this point, even if it means returning to the old bowl arrangements. Nothing is guaranteed in terms of the bowl system."

So, we might tear it all up and start again? The final option is one great, big "do-over"? Those are gradeschool, playground rules, if I'm not mistaken.

Yet considering the behavior of the gentlemen running college football these days, maybe "gradeschool" is the right description after all.

Feeling a Draft | by Pat

Well, as we've gotten accustomed to, the NFL draft came and went with only a small number of Irish players hearing their name called. This year it was only two: Justin Tuck and Jerome Collins.

Tuck, who left a year of eligibility on the table, was selected in the 3rd round (74th overall) by the [Chris Berman voice] New Yahk Footbahll Giants. Most draft experts (and I use that term loosely) had him going higher, but he slipped, and even guys from Eastern Washington, Bethune-Cookman, and Northern Colorado heard their names called before he did. As with most players that tumble in the draft, he's going to use that as even more motivation to succeed:

"I just got to make 31 teams regret not picking me," said Tuck, who gets his first Giants indoctrination today when he arrives for the start of a three-day rookie mini-camp. "Normally I wouldn't need anything like that to push me, but I know this has given me more incentive to go out there and show everybody what a mistake they made for not drafting me. There's going to be a chip on my shoulder all year, I guarantee you."

It's likely that Tuck would have been a first round lock had he come back for his final year. But while he did cost himself some money, it was probably a wise move for someone with a serious knee injury in his past. And now he gets to learn from one of football's best pass-rushers, Michael Strahan:

"He just has the complete package," Tuck said. "I think our variety of moves are pretty much similar. I think I'm a little faster than Strahan, but he's definitely stronger and more experienced. I still got a lot to learn and he's a great one to learn from."

One interesting anecdote emerging from the "Tuck to Giants" stories is the main reason why "Alabama Black Snake" came to ND in the first place. The Journal News has the scoop:

The real story behind Tuck, however, is how a 235-pound linebacker from tiny Kellyton, Ala., wound up at Notre Dame.

"Well, (the University of) Alabama was on probation," Tuck said. "That's about it. Every school in the Southeastern Conference recruited me. But if you're an Alabama fan, you really don't want to go anywhere else.

"Everybody told me, 'If you don't go to Alabama, go to Notre Dame. Don't go to Auburn.' I just felt Notre Dame would give me a better sense of an academic plus athletic environment. That's why I chose Notre Dame."

The only other Irishman drafted was a bit of a surprise, given his lack of playing time while at Notre Dame: Jerome Collins went 144th in the 5th round to the St. Louis Rams. The Rams drafted him based on a pair of ESPN-cliche worthy labels that have unfortunately been affixed to Irish prospects over the past few years: "potential" and "upside". (Hopefully "production", "results", and "proven winner" are words we see more often in future Irish draft bios). He'll start out on special teams, where he made a mark this year with the Irish in blocking two punts, while he works on his game at tight end. But Collins doesn't seem to be taking anything for granted:

"I'll play kicker, for all I care," he said Friday at Rams Park. "I just want to make the team."

The Collins article also had an interesting side note about Bob Davie:

Collins, 22, was a wide receiver in high school in Wheaton, Ill. Bob Davie, then the Notre Dame coach, immediately moved him to defense. "There weren't too many 6-4, 230-pound wide receivers at the time," Collins said. "So, he figured my best attributes would be on defense because of my speed."

These days, of course, 6'4", 230lb receivers are all the rage, but I suppose it's no surprise Bob Davie wasn't one to stay ahead of the curve.

As for the rest of the draft-eligible domers, all but one ended up signing a free agent contract with NFL teams, the lone exception being Kyle Budinscak, who according to anonymous internet posters, has opted to enter the business world. The list of free agents reads as follows:

Derek Curry - Miami Dolphins
Dwight Ellick - New Orleans Saints
Mike Goolsby - Dallas Cowboys
Ryan Grant - New York Giants
Carlyle Holiday - Arizona Cardinals
Billy Palmer - Washington Redskins
Greg Pauly - Chicago Bears

Hopefully our guys can follow in the footsteps of other Irish free agents making noise in the NFL, like Kurt Vollers, who recently signed a one-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys and is challenging for a starting right tackle spot.

And speaking of free agents, here's a great article about former ND cornerback Carlos Campbell's attempt to make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent, and what the typical three-day tryout is like for players looking to catch on with NFL teams. Carlos wasn't drafted after graduating in 2004, and never got a look from another team. His perseverance and dedication paid off though, and Campbell was finally signed by the Bucs just last week. Great job there.

Overall, I'd like to think that the days of NFL teams getting ND players on the cheap, whether as late round picks or free agents, is quickly coming to a close. Not only do I expect Weis to up the level of recruiting at Notre Dame, but I also expect the players to receive much better coaching. Looking at how David Givens and now Arnaz Battle are catching on in the pros, you have to think that the upgrade from Rogers/Diedrick to Weis/Haywood/Cutcliffe is going to enhance the NFL potential of current and future Irish players.

As it stands now though, it doesn't look like we'll be toasting many Fighting Irishmen in next year's draft either. A way-too-early look at a Top 100 list for 2006's NFL Draft only shows two players from South Bend making the cut: the list has Maurice Stovall at #61 and Rashon Powers-Neal at #85. Might be fun to revisit this list in a year to see if they move up, or if other Irish names, like Rhema McKnight, have joined them.

One last thing. For those who follow recruiting and are always looking at recruiting rankings and such, here's a great look at the 2005 NFL Draft with the player's original recruiting ranking as a high schooler. As you might expect, there were a vast number of highly-ranked players taken in the first few rounds, but also a whole bunch of unranked guys that came out of nowhere in college, and ended up getting drafted. Just another reason why recruiting "star" rankings are largely meaningless. You never know how a player is going to turn out. In this year's draft for example, the first cornerback taken, Adam "Pac Man" Jones had the same rank coming out of high school as me...which is to say, none.

A Sort of Homecoming | by Teds

Over the weekend, Charlie Weis will reach his three-month anniversary as an undistracted, full-time head coach at the University of Notre Dame. It’s a decidedly tricky time for new coaches, as there’s never a shortage of good feelings in the spring -- yet precious little hard evidence to back up the good cheer. The most concrete display of observable progress involves half of the team playing against...well, the other half of the team.

“Great run there by #31. Really slipped that tackle. Our offense could be deadly if he gets fifteen touches a game in the fall.”

“Lousy job by that linebacker, though. Can’t miss a ballcarrier in the open field like that. If he’s not busted back down to third string by the opener, we’re in serious trouble.”

If you pored over the archives of ND football for the past decade, you'd find many a springtime testimonial extolling the virtues of Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie. And although coaches are in general more PR-savvy than in the past and increasingly aware of their own self-image, the plaudits can’t all be chalked up to simple spin control. The fact is, we want to think the best when change is afoot, whether we're a player, someone in the athletic department or even just the beat writer assigned to the team.

Charlie Weis is enjoying more than his share of good vibrations so far, much of which is due to his pedigree as a domer -- and even more based on the resounding success of his previous employer, the world champion New England Patriots. However, there are reasons to believe that the sugarcoating goes deeper than the surface, and there's something sweeter at the core than just another well-disguised lemon.

***

"Some people said, 'Why would you want (Notre Dame and the inherent rebuilding project)?' My answer is, 'Why wouldn't I want it?' I love the culture. I think there's an aura here. And as I've told kids, if you can't feel this place - if you can't feel it - then it probably isn't right for you...

"But I came here because expectations were not met. And my job here is to raise those expectations. I'm not talking about it as an alumnus, I'm talking about it as the football coach. My job is to raise the expectation of the football team and the players. That's why I'm here."

First and foremost, Weis is a man who, as an alum and lifelong Irish fan, appears to not only understand the magnitude of the position, but actually relish it. It seems the coaches who have the most success at Notre Dame are the ones who throw themselves headlong into the job and make it their life’s work at the expense of all else, and Charlie certainly fits this bill.

On the flip side, Davie’s discomfort with the standards of the program handcuffed him, and his failure to embrace all things Irish ultimately led to his demise. In a similar fashion, ND fans have received a lot of criticism for never truly accepting Willingham as its coach, but it cut both ways. Willingham never rose to the challenge of ND; a singular, unique challenge that demanded much more of him than what was required at Stanford. Willingham’s tenure in South Bend was a hodgepodge of passive leadership, mixed signals and misplaced loyalty. He spoke with effusive praise in the early stages about his appreciation for Notre Dame and what made it special, but his performance and behavior over time revealed the truth: this job represented little more to him than a bigger paycheck and a larger audience.

***

“This is an end-all for our family. We come to Notre Dame, it's with the intent of retiring here. That's why we're coming here. We don't come here to bounce somewhere else. If that's what I was going to be doing, I would not be taking this job and I would be waiting till the season ended in the NFL and try to get one of those jobs. I'm here because I want to be here. I'm proud to be here.”

When Weis talks about ND, and how he sees this as the final stop in his coaching career, he has some evidence to back up the talk. Given his success with the Patriots, it’s very likely that Charlie would have been in line for a head coaching job in the NFL at the end of the season (just as fellow New England coordinator Romeo Crennel received from Cleveland). The opportunity would have offered him at least as much money as Notre Dame paid him, and in an environment with which he was much more familiar; yet he still jumped at ND’s offer. In a situation where many coaches would have exploited the University’s desperation for their own personal gain (see Mariucci, Steve), Weis dealt with Notre Dame in good faith and finalized a deal in short order.

I’m doing some emotional extrapolation here, but I also believe that there is a part of Charlie Weis that feels vindicated that his first offer for a head coaching job came from his alma mater. In part due to his bulldog-with-a-lunchpail appearance, Weis has been overlooked -- or simply ignored -- by teams looking for coaches at both the past few years, in spite of a good pedigree and even better results on the field. The New York Giants had interest in talking to Weis last year, but unwilling to wait until the Patriots’ playoff run ended, they instead tabbed his old colleague from his assistant days with the Giants, Tom Coughlin. When Charlie communicated his interest four years ago in the vacant job at Rutgers, his hometown school –- even going so far as to request that local writers plant his name in the papers in connection with the position -- Weis wasn’t even interviewed. And this was a program that had won an average of just over two games a season for the previous five years.

***

"Let's see how (Notre Dame’s opponents) 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."

Weis has made a number of comments since taking the ND job that would qualify as certifiably cocky, especially to those familiar with the tentative, defensive Davie or the listless, nondescript Willingham. A certain part of this is likely by design, as reestablishing a confidence in players who have suffered through the mediocrity of the past two years is certainly one of Weis’ chief goals. Still, you can sense that this braggadacio is an essential part of his makeup; he's a Parcells-schooled perfectionist chomping at the bit to prove to Rutgers (and everyone else who passed on him) that they really made a colossal mistake. That chip on the shoulder, combined with the indignity of a moribund ND football program -- and the slings and arrows of detractors gleefully writing off the Irish -- may have created a “perfect storm” of sorts: a coach on a mission, hellbent on success and redemption, and willing to work himself to halfway to the grave to make it happen.

***

"I enjoy recruiting. I've been around coaches who just can't stand it. I enjoy it. I enjoy going up against other schools. If you enjoy something, you'll be good at it."

Without a doubt, one of the most absurd dismissals of Weis as a candidate for this job was his unfamiliarity with the college game, and the misplaced perception that an NFL coach wouldn't adapt well to the hyperactive recruiting scene. We often overlook the institutional parity of the NFL: an inherent repressiveness imposed on the league by the draft, salary cap and other structural factors. The margin between success and failure in the league is absurdly thin, as evidenced by situations such as the turnaround in San Diego (4-12 to 12-4) last year -- wild swings which are all too common. Most pro coaches spend entire weeks, if not summers, poring over game reviews and looking for nearly imperceptible flaws and advantages to exploit. The playing field is so level that oftentimes there's a very thin line between going to the playoffs or getting fired for a 6-10 campaign, and talent is fairly diluted throughout the league.

College is different. Imagine a game where you're welcome to as much free talent as you can get your hands on, a virtual candy store for great evaluators...and you start to understand why NFL veterans might like campus life. Pete Carroll arrived at Southern Cal four years ago and has since accumulated as much prep talent as any college coach in the nation. Al Groh left the New York Jets to set up shop at his alma mater in Virginia and has led the Cavaliers to a great resurgence. Fired by the Oakland Raiders, Bill Callahan resurfaced at Nebraska to transform the Cornhuskers into a pro-style juggernaut, and immediately signed a class ranked as the best in the country by certain analysts. Not only do former NFL coaches seem to transition to recruiting without much trouble, they actually appear to be beating their college counterparts at their own game.

Based on the early returns, Weis’s appreciation for the value of recruiting is no different. In hiring his assistants, Weis plucked two different recruiting coordinators (Wisconsin’s Rob Ianello and Central Florida’s Brian Polian) and another assistant nationally recognized for his acumen in attracting top talent (Mike Haywood of Texas). He spent whatever free time he had during his double-duty stint in January calling hundreds of recruits, leaving no stone unturned, and even hitting up players who'd already committed elsewhere. Once his '05 class was signed, and the Patriots were finished winning the Super Bowl, Charlie immediately turned up the heat on the upcoming prep class of seniors-to-be. He and his staff orchestrated a huge junior day at the end of February, inviting dozens of prospects to campus. He threw himself into the scouting and evaluation process, keying in on his preferred prospects and not hesitating to offer scholarships to players he liked. This aggressive attack has reaped great benefits. Charlie's already secured the commitment of some top players, including quarterback Zach Frazer and tailback James Aldridge, recruits whom other major programs such as Florida and Southern Cal were just beginning to seriously court. Too late: for the first time in quite a while, other national powers actually appear to be following Notre Dame’s lead instead of the other way around.

***

"It comes down to X's and O's. To be honest with you, when it gets to that point, I think that's when we have the greatest advantage...I have to believe we're going to win most of the time.”

Of course the biggest reason to think that Weis is going to be successful at ND is his technical skill, and the skill of the assistants he's brought to the program. Although a number of pro coaches have moved from the NFL to the college ranks, the arrival of someone with Weis’ prominence -- four Super Bowl rings and a reputation as one of the best offensive minds in the game -- is quite unusual. As a benchmark, Pete Carroll showed up at Southern Cal four years ago with credentials as a talented NFL coordinator but a lackluster head coach, and he’s turned the college world on its ear, winning back-to-back national championships.

Below is a breakdown of how a few coaches who have worked on both sides of the pro/college fence have fared at each level. Because Weis has never been a head coach before, this illustration won’t be entirely applicable; however, it offers a look at how much more difficult it is to succeed in the NFL:

Pete Carroll. NFL: 34-33 (.508) / College: 42-9 (.824), 2 championships

Butch Davis. NFL: 24-35 (.407) / College: 51-20 (.718)

Dan Devine. NFL: 25-28-4 (.472) / College: 173-56-9 (.755), 1 championship

Lou Holtz. NFL: 3-10 (.231) / College: 249-132-7 (.654), 1 championship

Jimmy Johnson. NFL: 89-68 (.567), 2 Super Bowls / College: 81-34-3 (.704), 1 championship

John McKay. NFL: 45-91-1 (.331) / College: 127-40-8 (.760), 4 championships

John Robinson. NFL: 79-74 (.516) / College: 130-68-4 (.657), 1 championship

Howard Schnellenberger. NFL: 4-13 (.235) / College: 106-92-3 (.535), 1 championship

Steve Spurrier. NFL: 12-20 (.375) / College: 122-27-1 (.819), 1 championship

Almost to a man, the coaches here – mostly consisting of individuals who were judged to be among the cream of the crop at one point or another – have been more successful at the college level than in the pros, some extremely so. Obviously, part of difference can be chalked up to the parity of the NFL, and the ability to pad your schedule with weaker teams in college. Still, it seems reasonable that a coach like Charlie, who has outwitted his NFL peers on a weekly basis might find even more success moving down a rung.

Yet, there are no guarantees, and we won't have an idea how successful Charlie Weis will be at Notre Dame until his team takes the field in Pittsburgh on September 3. Even then, first impressions can be deceiving.

However, we can look at how a coach lays the foundation for his program, and perhaps glean some insight on what's to come. Charlie's work ethic and his attention to detail are immensely positive attributes, and the impressive group of coaches that he's hired illustrates both his drawing power as a formidable coaching mind, as well as his unabashed willingness to surround himself with the best coaching talent he can find. For a man so often tagged as "cocky", he's not so arrogant as to assume he knows it all, and he's obviously unafraid (and secure enough in himself) to attract other high-performance minds. His early successes on the recruiting trail bode well for further commitments, and his honest embrace of the tradition -- and the challenges -- of being the head coach at Notre Dame has already revitalized the entire program, from the athletic department to the administration, from the students to the alums, from the players to the fans.

All of this, of course, is simply a prelude -- the Charlie Weis era won't officially begin until the kickoff in Pittsburgh. But if the last three months are any indication of what lies ahead, we're in for a great ride.

Counting up, Counting down | by Jay

Today's the six-month mark for this online scrapbook, and as the days count down, we're diligently tearing off the calendar pages towards the beginning of what should be a very interesting, if not exciting football season this fall. Like you, the anticipation is nearly killing us. And in some kind of karmic synchronicity, UND.com debuted a handy Countdown Clock on the football page today, so now we can all obsess together.

Thanks to everyone for the readership, the links, the commentary, and the good vibes. Can't wait for September.

Taking it Personnel-ly | by Michael

"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.”

-- Charlie Weis

Coach Weis issued that bold challenge to opposing defensive coordinators earlier this spring in an ND Magazine article. There were probably a few Irish fans who, when they heard the "M" word, couldn't help but remember a certain failed ex-coordinator's philosophy of "multiplicity". You remember, this one:

"At Syracuse, we did about eight different groupings like that," Kevin Rogers says. "And within those groupings, we can have anywhere from 25 to 30 formations. The multiplicity of that -- having an option game, a dropback passing game, a play-action passing game out of each one of those formations -- enables you to really keep defenses off balance."

I apologize for dredging up ugly memories of the Davie era...and I'm here to tell you that it's safe to climb back off the ledge.

Despite their shared use of the "M" word, there are key differences in the offensive philosophies between Weis and Rogers. While Rogers utilized a wide variety of plays and formations, Weis on the other hand appears to prefer running the same plays, repeatedly, out of different formations and personnel groups. One leads to confusion within your own offense; the other creates confusion for the defense.

But there's that phrase again: personnel groups. What exactly are those? Let's quickly run through some of the basics, but keep in mind that teams may have different names for these groupings, or "packages"; these are just some common terms.

(To view the different formations, "mouse over" the bulleted items)

• "Regular" - 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE
• "Deuce" - 2 RBs, 1 WR, 2 TEs
• "Ace" - 1 RB, 2 WRs, 2 TEs
• "Heavy" - 1 RB, 1 WR, 3 TEs
• "Jumbo" - 2 RBs, 0 WRs, 3 TEs
• "Double" - 1 RB, 3 WRs, 1 TE
• "Trio" - 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 0 TEs
• "Spread" - 1 RB, 4 WRs, 0 TE
• "Empty" - 0 RB, 5 WRs, 0 TEs

Here's how different personnel groups are used.

In the weeks and months leading up to a game, an offensive coach will scout his opponent to determine at what breaking point their defense, if they substitute according to down and distance, will switch from base personnel. For example, in short yardage, goal line, and nickel and dime packages, they will examine who comes in, who comes out, and when. He'll also note when a defense substitutes according to the offensive personnel on the field, and prepare against these patterns and tendencies.

Furthermore, once the game starts, what a good offensive coach like Weis will do is show different offensive personnel groupings early in the game to see how the defense responds. Based upon those initial reactions -- plus the tendencies that the staff has noted from the previous scouting prep work -- the OC will begin to group his players together with formations and plays where they now have an excellent idea of what personnel the defense will use. Creating the most favorable match-ups and keeping the defense on its heels is the desired outcome.

Check out this excellent article by Pat Kirwan of NFL.com on the Patriots' offense. While it gives a lot of credit to Bill Belichick, obviously Weis deserves kudos as well when discussing offensive personnel groupings. There's some great stuff in there, including this tasty nugget from Kirwan:

In the Pats' first 20 plays I recorded, they were in six different personnel groupings...During the third series of offensive plays, [Weis] sent out four different personnel groups in the first four plays, which can create stress on a defense.

Now, it's important to draw a distinction between a player's stated "position" on the depth chart, and where they actually line up for a given play. Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen is another offensive mind who thinks in terms of personnel groupings. Commenting on his offense, he says, "The more you can do with the same personnel group the better you are. When I went to Georgia Tech with George O'Leary, he used to talk about personnel groups being synonymous with formations. He thought like a lot of defensive coaches. He thought if you had two tight ends, one back and two wide receivers, you were going to be in that formation. I didn't understand that." Neither does Weis.

What further strengthens this concept is when you have versatile players who are capable of playing different positions: tailbacks who can catch the ball; fullbacks quick enough to play tailback, etc. For instance, Coach Weis has talked about using Rashon Powers-Neal as both a fullback and a tailback, and running back Justin Hoskins is reportedly working in the slot as well as in the backfield. As you can imagine, versatility magnifies how you can exploit a defense through the mixing and matching of personnel groups.

Let's try an example using a set that I think we may see quite a bit of next year considering the talents of tight ends Anthony Fasano, Marcus Freeman and John Carlson - a "Heavy" package with three tight ends.

If a defense sees three TEs and doesn't substitute for run-stopping personnel, Weis might run Darius Walker at them until they do. If and when they do bring in that personnel, Weis might have a RB, especially someone like Hoskins, line up in the slot to give an "empty look".

Fasano, Freeman, Carlson, Hoskins and McKnight would make an impressive group of receivers on the field, but more importantly, the multi-dimensionality of our TEs is what makes such a scheme possible: the threat of "spreading" the field using run-based, or "heavy" personnel will immediately create problems for a defense. This is just one example, out of many, but hopefully it provides some context.

What makes Weis' system even more difficult to prepare for is that week after week, he doesn't settle into predictable tendencies (another significant difference from Kevin Rogers). An ESPN article from last fall talks about how Charlie liked to switch it up:

The Patriots [give] you different flavors each week. Against Indianapolis, New England ran something like 25 snaps out of a new variation of its empty set (no backs, two tight ends, three wide receivers). Arizona spent a lot of practice time preparing for the empty look, and saw the formation [only] twice the following week.

Let's look ahead to our first game this fall. Given that new Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt wants smaller, faster players on his Panthers defense this year, there is a very good chance that our game plan will involve trying to overpower them with the run, and Coach Weis may decide to attack Pittsburgh with a fairly vanilla offense. He may utilize the Deuce package quite a bit (two running backs, 2 tight ends, 1 wide receiver). Assume Walker and Powers-Neal comprise the backfield, Fasano and Carlson are the tight ends, and Maurice Stovall is playing WR:

There's a lot of size on the field in this group, and we may run 75% of the time, maybe more, out of various formations from this personnel grouping. However, against Michigan the following week, Weis might reverse that gameplan and throw the ball 75% of the time -- even with the same group of players, and possibly out of the same exact formations. When you consider how talented our tight ends should be in '05, play-action out of this personnel group would be highly effective.

As Weis has demonstrated, by concentrating on avoiding predictable tendencies, an offense can really stress out a defense. It's worth noting that only once in three years under Tyrone Willingham did we achieve this kind of week-to-week unpredictability: at Pitt in 2003. Former Pitt head coach Walt Harris was so focused on stopping the pass after Brady Quinn threw 59 times against Purdue the previous week, but instead of throwing, we ran the ball. The Irish pounded Pitt for 353 yards rushing, and Julius Jones even set the school single-game rushing record (262 yards). Of course, this inventiveness and adaptability was short-lived, and our offense turned back into a pumpkin soon after.

The upcoming season should be different, however. In a few 2005 post-game pressers, I fully expect to hear something like this Charlie Weis excerpt from a post-Super Bowl interview:

"We were able to spread them out and get them in some personnel groups that they were uncomfortable with."

Sweet Sassy Molassey | by Jay

Make it #6.

Charlie Weis left Merrillville High School on Monday morning and was on his way to Chicago when he received the call.

Merrillville star running back James Aldridge anxiously wanted to inform Notre Dame's head coach of his decision to play football for the Fighting Irish.

"I told him I was ready to hop on board and he said he was really glad to hear that,'' Aldridge said. "He was really excited about it.''

Weis was at Merrillville to talk with Pirates coach Jeff Yelton about Aldridge's academics. Because of NCAA rules, the coach wasn't allowed to meet with Aldridge.

Considered one of the nation's top running back prospects, Aldridge chose ND over Oklahoma State.

"I'm pretty sure (the Cowboys) were disappointed,'' Aldridge said. "I talked to (running backs) coach Curtis Luper and he wished me good luck.''

Aldridge said he was relieved and pleased with his decision.

"It was a gut feeling I had,'' he said. "I was kind of favoring Notre Dame. It's just about right down the street from my house. At first I didn't think the distance to Oklahoma State mattered that much, but when I started thinking about it I realized my parents (James and Lisa) have never missed any of my games.''

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Aldridge, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards last season as a junior, will be reunited at ND with another Irish recruit, Munir Prince.

Prince, who committed to ND earlier, was best friends with Aldridge in Missouri when the two were in grade school.

"I think it's cool that I get to play with my friend,'' Aldridge said. "I don't think it's something you really look at so much in the recruiting process, but we played football together in junior high school. I know we're going to have a pretty good recruiting class coming in, so I think it's great we're both going to have the chance to play together.''

Having grown tired of all the attention -- it seemed like his phones never stopped ringing -- Aldridge was relieved the recruiting process was over.

"I thought it was fun at first, but then I didn't want it to carry on any longer,'' he said. "I think it's fun to be wanted so much, but after a while.... I'm glad it's over. I'm extremely confident about my decision. I feel like I made a real good decision and my parents feel the same way.''

Yelton noticed how relieved Aldridge was to end the recruiting saga.

"I think Notre Dame is a great fit for him,'' Yelton said. "James had a big smile on his face after talking to Coach Weis. You could tell he was pleased. He knew he made the right decision. Now, he can focus on finishing the school year and getting ready for football season.''

What is it, May 2nd? And we've already got six recruits in hand, including Weis's top quarterback target, his two top running backs, the #1 tight end on his list, a great defensive end, and also the first wide receiver he deigned to offer. Ironically, today kicked off the "May evaluation period" for college recruiting (defined here), but the Irish are already well on their way to a great class. It's like starting the race a full lap ahead of everybody else.

If you were keeping an eye on the various ND boards yesterday you no doubt saw the news of Aldridge's announcement (first reported by Mike Frank of Irish Eyes.) And if you follow recruiting, you're probably a bit familiar with Aldridge already: he's big and fast, with broad shoulders and an upright-running style that reminds you of Eddie George, or maybe former Irish back Tony Brooks. "Moose", as he's known around school, seems to be the complete running back:

"Ever since I started football, I've been known as 'Moose,'" said Aldridge, Merrillville's instant impact running back. "I think it's because I'm such an aggressive runner. I can run around you, but I also don't mind dropping a shoulder, either."

A typical blurb on Aldridge from his junior year season goes like this:

Merrillville Pirates Junior Running Back James Aldridge ran for 258 yards and scored seven touchdowns as Merrillville's football team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 49-0 win over Chicago Dunbar. Aldridge, a move-in from Missouri, scored on runs of 28, 34, 43, 29, 2, and two 1-yard runs. This effort came on the heels of a 172-yard, 2-touchdown effort the week before in a win over East Chicago.

There's a little bit of videotape available on Aldridge out there (premium video from Rivals and Irish Eyes), which mostly show Aldridge busting through the line and outrunning everyone else to the end zone. Also check out this free clip of Aldridge bowling over some poor kid last fall.

It's interesting that Aldridge would announce this soon, as he was sure to be one of the top running back targets in the country, and various reports had him willing to wait it out a bit and think things through. Oklahoma State was hot on his heels, and supposedly a major factor for him was the availability of playing time as soon as possible, something OSU had in their favor.

And how's this: reportedly, Pete Carroll was supposed to visit Aldridge on Tuesday. Hope that flight is refundable, Pete.

So what was the tipping point? A couple of reports mention Aldridge might be allowed to enroll early at ND next January, something he greatly desires, but also something that admissions has been loathe to do for football players in the past. Yet head of admissions Dan Saracino apparently opened the door to the possibility:

"We would make an exception, but it would have to be an exceptional case," Saracino said. "I really don't like it; it should be an exception. It should be for a student who is doing it for the right reasons."

Aldridge seems tailor-made for just such an exception.

In the end, I suspect the main reason Aldridge chose ND is the one he gives above: it's close to home, and close to his family. So it's probably not too much of a surprise that Aldridge ended up in South Bend, and even if he had played the recruiting game for the whole year, entertaining offers from far and wide, I'm willing to bet he would have picked the Irish eventually anyway. As he said to BGI:

"I just wanted my father and my mother to see me play. I wanted to go somewhere nearby, somewhere where I could still get a good education. I'm the first person to get a free education out of my whole family. I want to make my family proud."

What is suprising, however, is just how quickly this class is coming together. I can't remember when we had this many truly great recruits committed this early in the recruiting season, and I'm not sure even Lou Holtz ever had this big of a head start. And now with Aldridge in the fold, the floodgates may just burst open. From BGI:

Aldridge called his future coach to break the news. "He was excited, it was pretty cool. He told me that this can have a snowball effect and we can pick up a lot more commitments. Hopefully this can be the best recruiting class in a while for Notre Dame."

And to think, it's only May 2nd.

Spring has Sprung | by Jay

And before we plunge ahead with further discussion of the BCS, a possible 12th game on the schedule, recruiting updates, and more, let's bask for a bit in the revelry of last weekend. Some sights & sounds from the Blue & Gold game...

the Game

• The Blue Team defeated the Gold Team 28-6 in the 76th Annual Blue-Gold Football Game at Notre Dame Stadium on an unseasonably cold spring day in Northern Indiana. Led by Offensive MVP sophomore Brady Quinn, the Blue Team scored on two of its first three possessions.

• The Blue Team, which featured most of the projected Notre Dame 'two-deep' depth chart for next fall, scored on its first possession when Quinn rolled to his left and hit tight end Anthony Fasano with a 19-yard touchdown pass.

• Quinn finished the game completing eight of his 12 passing attempts for 120 yards and two touchdowns, leading his team to 290 total yards on 34 plays. The junior-to-be quarterback also earned his second consecutive Blue-Gold Game offensive MVP award, as he also earned the plaque in the spring game last season.

• With the game progressing quickly due a running clock, the Blue Team only received two more possessions in the first half. A three and out series was followed by a quick touchdown drive in the second quarter led by Quinn again, who hit tight end John Carlson for a 39-yard pass on first down, then found Rhema McKnight on a crossing pattern in the end zone for a 12 yard scoring toss.

• Rashon Powers-Neal scored two more touchdowns for the Blue Team in the second half on two power runs, taking it in from seven yards out in the third quarter and three yards away in the fourth.

• The Blue Team defense controlled the line of scrimmage against the Gold Team, as defensive MVP Trevor Laws (four tackles, three for a loss, one sack) led his group to seven sacks in the game. The Gold Team offense was eventually held to just 42 total yards.

the Fans

• The size of Saturday's crowd, while not the throngs new coaches at Florida (Urban Meyer) and South Carolina (Steve Spurrier) stirred this spring, was still larger than any of the three Tyrone Willingham-coached Notre Dame spring games.

• The VIP tickets in the press box sold out in an hour. All 1,000 seats for a brunch with the Irish players sold out in 3 1/2 hours. 27,000 fans showed up, even though it was sub-freezing at game time.

the Weather

• I thought it was beautiful out there today," Weis said. "I thought it was absolutely wonderful."

• Despite the weather, the game featured a spike of roughly 5,000 more fans than the 2004 game, which was played on a balmy, 64-degree afternoon.

• "It was [bleeping] cold," said BGS writer Jay.

the Legacies

• Quinn: "I called some of my buddies who play at other schools and I told them 'I just got off the phone with Joe.' They said 'Joe who?' And I go 'Montana, you know.' "

• Zorich on Weis: "He's really bringing the attitude from the professional ranks here," said Zorich, a nose guard on the 1988 national championship team. "He's giving the kids their freedom, but at the same time he is reeling them in to adhere to what he wants them to do.

• Players as far back as the 60s were back on campus over the weekend, taking part in the Alumni flag football game, and taking in the Blue & Gold match. All of them are loving Weis right now. "I think Charlie Weis is going to be a great coach," said [former QB Blair] Kiel, who threw two interceptions in the alumni game. "I think he is old-school football, and I think he is going to bring that back to Notre Dame." (per the South Bend Trib.)

• "I am thrilled about (Charlie)," [former player Pat] Steenberge said, who called the signals for the Irish during the 1970 and 1971 seasons. "I live in Texas where we are always fighting against the UT stuff, and there is excitement in Texas among people who don't even follow Notre Dame football. There is such a buzz about it.

• "I'm extremely excited that (Weis) is here," [former RB] Lee Becton said. "I've watched him on Sundays take teams to the NFL Championship. We are going to get the opportunity to see this program get back to where it used to be."

• More from the honorary coaches, Montana and Zorich, and Theismann and Brown. (If you haven't yet, take a look at these videos from the post-game presser. I guarantee nothing will get your blood pumping more than hearing these Irish greats talk about the resurgence of Notre Dame football.)

the Players

• Weis on the team's progress: "I am encouraged that some players are beginning to play themselves into the mix and we can start to establish some depth. I feel we are moving in the right direction and this is going to end up being a very competitive group."

• Weis on Quinn and the offense...“I have been very pleased with the progress of the offense as far as mentally picking it up. Starting with Brady and his leadership, his poise, him being able to handle the installation of this offense, it gives me hope. But never give an A. I’m the wrong guy to ask for an A."

• Weis on Darius Walker: "He has all the qualities to be as front-line a player as you can possibly have. He has great vision and is not small. He is built very well and has a world of talent. The sky is the limit for him."

• Tim Brown, on the receivers:

I think with this offense that Charlie's bringing in, it sort of works hand in hand with the schemes that they have here right now. Obviously, I know that the goal is to get more explosive type guys in here, but I think with Maurice [Stovall], Rhema [McKnight] and [Jeff Samardzija] everything is working hand in hand. When you looked at the Patriots over the years we always said, `Oh, we can shut that offense down.' But it was Charlie's ability to make calls and the guys' abilities to make plays that always put them over the top, and I think it will be the same situation here. I think Charlie came here to put these guys into optimum situations where they can go out and perform and it won't be the kind of stressful situation where one guy has to make a play. I think with those three guys running around out there, this offense is really going to benefit them."

• Zbikowski, on toughness...“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder right now. We’re going to keep that on our shoulder until we get where we want to be.”

• Laws, on being named the Defensive MVP...

"I was flattered - it was pretty neat. It was a nice little accolade to get. A lot of our other guys could have been awarded it, so I was pretty excited to get it. Being awarded the MVP by Chris Zorich was really awesome. Everyone calls me 'Little Zorich' so I've got to live up to that. It was great having him here - he's my mentor."

• Montana on his impressions of Brady Quinn...

"I've always been excited about him and his capabilities. It is still a learning process for him on the leadership part but I feel he is doing a tremendous job. He has all the tools."

the Coach

• Zorich helped as an honorary coach during the Blue-Gold game. Getting a chance to be around Weis, he noticed a few similarities with his former coach, Lou Holtz. "He is like Holtz in the regard, you are getting somebody with attitude," Zorich said. "Somebody who wants the guys to get into fights now and then. That is something unfortunately that has been gone from this place since Holtz left."

• "I'll be honest, when I heard that Notre Dame had fired Coach (Tyrone) Willingham, I was P.O.'d," Zorich said. "Then I got a call from Coach Weis, and he started about getting these nasty, inspired players, and I started to get excited. I wished I could suit up again."

• "He says the same kinds of thing that Coach (Lou) Holtz used to say," Montana said. "He talks about heart and desire, the things that made Notre Dame so special in the past."

• "He's old school, and unfortunately I found out in a couple of Super Bowls how much he knows about football," Brown said. "There aren't many coaches around with the experience and success he's had."

• "He's the right guy," Theisman said. "He's the right guy because he's good at those X's and O's, but also because he understands the culture of Notre Dame. He knows how important football is to this school."

• Weis: "My biggest concern is that I will not be hands-on until August. I am used to having my players year-round but in this case, it is time for them to return to being college students. I feel good about our team right now. The concern is based on the level of retention come August."

• Weis will hit the road himself during the spring evaluation period for high school juniors, something almost unheard of for a head coach to do.

"I think I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't," he said. "If I told you how important recruiting is and that you have to go pound the pavement and have to get out there, how can I say that and not be there? They just don't go together."

• While Weis is gone intermittently until the end of May, he and his staff will evaluate the tape from the Blue-Gold Game, put together scouting reports on all 11 opponents, and identify on paper his own team's strengths and weaknesses.

the Future

• "[Charlie Weis] has all the tools," Brown said. "He's obviously won at the highest level of football several times. He's a guy who knows how to get it done. So what I tried to expound on these guys today is, you have to pay attention to this guy. You have to believe in what he says because he can take you to where you want to go. It may not be this year, it may not happen next year. But certainly in the future you can see him getting this program to the very, very top, where everyone wants to be."

• I told [the players] this is a special place and it's up to you to make it special," Montana said Saturday. "It hasn't lived up to what outsiders believe it should be and if they wanted to make it special as a football experience, they need to take it upon themselves to try to make that path."

• "I don't just want to be a part of the Irish tradition," said defensive tackle Trevor Laws. "I want to add to it."