Number 3...number 3... | by Jay

The SBT picked up on Paul's NDN post (reprinted here at BGS) from a few days ago and made a poll out of it. Give 'em your vote if you get a chance (although is there really any doubt who's the best on the list?)

Top Gun | by Michael

Zach Frazer put his best foot forward - literally. It paid off in a big way.

Nearly two months ago, Frazer suffered a hairline fracture in his left foot during a Nike combine at Penn State. Just last week, his doctor cleared him to start rehabbing the foot, yet this past weekend Frazer flew to Las Vegas to participate in a regional work-out for the EA Sports Elite 11 quarterback camp. Gutsy call on his part since he risked further injury, but the Elite 11 invitation was something Frazer wanted badly:

"I had a lot of people asking me why I was even trying to do this, even players in line at the workout in Las Vegas. Everyone was saying you're already committed (to Notre Dame) and it's just a camp, but ever since my coach told me about it last year it's been something I've been working towards and trying to make."

While the injury still prevented him from participating in every drill, Frazer was impressive enough to garner an invitation, which will take place July 25-28 in southern California. (Taking cues from the Big 10, twelve quarterbacks are invited to participate in the Elite 11.)

The camp, in its seventh year, is run by noted quarterback guru and Mission Viejo High School head coach Bob Johnson, and every year, its counselors include some of the best college quarterbacks in the country. At the 2003 camp, it was John Navarre, Eli Manning, Andrew Walter and Ben Roethlisberger throwing around footballs and reading defenses with the high school juniors. The 2004 camp featured counselors like Kyle Orton, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Anderson and Heisman Trophy winner Jason White. Not too shabby.

Frazer joins fellow invitees Cody Hawkins, Isiah Williams, Neil Caudle, Pat Devlin, Mitch Mustain, Jake Locker, Kevin Riley, Josh Freeman, Jevan Snead, Matthew Stafford and Tim Tebow.

So, how exactly are the participants chosen? According to the Elite 11 site, "The high school quarterbacks are selected for the event after an exhaustive evaluation process which includes both film research, an in-person workout (whether at a NIKE Camp or EA Elite 11 Regional Workout) and a telephone interview."

If you'd like to do your own evaluation, check out Frazer's video highlights, and for an extended Frazer refresher, be sure to check out my colleague Pat's excellent write-up from earlier this year.

As most recruitniks have learned the hard way, no high school accolade can guarantee success at the next level, and an Elite 11 invitation is no exception. That said, we thought it'd be interesting to take a stroll down memory lane and examine previous Elite 11 classes to see how those quarterbacks developed. Who's been a stud? Who's been a bust? And whatever happened to...?

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1999

(The first Elite 11 camp was the only one that actually featured 11 quarterbacks. After the first year, the organizers included a twelfth quarterback to ensure that each participant had a roommate.)

Elite
There’s probably no better way to measure elite status than by comparing quarterbacks using the NFL draft. Only two quarterbacks from the inaugural camp were drafted. Although Jeff Smoker never reached the heights predicted of him during an impressive freshman year because of a drug problem during his junior year, he was still drafted in the 6th round by the St. Louis Rams and is expected to be the back-up to Marc Bulger. And the other guy? It’s none other than Southern Cal back-up Matt Cassell, who hardly played because of the two Heisman winners in front of him. Nonetheless, the New England Patriots took a flier on him in the 7th round of April's draft. As much as I didn't want to put Cassell in this category, it's hard to argue with Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli when it comes to player personnel. I believe a third quarterback also belongs up here. Casey Clausen was a four-year starter at Tennessee and signed as a free agent with the Chiefs, where he was a back-up in 2004. However, he was recently cut from the team on June 16th. I'm sure he'll find another NFL team before long.

Limbo
These guys may have had good collegiate careers but they were neither elite college quarterbacks nor certain NFL prospects. Brock Berlin signed with Florida, transferred to Miami and never came close to approaching expectations placed upon him during recruiting. Another Sunshine State quarterback, Chris Rix, had an up-and-down career at Florida State, and he’s currently unemployed. In fact, had Adrian McPherson not gotten into so much trouble, it’s quite possible that Rix wouldn’t have even played as senior. Little-known Roman Ybarra walked-on at UCLA, eventually transferred to Idaho State and had a nice D1AA career. Matt Lovecchio (right) was the only Irish recruit invited to the Elite 11 prior to Frazer, and hopefully the similarities will end there. Lovecchio’s career at both Notre Dame and Indiana reached its peak during his freshman year run prior to the Fiesta Bowl loss to Oregon State. Ironically, for all the talk that he was cool under pressure, it seemed that whenever Lovecchio was pressed with a heavy rush or forced to make throws, he really struggled. Chance Mock had a great year in 2003 where he threw 16 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, but he lost his starting job to Vince Young at Texas. He’s been unsuccessful in his attempts to make an NFL team.

Eli-minated
Zac Wasserman signed with Penn State (he beat Jeff Smoker to the punch), transferred to a JUCO in California and then apparently chose Cal over San Jose State and Hawaii in the spring of 2002. He didn’t play that year and then mysteriously disappeared from the Bears’ roster. Similarly bizarre, Jon Van Cleave was a two-year starter at Louisiana-Lafayette who abruptly quit football in 2003. John Rattay, meanwhile, is the only player I've ever heard of who transferred twice to the same school.

As a prep All-American from Phoenix, Rattay originally went to Tennessee, but after dropping to third on the depth chart, the 6-foot-3, 205 pound lefty then transferred to Arizona. Due to NCAA rules, Rattay sat out a year before backing up then-junior Jason Johnson for the Wildcats during the 2001 campaign. In limited action, Rattay completed 27 of 59 passes for 385 yards and two touchdowns.

Unhappy with his lack of playing time, he transferred again, this time to Pasadena City College in Southern California. Rattay earned the starting job at PCC, but he was ultimately sidelined after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the team's seventh game. With the quarterback race wide open once again, following Johnson's graduation, Rattay chose to come back to Arizona and will compete for a spot on the team as a walk-on. Rattay is expected to be fully recovered from the knee injury by the start of fall practice.

Unfortunately, Rattay’s injury was career-ending and he never played for Mike Stoops at Arizona.

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2000

Elite
Some of these guys are now in the NFL, and others are wrapping up their collegiate careers and getting ready for “The League.” Adrian McPherson, former Florida State quarterback, played in the Arena Football League when no school would accept the baggage that would accompany a transfer; he won the Rookie of the Year award and was drafted in the 5th round by the Saints. Matt Leinart has two national championships and a Heisman trophy. Most of college football is hoping he’ll miss Norm Chow – a lot. Derek Anderson enjoyed a solid career at Oregon State, shredded Notre Dame last year in the Insight Bowl and was drafted in the 6th round by the Ravens. Kyle Orton was a Heisman hopeful in 2005 who sliced and diced the Irish defense in 41-16 win, but his inconsistent play and rib injury down the stretch cost him a chance to seriously contend for the trophy. The Bears drafted him in the 4th round. Kellen Clemens has improved each year and 2005 will be his third year as Oregon’s starter. Although Duck quarterbacks haven’t fared too well in the NFL, Clemens isn’t a Jeff Tedford progeny.

Limbo
DJ Shockley has split time the last three years with David Greene, whose departure has allowed Shockley to become the full-time starter. There's confidence in Shockley, but it'll be interesting to see how he responds to all the pressure that comes with being the starter. Remember Pitt’s narrow 41-38 win over Furman last year? Ingle Martin signed with Florida and transferred to Furman; he was a big reason why the contest was so close. Brodie Croyle looked really good last fall before a torn ACL ended his season; he started to look like he was coming into his own. If he can overcome his injury, he has the tools the NFL wants in a quarterback.

Eli-minated
He still has a chance, but Casey Paus isn’t likely to win the Huskies’ starting position. Paus has struggled throughout his career, and some have suggested his sidearm throwing motion is to blame. Paul Troth signed with East Carolina, and his career started downhill when a new coaching staff came in and tried to install the option, which didn’t fit Troth’s skills. He transferred to Liberty and played disastrously in limited action (1 TD, 7 INTs). He was invited to rookie camps, but like Chance Mock, Troth has not been able to find a home. Billy Hart eventually quit the Southern Cal football team to focus on baseball, and the Astros recently drafted the third baseman in the 5th round. Last but not least, some Irish fans may remember Nic Costa as the recruit who complained about the on-campus binge drinking. He is now a forgotten man in the collective consciousness of college football; at Arizona he was moved to WR, moved back to QB, and then finally, he transferred to Portland State.

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2001

Elite
A quarter of this class has established itself as legitimate starters in college football: Pitt’s Tyler Palko, Michigan State’s Drew Stanton (he has to stay healthy), and finally, the Longhorns’ Heisman hopeful Vince Young.

Limbo
Another one-third of this class is on two teams; these quarterbacks are battling for starting jobs. Drew Olson will duke it out with Ben Olson for the UCLA starting spot when he returns from injury later this summer. Meanwhile, Ohio State hasn’t determined a starter between Justin Zwick and Troy Smith; both played well this spring although Smith should have the upper hand based on how he played down the stretch last year. Finally, Walt Harris hasn’t named a starter in Palo Alto yet, and two-year starter Trent Edwards is trying to hold off T.C. Ostrander.

Eli-minated
Michigan's Matt Gutierrez may have become the next Wally Pipp after his shoulder injury allowed Chad Henne the opportunity to start last fall. Anthony Martinez quit football to play baseball at Virginia, and after being suspended for academic reasons, he is currently hoping to rejoin the team. Ryan O’Hara quit football and dropped out of Arizona in order to take care of his ailing brother. Gavin Dickey is still playing quarterback for the Gators but considering his baseball career as well as the fact that he’s fighting for a back-up spot with Josh Portis and Cornelius Ingram, I think Dickey is fighting an uphill battle. Either his days at as a signal-caller are numbered, or he may turn to baseball full-time.

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2002

Elite
As we reach the younger classes, there are obviously fewer players in contributing roles...of course, Florida’s Chris Leak bucks that trend. How Urban Meyer adapts to Leak’s skills, and how Leak adapts to Meyer’s offense will be one of the most-watched storylines of 2005.

Ready for Prime Time
Familiarize yourself with three young QBs who are certain to make an impact this year: Miami’s Kyle Wright (who had a strong spring throwing to a talented ‘Cane WR corps), Kentucky’s Andre Woodson (already drawing comparisons to Tim Couch and Jared Lorenzen), and South Carolina’s Blake Mitchell (Spurrier’s next gunslinger). All three are expected to start for their respective teams in 2005.

Limbo
Some great QB battles were waged this past spring, and some of these kids may win the starting job while others may still be a year away. JaMarcus Russell is trying to hold off Matt Flynn and an incoming Ryan Perrilloux at LSU. Mike Affleck is competing for a back-up role at BYU. Dennis Dixon has earned high marks at Oregon but he’s a year away with Kellen Clemens' return. Tommy Grady is battling Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar for the spot vacated by Jason White, although Grady's reported lack of foot speed may hurt his chances. As mentioned above, TC Ostrander has a chance to beat out Edwards and become Walt Harris’s next pupil. Ole Miss QB Robert Lane missed the spring with a shoulder injury but, more importantly, he missed an opportunity to impress new head coach Ed Orgeron.

Eli-minated
Justin Midget transferred from Florida to Eastern Illinois, then quit the team because he was tired of school and simply wanted to play football. He tried out unsuccessfully for the Arena Football League but failed to make the Florida Firecats. Michigan's Clayton Richard is another baseball player who decided football wasn't for him, and now Lloyd Carr is vowing never to recruit another quarterback/pitcher.

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2003

Elite
John David Booty got a head start on the rest of this class by skipping his senior year of high school to enroll at Southern Cal. It was done with the idea in mind that when Carson Palmer graduated, Booty would be able to win the starting job in 2003. Of course, they forgot to plan for Matt Leinart. Booty had a dynamite spring for the Trojans and should get plenty of mop-up time this fall before taking over next year...of course, Mark Sanchez has something to say about that. Rhett Bomar has a very good shot to beat Tommy Grady and Paul Thompson to become Jason White's replacement at Oklahoma. Putting him at this level may be premature but I do believe that Bomar will end up getting the majority of the snaps in Norman this fall, even if Stoops is talking about playing two quarterbacks.

Limbo
Anthony Morelli spurned Walt Harris when the Big East looked like it would crumble, and he ended up at Penn State. He played sparingly as a freshman but this spring he couldn’t beat out Michael Robinson, who in my opinion, is a better wide receiver or running back than quarterback. Unless the Nittany Lions sign someone better this year, the starting job should be Morelli’s in the fall of 2006…if Robinson doesn’t struggle sooner. Kirby Freeman lost the starting job to Kyle Wright this spring, and now he’s stuck at #2 for the next few years. Chase Patton is competing for a back-up role to Brad Smith at Missouri, and right now he hasn’t cemented himself as the #2 guy. Nate Longshore signed with Cal and is battling JUCO Joseph Ayoob to become the next stud quarterback under Jeff Tedford. Cornelius Ingram is literally in limbo, battling for the #2 spot while waiting for Chris Leak to graduate or leave early for the NFL. Of course, who knows whom else Urban Meyer will sign in the meantime. Drew Weatherford is in the mix for the starting job at Florida State, although God could be tough to beat out if He returns from his drug problem. Bobby Reid suffered an injury last year that prevented him from contributing as a true freshman. Right now he is battling returning starter Donovan Woods at Oklahoma State; head coach Mike Gundy has not named a winner yet.

Eli-minated
Alonzo "A.J." Bryant was moved by Georgia’s Mark Richt to WR and actually contributed as a freshman. Matt Tuiasosopo quit the Washington team to pursue a baseball career. Batting .469 as of late April, it’s doubtful that Ty Willingham will be able to get him back in a Husky uniform. Brian Hildebrand didn’t last very long; he is transferring from Oregon State, though the destination is currently unknown. Some have suggested Colorado. A couple of sidenotes; Hildebrand is not related to the famous wrestling referee namesake, and his transfer has nothing to do with the sheep incident from what I can gather.

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2004

Elite
Ryan Perrilloux definitely belongs at the top of the list. After verballing to Mack Brown and the Longhorns, Perrilloux had a change of heart and signed with LSU. There is a chance he could win the starting job this fall. Nebraska's Harrison Beck likely won't redshirt, according to head coach Bill Callahan. "Right now, I want him to compete for the spot. If he’s ready, he’s ready." Finally, Willie Tuitama has a shot at winning the Arizona starting job this fall. "We'd like to save him, but if Willie can help us win, he'll play," said head coach Mike Stoops.

Limbo
Since Brent Schaeffer was kicked off the team, if Jonathan Crompton can beat out Rick Clausen he might end up as Erik Ainge's back-up for Tennessee.

Waiting Game
Jeff Tedford has quietly restocked the quarterback depth chart at Cal, and Kyle Reed will come in this fall and learn the system. It's very likely he'll be redshirted, as will Jake Christensen at Iowa. Christensen was recently drafted by the Cincinnati Reds, and it appears he'd like to play both sports in college. Two-sport Elite 11 campers haven't done too well by my count. Ohio State's Rob Schoenhoft played well recently in the Ohio North-South All Star game, and he's a likely redshirt candidate. Mark Sanchez is already being touted as the next great Southern Cal quarterback, but John David Booty will stand in his way next spring. His high school coach was Elite 11 instructor Bob Johnson. Jonathan Garner was sent packing when Urban Meyer took over Florida, but Georgia Tech picked up his signature. Garner will likely redshirt. Bill Doba has done a great job since taking over for Mike Price at Washington State, and this past year they signed their first Elite 11 camper, Arkelon Hall. He's expected to redshirt, as is Georgia's Joe Cox. There are two Elite 11 quarterbacks named Chase at Missouri, and Chase Daniel is the second. He's expected to redshirt, although there is some speculation that because his high school offense is similar to what head coach Gary Pinkel runs, he'll have a shot at winning a back-up job.

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Overall, it's pretty obvious that having the Elite 11 camp on your resume won't make or break your career. Additionally, it's important to note that the campers aren't always the best twelve quarterbacks in the country. Two summers ago neither Chad Henne nor Brian Brohm participated (neither worked out in order to become eligible), yet both these guys showed on the field last year for Michigan and Louisville, respectively, that they are two rising stars among college quarterbacks.

So how should the Elite 11 be viewed? It's up to the individual fan; as with recruiting rankings there are certain to be biases, and the fact that neither Brohm nor Henne participated demonstrates it's an imperfect system.

However, I see two positives. First, it's a harmless, yearly ritual that's fun for recruitniks to follow, and like the Nike combines and National Signing Day, it's become part of recruiting culture and its vernacular. Second, it's a great opportunity for some recruits to gain greater exposure. Landing an Elite 11 quarterback may not guarantee on-field success but it can certainly generate some momentum in recruiting. Generally speaking, the best high school wide receivers want to play in passing offenses with great quarterbacks, and having an Elite 11 quarterback in the fold certainly adds some punch to the recruiting pitch...especially if the quarterback is recruiting some players personally, as Zach Frazer has been doing for Notre Dame.

2005 Opponent Position Preview - Running Back | by Pat

(This is the second part in a series.)

As at quarterback, Notre Dame will see a lot of familiar faces at running back from 2005's opponents. And unlike the quarterback position, where unproven signal callers rarely make an immediate impact, it is far easier for a freshman or other inexperienced running back to step into the feature role and produce. So what's in store for the Irish this season? Let's take a look.

PITT - Raymond Kirkley. 2004 stats: 154 attempts, 560 yards, 6 TDs. Returning Starter.

Kirkley was the leading rusher for Pitt last year (and in 2001 as well) but only amassed 560 yards (at an avg. of 3.6 yards per carry). A strong, physical back, his production was more limited by Walt Harris' playcalling that his own talent level. Also returning is fullback Tim Murphy who missed time last year with injury but still was Pitt's second leading rusher. Depth: It shouldn't be a surprise if Pitt's starting tailback against Notre Dame is a true freshman. Rashard Jennings enrolled a semester early and was the star of the annual Spring Game with 119 yards rushing on 19 carries against the first team defense. At 6'1, 235 lbs, he might remind Irish fans of a Rashon Powers-Neal style runner. However, he reported to Pitt at 265 lbs, so he'll have to keep his weight down. He's still a good bet to start. Also a possibility to start is fellow freshman Conredge Collins. Another big back (225 lbs - see a trend yet?), Collins was one of the highest-rated recruits in Pitt's incoming class, which by the way includes 5 players listed as running back.


MICHIGAN - Michael Hart. 2004 stats: 282 (!) attempts, 1,455 yards, 9 TDs. Returning Starter.

Michigan's other freshman sensation (alongside Chad Henne) is back and should be a formidable opponent in 2005. After gaining 1,455 yards (at an impressive 5.2 yards/carry clip) and leading the Big Ten in rushing, Hart should be even better after a year of college weight training. A shorter back, Hart is the type of low-to-the-ground power runner that disappears into the pile and pops out the other side. He already holds a record as the only Michigan back to top 200 yards rushing in 3 consecutive games. Brian Thompson or Obi Oluigbo will have to step up and take over the fullback spot left by departing Kevin Dudley. Depth: Freshman Kevin Grady, another short power back, enrolled a semester early (to much recruiting hype) and so far is getting rave reviews in practice reports. Expect to see him get some carries every game. Rounding out the deep, but young, stable of running backs is Max Martin, a 6'1 215lb sophomore.

MICHIGAN STATE - Jehuu Caulcrick. 2004 stats: 113 attempts, 629 yards, 5 TDs.

Despite a costly fumble on the goal line, Caulcrick had a productive game against the Irish last year. The 243 lb running back is a load to bring down, and his 5.5 yards/carry average is a testament to that. He's not a threat to outrun the secondary, but is the kind of running back that can wear down a defense. Depth: Jason Teague will join Caulcrick in a running back by committee approach. Teague started 8 games last season and gain 716 yards so he has plenty of experience. A wildcard in the Spartan backfield is incoming freshman Javon Ringer. Ringer tore his ACL as a high school senior but was still one of the top running backs in the country, and his homerun speed could lead to quality playing time and an outside shot of starting by the ND game.

WASHINGTON - Kenny James. 2004 stats: 172 attempts, 745 yards, 5 TDs. Returning Starter.

Returning starter James had a decent season last year, but Washington's lack of committment to the run kept his stat total low. This year there's a lot of talk in Seattle about establishing a power running game, and while James is more of a speed back, he also has enough size (215 lbs) to break the first tackle. James Sims returns to the fullback spot he took over when Zach Tuiasosopo broke his leg in the ND game. At only 205 lbs, he is more of a running than blocking fullback. Depth: Shelton Sampson returns and will give the Huskies some depth in the backfield. Given Ty's penchant for splitting carries between running backs (Jones/Grant, Grant/Walker), look for Sampson to get plenty of carries this year.

PURDUE - Jerod Void. 2004 stats: 159 attempts, 625 yards, 3 TDs. Returning Starter.

Void is an extremely dependable running back and with with 22 game starts under his belt, one of the more experienced the Irish will face. A tall back at 6'2, 212 lbs, Void has a nice mix of speed and strength. When Purdue does go to the fullback, it will most likely be Anthony Heygood. Depth: While Void is listed as the starter, senior Brandon Jones will get plenty of carries as Purdue likes to split carries between the two. At 235 lbs, Jones is a stronger back than Void and will be Purdue's power runner up the middle. Rounding out the deep Boilermaker backfield is Kory Sheets, who has the breakaway speed that Void and Jones lack.

USC - Reggie Bush/Lendale White. 2004 stats: Bush- 142 attempts, 908 yards, 6TDs. Returning Starter. White - 203 attempts, 1,103 yards, 15TDs. Returning Stater.

Continuing with the "ummm...USC is good" theme, Bush and White should combine to be one of the best tailback tandems in the country this season. Bush's exceptional speed is always highlight material, but White (right), technically the starter, is the better all-around running back who has the power to wear down a team. Either one is a handful and together they give USC a backfield guaranteed to keep defensive coordinators up at night. Bush's 509 receiving yards and 7 TD receptions are an added threat. Fullback David Kirtman had a solid spring and will be another weapon in the USC offense. Depth: The transfer of spring practice star Chauncy Washington hurts the depth, as does the knee injury to Herschel Dennis, who might miss the entire season. Still, USC has speedy Desmond Reed and will benefit from the return of muscle-bound fullback Brandon Hancock. I wouldn't be surprised if Hancock beats out Kirkman early in the season and makes USC's running game even more dangerous with his speed and receiving ability.

BYU - Curtis Brown. 2004 stats: 158 attempts, 828 yards, 6 TDs. Returning Starter.

Brown is a very talented running back with plenty of speed and vision. After gaining only 12 yards on 15 carries against the Irish last year, he finished the season strongly and will make a run at 1,000 yards rushing in 2005. Brown is also a competent receiver out of the backfield who had 27 catches for 125 yards last season. And when it gets close to the goal line, that is where BYU will bring out what is probably the biggest fullback in college football, 6'0, 292 lb (!) Moa Peaua (check out the linked story -- it's great). He's not a threat to carry the ball, but "The Tongan Power" will basically be a sixth offensive lineman on the field for the Cougars. Depth: Naufahu Tahi is a bigger back than Brown at 230lbs and should see most of his carries between the tackles.


TENNESSEE - Gerald Riggs, Jr. 2004 stats: 193 attempts, 1,107 yards, 6 TDs.

Technically, Riggs isn't a returning starter. But in 2004 he not only outgained starter Cedric Houston, but also posted a better yards-per-rush average. Early buzz is touting Riggs as a Heisman darkhorse and phrases like "2000 total yards" are being tossed around on Vol message boards. Big, strong, and fast, this blue-chip recruit seems on track to finally live up to the hype surrounding his signing with Tennessee. And to block for Riggs is 275 lb fullback Cory Anderson, who is also a candidate for All-American status. Depth: The Volunteers have a stable of talented, but largely untested backups. JaKouri Williams, Adrian Foster, and David Yancey continue the tradition of deep UT running back depth charts, but none of them have much game experience.

NAVY - Grab Bag.

Navy's option offense means there is not one primary ballcarrier. With a QB, FB, and two split-backs, you never know who is going to get the ball on any down. The bad news for Navy is that they aren't returning any starters in the backfield. Along with new QB Lamar Owens, Trey Hines (right, in motion) and Marco Nelson appear to be the leading candidates for the split backs position. Hines is a track team sprinter and Nelson is only listed at 178 lbs, so likely they will stay away from the middle of the pile. The between-the-tackle running will likely fall to Matt Hall who has the uneviable task of replacing Kyle Eckel, perhaps the best runner Navy has had in over 20 years. At 216 lbs, Hall is not as big as the usual Navy fullback so it will be interesting to see how he handles the position. Depth: Navy has a number of other young runners so it's possible Coach Paul Johnson will give them a chance to prove themselves. Backup QB Brian Johnson and speedy but small Reggie Campbell (5'6 164 lbs) are a couple who will contend for carries.

SYRACUSE - Damien Rhodes. 2004 stats: 153 attempts, 870 yards, 10 TDs. Returning Starter.

Splitting carries with Walter Reyes last year, Rhodes will now be the center of attention in the Syracuse backfield. A shifty, quick runner, Rhodes had an impressive 5.7 yards/carry last season. He will also be dangerous motioning out of the backfield, as he had 18 catches for 246 yards last season; a number that might increase under the new West Coast offense being implemented. Accompanying Rhodes in the backfield will be sophomore fullback Breyone Evans, who is also a threat to run the ball. Depth: Bodies, but not much experience seems to be the case on the Syracuse bench. Jeremy Sellers, Tim Washington, and Kareem Jones are in the mix, but none have really had a chance to show anything on the field.

STANFORD - J.R. Lemon. 2004 stats: 93 attempts, 440 yards, 6 TDs. Returning Starter.

Lemon was injured for part of last season but should return healthy and ready to carry the ball under new coach Walt Harris. A very fast running back, Lemon also has enough size at 225 lbs to take the pounding of an every down back. Blocking for Lemon will be another jumbo fullback, 275 lb converted defensive lineman Nick Frank. The fullback was MIA under Coach Teevans so Frank doesn't have much experience on the offensive side of the ball. Depth: Stanford is plenty deep at running back this year and the first guy off the bench should be former ND commit David Marrero. In fact, message board rumblings are that Marrero may even surpass Lemon and begin the season as the team's starter. A sprinter, Marrero is one of the faster running backs ND will face and will be dangerous as a receiver as well. Junior Jason Evans is also a talented running back who might get a chance to carry the ball a few times a game.

2005 Opponent Running Back Analysis and Rankings

As usual, Notre Dame is going to face a lot of talented running backs this season. However, upon closer inspection it's not as bad as in some years past. Notre Dame's run-stopping ability again should be the pillar of our defense, and most of the opponents feature larger, power backs, which really almost plays into ND's strength. Smaller, faster running backs like Bush and Marrero can give ND fits with their speed and ability to line up as slot receivers, but guys like The Tongan Power will most likely have to stick between the tackles.

Still, even with that potential advantage, the top strata of opponent running backs is very, very talented. Lendale White, Reggie Bush, Michael Hart, and Gerald Riggs will be hard to contain no matter where they run. The rest of the opponents will be dangerous, but not much more than what ND usually faces every year.

Again, putting things such as coaching strategy aside, and focusing solely on talent and team depth, here are my rankings for the running back units that ND will face in 2005.

1. USC - Bush and White make this a no-brainer.
2. Michigan - Hart is a premiere feature back. Grady and Martin add plenty of size and talent.
3. Tennessee - Riggs might be the best all-around back ND faces. A lot of inexperience behind him, though.
4. Purdue - Veteran talent and a mix of running styles give Purdue a formidable running back unit.
5. Stanford - Lemon, Marrero, Frank, Evans, and others give Harris plenty of quality choices.
6. Syracuse - Rhodes is an excellent running back, but the backups are unknowns at this point.
7. Michigan State - Caluchick could surprise with a good year. Freshman Ringer is the wildcard.
8. BYU - Brown is a quality running back, but will have to show up against good defenses like ND's.
9. Washington - Experience is there, but last year's 3.2 yards/carry average will need to go up.
10. Pitt - Could a true freshman beat out Kirkley for the starting spot?
11. Navy - Too many new faces to warrant a higher ranking.

Next up: Wide Receivers.

BlogPoll II - the Quickening | by Jay

The BlogPoll rolls on (and Brian Cook of mgoblog did a nice job of pulling everyone together.)

To generate a little preseason hype, we've been doing a series of questions as a run-up to the season kickoff. This week, EDSBS (Every Day Should Be Saturday) is hosting the roundtable. Here are the poll questions:

1. What's THE critical game of the season on the national scene? We're looking for the one that will influence the most outcomes in a single span of sixty minutes. Please try to diversify your answers and think of something other than Ohio State-Texas, for example.

2.What's the most critical matchup for your team? Again, we know we'll hear OSU-Michigan from you Wolverines, but we ask you to think in terms of multiple scenarios here.

3. What's your wingnut upset prediction of year?
No hedging (or common sense) wanted here; we know everyone has a paint-chip eating, lunatic pick lurking somewhere in their brain. Go ahead and fess up on the record so you can gloat with pride later.

Check the comments on EDSBS for the various bloggers' responses. Michael handled the BGS answers thusly:

1. Critical season game? Texas-Oklahoma. Sorry it's a predictable answer but Mack Brown has the quarterback who can win him a national championship and the Heisman trophy. Their defense is good, and this could be the year they finally beat the Sooners.

2. Critical game for us? Pitt-Notre Dame (Sept 3). Bigger games against Michigan, Purdue and Southern Cal dot the schedule but this game is similar to the Maryland game from 2002. It could set the tone for the season. In a season where many pundits are predicting 6 or 7 wins for the Irish, it could mean the difference between making a bowl and making a good bowl.

3. Wingnut upset pick? Boston College will upset Florida State at Chestnut Hill on 9/17. They are going to smack the Seminoles around with a brand of power football that FSU isn't comfortable playing. (And I hate Boston College...it pains me to predict this.)

What say you?

It's a magic number | by Jay

(Our friend Paul posted this excellent inquiry on NDN last week, and gave us his permission to reprint it here. Enjoy.)

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Three
is a magic number.
Yes it is,
it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three
as a magic number.

-- Schoolhouse Rock

A Georgia alumnus and co-worker asked me what was so special about the #3 jersey at Notre Dame. So I made him this list one evening last week when the wife and kids were out shopping and I was bored. I thought I would rank the list to provoke a little debate. Feel free to disagree.

5. Ron Powlus, QB, 1994-97, Berwick, PA.

Notre Dame’s current director of personnel development for the football program under Charlie Weis, Powlus is Notre Dame's career leader in football passing yardage, pass attempts, completions and touchdown passes. Co-captain of the Irish in both 1996 and 1997, Powlus, in spite of all the statistics, suffers from a perception problem caused by his high school accolades, Beano Cook’s silly pronouncements, his lack of an NFL career, and his won-loss percentage compared to his immediate predecessors: Rice, Mirer, and McDougal. His best game may have been the 1994 thrashing of Northwestern at Soldier Field, or the 38-10 win over #5 Southern California in October 1995 (when Powlus even caught a two-point conversion pass from Marc Edwards). He was 29-16-1 as a starter, by my calculations. But the ND career records get Powlus the number five spot on this list.

4. Rick Mirer, QB, 1989-1992, Goshen, IN.

After the graduation of Tony Rice, sophomore Rick Mirer opened his career at Notre Dame by leading the #1 Irish to a come-from-behind 28-24 victory over Michigan, earning him a Sports Illustrated cover and a "Golden Boy" moniker.

His record as a quarterback at ND was 29-7-1. Mirer was co-captain of the 1992 Irish, leading the team to a 10-1-1 record. Memorable games that year include the “Snow Bowl” (a 17-16 victory over Penn State, thanks to a fourth-down Mirer touchdown pass to Jerome Bettis, and a two-point conversion throw to Reggie Brooks with 20 seconds left) and a thrashing of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day 1993.

Although he has not lived up to being the second player taken overall in the 1993 NFL draft, Mirer has been a journeyman starter and back-up who, as of this moment, plays behind Joey Harrington in Detroit. Entering his 13th season in the NFL, Mirer has thrown for just under 12,000 yards with 50 TDS but 76 interceptions.

3. Ralph Guglielmi, QB, 1951-54, Columbus, OH.

Ralph Guglielmi became Notre Dame's full-time starting quarterback for the 1952 season and went 25-3-2 as a starter during his Irish career. In 1954, he was unanimous All-America and fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. He also played defensive back and had 10 career interceptions. Guglielmi played in the 1955 College All-Star Game and was voted Most Valuable Player on the college team. Coach Frank Leahy once called him "Notre Dame's greatest passer," as Guglielmi threw for 792 yards for Leahy’s last Notre Dame team. Of note, he led Notre Dame to the win over Oklahoma in 1953.

Guglielmi would go on to play quarterback professionally for Washington (followed by a stint in the U.S. Air Force), then St. Louis, the New York “Football” Giants, and Philadelphia during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Guglielmi was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

2. John Weibel, LG, 1922-24, Erie, PA.

This one surprised me: a lineman wearing the #3. A member of The Seven Mules, the offensive front that blocked for the legendary Four Housemen, John Weibel started at left guard for Knute Rockne’s squad during the magical 10-0 National Championship season of 1924, including the famous Polo Grounds 13-7 win over Army and the only Irish appearance in the Rose Bowl, the 27-10 victory over Stanford.

1. Joe Montana, QB, 1975, 1977-78, Monogahela, PA.

I think most of the status of the #3 belongs to Joe. Montana was co-captain of the ’78 Irish, leading them to a 9-3 record, and the “Chicken Soup” win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl and Notre Dame’s 600th all-time victory. At Notre Dame, it is his role in the 1977 win over Purdue, the “Green Jersey” game win over Southern California, and the Cotton Bowl victory over Texas to give the Irish the National Championship which will also long be recalled. It was with the Irish that Montana began his tradition of magical fourth-quarter comebacks.

Of course, Joe’s professional career eclipsed his college success (although I did like the TV commercial where Hesburgh asked Joe about what he had done since graduation). Now a football legend, he led the San Francisco 49ers to nine divisional championships and four Super Bowl victories. He was named the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player three times and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. Thirty-one fourth quarter NFL comebacks earned Montana the nickname "Comeback Kid." He was selected for eight Pro Bowls and was a five-time leading passer in the NFC. And he threw for more than 40,000 yards. Montana was named as one of the four quarterbacks on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Honorable Mention:

Daryle Lamonica, QB, 1960-62, Fresno, CA.

Another QB who is best remembered by most football fans for his pro work, Lamonica, like Paul Hornung, quarterbacked the Irish during one of the “dark ages” of Notre Dame football. He split time at QB during his sophomore and junior years, but averaged 37.4 yards per kick as the team’s punter in 1960, and 38.4 per punt in 1961. As a senior, Lamonica went 64 for 128, throwing for 821 yards and 6 TDs. He was named third-team All-America. Lamonica played QB in the old AFL and the NFL with Buffalo and Oakland from 1963-1974. He led the AFL in passing in 1967, going 220 for 425, with 3,228 yards, 30 TDs and 20 picks.

That Oakland team made Super Bowl II, only to fall in Miami to Lombardi’s Packers. Lamonica also led the AFC in passing yardage in 1970, going 179 for 356, with 2,516 yards, 22 TDs and 15 picks.

Arnaz Battle, QB and WR, 1998-2002, Shreveport, LA.

Battle’s turbulent career at Notre Dame included some valiant yet sad moments at quarterback, and one positive season at wide receiver in 2002. At quarterback, he will be remembered by most Irish fans for two events: his non-fumble / called-fumble in 1998 at Southern California; and playing with a broken wrist against #1 Nebraska in the 2000 loss to the Cornhuskers. I also recall his dazzling 74-yard run in the opener against Kansas in 1999, during mop-up duty. In 2002, he started all year at flanker, leading the Irish with 48 receptions for 702 yards (14.6 avg.) and five touchdowns. During the eight-game winning streak to open the Ty Willingham era at Notre Dame, Battle played a significant role in wins over Pittsburgh, Air Force (eight catches for 112 yards), and Florida State (when, on Notre Dame's first play from scrimmage, Carlyle Holiday faked a handoff, rolled right and hit Battle for a 65-yard touchdown).

Ultimately, Battle will likely be remembered by Notre Dame fans for two plays during the 2002 win at Michigan State: the 30-yard pass to a diving Holiday on a trick play, and Pat Dillingham’s short pass to Battle, who then ran 60 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 1:15 remaining in East Lansing.

Entering his third NFL season with the San Francisco 49ers, Battle has only eight career receptions. He did return one punt for a TD in 2004 versus Arizona, and is listed at the top of the depth chart at one WR position during this off-season.

Too early to tell:

Darius Walker, RB, 2004-present, Lawrenceville, GA.

It might be a little premature to include him among the greats just yet, but the fabled jersey already fits Walker pretty well, as related by the Observer after last year's Michigan game:

He did not request the hype. He didn't even want it. But when Darius Walker got to Notre Dame, he received a jersey with the number three - and, some would say, the expectations that came with it. "I guess it worked out for me," Walker said.

The situation is too much of a coincidence. The true freshman from Georgia jumped from promising recruit to celebrity status after igniting the Irish running game in last week's 28-20 upset of No. 8 Michigan, wasting no time in displaying the big-game potential of former number three wearers Joe Montana and Rick Mirer.

Even sub-par Notre Dame fans - the ones who think Rocket Ismail was the name of a NASA space shuttle - know the significance of the number three. Montana, Mirer and Ron Powlus are only some of the legendary Irish alums to sport the symbol. Playmaker Arnaz Battle graduated in the spring of 2003 and no one stepped up to carry the torch.

Then Walker arrived in South Bend, oblivious to the number's availability, but it did not matter. The jersey found him. "I actually wanted a single digit number," Walker said. "I was No. 7 in high school and that was something I was pushing to get. Carlyle Holiday decided to keep the number and three was the only single digit number left."

But the parallels between Walker's timely Saturday performance and those of past great number three's are eerily similar. The most notable moment came in 1980, when kicker Harry Oliver - number three - put a 51-yard field goal through the uprights with no time on the clock to beat - that's right - Michigan. No one expected the wind to subside as Oliver booted the clincher, and no one expected Walker to carry such a load in his first outing - not even the freshman himself.

Also of interest:

Harry Oliver, K, 1980-81, Cincinnati, OH.

From Gerry Faust’s Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Harry Oliver became the starting kicker in his junior year of 1980, Dan Devine’s last season. Oliver made 18 of 23 field goals, and 19 of 23 extra points, during the 1980 season. He ranked third in the NCAA that year, with 1.64 FGs per game, and was named third-team All-America. In his senior year, Oliver made 28 of 30 extra points, but missed 6 field goals for Faust’s first squad. Oliver is best remembered, however, for one of those Notre Dame “miracles”: “Harry O. gets the call.” At the Michigan game in South Bend in 1980, the Irish – moving the ball into the wind late in the 4th quarter – made it to the Michigan 34. As Oliver lined up the 51-yard attempt, the driving wind died down, allowing his 51-yard kick to sail through the goal posts. Tony Roberts’s made the call for Irish fans on the radio: “I watched the flags. Just as he got ready to kick, believe it or not, those flags went limp. The wind had shifted. His kick was right there, just there, in time. Notre Dame with a miracle win...” The Irish beat the Wolverines 29-27 as time ran out.

George Izo, QB, 1957-59, Barberton, OH.

In the 1958 season, Izo came off the bench to lead the Irish over Purdue in a 29-22 comeback victory. During that season, Izo was also an important defender, leading the team with four interceptions. Playing for first-year coach Joe Kuharich in 1959, he threw for six touchdowns, as he split time at quarterback with Don White. Izo played professionally for St. Louis, Washington, Detroit, and Pittsburgh from 1960-66.

Coley O’Brien, QB, 1966-68, McLean, VA

Coley O’Brien’s heroic role in replacing starter Terry Hanratty during the 1966 game against Michigan State earns him high status on the list of some Notre Dame fans. O’Brien’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Bob Gladieux marked the only Irish touchdown in the 10-10 tie. He also was the holder on Joe Azzaro’s field goal for the only other Irish points. The tie, in East Lansing, against the #2 team, followed by the 51-0 trouncing of Southern California the next week, won the National Championship for Ara and the Irish.

Some others who wore the #3 jersey for the Irish, according to und.com, include: Emmett Murphy, QB, 1930-32, Duluth, MN; George Moriarty, QB, 1933-35, Lynn, MA; Bill Hofer, QB, 1936-38, Rock Island, IL; Bob Hargrave, QB, 1939-41, Evansville, IN; Al Skat, QB, 1943, Milwaukee, WI; Roger Brown, QB, 1946-47, Chicago, IL; Bill Whiteside, QB, 1949-50, Philadelphia, PA; Dan McGinn, QB, 1963-65, Omaha, NE; Scott Smith, K, 1970-71, Dallas, TX; and Alonzo Jefferson, TB, 1983-87, W. Palm Beach, FL.

(Sources: “All-Time Roster,” Official Athletic Site, University of Notre Dame, and other aspects of und.com; “Hall of Famers,” College Football Hall of Fame; The Notre Dame Football Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to America’s Favorite College Team, Keith Marder, Mark Spellen, and Jim Donovan, (New York: Citadel, 2001); Echoes of Notre Dame Football: Great and Memorable Moments of the Fighting Irish (Sourcebooks Mediafusion; Book & CD edition, 2001); and NFL.com.)

-- Paul

Dome director sets sked; Big East toplines twofers | by Jay

Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune has a story Sunday morning on our ever-evolving future schedule(s), and he passes on some solid confirmation from White & Heisler on a few scheduling rumors that have been circulating over the last months. The entire article is well worth a read. Here's the nitty-gritty:

• In 2006 and 2007, ND will add a home game in each year to get up to the NCAA's new universal limit of 12 regular-season games. That will give Notre Dame seven home games and five away games both years

• Notre Dame's 2008 schedule was already ticketed for 12 games under the old NCAA stipulations, and its six-home-games and six-road-games breakdown will stay intact, but there already has been some opponent shifting.

• A home game against Pittsburgh, for example, was added on Nov. 1 of that year to kick off an eight-year, home-and-home series. And the previously scheduled '08 season opener with Virginia on Sept. 6 has been deleted.

• Beginning in 2009, Notre Dame aims to play seven home games each season along with four road games and a neutral site game that will move around the country and count as a home game as far a gate receipts and TV rights and revenue are concerned. "We'd go to different parts of the country," White said. "Places that don't get to see Notre Dame. Places that tie into bowl games. Places that tie into recruiting. We're really excited about it."

• Beginning in 2011 -- if not earlier -- Notre Dame has committed to playing three Big East teams each season. One of those games will be played in the New York City market, specifically Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Irish are 11-0 all-time.

• In the bigger picture, this commitment along with ND's lingering ones means fewer home-and-home series than in the past. As many as three teams each year in the next decade will come to ND Stadium with no return date.

• The Boston College series, set to resume in 2007 after a two-year hiatus, will likely truncate before the next decade rolls around.

• The penciled-in 2009-10 series with North Carolina State has been erased.

• But home-and-homes with Oklahoma and Arizona State in the 2010s have been preserved.

• "With the commitments we have to USC and Stanford, the Big Ten teams, the Big East and to Navy, you can do that math," Heisler said. "There's almost more than you can deal with if you're going to play seven home games every year. We may be Johnny-come-latelies on the seven-home game thing, but I think we just want to be more strategic in what we're doing."

There are a couple of projected schedules here and here, although I think neither of them are reflecting the new information from above just yet.

On a slightly different note, something I had missed before: when we announced our 3-game deal with the Big East, apparently we agreed to play every team in the Big East in a home-and-home over the course of the series:

The Irish will play three Big East teams each football season on a home-and-home basis. All eight conference teams will face the Irish.

Note that although the SBT says the Big East series starts in "2011 - if not earlier", the Pittsburgh paper says it will start in 2009. The latter seems more likely in light of the sheer number of games we've agreed to play with the BE. We're already signed with Pitt through 2015, so the other 14 games (home-and-home with seven teams) will be spread over seven years, and 2009 looks like earliest year where we've got some wiggle room left.

And finally, there are several rumors that our 12th game for 2006 will be Army. There's a thread on IE from a guy who apparently heard Army's AD talking about it; another thread on the subject on the Army site on Scout.com; and even some speculation from an article on the Army sports homepage (scroll down).

So here's a stab at how where we stand, relying on the new info from the SBT, and cribbing heavily from the two sites mentioned above.

2006

__

2007

__

2008

1

9/2

@ Georgia Tech

ACC

1

9/1

Georgia Tech

ACC

1

9/13

Michigan

B10

2

9/9

Penn State

B10

2

9/8

@ Penn State

B10

2

9/20

@ Michigan State

B10

3

9/16

Michigan

B10

3

9/15

@ Michigan

B10

3

9/27

Purdue

B10

4

9/23

@ Michigan State

B10

4

9/22

Michigan State

B10

4

10/4

Stanford

Pac10

5

9/30

Purdue

B10

5

9/29

@ Purdue

B10

5

10/18

@ North Carolina

ACC

6

10/7

Stanford

Pac10

6

10/6

@ UCLA

Pac10

6

11/1

Pittsburgh

BE

7

10/21

UCLA

Pac10

7

10/13

Boston College

ACC

7

11/29

@ Southern Cal

Pac10

8

10/28

Navy

Ind

8

10/20

Southern Cal

Pac10

8

Syracuse

BE

9

11/4

North Carolina

ACC

9

11/3

Navy

Ind

9

San Diego State

MWC

10

11/11

@ Air Force

MWC

10

11/10

Air Force

MWC

10

@ Boston College

ACC

11

11/25

@ Southern Cal

Pac10

11

11/24

@ Stanford

Pac10

11

Navy

Ind

12th game - Army?

12th game - Army?

12th game?

_

2009

2010

2011

1

9/12

Michigan

B10

1

9/18

Michigan State

B10

1

9/24

Pittsburgh

BE

2

9/19

Michigan State

B10

2

10/8

Pittsburgh

BE

2

Southern Cal

Pac10

3

9/26

Purdue

B10

3

Michigan

B10

3

Navy

Ind

4

10/3

Washington

Pac10

4

Purdue

B10

4

Michigan State

B10

5

Southern Cal

Pac10

5

Stanford

Pac10

5

@ Michigan

B10

6

Navy

Ind

6

Brigham Young

MWC

6

@ Purdue

B10

7

Boston College

ACC

7

@ Navy

Ind

7

@ Brigham Young

MWC

8

San Diego State

MWC

8

11/27

Southern Cal

Pac10

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

9

Pittsburgh

BE

9

? Nevada

MWC

10

11/28

@ Stanford

Pac10

10

? Washington State

Pac10

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

_

2012

2013

2014

1

Purdue

B10

1

Southern Cal

Pac10

1

Purdue

B10

2

Brigham Young

MWC

2

Navy

Ind

2

Pittsburgh

BE

3

Pittsburgh

BE

3

Boston College

ACC

3

@ Southern Cal

Pac10

4

@ Boston College

ACC

4

10/5

Arizona State

Pac10

4

@ Navy

Ind

5

@ Southern Cal

Pac10

5

@ Pittsburgh

BE

5

10/25

@ Arizona State

Pac10

6

@ Navy

Ind

6

@ Brigham Young

MWC

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

7

@ Purdue

B10

8

Oklahoma

B12

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

_

2015

2016

1

Southern Cal

Pac10

1

Purdue

B10

2

Navy

Ind

2

@ Southern Cal

Pac10

3

@ Pittsburgh

BE

3

@ Navy

Ind

4

@ Purdue

B10

5

Oklahoma

B12

+2 BE games, 1 in NYC

(Oh, and for those of you not familiar with Variety slanguage, take a look here.)

the Nation | by Jay

Just wanted to drop a quick thank-you to NDNation for all the links to our articles recently.

NDN, by the way, is largely responsible for the birth of The Blue-Gray Sky, since without the maelstrom of the NDN message boards, some of us would have never hooked up in the first place.

NDN is like the bartender who keeps serving drinks to a bunch of boozy drunks who should have been cut off hours ago. Which is a beautiful thing. Thanks for providing a place where we football obsessives can collide together, insult each other and duke it out, and sometimes maybe make a couple of new friends along the way.

Know Thine Enemy: Stanford's Walt Harris | by Michael

(This is part 3 of a series on the newly-hired coaches ND will face this year.)

In the first two posts, we looked at rookie head coaches Bronco Mendenhall and Greg Robinson. Now we'll move on to the more experienced guys, starting with the "Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football at Stanford", Walt Harris.

---

Walt Harris, Stanford University

Bio/Record: Take a look at Harris’s bio. Stanford is his third head coaching position; Harris went 11-24 in three years at Pacific and 52-44 in eight years at Pitt. Although Stanford’s firing of Buddy Teevens came as a bit of a surprise, Harris’s move west isn’t a shocker since many predicted his departure before the Panthers made their Big East title run, which culminated in the Fiesta Bowl appearance. Even Harris, back in September, sounded like he wanted out.

"This is a pro city with a pro mentality. Nothing is ever good enough. I know that goes with the territory here. That's our challenge. I'm not complaining. I'm just telling you how it is...I'm not worried about my job. I know there's always going to be a job out there for me."

Known as a QB guru, Harris actually spent the 1970s as a defensive coach for Cal, Pacific, Air Force and Michigan State. In 1980, Harris took a job coaching QBs for Illinois, and he used that position as a springboard to similar positions at Tennessee, the New York Jets and Ohio State.

Of additional interest, Harris has strong ties to John Gruden (on Harris's Pacific staff and a graduate assistant at Tennessee) and Pete Carroll (whom Harris recruited to Pacific and for whom he coached the Jets QBs in 1994).

Notable Staff: The most recognizable name is undoubtedly John McDonnell, who coached interior OL last year for Notre Dame. Harris has him coaching tackles and tight ends for the Cardinal. Tom Hayes, who won three Rose Bowls as the co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach for UCLA during the mid-80s, has been hired as the defensive coordinator. Hayes also has significant experience coaching the secondary for the Washington Redskins (1995-1999) and Texas A&M (1989-1990, under Bob Davie) and he served as the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma (1991-1994) and Kansas (2001). Additionally, Harris retained two of Teevens’ assistants, and brought two from Pitt with him, Wayne Moses and Tom Freeman. Both Moses and Freeman have strong west coast ties, and Moses actually coached under Teevens in 2002 and 2003 before joining Pitt in 2004.

Offensive Philosophy: Bill Walsh coached at Stanford before winning Super Bowls with the 49ers, and Harris considers himself a disciple. One of the immediate changes in the new West Coast offense will be the return of the fullback, which went on the endangered species list in Teevens’ more wide-open attack. One player who won’t be able to take advantage of the new offense is former Irish recruit Jerod Arlich, who is MIA on the spring roster. Harris has asked defensive lineman Nick Frank to fill this void, and he’s already moved ahead of another former Irish recruit Emeka Nnoli.

That said, the West Coast offense is all about the quarterback, not the fullback, and Harris has two good ones in Trent Edwards and T.C. Ostrander, who played well down the stretch last year when Edwards was hurt. Harris did not name Edwards the starter despite his edge in experience, nor was a starter named after spring practice. Our bet is that Edwards will eventually beat out Ostrander. Both are EA Elite 11 quarterback camp alumni, and Harris won’t have to build the offense from scratch, like he did at Pittsburgh.

To get a better sense of his offensive philosophy, check out what Harris said at a 2003 Nike camp clinic:

“It is important to understand the impact of the quarterback position in winning. I grew up on the West Coast and I was always a San Francisco 49ers fan. I am a big Bill Walsh disciple. Why? I love to run the football, but the hardest part of coaching is to get good linemen. Linemen win championships and they are hard to get. We try to control the ball with the forward pass. We have gotten better at running the football. Anytime we can run the ball we are going to be hard to beat.

If you want to read more, check out the 2003 Coach of the Year Clinics Manual. Are linemen hard to get? For a school like Pitt, especially when many other schools are raiding Pennsylvania for the elite offensive linemen recruits, I could agree with that statement. Also noteworthy is that in his eight years at Pitt, only two linemen have been drafted: Kris Anderson, a 7th round pick (261st overall) in 2003, and Rob Petitti, a 6th round pick (209th overall) in 2005. One thing is for sure; at Stanford it will be easier to recruit OL, who generally seem to have much higher grades and test scores than other recruits. For this reason, I think Stanford will eventually have the running game that Pitt’s offenses always seemed to lack. J.R. Lemon hasn’t lived up to his recruiting hype, and David Marrero has been hurt quite a bit, but like the rest of that offense, they’ve also had to suffer though the Buddy factor.

Harris also mentions wanting to “control the ball with the forward pass.” There are two concurrent ideas here. First, when it comes to controlling the ball, even without a running game, Pitt has generally been at the top of the Big East when it comes to time of possession. Second, the forward pass has been very kind to Pitt. They have had two Biletnikoff winners in Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Bryant, and Greg Lee emerged last year as the next in the great line of Pitt wide receivers. Their offense also heavily utilized the tight end, and Kris Wilson was a 2nd round draft pick in 2004. Stanford won’t have any problems recruiting receivers, and they’ve always had success finding and developing tight ends. That shouldn’t change, especially with talented young players waiting in the wings to replace 3rd round draft pick Alex Smith. At wide receiver, former Irish recruit Mark Bradford could have a big year as the go-to guy for Stanford. Harris has the weapons at his disposal for a dangerous attack, and from what I’ve read, his system isn’t overly complicated compared to other West Coast offenses; the Cardinal should be able to pick it up easily, especially whoever steps in at quarterback.

Defensive Philosophy: Stanford suffered a hit when the 49ers lured A.J. Christoff away from Harris to be their new defensive coordinator. Christoff, the coordinator under Teevens, had been announced as one of the members of the new staff and Harris quickly needed to fill the gap.
Enter Tom Hayes, whose previous experience suggests that he’s a capable candidate for the job. However, Hayes also seems to be on the downside of his coaching career. Perhaps he simply wanted to take time off, but the two gaps on his resume – from when he was released in 1999 by Washington (after Steve Spurrier was hired to bring in his new staff) to when he was hired in 2001 by Terry Allen as the defensive coordinator for Kansas, as well as the 2002-2004 seasons (Allen was fired at the end of Hayes’ first season). During the last five years, it appears that Hayes has only coached twelve college football games.

That concern aside, what Hayes will bring to the Stanford defense probably won’t be a dramatic difference from what they’ve been doing the last few years. Harris and Hayes are going to keep the 3-4 defense, whose philosophy will probably mirror what Hayes said at Kansas.

"There are only so many ways you can play. You can undershift, overshift, zone, man. All offensive coaches say they like to be balanced, and that's a great word. I like to be balanced. That doesn't mean 50-50 zone/man, 50-50 blitz/drop back. That means doing what you want to do when you want to do it. The best way to describe it is to say it's complex for offenses, but not too complex for us. It's a lot for offenses to get ready for, but it's not complicated for our players."

Keeping the 3-4 is a smart move for two reasons, in my opinion. It's simply much harder to consistently recruit defensive tackles than it is to recruit linebackers, and Irish fans know firsthand that tackles with grades, let alone the grades that Stanford requires, are hard to find. Secondly, the Pac-10 is and has been a QB/passing conference. The 3-4 allows more opportunities to drop 8 defenders into coverage or send different blitzes than the 4-3.

One of the differences in Stanford's schemes for next year should be regarding their coverages, as T.J. Rushing mentions in one of the series of great TheBootleg.com articles chronicling spring football:

"He's giving us a lot more mixed up coverages. Last year was predominately zone; now we get to run a lot of man and zone. Mix it up a lot so the offense just doesn't know: 'Third and four - they are going to run zone every time.' Now we get to mix things up on the offense."

TheBootleg.com even sat down with Hayes for an insightful interview that’s definitely worth checking out. One interesting thing is Hayes’ decision to designate positions by “left” and “right” as opposed to using the strength of the offensive formation (“strong” and “weak”). As an aside, this seems to be a growing trend in college football as I’ve seen other teams move away from using the formation strength to determine the alignment, including Notre Dame. It appears defensive coordinator Rick Minter is using field/boundary designations, and last year he similarly used left/right for his defensive ends at South Carolina.

The internet only contains so many articles on coaches before 1995, so unfortunately there’s little insight into his philosophies from his UCLA, Oklahoma and Texas A&M days. As a result, it’s more difficult to assess what offenses can expect from Stanford this year. When it comes to Stanford's defense, I think the most important thing to remember is that Walt Harris, despite being known as "offensive-minded," has a lot of experience coaching defense. It was seen at Pitt, where Paul Rhoads developed aggressive schemes that generally included an 8-man front to stop the run and man-to-man coverage. An 8-man front may not be as necessary in the pass-happy Pac-10, and given Rushing’s comments about more man coverage and Hayes' Wrecking Crew experience under Bob Davie, I'm going to infer that the Cardinal will have one of their most aggressive defenses since at least before the Tyrone Willingham era, which seemed to prefer soft zones and "bend but don't break."

Predictions: Stanford represents a return to Harris’s west coast roots since his first coaching position was as the head coach at El Camino High School, just south of San Francisco. Now that he’s returned, I think he could be at Stanford for a long time.

Harris has never been known for his recruiting prowess, but he has several things working in his favor that will make this task easier. First and foremost, his reputation as an offensive “guru” and the success of Rod Rutherford, Tyler Palko, Antonio Bryant, Larry Fitzgerald and now Greg Lee should ensure that Harris has little difficulty recruiting QBs and WRs. Second, there is simply a ton of talent in California and, considering the talent outside the state, it’s generally much easier to recruit to a more attractive climate than to a cold one like Pittsburgh. Third, players who are sincerely interested in academics now have a legitimate reason to expect Stanford will start winning again.

Those who criticized Harris in Pittsburgh often cited his bad decisions, and in this case, the critic was Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ron Cook, who clearly wanted Harris gone. Others chronicled the ups and downs of the program in recent years. However, considering the poor condition in which Harris inherited Pitt from Johnny Majors, and what he has subsequently done to rebuild the program, I think the Pittsburgh media and fans who wanted to see Harris leave were wrong. The top talent in western Pennsylvania had too many better opportunities to pass up outside the state, and yet Harris was able to take a team that had gone 3-7-1, 6-5, 3-9, 3-8, 3-8 2-9, 4-7 in the last seven years and transform it back into a winner. That’s coaching (and admittedly, some scheduling).

Teevens recruited much better than Willingham did, and the cupboard definitely has some attractive talent. Harris was ready to take Pitt football to the next level when he had gained verbal commitments from Anthony Morelli and Andrew Johnson, two of the best players in Pennsylvania, only to lose them to bigger schools when rumors started circulating about the Big East's loss of Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College. That won't happen at Stanford. Harris should be able to utilize the roster in ways that will make the embarrassing three years of Buddy Ball (be sure to read Lemming’s prediction) easier for Cardinal fans to forget in the years ahead. Although reaching the Rose Bowl will be a more arduous task than winning the Big East’s automatic bid, Stanford should immediately become a more competitive program in the Pac-10 under Harris.

If you don't believe me, listen to Jon Gruden:

“I consider Walt Harris as good a coach as there is in America.”

The Weis Factor: Weis and Harris have never squared off. Nor have any of Charlie’s defensive assistants played against Pitt in recent years. In fact, looking at the Panthers' schedule under Harris, it seems like they played every other Ohio non-major (Toledo, Bowling Green, Ohio, Kent St) except Rick Minter’s Cincinnati squad.

In my opinion, last year’s high scoring affair against Pitt may have been an omen of sorts. It’s certainly reasonable to believe that the back-and-forth Holtz-Walsh battles of the early 1990s may return under Weis and Harris. In addition, when this year's game rolls around during Thanksgiving weekend, more may be at stake - for both schools - than what the pundits are currently guessing.

The Lemmster | by Pat

(Warning: recruitnik post below. If you don't religiously follow recruiting, you should skip this.)

The latest hot topic making the message board rounds is what might be the smoking gun for self-appointed recruiting guru Tom Lemming's true feelings towards Notre Dame. The text in question comes from Bruce Feldman's piece in ESPN the Magazine (subscription req'd) on the recruitment of Myron Rolle.

Let's just get the actual text out of the way right now:

“Tom Lemming is a huge Notre Dame guy,” Myron says. “He kept saying to me, ‘You know they have a great coaching staff. You know Charlie Weis is Mr. NFL. You’re an academic guy. That place is for you.’ Then he killed Florida State. He said, ‘You’re stupid if you go there.’ Um, okay. Thanks.”

Well, this seems to confirm everything that many of our enemies knew to be true in their heart of hearts: Tom Lemming is a Notre Dame shill who uses his position and influence to talk up the Irish and and push recruits to go to Notre Dame. Anyone who has frequented the wild world of college football message boards has seen this particular claim time and time again, and if you follow recruiting religiously (and you do, since you obeyed the disclaimer above) then you know what I'm talking about. Both Brian over at mgoblog and the writer at iBlog for Cookies both chimed in with excellent takes on this particular situation.

So what do Notre Dame fans think of this? We secretly cheer Lemming's assistance, as we put the faded, worn copy of Rudy back in the VCR and dream about how we'll celebrate Weis' fourth National Championship, right?

Not hardly.

If I may be blunt, I don't want Tom Lemming anywhere near Notre Dame. People may think he wants to help Notre Dame, but the truth about Tom Lemming is that ultimately, he is truly only rooting for Tom Lemming. Yes, most people (ND fans included) concede that Lemming is a Notre Dame fan -- from way back, when he was a postal worker in Chicago -- and he still is to this day. But when push comes to shove, he's going to act in the best interest of Tom Lemming, not Notre Dame.

For example. There's more than one player on our roster right now whom Lemming urged to hold off on an early committment to ND, in exchange for promises of higher rankings on his recruiting sheet, or even a spot on the US Army All-American bowl roster. (To be fair, I'm sure he does this with most of his recruits, not just ND's). If Lemming truly was hoping for the best Irish classes possible, he would push these recruits to commit early and help sustain positive Notre Dame recruiting momentum. But he doesn't. The reasoning is that Lemming cannot make money (his hint-laden 1-900 number being the primary source of his income) on recruits that have already publicly committed.

And when Lemming loses his "insider" access to schools, as he did to ND during the Willingham era, I seriously doubt the "go to Notre Dame, young man" pitch continues. Some ND fans even think he helped to push Brian Brohm to Louisville (but I think Willingham and Diedrick did a good enough job of that on their own.)

It seems that Charlie Weis has made nice with Lemming, so now the flow of positive ND sentiments are back. This "Kallen Wade is the #2 prospect in Ohio, and possibly Top 100 nationally" line Lemming used when Wade verballed to Notre Dame made even ND fans cringe. Of course, we aren't alone when it comes to unsolicited compliments and over-the-top hyperbole from Lemming (cough... Nebraska ...cough). Oh, and we can't forget his insatiable desire to overhype every poor kid that comes out of Chicago.

Personally, I hope he stops mentioning Notre Dame to all recruits, lest we be included when the NCAA finally decides to do something about him. But until the NCAA cracks down on him and other unethical recruiting types -- something I think is coming in the next 5 years -- then ND fans may just have to hope that Weis tells Lemming to cram the ND sales pitch and keeps him at arms length from the program, lest the NCAA deem him a booster and he gets everyone in trouble.

In the meantime, there isn't much that can be done other than refusing to assist in anything that supports him financially. And believe me, most ND fans wish Lemming would go away. Reporting on recruiting news and ranking recruits based on his own "talent evaluation skills" [sic] is one thing, but the way he inserts himself into the process is bad for the sport, bad for the schools, and definitely not in the best interest of the high school kids making one of the biggest decisions of their lives.

One last note [adjusting soap box]. Even though it was totally inappropriate for him to say so, Lemming, like a broken clock, was correct on one thing. Myron Rolle would be stupid to go to Florida State. Rolle seems to be the rare embodiment of the term student-athlete, and to waste his intellect at an academic sinkhole like Florida State would be a shame. He's not going to go to Notre Dame, but I really hope he ends up somewhere that at least challenges him academically.

Oh, and going to a school we don't face for 3-4 years would be great too.

(Recruiting rant over. It's safe to come out now.)

Scripting Ohio | by Jay

It's about time we bagged some elephants for our schedule instead of setting up more Big East bowling pins. An article over on Bucknuts says we're talking with Ohio State about another series sometime soon.

"[New OSU athletic director Gene] Smith said he had opened talks with Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White about the possibility of more Ohio State-Notre Dame games in the future. ND and OSU first met in 1935-36 and again in 1995-96. That series is knotted at 2-2."

Great news (if it works out), and not entirely unexpected considering the principals involved. Smith, as you might recall, is a former ND football player who graduated in 1977, and was also an assistant coach for the Irish from '77 to '81. He served as the athletic director at Eastern Michigan, Iowa State and Arizona State before taking over in Columbus. Smith still retains a strong affinity for his alma mater, as evidenced in this interview where he's asked to describe the fan support at OSU:

Smith said he's always known about OSU's rabid fans. But "probably the biggest reminder was at the spring football game when I was pulling up and it was sleeting. It must have been a couple hours before kickoff, and there was a line [to get in]. It was pretty cold — people were in hunting suits. It gave me flashbacks to Notre Dame. I thought, 'This is what it's all about.' "

(Memo to Gene: bringing up the glory days at ND might wear a little thin for the Buckeye faithful. Just a thought.)

I still can't believe that in all these years we've only played Ohio State four measley times -- and until ten years ago, we hadn't dotted the 'I' since Jesse Owens stuck it to Hitler in the '36 Olympics.

Pat informs me that the first Notre Dame-Ohio State game, played in 1935, was voted in 1950 as "The Greatest College Football Game of the Half-Century". Both teams were undefeated going in; the game was at Ohio State and was broadcast nationwide on CBS radio, with an estimated 8 million people listening in. ND was shut out until the fourth quarter, when they erupted for three touchdowns, including a last-minute hail mary from Bill Shakespeare to Wayne Millner that won the game, 18-13. (For a great recap of the game, here's a fantastic highlight reel from the ND Club of Memphis' website. QB Andy Pilney was a warrior.)

When Notre Dame won, our visiting fans rushed the field and pulled down the goalposts; payback, no doubt, for the hostile reception the Irish had received in Columbus. During a pre-game practice on Friday, more than ten thousand Ohio State fans lined the ND practice field chanting "Go home Catholics."

The following year, ND's president asked the Big Ten to check into rumors that the state of Ohio was setting up Buckeye players with phony jobs and paying them with state funds. The Big Ten urged Notre Dame to keep the matter confidential, and ND didn't want to start a major dispute, so we agreed to not press the issue. ND quietly decided to not schedule the Buckeyes anymore...until 1995, that is.

The sting of those series-evening losses in 1995 and '96 still lingers. The 1995 game (a 45-26 loss at OSU) marred what might have been a nice run; at the time, ND was ranked 15th, with only a loss to Northwestern in the first game of the season (NW finished very strongly, going 10-2 and playing in the Rose Bowl). As it turned out, we still climbed to #6 before the bowl loss to Florida State.

1996 was probably a more exciting game than the year before. It was #4 OSU at #5 Notre Dame, with the Buckeyes winning a intensely physical battle, 29-16. I can still picture Orlando Pace steamrolling guys for Pepe Pearson (29 rushes, 173 yards).

Anyway, this would be a great series to rekindle. Despite having played only four games, there's some compelling history to revisit between the two teams, and the 1935 game ranks as one of the greatest in college football history.

There's no doubt Smith has some bigger fish to fry in Columbus as he settles into the job, but amidst all the rehab work it's good to see he's finding time to prod Kevin White for another matchup. Hopefully this time around we'll see a little less Irish futility, and a little more of this. All due respect to West Virginia, Rutgers, and the rest of the Big East, but this is a series I can truly get excited about.

Gugin' time | by Jay

Irish Eyes had an update on the Gug (no, not that one), with some good stuff from Heisler and Bernard Muir, the Associate AD who oversaw much of the construction, and who, incidentally, is taking over the athletic department at Georgetown. (Thanks to Angel at IE for the picture to the right, by the way.)

A couple of quotes:

Heisler: “Part of the motivation was not only to make sure that we could be competitive with what’s going on in the world relative to facilities, but also to try to centralize the football aspect of it...Look at our current setup. We have the football coaches’ office center here in the Joyce Center. We’ve got our locker room in the stadium. We have our weight facility in the Loftus Center. We had players viewing film in the stadium, and we had our training facility in the stadium."

Muir: “It will be state-of-the-art as far as interior design...Once [our athletes] walk into the strength and conditioning area, which just went from 7,000 to 25,000 square feet, they get the feeling that we’re turning the corner here and making a sincere effort to be the best across 26 varsity sports, and hopefully put us in a position to win a few championships.”

August 1 is the target opening date, but Heisler mentioned that they might even be able to move schedule up a bit.

Anyway, check out the whole update if you get a chance (it's a pay article, but you're a member of IE, right?). Neat to see the place coming together.

One other feature that Muir highlighted is a new Player's Lounge:

“We’re still working on some of the finishing touches on the player’s lounge,” Muir said, “but there will be a computer center that will have a little outlet for them where you can have several players check e-mails or do a little homework before or after practice. We’ll have a big screen TV, and they’ll have TVs in the locker room where they can tune into Sportscenter...or CNN, we like to hope. They’ll have a lounge-type area as well.”

Hmm. Shared computers...a place to do homework...CNN on the tube...sounds a little austere. Nothing like the luxurient "players lounges" of some other schools, huh? Doesn't Muir know there's an arms race going on in college football, and if you don't have a clubhouse full of the latest toys, you're not going to be able to recruit?

The two prime examples I'm thinking of are those of Texas and Oregon. Both were upgraded in 2003, and both are decked out like one of Saddam's palaces, featuring a vast array of Cubanesque frills. Here's Oregon's locker room:

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"We designed something that is very expensive," Tim Canfield, who has designed the last 10 Nike Towns, told the Eugene Register-Guard. The Ducks have three 60-inch plasma TVs, two of which are rigged for Xbox games, at a cost of $15,000 each. The Oregon locker room is two stories and has a door that will allow eight players to enter at once, a door that can open and shut at three feet per second. Each locker has its own ventilation system to personalize perspiration. Each also has outlets for video games and the Internet, as well as a security system that is activated by a code that includes a player's uniform number and a scan of his thumbprint.

Here's a couple shots of the locker room and player's lounge at Texas:

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Hey, neat! Pretty cool, right?

The truth is...these accoutrements are silly. Silly like Vince Neil's house is silly (as seen on MTV Cribs) -- all they're missing is a leopard skin pool table and a stripper pole. Or if you want to go literary, it's like something a hollow nouveau riche like Jay Gatsby would dream up, an expensive status symbol that he thinks makes him classy and important.

Do we need a Sony Playstation at EVERY locker? Absolutely not. Do we need a locker room that looks like the deck of the Starship Enterprise? No way. How about a door that will let EIGHT players walk through all at once? Correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Canfield, but I don't think we're losing any recruits over how many guys can walk through a freakin' door at the same time. Do we need fake horseys you can sit on that overlook the field? Actually, those would be kinda cool...

Wait, what am I thinking? Of course not. We don't need fake horseys, with or without blue and gold saddles. (A mechanical bull at Legends might spice things up, though.)

This is all over-the-top, tawdry, cheap ornamentation foisted on the universities by overzealous shoe companies and high-falutin' boosters, then sold to high school recruits as something "important to consider" when looking at football programs. It's tacky and, ironically -- considering how truly expensive it is -- it's cheap, in the Donald Trump sense of the word.

What we needed was a very nice place that was an improvement on what we had, a centralized location for the football program (instead of being spread out all over creation), an improved weight and training facility (THE most important aspect of the building), and oh yeah, a nice place for athletes to hang out and congregate between practices and classes. We got it. And it's going to be very impressive, and truly classy -- and without the silly, overblown frills.

Prez vs. Prez | by Jay

(The following is from our friend Jeff.)

There was a thread over on NDN a few weeks ago debating the hiring record of Monk vs. Father Ted as it relates to the football program.

I thought I'd take the discussion a bit further, look at all the ND presidents throughout history and compare the records of the football teams based on who was in charge when the hire was made. (For entertainment purposes only, of course.)

Here's what we've got (sorted by winning percentage):

President	Years / Coaches	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.
John W. Cavanaugh	1908-1930 (Place thru Rockne)	200	171	19	10	.880
John J. Cavanaugh	1946-1953 (Leahy, postwar)	77	63	8	6	.857
John O'Hara	1941-1943 (Leahy, first time)	30	24	3	3	.850
Hugh O'Donnell	1944-1945 (McKeever, Devore)	20	15	4	1	.775
Andrew Morrissey	1894-1907 (Morison thru Barry)	107	74	25	8	.729
Charles O'Donnell	1931-1940 (Anderson, Layden)	90	63	22	5	.728
Ted Hesburgh	1954-1996 (Brennan thru Holtz)	474	329	137	8	.703
Edward Malloy	1997-2004 (Davie, Willingham)	97	56	41	0	.577

(It's embarrassing that a Morrissey is ranked lower than not one, but two Cavanaughs...but I digress.)

Despite Hesburgh's relatively low overall percentage (if you can call 70% low), Father Ted owns the all-time record for wins, and unless we see another 40-year tenure for a president at ND, this one's gonna stand up for time immemorial.

Also...check out that dropoff for you-know-who. Cough.

By the way, here's the record for wins according to the AD in charge at the time. Note that before Moose, Notre Dame didn't really have independent athletic directors; Rockne, Leahy, etc, all served as their own ADs.

Athletic Director	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.
Krause	285	199	81	5	.707
Corrigan	189	130	56	3	.696
Wadsworth	60	35	25	0	.583
White	37	21	16	0	.568

Where's Dick Rosenthal, you ask? Well, he came in after Holtz was hired, and left before Davie, so technically he's never hired a coach at ND. That's not to minimize the great job Rosenthal did as AD; it's just that he doesn't qualify for this (narrow) study.

Finally, here's the backup data for all of this, just for the hell of it.

Coach	First	Last	Years	Games	Win	Loss	Tie	Pct.	Prez	AD
James L. Morison	1894	1894	1	5	3	1	1	.600	Andrew Morrissey
H.G. Hadden	1895	1895	1	4	3	1	0	.750	Andrew Morrissey
Frank E. Hering	1896	1898	3	19	12	6	1	.632	Andrew Morrissey
James McWeeney	1899	1899	1	10	6	3	1	.600	Andrew Morrissey
Pat O'Dea	1900	1901	2	20	14	4	2	.700	Andrew Morrissey
James F. Faragher	1902	1903	2	18	14	2	2	.778	Andrew Morrissey
Red Salmon	1904	1904	1	8	5	3	0	.625	Andrew Morrissey
Henry J. McGlew	1905	1905	1	9	5	4	0	.556	Andrew Morrissey
Thomas A. Barry	1906	1907	2	14	12	1	1	.857	Andrew Morrissey
Victor M. Place	1908	1908	1	9	8	1	0	.889	John W Cavanaugh
Shorty Longman	1909	1910	2	14	11	1	2	.786	John W Cavanaugh
Jack Marks	1911	1912	2	15	13	0	2	.867	John W Cavanaugh
Jesse C. Harper	1913	1917	5	40	34	5	1	.850	John W Cavanaugh
Knute Rockne	1918	1930	13	122	105	12	5	.861	John W Cavanaugh
Hunk Anderson	1931	1933	3	27	16	9	2	.593	Charles O'Donnell
Elmer F. Layden	1934	1940	7	63	47	13	3	.746	Charles O'Donnell
Frank W. Leahy	1941	1943	11	30	24	3	3	.800	John O'Hara
Ed McKeever	1944	1944	1	10	8	2	0	.800	Hugh O'Donnell
Hugh J. Devore	1945	1945	1	10	7	2	1	.700	Hugh O'Donnell
Frank W. Leahy	1946	1953	1	77	63	8	6	.818	John J Cavanaugh
Terry Brennan	1954	1958	5	50	32	18	0	.640	Ted Hesburgh	Krause
Joe Kuharich	1959	1962	4	40	17	23	0	.425	Ted Hesburgh	Krause
Hugh J. Devore	1963	1963	1	9	2	7	0	.222	Ted Hesburgh	Krause
Ara Parseghian	1964	1974	11	116	95	17	4	.819	Ted Hesburgh	Krause
Dan Devine	1975	1980	6	70	53	16	1	.757	Ted Hesburgh	Krause
Gerry Faust	1981	1985	5	57	30	26	1	.526	Ted Hesburgh	Corrigan
Lou Holtz	1986	1996	11	132	100	30	2	.758	Ted Hesburgh	Corrigan
Bob Davie	1997	2001	5	60	35	25	0	.583	Edward Malloy	Wadsworth
Tyrone Willingham	2002	2004	3	36	21	15	0	.583	Edward Malloy	White
Kent Baer	2004	2004	1	1	0	1	0	.000	Edward Malloy	White

So here's a good question: should Monk get credit for Charlie Weis? Or does Charlie represent the first Jenkins coach? Technically, Monk presided over the Weis hire, but given his opinion on the transition, it just wouldn't seem right. Give Charlie to Father Jenkins.

2005 Opponent Position Preview - Quarterbacks | by Pat

For our opponent previews, we thought we'd slice it lengthwise instead of crossways, and take a look at each team position-by-position. First up: quarterbacks. Let's roll.

PITTSBURGH - Tyler Palko. 2004 stats: 3,067 yards, 24 TDs, 7 INTs. Returning starter.

You might remember Palko both for his 5-touchdown performance against the Irish last season and the big F-bomb he dropped on NBC after the game. Palko had his coming out party last season and will look to build on it this year. The only thing that might slow him down is the departure of QB-friendly coach Walt Harris, however, I'll suggest that Palko will still be one of the tougher QBs that ND will face next season. He's more mobile than one might think and is the fiery type of football player that can rally a team. Depth: Pitt has even less QB depth than Notre Dame. Top backup Joe Flacco suggests he wants to transfer. If he follows through, incoming freshman Bill Stull is the backup.

MICHIGAN - Chad Henne. 2004 stats: 240-399, 2,743 yards, 25 TDs, 12 INTs. Returning starter.

Making his first road start in last year's Irish victory, Henne (#7) will be a much improved quarterback this upcoming season when ND rolls into Ann Arbor. He seemed to forget he was supposed to have the freshman jitters which leads me to believe he'll be very solid and dependable QB under center for the Wolverines. Possessing possibly the strongest arm that ND will face next season, Henne will put up big numbers all year. He's not the most mobile of quarterbacks, but he doesn't need to be in Michigan's offense. Carr should loosen up the offensive reins a bit on Henne this go-around and let him test the ND secondary early and often. Depth: Derek Landri's high school teammate Matt Gutierrez is a solid college QB who should be able to step in easily should Henne go down. Michigan's QB depth is probably second only to USC's next season.

MICHIGAN STATE - Drew Stanton. 2004 stats: 141-220, 1601 yards, 8 TDs, 6 INTs. Returning starter.

Stanton played in only the second half of last year's game against the Irish after coming into the game injured, but still managed to lead the Spartans on a comeback that nearly erased the early Irish lead. Now that he's finally healthy, last season's team MVP will be the Spartans' biggest offensive threat. Stanton's calling card is his mobility, as evidenced by the fact he had more yards rushing and the same number of rushing touchdowns last season as Ryan Grant (687 yards in 10 games versus 515 yards in 9 games). Also an accurate passer, Stanton will be a decent test for Charlie Weis' first home game. Depth: Like Pitt, MSU's backup QB has never taken a college snap. Should Stanton get hurt, either redshirt frosh Brian Hoyer or true freshman Domenic Natale will be pressed into action. Might that mean Stanton won't get the green light to run as much this year?

WASHINGTON - Grab Bag.

At the end of spring practice, Washington's quarterback situation still appears to be up in the air and Tyrone isn't giving any hints. Casey Paus and Carl Bonnell both played in the Notre Dame game last season with neither having a good game. Bonnell showed some mobility that Paus lacked and might have a leg up in the race for the starting position in 2005. Then again, Oregon transfer Johnny DuRocher was a highly recruited high school QB and seems to be taking a leadership role on the team already. Last but not least is speedy Isaiah Stanback, who seems to be a wide receiver playing QB in the Arnaz Battle mold. One thing for sure is that improvement will be needed over last season's performance as Paus, Bonnell, and Stanback combined for only 8 passing touchdowns versus 24 interceptions. Depth: The plus side of a jumbled QB situation is that you have options on the bench if the starter is having a rough game, and Paus, Bonnell, and Stanback all started games last year.

PURDUE - Brandon Kirsch. 2004 stats: 58-94, 711 yards, 7 TDs, 3 INTs.

Perhaps we should list Brandon Kirsch as a returning starter; after all, he has started six games in his career. However, he was the backup to Kyle Orton last year and this will be his first year as the Purdue's primary signalcaller. Kirsch's skill set differs from Orton in that he is much more mobile. So much so, in fact, that Tiller has reportedly worked some option plays into the Purdue playbook. Still, Kirsch will primarly be called upon to be accurate and make quick decisions in Purdue's fast-paced aerial attack. An emotional, vocal leader, Kirsch seems like the type of quarterback who at times plays a bit out of control and is always looking to make something out of nothing. Depth: Curtis Painter is now the one waiting in the wings. A big, strong-armed QB, Painter should get some quality snaps this season.

USC - Matt Leinart. 2004 stats: 269-412, 3,322 yards, 33 TDs, 6 INTs. Returning Starter. Heisman Trophy winner.

You may have heard of Leinart before. Seems he's a decent quarterback who has a fairly popular blog, won the Heisman last season, is the favorite to win it again this year, will most likely be the #1 pick in the NFL draft, and hasn't lost in twenty-two games. By far the best quarterback Notre Dame will face next season, Leinart will no doubt be looking forward to another banner game against the ND secondary. About the only thing that will slow him down is the loss of USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow. Still, the Trojan southpaw is good enough on his own to pose the toughest challenge for Notre Dame this season. Depth: Backups John David Booty (recently the subject of an SI feature story) and Mark Sanchez were both the #1 rated QB coming out of high school. Booty has only seen limited action thus far, but should be able to easily step under center if the need arises. I realize it's not fun to read this if you're a Notre Dame fan (or cornerback), but trust me, it wasn't fun to write it either.

BYU - John Beck. 2004 stats: 192-343, 2,563 yards, 15 TDs, 8 INTs. Returning Starter.

New coach Bronco Mendenhall insisted there would be a three-way race for the starting quarterback position following spring practice, but ended up naming John Beck as his starter anyway. Beck started against Notre Dame last season and led the MWC in passing and total offense in 2004, but Matthew Berry and Jason Beck both started games last season and will push John Beck for the starting position in the fall. John Beck's advantage is his mobility and experience so it shouldn't be a shock to see him under center in Notre Dame stadium on October 22nd. Depth: The trio of quarterbacks don't seem that far apart -- unless Mendenhall is just trying to motivate John Beck. As with Washington, a lack of a clear-cut starter might mean we'll see a variety of passers throughout the season.

TENNESSE - Erik Ainge. 2004 stats: 109-198, 1,452 yards, 17 TDs, 9 INTs. Returning Starter

As Al McGuire once said, the best thing about freshman is that they become sophomores. And like Chad Henne, Erik Ainge should be a much better quarterback now that he has a year of college football under his belt. His competition for the starting spot (fellow QB Brent Schaeffer) packed up and left, and now Ainge has the offense all to himself. A tall and accurate passer, Ainge should be one of the better quarterbacks in the nation in 2005. And don't discount the revenge factor when the Vols travel to South Bend as the Irish were the team that knocked Ainge out for the season with a shoulder injury last year in Knoxville. Depth: The loss of Brent Schaeffer hurts the Vols QB depth, but Rick Claussen performed adequately once Ainge went down with injury and should be a very solid backup with plenty of game experience.

NAVY - Lamar Owens. 2004 stats: 2-5, 38 yards.

Lamar Owens replaces successful Midshipmen QB Aaron Polanco, and like all Navy quarterbacks, his primary attack is with his feet. Owens is extremely fast but his arm is more or less a mystery and most likely will remain so for the season. But who knows? 2004 National Coach of the Year Paul Johnson might call a few passes to keep everyone on their toes. Depth: Coach Johnson claims there isn't a backup yet although Brian Hampton had a successful spring game and might be Owens' backup heading into the fall.

SYRACUSE - Perry Patterson. 2004 stats: 168-289, 7 TDs, 10 INTs. Returning Starter

Another team that's trying a few quarterbacks on for size is Syracuse, and new head coach Greg Robinson is looking for someone to lead the Orange's new west coastoffense. Perry Patterson had the bulk of the playing time last season and seems to be the favorite to start in September. He's a big (6'4", 242lb) QB who still has the ability to get some yards on the ground. However, some critics have questioned his accuracy on short passes, which are a staple of the WCO. He'll have to acquire a deft touch if he wants to be successful and hold onto the job. Depth: The other option for Syracuse is sophomore Joe Fields, who actually started the first three games of 2004. Fields is an elusive QB who showed improved accuracy in the spring game and will give Syracuse two competent options under center.

STANFORD - Trent Edwards. 2004 stats: 179-274, 1732 yards, 9 TDs, 11 INTs. Returning Starter

Edwards is an interesting study. An all-world talent coming out of high school, Edwards has struggled to put it all together at Stanford. Was it simply inexperience? Was it a side-effect of Buddy Ball? We might find out this season as the junior gets to learn and develop under the watch of new coach and noted QB guru Walt Harris. Edwards has all of the physical skills you could want in a quarterback and it will be interesting to see just how improved he will be when the Irish roll into Palo Alto in late November. Depth: Then again, maybe Edwards won't be the starter in November...or even September. While Edwards appeared to have a slight edge in spring practice, Coach Harris seems to be keeping his options open, and redshirt frosh T.C. Ostrander is a solid candidate to unseat returning starter Edwards. Like Edwards, Ostrander is a big, strong QB and was a highly recruited QB prospect. Experience might give the edge to Edwards, but Ostrander's presence will give Stanford talented, but inexperienced depth.

2005 Opponent Quarterback Analysis and Ranking

Looking at the schedule, our DB coaches Lewis and Polian will certainly earn their paycheck as ND will face eight quarterbacks who are returning starters. And that doesn't even count the eventual starter from the Washington group, plus Brandon Kirsch at Purdue, all of whom (minus DuRocher) started at least one game last season. In fact, the only team definitely starting someone with zero experience is Navy.

Considering that ND's secondary is probably the biggest question mark on the team, having to face so many veteran QBs should give pause to anyone who is predicting a cakewalk season for Charlie Weis' first year (unless we just out-score them all, Pac-10 shootout style).

Obviously a big part of a QB's success is who's calling the plays, and who's catching the ball . As mentioned above, Tyler Palko is a great quarterback, but with a new run-oriented head coach, his impact could be muted. The opposite is true for Trent Edwards, who very easily could turn into a all-conference QB (if not for that pesky Leinart guy) under Harris. In these rankings I'm going to try and ignore all of that stuff and just go on things like talent, team depth, experience, and past production. And it should be pretty obvious that this list could look drastically different come September, let alone December. But for now, this is how I would rank the quarterbacks that Notre Dame will face in 2005:

1. USC - I'm guessing this is painfully obvious. Leinart is good.
2. Michigan - Henne will be even better this year and Gutierrez is a solid backup.
3. Tennessee - Ainge should be improved and Claussen has experience if needed.
4. Pitt - Palko is a great quarterback, but lack of depth hurts Pitt.
5. MSU - Stanton is the team leader, but none of the backups have taken a college snap.
6. Stanford - Edwards and Ostrander are the big wildcards in this list. How good are they?
7. Purdue - Kirsch seems to have the tools to succeed and Painter is a talent.
8. BYU - Beck is another QB who has the skills to flourish under a new coach.
9. Syracuse - Patterson or Fields? Either will have to keep mistakes to a minimum.
10. Washington - Well, at least they don't have Diedrick pulling the strings.
11. Navy - This might not be fair as Owens is more of a runner than passer.

Next up: Running Backs.

Huddle Up | by Jay

A glimpse of the attention to detail that Charlie is bringing with him?

The Lesson of...Ray Handley? | by Mark

In 13 of his 15 seasons coaching in the NFL, Charlie Weis worked for two legends, Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. And as much as he absorbed from their incredible success, it's interesting to think about what lessons he may have gleaned from the third head coach he worked for, Ray Handley. After all, the euphoria of success often doesn't teach us as much as it should; we seem to learn a hell of a lot more from the painful sting of failure (well, except maybe a certain ex-coach who "never had a bad day").

You all remember Ray Handley, right? Took over as head coach of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants in 1991 after Bill Parcells retired (for the first time, anyway). Charlie stayed on after Parcells, and Handley promoted him from a defensive and special teams assistant to running backs coach, a job he held for two years under Ray. Around New York, Handley is remembered for a few things - and none of them are good. Foremost among them is helping drive the Giants franchise into a tailspin.

Tabbed as one of the smartest men in football, Handley had a masters degree from Stanford, a genius IQ, and a steeltrap mathematical mind (he once got bumped from a Reno casino for counting cards). He inherited a great situation with the Giants, taking over a team that had gone 25-7, reached the playoffs twice and had won the Super Bowl once in the two previous seasons. So what did he do? He benched Phil Simms (who would return to the Pro Bowl in 1993, the year after Handley was fired) and went 14-18 overall. The Giants failed to make the playoffs in either of his two years as the head coach. In fact, it's the only time in Weis' NFL career that a team he was part of failed to make the playoffs in two straight seasons.

(On a lighter note, one time Handley went off on a tangent during a press conference about the way Brett Favre pronounces his last name. Handley, for all his cerebral brilliance, couldn't understand how it was pronounced "FARv". That should have been a clue right there.)

In the book "Coaching Matters", author Brad Adler devotes some attention to a special kind of failure that some "genius" coordinators experience when attempting to make the transition to head coach. One of his prime examples is Ray Handley:

Important in a coach's repetoire - and most often neglected - is the manner in which he operates. One of these operational functions is the process by which a coach communicates his ideas...the true essence of coaching may exist as much in the way a coach conveys his methods and strategies as it does in the true merits of those tactics. Otherwise viable coaches may face a difficult task imparting their knowledge to players due in large part to the ineffectual fashion in which they communicate and/or demonstrate their methods.

Former NY Giants head coach Ray Handley comes to mind as a prime example of this postulation. Handley was, quite literally, a genius. He had an IQ of 140 and...was handpicked by head coach Bill Parcells...to lead the Giants. With all that intelligence and experience, Handley was a flop...

Handley was a brilliant assistant coach who...was as sharp a football mind as there was in the business. In fact, he developed many of the successful offensive schemes and strategies utilized by Parcells. Handley, though, had no conception whatsoever of the process by which to successfully communicate strategies and techniques to his players...He could never seem to grasp the fact that not everyone responds to a single teaching process and that he might have to engage different educational techniques in order to ensure that everybody understood each concept.

Many of us have probably met similar types of folks. Somewhere along the way you get a teacher that, on paper, seems like they should be able to teach you anything you would want to know. An IQ through the roof, absolutely brillant, and they have every degree and every credential you could ask for. But put them before a class and they simply can't convey that knowledge to the students in front of them. Intelligence alone simply does not make a person a good teacher.

It's also easy to understand why former greats have a tough time teaching what they know to players of lesser abilities. Most of the time these guys had such an intuitive feel for what they were doing that there is almost no way they can explain that to someone else. Do you think Barry Sanders would make a good running back coach? Quite literally, the things that made him so fantastic can't be taught. Adler discusses it a little bit:

In many instances, the situation involves a former superstar who turns to coaching. Due to their innate abilities, every aspect of the game comes easily to them...consequently, these individuals are rarely exposed to the clinical atmosphere prevalent in teaching situations - a fact that tends to diminish their capacity to adequatley explain and/or demonstrate techniques.

Magic Johnson as the Lakers head coach, anyone? Quick, name a coach in college or pro football who was an exceptional player (Jeff Fisher doesn't count). There are probably a handful, but the only one I can think of is Steve Spurrier. You'll find the same in most any sport. There's a limited number of exceptions, sure -- Frank Robinson maybe, or Lenny Wilkens -- but by and large the best coaches were mediocre, or worse, during their playing days. (On another note, I wonder how the Great One will adapt to coaching).

Now, let's apply all of this to Charlie Weis.

As we all know, Weis didn't play football in college, let alone the pros. So he's not even a journeyman player like a lot of other coaches.

In fact, Charlie would seem on the surface to be a lot like Ray Handley. Ray didn't have much of a playing career, but had a brilliant mind and gained a reputation for his offensive system. His prowess contributed to Super Bowl championship teams. But a few key differences become apparent when you look a little closer at Weis' background and compare the two.

First of all, Weis got his degree at Notre Dame in speech and drama. At that time Weis had intentions of going into sports broadcasting, and so he was drawn to studying communication from way back when. Essentially, he wanted to be a type of performer. Effective teachers, too, are often good performers - a large part of what they are doing is getting up in front of a group of people and helping a certain subject "come alive".

Then, when he was coaching at South Carolina, Weis earned his master's degree in -- education. I'm no genius but I think I'm starting to see a theme here.

Now consider where Weis began his coaching career - at the high school level. In addition to coaching, Weis was also an English teacher. He has said many times that, more than anything else, he considers himself to be a teacher. Not a "professor", but a teacher.

A true teacher - in high school, college, in the workforce - isn't the person that knows the most about something. It's not a guy from Mensa with an IQ of 160 talking over the head of his students. It's the person that gets in there and actually is able to transfer his or her knowledge to students. That was the problem that became a major part of Ray Handley's failure.

And the impact of clear communication? Consider these quotes from a former Irish player that learned from Weis in the pros as well as from current players during spring practice:

David Givens:
"He's been a teacher and coach of high school kids and he's got so much experience coaching NFL players like myself. There's no doubt in my mind he would be an outstanding recruiter because he relates so well to young people.

Brady Quinn:
“Coach (Ron) Powlus turned to me and said, ‘That was the simplest I think I’ve ever heard — through college, NFL, everything — going through hots and sight-adjusts and having someone explain it. That’s a great example of coach Weis as a teacher. He makes things so simple that can be complicated at times...It probably has been the best experience I could have had. He knows the ins and outs and everything, and he knows the best way to teach it."

Dan Stevenson:
“He doesn’t just teach you your position and what you’re supposed to do. He teaches you philosophies...When you can understand the philosophy of the offense, and the philosophy of each play, it can help you better understand why you need to do certain things.”

Darius Walker:
[Darius] always assumed an offense that won Super Bowls would be beyond him, but he has wrapped his head around it in a hurry. "In a sense," Walker said, "I guess it just all depends on the coach getting his players to understand it and learn it."

So how did a guy who never even played in college succeed at the highest level of coaching? By knowing the game so well, inside and out, that the player has no choice but to believe him. By being crystal clear in what he is saying. By telling him something is going to happen and sure enough, that is exactly what occurs. Simply put, by teaching. Walker once described Weis' ability to tell him exactly how a play was going to unfold before the play even started. Things like that are what build credibility between a teacher and a student, and really go to the heart of what makes an effective teacher. If you watched the video coverage from IrishEyes of Weis' post-practice sessions with the media during the spring, you know that each was basically a mini-tutorial in some aspect of football. You'd walk away from a viewing feeling like Weis had been teaching you personally about some facet of the game.

And the ability to teach is something Weis targeted when he filled out the rest of his staff, too. As he said when he introduced his assistants, "I wanted guys that were good teachers because I consider myself a teacher first..."

But back to Ray Handley. It's possible Charlie was already well beyond Handley in terms of teaching -- err, coaching -- ability, that he already knew enough to avoid making the same mistakes that would eventually be the undoing of Ray Handley's coaching career. But those two difficult seasons with the Giants likely did a very good job of driving those points home. Ray Handley was a brilliant thinker. But Charlie Weis is a good coach, and by definition, a good teacher.

This is not a recruiting trip, I swear. | by Pat

To pass, or not to pass...that is the question.

In the recent John Ryan post, we mentioned that Ryan called Coach Ianello to announce his verbal commitment. The reason he wasn't initially able to reach Coach Weis is because Charlie was deep in the heart of Texas at a football clinic.

Now, we realize that coaching clinics are commonplace and nothing terribly special, but since the local papers felt the need to mention his visit in not one, but two articles, we figured we might as well give it a mention, too.

Weis arrived at the Angelo Coaching Clinic (80 years after Knute Rockne hosted his first coaching clinic in the Southwest) with, as he claimed, the intention of only talking football, not recruiting.

He said it would be "wrong for him to go into a recruiting pitch to lure Texas' NCAA Division I football players to South Bend, the Mecca of the universe", as he called it.

First off, that statement is just hilarious. Forget that I'm from the greatest University in the world...I'm just here to talk football, okay?

Second, while he may not have been actively recruiting players, he was certainly busy schmoozing Texas high school coaches, and convincing them that their current and future football players will be in good football hands in South Bend.

Oh, and did he really say South Bend is the Mecca of the universe, or did he say Notre Dame? I mean, no offense to any South Benders reading this, but....um, nevermind. Moving on.

Weis' official topic was Screen Passes (something that seemed to be lacking from the offense last season). But what he really seemed to enjoy was the Q&A session afterwards.

Weis, who coached high school football in New Jersey before hitting it big, fielded questions from numerous coaches for nearly an hour and a half, talking one-on-one with them about specific scenarios that related to their teams.

When there was a momentary break in questions being asked, Weis fired out, ''Come on, give me more.''

He discussed any football topic that was addressed and diagrammed plays for everyone, including one coach who simply asked for a play that would score a touchdown.

The article fails to mention if the name tag for that last guy read "B. Diedrick".

Weis then summed up his talk by explaining how to handle the pain of losing, and facing your toughest critics.

''We had won 21 games in a row, and we went to Pittsburgh and they cleaned our clocks,'' Weis said. ''I called my wife to get some loving support after losing for the first time in 21 games, and when she answered the phone, she said, 'Your son wants to talk to you.' When he got on the phone, he said, 'Daddy, that was a pitiful performance.''' Weis said he is hoping he doesn't have to hear that line after any of his games as coach of the Irish.

Who knows what else he might have said at this coaching (definitely not recruiting!) clinic...

"When you practice the screen pass, as we do at Notre Dame, which, by the way, has one of the highest graduation rates of any major football program in the country, it's imperative that the running back..."

"One of the keys for your linemen on the screen pass is to sell the missed block to the defensive lineman, as you'll be able to see every Saturday this fall on NBC..."

"Now, in order to make a good touch throw you need to make sure your grip on the football is...hold on, can you hold my four Super Bowl rings for me for a second? Thanks. Now then..."

It will be interesting to see if Weis' presence at some of these clinics leads to increased interest in Notre Dame from players in those areas in the future. At the very least, it won't hurt ND's chances.

Know Thine Enemy: BYU's Bronco Mendenhall | by Michael

(This is part 2 of a series.)

Last week we profiled Greg Robinson, Syracuse's new head coach. This week we turn our attention to Brigham Young University, and its rookie head coach, Bronco Mendenhall.

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Bronco Mendenhall, Brigham Young University

Bio/Record: Check out Mendenhall’s bio. At thirty-eight years old, he is the second youngest coach in Division-1 football. After serving as the Cougars’ defensive coordinator the last two years, Mendenhall was chosen to replace his boss, Gary Crowton, who was fired.

A two-year starter at Oregon State as a defensive back, after graduation Mendenhall stayed on with the Beavers as a graduate assistant. From there, he went on to coach at several small schools including Northern Arizona and Snow College, before finally connecting with Rocky Long at Oregon State. It was in Corvalis, and again, at the University of New Mexico, where Mendenhall became a disciple of Long’s 3-3-5 defense.

One good sign from Mendenhall is how he embraced the rich history of BYU, and as part of that, he’s re-introducing the uniforms BYU used under Lavell Edwards. But how does the rest of his program stack up?

Notable coaches: There are few big names on Mendenhall’s staff but there is plenty of coaching experience. Two of the more recognizable names include offensive coordinator Robert Anae, Ph.D, a former BYU player who was previously the OL coach for Texas Tech, and Brandon Doman, another former BYU player and the youngest member of the staff. Doman was the starting Cougar QB in 2001, and his exceptional running skills allowed the then-coaching staff to insert a little option into the passing attack. He will coach the QBs, although the option is not expected to be a part of Anae’s offense. The rest of the staff is filled with coaches with significant MWC, WAC and Pac-10 experience.

Offensive Philosophy: Mendenhall has always favored aggressive defenses, and when it came time to determining an offensive identity, he stayed true to himself and fancied an aggressive offense. Smart move. Texas Tech has been an explosive offense ever since Mike Leach took over the program, and in hiring Robert Anae, Mendenhall found not only an assistant with a similar mindset but also a coach with BYU ties (another smart move).

If you've watched the Red Raiders play, you are probably familiar with their extremely wide OL splits. In March 2002, Anae wrote an article for American Football Monthly where he discussed his OL splits philosophy – it’s a great read. According to Anae, widening the OL splits accomplishes four primary goals: a larger pocket is created for the QB, wider passing lanes are established, wider running lanes open up and finally, the OL are more effective on screen passes because they are more spread out and closer to their blocking responsibilities.

While Anae is inexperienced as a playcaller, OL play is an integral yet underrated element of Texas Tech's recent success, and Mendenhall also retained Cougar assistant Lance Reynolds, who has the offensive background to complement Anae's skills.

Developing an offense in Provo similar to Texas Tech’s is going to pay huge dividends, possibly as early as this year. The new offense plays directly into the recruiting strengths of BYU, a program with a rich history of producing great quarterbacks. The next one may be John Beck, who reaffirmed his grip on the starting position this past spring.

Beck started ten games last year and earned second-team All-Mountain West Conference honors. He should easily be able to increase upon last year’s numbers, which included 2,563 yards and 15 touchdowns. Given the experience that Beck returns to the 2005 offense, it’s hard to imagine this offense not creating problems for a Mountain West conference whose teams have little experience against the scheme; the Cougars could surprise a lot of teams, as this Scout.com article (subscription required) mentions.

Once again, players are talking about the simplicity of the new system. This is commonly seen whenever players compare any new system to a discarded one, but I think there is more truth to this cliche in Provo because of Crowton's complex option route-based passing attack. Because of that, I do think this new offense will be easier to learn (Scout.com, subscription required), as TE Daniel Coates mentions:

“It’s so much easier. The reads and getting to where you need to go. The last offense was more difficult to where everybody was confused. Now it’s more like everyone goes here and everyone goes there. This play you go here and that play you go there and there’s not as much guessing.”

Early returns from spring practice were mixed, but I think that the writer ignored an important consideration. Most of the time in spring practice the defense is ahead of the offense, and it's almost certain that this would be the case when a defensive scheme remains intact while a new offense is being constructed.

Defensive Philosophy: Scheme-wise, this will be the same BYU defense that Brady Quinn and the rest of the offense saw in 2003 and 2004. I’m not going to waste your time summarizing a defense that ND fans have seen two years running, but for our more ambitious readers, I’d recommend two insightful articles. First, an excellent run-down on Mendenhall’s defense can be found here, and if you’re interested in learning more about the history of the 3-3-5 and its development by current New Mexico head coach Rocky Long, I’d recommend this 2003 Las Vegas Sun article.

One final note on the defense: it was originally designed to help defend spread passing attacks, and like the option, its rareness made preparation more difficult, as Urban Meyer suggests in the following quote.

“You wish you had a bye week to prepare. Any time you play a unique style of offense or defense, you wish you had an extra week to prepare. And that’s a very difficult team to prepare for."

However, four teams now use it in the Mountain West Conference – UNLV, BYU, Air Force and New Mexico. Because it’s becoming a bit more common, will the 3-3-5 prove less successful as teams adapt to its strength and weaknesses?

Predictions: It’s difficult to read up on Mendenhall and come away with any opinion other than he has done his homework, prepared a thorough gameplan and is now executing it – while making adjustments where necessary. Check out the following excerpt from this article:

Mendenhall has sought counsel from inside and outside. He's tapped in to traditional BYU sources and invited advice from professional organizational behavioral scientists including Paul Gustavson, a former football player who's San Jose-based Organization Planning and Design, Inc., has serviced the likes of National Semiconductor, the Veterans Administration, AT&T Credit Corp and NASA.

Mendenhall has broken down every aspect of BYU football, operations, budget, personnel and evaluated efficiency. He's tweaked every part of BYU football from communications, academics, workouts, practices and staff assignments to summer camps. BYU has a database of 1,700 former athletes. They've targeted them with letters, inviting their involvement. They've sent out invitations for former players to attend practice, breakout meetings and scrimmage on April 1. They've had response, the oldest, a player from 1934. The idea is to spread ownership of the program, pay respect to tradition and those who've already invested. In the process, Mendenhall has a map of the country marked with former player locations, men who could help identify talent and have agreed to be eyes and ears of BYU football.

For instance, if he clicks in talent-rich California, goes to Orange County and clicks on Costa Mesa, the names of two former Cougars pop up. They are Steve Sanders and Jeff Wilcox. These guys can't "officially" recruit for BYU under NCAA guidelines. But they can watch, evaluate, be bird dogs and report on any LDS or non-LDS player who fits BYU's profile within a ward or stake boundary. Mendenhall's crew will then finish the process.

Coaches like Mendenhall don’t fail; they simply refuse to accept failure.

If there’s one aspect of his management plan that concerns me, it’s the possibility that by wearing both the HC and DC hats, he might be taking on too much too soon. But then again, his team is already familiar with his defensive schemes, so perhaps I’m reading too much into it. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Mendenhall became the Bob Stoops of the MWC and returned BYU to consistent national prominence...nor would it surprise me if, after years of success at BYU, Mendenhall returned to his alma mater when the Oregon State job next opens up.

The Weis Factor

Weis and Mendenhall have never squared off, and it’s a decent guess that Weis has never seen a 3-3-5 defense before, except on tape.

Charlie's assistants do have some experience with variations of the defense. OL coach John Latina has seen it every year at Ole Miss because Joe Lee Dunn took his version of the defense from Mississippi State to Memphis at the same time the Tigers jumped onto the schedule. Additionally, WR coach Rob Ianello has seen it as well in Wisconsin’s games against UNLV in ’04 and West Virginia in ’02 and ’03.

All in all, it should be an interesting matchup between the NFL vet and the cagey up-and-comer.

Super Charlie | by Mark

(Ed. note - please welcome Mark as the eighth regular contributor to BGS. We can vouch for his bona fides as a fervent ND afficionado and an all-around wise-ass. Say hi to Mark.)

Outside of "Never rat on your friends" and "Always keep your mouth shut", "It's not what you know -- it's who you know" is probably the greatest advice you can get in life.

Over the last 5 seasons, only 23 guys have coached in the Super Bowl as either a head coach, offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator. The vast majority of these coaches have been, and remain, among the elite in today's NFL. Some, such as Lovie Smith, Marvin Lewis and Romeo Crennel, have ascended to head coaching positions. Others, like Jim Johnson and Monte Kiffin, are paid almost as well as most head coaches and likely would be candidates themselves but are well into the swan song of their careers.

Charlie Weis has worked with, or against, most of them.

Here is a list of 19 of those Super Bowl coaches, what they are doing currently and what, if any, connection they have to Weis and his staff at ND.

This isn't meant to be a "Charlie's Rolodex" rundown as much as just a sense of the coaching stock he comes from, a look at the exceptional professional company Charlie keeps. In other words, Super Bowl coaches: the best of the best.

( * Denotes a close connection to Weis and/or his staff. Coaches are listed alphabetically.)

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* BILL BELICHICK - head coach, New England Patriots. Belichik has won the Super Bowl three of the last five seasons. He is the best coach in pro football today and is the single greatest influence on Weis and his career. An upcoming article will go over the numerous ways that Weis has already begun to transform the "Patriot Way" of doing business into the "Notre Dame Way".
BRIAN BILLICK - head coach, Baltimore Ravens. Billick won the Super Bowl as the HC of the Ravens in 2000. Aside from his role on offense, he hires good people on defense. His last two DC’s are now head coaches in the NFL. His current DC, Rex Ryan, served in that capacity under Notre Dame DC Rick Minter when the two were at the University of Cincinnati.
CHUCK BRESHNAHAN - defensive coordinator, Cincinnati Bengals. He was the DC of the Raiders when they played the Bucs in the Super Bowl. Breshnahan worked for Kirk Ferentz when Ferentz was the HC at Maine and went with him to Cleveland to work under Belichick. While he hasn't worked directly with Weis, Breshnahan is yet another member of the Belichick coaching tree that includes Nick Saban, Ferentz, Weis, Crennel, and Pat Hill among others.
* BILL CALLAHAN - head coach, University of Nebraska. Callahan took the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2002. Since then he has struggled, getting fired from the Raiders and then going 5-6 last year in his first season with the Cornhuskers. Callahan worked with Rob Ianello for four years at Wisconsin.
* MATT CAVANAUGH - offensive coordinator, Pittsburgh Panthers. He is the only coach on this list that is not a head coach in either college or the NFL or is no longer a coordinator in the NFL. The difference between the role that Weis played in the Patriots Super Bowl seasons, when compared with Cavanaugh's role as OC with the Ravens, is like night and day. Cavanaugh was a backup QB on the 1990 New York Giants team that won the Super Bowl. Weis, Belichik and Crennel were all coaches on that squad.
* BRAD CHILDRESS - offensive coordinator, Eagles. Childress, like Callahan, is a member of the growing “tree” of coaches that Barry Alvarez has developed at Wisconsin. Alvarez, of course, was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame during the 1988 National Championship season. Rob Ianello worked with him on the Badgers staff for two seasons.
* ROMEO CRENNEL – head coach, Cleveland Browns. He is the third member of the “Patriot Three”. Along with Belichik, he is the only coach in the NFL that has five Super Bowl rings. Weis coached with Crennel in 14 out of his 15 seasons in the NFL.
JIM FASSEL - offensive coordinator, Baltimore Ravens. He took the Giants to the Super Bowl in 2000 as their Head Coach. Chances are he will once again be a Head Coach in the NFL sometime soon. Thankfully for Notre Dame fans, Weis did not get the Giants job when Fassel was fired.
* JOHN FOX - head coach, Carolina Panthers. The only coach, other than the “Patriots Three”, that has coached in more than one Super Bowl over the last five seasons. Was the Giants defensive coordinator in 2000. Weis is among his closest friends and Fox tried to hire him as his OC when he got the Panthers job. Fox is on the Board of the "Hannah and Friends" charity.
* JON GRUDEN - head coach, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Chucky won it all with the Bucs in 2002 and three years later is still the youngest head coach in the NFL. Gruden and Weis share Bob Lamonte as their agent. Gruden also employs one of Weis' closest friends in the coaching community, Rich Bisaccia, who may end up in South Bend one day as a member of the ND staff.
* DAN HENNING – offensive coordinator, Carolina Panthers. He held that position when the Panthers lost to the Pats in the Super Bowl. Like Muir, Henning worked under Weis when they were with the Jets. It's interesting that despite being much more experienced, as both a head coach and a coordinator, Henning worked under Weis with the Jets and was the number two choice of John Fox, after Charlie, to fill that position with the Panthers.
JIM JOHNSON - defensive coordinator, Eagles. This former Notre Dame coach is considered by many to be among the two or three best defensive coordinators in the NFL. That being said, many analysts attributed the most recent Patriots Super Bowl victory to Weis' in- game adjustments to the blitz scheme that Johnson used to attack New England.
* MONTE KIFFIN – defensive coordinator, Tampa Bay. Kiffin was in this role in 2002 when the Bucs won it all. If fact, he was retained by Gruden when he took over the team. Kiffin truly is one of the most influential defensive coaches in the game. Among those that have worked under him are Lovie Smith, Herm Edwards and Pete Carroll. In addition, Rick Minter twice worked under Kiffin - at Arkansas (both worked for Holtz) and at NC State.
MARVIN LEWIS - head coach, Cincinnati Bengals. Lewis won the Super Bowl as the DC of the Ravens in 2000. Lewis has done a very good job thus far getting the Bengals back on track. He and Mike Nolan are now head coaches in the NFL. It says something about the talent of Rex Ryan that he was picked to be the next to lead the Ravens defense.
MIKE MARTZ – head coach, St Louis Rams. His Rams lost in the Super Bowl to the Patriots in 2001. Martz is known for his acumen on the offensive side of the football. He was the OC for the Rams when they won it all in 1999. The ability of Weis' offense to control the clock and keep the ball away from the Rams offense in 2001 was one of the keys in the Patriots first Super Bowl victory.
* BILL MUIR – offensive coordinator, Tampa Bay. Muir was the OC when the Bucs won the Super Bowl. From 1997-1999 Muir worked with Weis when they were with the New York Jets. The last two seasons Muir worked under Weis when Charlie was promoted to OC. Muir, like fellow NFL offensive coordinators Dan Henning, Maurice Carthon (Cleveland Browns), and John Hufnagel (NY Giants) have all worked as members of Weis' offensive staffs in recent years.
* ANDY REID – head coach, Philadelphia Eagles. Despite losing this past Super Bowl to the Pats, Reid has been able to turn the Eagles into the most consistent team in the NFC over the past five seasons. He is close friends with Weis and the two are both represented by Bob Lamonte.
LOVIE SMITH – head coach, Chicago Bears. Smith was the defensive coordinator for the Rams when they lost to the Pats and his guidance on defense was a large factor in getting St Louis back to the Super Bowl. Smith is yet another in a very long line of Monte Kiffin disciples. Had he not taken the Notre Dame job Weis would likely be a head coach along with Smith.
* MIKE TRGOVAC – defensive coordinator, Carolina Panthers. Trgovac goes back many years with Rick Minter, having worked as a member of Minter’s defensive staffs at both Ball State and Notre Dame. Trgovac's boss, John Fox, was one of the League's best defensive coordinators before taking over the Panthers. Is it possible that Trgovac recommended Minter to Fox who in turn suggested him to Weis (with a recommendation from Lou, too)?

---

Of course, we could supplement this list with Weis’ connections to the the Dallas Cowboys (Parcells), Indianapolis Colts (Polian) and the New York Giants (ownership on down). In fact, I'm sure we could find Weis connections on every single team in the pro game. But even in this narrow field -- Super Bowl coaches -- Charlie's connections are all over the place.

So what does all this mean for Notre Dame football? Three things, at least:

1. Coaching magnetism. It's no surprise Charlie was able to tap an exceptional assistant staff, from expert journeymen (Minter, Lewis, Latina) to eager up-and-comers (Haywood, Polian, Parmalee). What ambitious coach wouldn’t want to plug into Weis’ world? Charlie's level of experience and professionalism should help him immensely for future hires, too -- we already know that Mike Haywood has his eye on a HC job at some point, and I can't imagine Brian Polian sticking to assistant special teams for the rest of his career. As his coaches move on to better positions, Charlie's got a great network to draw from. We already saw it when Cutcliffe retired -- he didn't miss a beat in picking up a great (and overqualified) replacement in Peter Vaas. When you consider the crowd that our Jersey Guy runs with, don't expect Charlie to have much trouble keeping the pipeline flowing into South Bend.

2. Player development. Sharpening skills. Improving on talent. Teaching the pro game, the cutting-edge stuff. 'Nuff said.

3. Pro connections. Charlie described it himself at a presser back in January, when talking about how he could help his players move on to the next level. "'I'll call up 20 general managers that will take my phone call today," Weis said. "You name a guy, I can call him. I think I can get ahold of (Bill) Polian. I got a connection. But I'm just saying that I can call 20 general managers and say, 'What do you think on this guy?'"

And that works for everyone on the team, not just the guys who are going to hear their names called on draft day. Much of the NFL is made up of non-drafted guys who got tryouts with pro clubs, practice squad free agents, and the like. For the blue chippers, the appeal of Charlie, Lewis, etc, is obvious; but even for the role players who fill out a signing class, those NFL connections and the phone calls Charlie can make are like gold.

Preseason Hype | by Jay

Brian Cook over at mgoblog has pulled together a novel idea: the BlogPoll, a weekly football ranking conducted by a panel of some of the most fervent college football blogs out there. BGS will be a proud participant, and even though we'll only be getting one vote for the eight of us, it should be pretty interesting to see if we can't collectively do a better job than the BCS. As mentioned earlier (or maybe not), we'll be doing our own weekly poll right here, and then sending the results off to Brian so he can mix them together with the hoi polloi.

As a kickoff to the poll, Brian linked the Scout.com preseason rankings, a composite of a bunch of other preseason polls: Athlon, The Sporting News, CBSSportsLine.com, SI.com, CollegeFootballNews.com, Lindy’s, NationalChamps.net, Scout.com, Football Action, Street & Smith’s, Steele and two polls from ESPN.com (Ivan Maisel and Pat Forde). Here's what it looks like:

1. USC (13; 13-0) 325 points 2. Texas (11-1) 295 points 3. Tennessee (10-3) 267 points 4. Michigan (9-3) 255 points 5. Ohio State (8-4) 245 points 6. Oklahoma (12-1) 244 points 7. Iowa (10-2) 235 points 8. LSU (9-3) 233 points 9. Virginia Tech (10-3) 230 points 9. Florida (7-5) 230 points 11. Miami (Fla.) (9-3) 218 points 12. Louisville (11-1) 179 points 13. Florida State (9-3) 165 points 14. Georgia (10-2) 162 points 15. Auburn (13-0) 125 points 16. Purdue (7-5) 122 points 17. Texas A&M (7-5) 94 points 18. Fresno State (9-3) 84 points 19. Arizona State (9-3) 75 points 19. Boise State (11-1) 75 points

21. Cal (10-2) 49 points 22. Texas Tech (8-4) 46 points 23. Pittsburgh (8-4) 37 points 24. Boston College (9-3) 35 points 25. Georgia Tech (7-5) 29 points 26. Alabama (6-6) 26 points 27. Bowling Green (9-3) 22 points 28. Oregon (5-6) 16 points 28. Virginia (8-4) 16 points 30. Wisconsin (9-3) 12 points 31. Nebraska (5-6) 10 points 31. N.C. State (5-6) 10 points 33. Penn State (4-7) 8 points 33. Minnesota (7-5) 8 points 35. Wyoming (7-5) 6 points 35. Iowa State (7-5) 6 points 37. Colorado (8-5) 4 points 38. Utah (12-0) 3 points 38. Miami (Ohio) (8-5) 3 points 40. UCLA (6-6) 2 points 40. UTEP (8-4) 2 points

So here's an obvious question to get this party started right. From this grand composite of peerless prognosticators, who looks overrated to you? And which teams are being taken too lightly? (And feel free to include other teams not mentioned. Wonder who that could be.)

Ryan joins up | by Pat

Defensive end John Ryan called up Coach Ianello yesterday morning and became the eighth known verbal commit for the Fighting Irish. With two defensive ends in the bag (Ryan and Kallen Wade), the Irish seem to have filled up at another position in the 2006 recruiting class. The 6'5 240lb Ryan had narrowed down his college choice to Notre Dame and Boston College and ultimately chose the Irish despite some family and friend connections to BC. Ryan also had offers from Michigan State, Syracuse, Maryland, and Duke.

The committment of Ryan not only secures another quality player for this recruiting class, but also is another sign of the approach Coach Weis is taking to recruiting. We've commented before on the apparent focus on midwestern recruits and Ryan, from St. Ignatius High School near Cleveland, Ohio, certainly fits the bill. Taking it a step further, Weis seems determined to get the Notre Dame name back into the state of Ohio, especially with the Catholic schools.

During the Willingham and Davie years, Ohio, a normally productive recruiting area, seemed to be ignored for states like California and Texas. And while those two states aren't shabby when it comes to producing football players, Ohio is no slouch itself. Noticing this lack of ND presence, Boston College actually has been making inroads into Ohio high schools and lately has been filling its roster with players from the same Catholic schools that used to be pipelines to South Bend.

Now, I realize our starting quarterback is from Ohio. But taking a closer look at the spring roster, there are only four players from Ohio (Quinn, Nduwke, Incarnato, and walk-on Marty Mooney). Of those, only Mooney is from a Catholic school (St. Xavier, alma mater of Rocky Boiman among others). In comparison, Boston College has eleven players on its spring roster from Ohio high schools, seven of which are from Catholic schools. Even the Michigan Wolverines have six players from Ohio on their roster. In the incoming recruiting class, both ND and BC picked up two Ohio prospects with both of BC's coming from Catholic schools. Interestingly, one of the BC recruits, Jim Ramella, is a former teammate and friend with John Ryan and their friendship was one of the factors that appeared to put BC in the lead for Ryan's services. (Ryan's current teammate, WR Rob Parris, is coming to ND's summer camp in a few weeks to try and earn a scholarship offer.)

Let me back up a second here before I continue. It's not my intention to suggest that Notre Dame should only be focusing on kids from Catholic schools at the expense of other public or private schools. I like the increased focus that Weis is giving these schools not because I desire to see ND sign kids with names like Sully or Fitz who do the Sign of the Cross everytime they score a touchdown. Rather, many of these Catholic schools, especially in the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas, are talent-rich, tradition-laden schools that annually turn out some of the best players in the state. That and the kids are already used to subpar weather, Catholic influences, and a legitimate course workload. Ignoring these schools and not establishing good relationships with their head coaches (as some have accused Ty and Davie of doing) is just a bad idea. Weis seems to have started the push back into Ohio last year during his first abbreviated recruiting campaign when he offered Cardinal Mooney star Kyle McCarthy a few weeks before Signing Day and I doubt we will see him shy away from this strategy anytime soon.

This article from last month's Cincinnati Enquirer does a great job of summing up the recent push into Ohio. Rather than just pull out some choice quotes, I'm going to reproduce the entire thing (although pay particular attention to the Schoenhoft comments).

Sunday, May 1, 2005

Irish revival might begin in Cincinnati
Wade 1st from area to sign in a while

By Tom Groeschen
Enquirer staff writer

Notre Dame last won a national football championship in 1988. Around that time, the Irish pipeline of Greater Cincinnati prep products started drying up.

While the twin droughts (national titles, Cincinnati players) are just coincidence, local Notre Dame fans are still cheering the news that Withrow's Kallen Wade, a junior defensive end, has committed to the Fighting Irish for 2006.

Wade is the first area player to accept a Notre Dame scholarship in nearly 10 years, a stunning statistic when one considers Cincinnati once regularly helped stock the Irish program.

"I love to see one of our players going back up there," said Bob Crable, the Moeller head coach and former Notre Dame All-America linebacker. "I know Notre Dame wants to make a presence here again."

The Notre Dame media guide lists 76 Greater Cincinnatians who have played at least one second in an Irish varsity game, dating to the program's formation in 1887. Of the 76 locals, 50 played at Notre Dame between the late 1960s and late '80s.

A total of 18 Cincinnati products played on Notre Dame's last three national title teams (1973, '77 and '88. Tight end Frank Jacobs (Newport Central Catholic) and cornerback D'Juan Francisco (Moeller) both played for the '88 Irish. But, since 1990, only five locals have played in a Notre Dame varsity game.

Former St. Xavier linebacker Rocky Boiman, who played for Notre Dame from 1998-2001, was the last local player awarded an Irish scholarship.

Boiman, now in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, is nearly a decade removed from high school.

The only Cincinnati player on the 2004 Irish roster was junior quarterback Marty Mooney, a walk-on from St. Xavier.

Gerry Faust, the former Moeller (1963-80) and Notre Dame (1981-85) head coach, said he was thrilled to learn Wade had chosen Notre Dame. Faust is retired and living in Akron.

"I've been trying to tell people for years that Notre Dame needed to get back to recruiting the Midwest schools," Faust said. "Notre Dame made its heydays on those kids. Ara Parseghian did it, Dan Devine did it, we did it and Lou Holtz did it."

Back to their roots

And now, new Irish coach Charlie Weis wants to do it with help from his own Cincinnati connection - Rick Minter.

Minter, the former Cincinnati head coach (1994-2003), is back as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator. It's the same job Minter held at Notre Dame under Holtz in 1992-93.

"To rebuild this program in the proper way, we need to have a very strong hold on the Midwest," Minter said, speaking by telephone from his office in South Bend, Ind. "That includes being strong in Ohio, and particularly in Cincinnati where it's such a strong high school town. With my familiarity there, we hope to use that to our advantage."

Jon Dannemiller, a St. Xavier grad who is president of the Notre Dame Club of Greater Cincinnati, said Notre Dame has between 1,500 and 2,000 alumni living in the area. Add to that the countless "subway alumni" who grew up watching Notre Dame football highlights on TV each Sunday morning with Lindsey Nelson and Paul Hornung, and it's no secret that Irish football has always been big in Cincinnati.

"I'm so happy Charlie Weis seems to be recruiting the Midwest again," Dannemiller said.

By land, Notre Dame is about 4½ hours northwest of downtown Cincinnati. When did the relatively short drive suddenly get so long for Notre Dame, and how did Irish football lose its grip in Cincinnati ?

"I can't answer that, because I haven't been here for a while," Minter said. "I do know we want to get that presence back, because it goes all the way back to Ara's days and Gerry Faust's days."

What changed?

Theories abound on why Notre Dame has no longer recruited Cincinnati as hard:

The Cincy "connection" was broken when Faust was forced out in 1985. Faust sent several Moeller players to Parseghian and Devine in the 1960s and '70s, and there were several Faust recruits still playing for the '88 national champions.

The decline in local recruiting actually began under Holtz, who got the occasional plum (Norwood fullback Marc Edwards in the early 1990s) but signed only a handful of Cincinnati players in his 1986-96 tenure.

Holtz's successors, Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham, also tried to spread their recruiting nets more nationally at "speed" players. To a degree, they got away from Notre Dame's hardnosed Midwest roots. And being several years removed from having Cincinnati players, the Irish were no longer regular visitors to area high schools.

Crable thinks the Irish, trying to compete against their murderous schedules, recently have gone more for the so-called "athletes" than the tough, smashmouth Notre Dame players of the past.

"I think Notre Dame recently has gotten the fast kids, tall kids and kids who could catch the football," Crable said. "Charlie Weis said he's looking for toughness, and I think his predecessors failed to find enough tough kids. I know speed kills, but football is a game of attitude. You've got to have some nastiness."

Crable, who epitomized nastiness as a player, said Notre Dame also has lost some recruiting battles to the Ohio States and Michigans in recent years.

"Kids like winners," Crable said. "Notre Dame hasn't won in a long time."

It's not as if Notre Dame has been ignoring Cincinnati prep football. The Irish last summer were a top contender for St. Xavier senior Robby Schoenhoft, who was ranked among the nation's top dozen prep quarterbacks.

"After I visited there, I was ready to commit," Schoenhoft said of Notre Dame. "I was just dumbfounded. I was in awe of the place and its tradition."

But Schoenhoft hit some snags with Willingham and his staff. Schoenhoft said he couldn't get a straight answer on who else the Irish were recruiting at his position. Finally, he decided to look elsewhere.

"The whole process turned me off," Schoenhoft said. "Nothing against anybody, because I did like it up there."

Schoenhoft signed with Ohio State, after paring his list to OSU, Michigan and Notre Dame.

Other locals of interest

This year, Wade has not been the only local target for Notre Dame.

According to the recruiting Web site NDNation.com, the Irish also have offered a scholarship to Princeton offensive lineman Aaron Brown and have "mutual interest" in Withrow defensive back Robert Williams. St. Xavier linebacker/defensive end Alex Albright visited Notre Dame's spring football game last week with Wade.

Tom Lemming, the ESPN.com recruiting analyst, said Wade may be the No. 2 overall prospect in Ohio behind Princeton's Brown, with both having the potential to be "Top 100" players when Lemming releases his annual list in June.

Has the Cincinnati pipeline reopened? Time will tell, but city coaches including Withrow's Doc Gamble, St. Xavier's Steve Specht, and Moeller's Crable all say Minter has told them Notre Dame will be back.

"I know they hadn't visited Withrow in some time," Gamble said. "I used to work Rick Minter's camp when I was an assistant at Mount St. Joseph and East Carolina, so we have a connection. I know they're making a point of emphasis to get back to Ohio."

It doesn't just mean to Catholic schools, either. While Notre Dame is famous as a Catholic school, the Irish had no qualms about landing an inner-city player from Withrow.

"I was kind of shocked that Kallen was so excited about Notre Dame, but he loved it," Gamble said.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Wade, who had 13 sacks last year, said he was also considering Boston College and Illinois.

"Once I saw Notre Dame ... I don't think anybody could touch them," Wade said.

Wade's road

At Notre Dame, it will help that Wade is a 3.8 student. Notre Dame's rigorous academic standards have been blamed, fairly or not, for the Irish losing recruits in recent years.

Wade said he is not particularly familiar with the Irish tradition. The 11 national titles and Knute Rockne and the Four Horsemen and Touchdown Jesus are just now coming to the Cincinnati kid, who grew up in Phoenix dreaming of being an Olympic sprinter.

"I moved here five or six years ago, but I really don't know much about Notre Dame's past," Wade said. "I just liked the atmosphere when I went up there."

For the record, Wade is Episcopalian. He laughs when asked about the Catholic yarn that says the two biggest jobs in the world are Pope and Notre Dame football coach, not necessarily in that order.

"It doesn't matter to me," Wade said. "We're all Christians anyway."

In South Bend, he'll find everyone on the same page. Irish alums, people he didn't know from Adam, were coming up and welcoming Wade as he walked around Notre Dame Stadium last weekend.

"I know they haven't won for a while," Wade said. "It's my job to help put them back up there."

Lots of interesting points in that article. The fact it's been a decade since ND signed a kid from Cincinnati. ND guys like Crable coming right out and saying he wants to send his players to ND. The apparently scattershot and dare I say bumfuzzled QB recruiting under Willingham. The obligatory Lemming quote pumping up Irish recruits. Coach Minter's connections to southern Ohio that he sowed while head coach at Cincinnati. All of it great stuff.

Getting back to the Ryan committment though, in addition to being another signal that ND is making a strong push back into Ohio, he appears to be a solid player that will be an excellent strongside defensive end compliment to Kallen Wade's pass rushing. Look for this pair to keep opposing quarterbacks on the run in the years to come.

Unhealthy fixations | by Jay

I originally wanted to include this in the post on Purdue below, but at the time we didn't know if it actually happened. This morning Jason Kelly of the SB Trib confirmed it. Check this out:

Notre Dame had nothing to do with the Sun Bowl, except in the sense that it suffered severe burns from exposing itself to Big 10 representative Purdue's offense without adequate SPF.

As autumn grew colder, so did the Boilermakers, but for one glorious October day in South Bend they radiated heat.

If the memory fails, or the psyche just suppresses it, Purdue turned Notre Dame Stadium into its own private solar system revolving around star quarterback Kyle Orton.

Considering the eclipse that followed, it makes sense that the Boilermakers commemorated that bright, sunshiny day on Sun Bowl rings otherwise clouded with the memory of a loss.

Arizona State -- a.k.a., the Sun Devils, as if this little theme hasn't played itself out -- defeated Purdue 27-23 in El Paso. One final frustration in a season of great promise and bitter disappointment.

Which explains the score of the Notre Dame game and the shillelagh representing the traveling trophy that goes to the winner engraved on one side of the bowl rings.

A cheesy gesture for a regular season game that interrupted the Big 10 conference schedule, a win Purdue barely acknowledged as significant at the time.

Like a photo of a sunset, though, it captured the last spectacular view before darkness fell.

And it etched into precious metal what the Irish have always led themselves to believe. They say playing Notre Dame takes on the significance of a bowl game for many opponents.

Now Purdue has the jewelry to prove it.

They really get up for us, don't they? Last year there was even a "shave the moustache" pledge by Brock Spack if Purdue beat ND, as if their entire season hinged on beating Notre Dame. Apparently, it did.

Do you have a little brother? Did you ever notice growing up that he was way more competitive with you than you were with him? Practicing foosball all day just so he could beat you, that sort of thing? Then gloating for a week after he finally did?

That's Purdue.

Polls-O-Plenty | by Jay

BCS polling news. Looks like the "old boys' network" poll is moving forward as the replacement for the AP portion of the BCS formula (as previously rumored).

NEW YORK - The Bowl Championship Series has a plan for a new college football poll, and hired a company Tuesday to find voters.

The new poll, which would be added to the BCS weekly rankings, would consist of former players, coaches, administrators and members of the media, the BCS said in a statement.

Harris Interactive, a marketing research and polling firm that operates The Harris Poll, “is in the process of contacting a random sample of individuals nominated by the conferences and Notre Dame to determine interest in participating in the poll,” BCS coordinator and Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said in the statement.

BCS spokesman Bob Burda said Harris would be in charge of coordinating the poll and counting the votes on a weekly basis. The Big 12 and National Football Foundation will still be responsible for compiling the weekly BCS standings, Burda said.

A decision by the 11 Division I-A conferences and Notre Dame on whether to use the new poll could be made by mid-July.

“I am generally supportive of the concept (of a new poll),” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “We have not seen a formal presentation on it yet so it’s premature for me to comment on the specifics. I’ve been aware of it and like the fact that it has some independence. It is appealing to me that an outside organization would oversee the administration.”

The move comes following the decision by two major news organizations to opt out of the BCS ranking system, which determines the two teams that play in its national championship game.

In December, The Associated Press told the BCS to stop using its media poll in its weekly formula; ESPN withdrew from the coaches’ poll last week. The coaches’ poll remains part of the BCS rankings, and coaches agreed for the first time to reveal their votes for the final regular season poll.

The AP poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll had been the major components of the BCS rankings, and last season they held more weight than ever. The polls each counted for one-third of a team’s BCS grade, with a compilation of computer rankings making up the other third.

USA Today will continue compiling the coaches’ poll.

Another article I read on this mentioned that the panel would consist of 111 voters. Invitations to prospective panelists have already gone out, and 27 of them were to members of the media. By comparison, there were only 65 voters in the AP poll, and only 63 in the coaches'. I have no idea if these two polls are going to be weighted equally or not. And there's still the computer rankings, although it's still up in the air how much weight those are going to carry this time around.

Another interesting tidbit is about the new "transparency" of this poll. It's a nice selling point for this new arrangement, but according to the press release, only the final poll on December 4th will be "transparent", at which time every panelist's vote will be made public. This seems like a half-hearted effort to me. If the polls are secret right up until the finale, then there's still plenty of room for gamesmanship and pre-positioning. So much of the college football rankings is simply inertia; a top team can only fall so far, a lower team can only rise so much. And by concealing the votes all the way through they've done nothing to incentivize accountability (and honest objectivity) over the course of the season.

Anyway, I'm curious to see who's going to be on this august panel of "impartial" experts. From the ND pantheon, I expect Lou got an invite. God knows we're going to need some counterbalance for all the old coaches with axes to grind against the Irish.

Boiling Point | by Michael

The Irish will face several talented defenses this fall, and if forced to pick the best, most fans would probably pick Tennessee, Michigan or Southern Cal simply out of habit. It’s hard to argue with any of those picks (and Tennessee might be the best of those three), but in my opinion, a fourth defense could be even better: Purdue.

Defensive coordinator Brock Spack's aggressive, one-gap defense has given the Irish fits ever since Jarious Jackson graduated; in the last five games, the Irish have scored only five offensive TDs. (For extra credit, name the ND players who scored TDs against Purdue. Answers below.) Purdue gave up fewer points per game than Iowa last year, but outside of West Lafayette, Spack and the Purdue D rarely get mentioned in the same breath with the cream of the Big 10 defenses. Pete Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews.com wrote up their Purdue preview yesterday, and he didn't even mention Brock Spack. And as unheralded as they were last year, Purdue should be just as good on defense this year, if not better.

The Boilermakers return all eleven defensive starters in 2005, which is exactly the same situation in which they found themselves in 2003, when their defense was absolutely dominant. In fact, a look at their defensive statistics for the last three years shows that Spack has developed a top-notch two-deep. Purdue’s defense hasn’t been rebuilding, it’s been reloading as departing seniors give way to talented underclassmen. Despite having seven starters drafted by NFL teams, there was little drop-off in the defensive performance, as the numbers below demonstrate.

All Purdue Opponents	2002	2003	2004
Rush Yds Avg	160.5	159.1	138.4
Rush Yds vs Purdue	120.2	96.9	105.3
Yards/carry Avg	3.9	3.9	3.6
Yards/carry vs Purdue	3.3	2.6	3.0
Pass Yds Avg	205.0	204.5	209.6
Pass Yds vs Purdue	228.0	205.6	239.9
Points Avg	27.3	23.9	23.9
Points vs Purdue	23.2	17.4	17.2

So what’s the answer to solving the Purdue defense? Pretty simple. We need to throw the ball.

At first, that answer may seem ironic given that we amassed 460 yards in last year’s 41-16 embarrassment and another 297 yards in the 23-10 loss in 2003. However, we started throwing the ball in those games after we couldn’t get the running game churning, and as a result our offense became feast or famine. For instance, Quinn would complete a pass for a good chunk of yardage, but he’d also get sacked or hit while he was throwing on the next two plays because Purdue’s speed rushing defensive ends could line up wide of the tackles and just tee off every down.

If you’re the sadomasochistic sort, review the first quarter of last year’s debacle. What you’ll see is an offense that had some success moving the ball by passing on 1st and 2nd down. Purdue’s defense was slightly on its heels until the ill-fated decision and attempt to establish a running game. That decision -- as well as the predictability of Bill Diedrick’s formations and playcalling -- played right into Purdue’s hands.

Despite our losses the last two years, offenses that can throw the ball reasonably well have actually had the most success against Purdue. Check out the following stats; there’s an interesting trend revealing itself.

Opponent Yds/Pass Pts at Iowa, '02 8.7 31 Ohio St, '02 8.7 10 at Wisconsin, '03 8.5 23 Wake Forest, '02 8.0 24 Bowling Green, '03 8.0 27 Arizona St, '04 7.6 27 at Iowa, '04 7.5 23 Georgia, '04 7.5 34 Illinois, '02 7.4 38 at Michigan, '03 7.4 31 at Ohio St, '03 7.3 16 at Wake Forest, '03 7.3 10 Washington, '02 7.2 24 at Michigan St, '02 7.2 42 at Notre Dame, '04 7.2 16 Minnesota, '02 7.2 15

Opponent Yds/Rush Pts at Iowa, '02 5.0 31 Minnesota, '02 4.7 15 Bowling Green, '03 4.7 27 at Northwestern, '04 4.6 13 Northwestern, '03 4.6 14 Syracuse, '04 4.5 0 Wake Forest, '02 4.4 24 at Northwestern, '02 4.4 13 Illinois, '02 4.3 38 Ohio St, '02 4.3 10 at Wake Forest, '03 4.3 10 at Michigan, '03 4.3 31 at Michigan St, '02 4.2 42 Iowa, '03 4.2 14 at Illinois, '04 4.2 30 Notre Dame, '03 4.0 10 at Wisconsin, '03 4.0 23 Ohio State, '04 4.0 17

On the left, I took the teams over the last three years who had the highest yards per pass average. This is the number that a lot of people use to measure the quality of a passing offense. I ranked them from highest to lowest, and then included the number of points they scored against Purdue.

On the right, I took the teams over the last three years who had the highest yards per rushing attempt. Again, I ranked them from highest to lowest. I also took the points per game average for both sets of teams.

Teams in red are teams that beat Purdue.

The two charts seem to illustrate that teams with a high yards per pass average perform better than teams with a high yards per rush average. Notice too how better passing teams have scored more points against Purdue. Now we’ll take it a step further, and take the more balanced offenses out of both charts.

Opponent Yds/Pass Pts Arizona St, '04 7.6 27 at Iowa, '04 7.5 23 Georgia, '04 7.5 34 Illinois, '02 7.4 38 at Ohio St, '03 7.3 16 Washington, '02 7.2 24 at Notre Dame, '04 7.2 16

Opponent Yds/Rush Pts at Northwestern, '04 4.6 13 Northwestern, '03 4.6 14 Syracuse, '04 4.5 0 at Northwestern, '02 4.4 13 Illinois, '02 4.3 38 Iowa, '03 4.2 14 at Illinois, '04 4.2 30 Notre Dame, '03 4.0 10 Ohio State, '04 4.0 17

These are the same charts but I removed the teams that appeared on both (teams that were balanced and could run and pass extremely well). I think this is extremely telling as far as how the average points goes up for passing teams and down for running teams, and one-dimensional teams who can only pass the ball are 5-2 whereas teams that can only run the ball are 2-7. Additionally, "passing" teams on the left averaged 25.4 points per game and "running" teams on the right averaged 16.6 per game. (Again, the winning teams in red.)

There are two obvious correlations. Teams that have competency throwing the ball are more likely to score points and beat Purdue than teams with competency running the ball. Why is this? From what I've seen, Purdue is simply too good at taking away the opposition’s running game, especially if an offense can’t be the aggressor with a passing attack.

History offers several more pieces of evidence why passing the ball is more important than trying to run on Purdue:

1. In their last four games, which Big Ten team has scored the most points against Purdue? It’s not Michigan; it’s actually Illinois. In fact, against Purdue the Illini have scored 30+ points in three of the last four years and, in those games, they averaged 170 yards rushing and 239 yards passing. Ron Turner is known for his pro-style offenses and, with their most talented personnel in 2001 and 2002, Illinois obliterated Purdue.

2. Check out Purdue’s bowl games the last four years. Purdue has played Arizona State, Georgia, Washington and Washington State; Dirk Koetter, Mark Richt, Rick Neuheisel and Mike Price are all known for their passing offenses. With a month to prepare, Arizona State, Georgia and Washington State beat Purdue while accumulating impressive passing yardage and scoring 27, 33 and 34 points, respectively. Neuheisel didn’t win, although he had the most one-dimensional team of the four. Purdue also played Washington in a fifth bowl game in January 2001, but that Purdue defensive line was soft up front and the defense was still a year away from being as good as we’ve recently seen it. Washington ran over them like a few other teams did that year.

3. As much as it pains me to say this, look at Michigan. The Wolverines have scored the second-most points against Purdue over the last four years, and they, too, are known for having a pro-style offense. With a talented quarterback and receiving corps, Michigan has had little trouble moving the ball against Purdue, although they have settled for more field goals than they would probably have liked (a testament to the Boilermakers’ run defense). What did Michigan and Illinois have in common? They both featured pro-style offenses.

4. Simply put, the Purdue run defense has held 20 of their last 37 opponents to less than 3.0 yards per carry, and 22 of their last 37 opponents to under their seasonal rushing average.

For what it’s worth, I’m not arguing that teams dependent upon running the ball are unable to beat Purdue. Obviously this has occurred from time to time. But the trends are there...it’s a lot harder to beat them on the ground, as Ohio State found out in last year's loss to the Boilermakers. In fact, had the Buckeyes not completed that miracle 4th down TD pass in 2002, Purdue would have won two out of the last three against OSU.

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Enter Charlie Weis and his pro-style offense.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that, because of his success in the NFL, Weis will have the advantage going into the match-up with Spack. Not only has his preferred style of offense given Purdue the most trouble, but Weis is also recognized as one of the best offensive football minds in the game. This is going to be a battle, and as a football fan, I can’t wait to see it. What I would expect to see is a lot of passing formations to spread the field out, and an aggressive aerial attack that forces Purdue to get out of their base 4-3 package -- similarly to how Weis used 4-5 WR sets to keep Jeremiah Trotter off the field in the Super Bowl a few months ago.

He'll probably continue to press Purdue with Quinn's arm, but he'll also begin to run the ball out of these same passing formations. Then, when he does return to formations using regular personnel, including a fullback, he'll still be able to keep Purdue off balance with the pass (resulting in something like this.)

But Spack's steadfast defense, as we've seen, is nothing to sneeze at, and with Weis's renown for unpredictable playcalling, I think this could be the first game where we'll see Charlie get really creative. When it's all said and done, I believe that the Weis vs. Spack match-up will be one of the best chess matches in college football next year, and I think our offensive performance in that game will be a telling indicator of Weis’s future at Notre Dame.

Trivia answer: so who scored our five TDs against Purdue? Gary Godsey (2000), Ryan Grant (2001), Maurice Stovall (2003), Rhema McKnight (2004), and Rashon Powers-Neal (2004).

A 1000 Word Post | by Pat

Evening things out | by Jay

It's about time the NCAA did something about this:

The Glen Mason section of Minnesota's 2004 football media guide spans 10 pages and includes no fewer than 20 photos featuring the head coach. Not a bad tribute to a guy with a career record of 110-109-1.

But schools such as Minnesota might have to cut back on the bios after the NCAA Board of Directors recently voted to limit Division I media guides in all sports to 208 pages.

The NCAA's goal was to help schools help themselves. Now athletic departments can save money on printing costs without feeling inferior to schools such as Texas, which produced a 592-page football guide in 2003.

But many sports information directors fought the ruling because of the problems associated with having to cut hundreds of pages.

"There's not a lot of fluff in ours," said Northern Illinois SID Mike Korcek, whose 2004 guide checked in at 256 pages. "But if you're at Michigan or Texas or Notre Dame, how do you take out all that history, all those All-Americans? SIDs have to be tearing their hair out...if they have any."

John Heisler, an associate athletic director and former SID at Notre Dame, said the challenge will be to determine what belongs in the 208-page guide. How much space should be devoted to recruiting material versus player bios, records and history?

"There are going to be a million different philosophies on how to do this," he said.

Notre Dame's football guides are perennially judged to be among the nation's best, and about 15,000 are printed each year. Its 2004 book was a hefty 464 pages, but only about eight of those specifically targeted recruits. Northwestern's 2004 guide contained about 40 pages of information geared to high school football players, rather than reporters.

"How much of a vehicle is this for recruiting?" Heisler said. "That's what we need to talk to our coaches about."

Just like coaches who sidestep rules limiting practice time, SIDs are determined to find ways to preserve their information and research. Some will put it on their schools' Web sites. Others will print a separate records book. And others might beef up their spring football prospectus.

For those reasons and others, some SIDs simply don't see the benefits of trimming their guides. Many believe the savings will be negligible considering overall athletic department budgets.

"The type already gets smaller every year," Korcek said. "Are we going to go to 5 point? I think this just creates bigger headaches and is counter-productive."

Great move, and long overdue.

You know, if you look around the college football landscape, there are some big programs, and there are some small programs. That's just reality. But you know what? They all play football. Same rules, same field dimensions, same kind of ball and same equipment. These teams are more alike than they are different.

So it's simply unfair that ND, Michigan, USC and the other behemoths of college football were able to exploit their own history as they did. The big boys just have too much -- too much material, too much history, too much tradition -- and every year they inundated the market, washing out the littler programs who don't have as much to write about. I mean, how was Nicholls State supposed to compete with LSU when their football guide is only a tenth the size? Limiting the media guide is an excellent first step. Good job, NCAA.

But frankly, this is still side-stepping the real problems of unfair competition in the college ranks, papering over the underlying issue. It's one thing to cut down the media guide, but that doesn't change the fact that over the years some programs have just been too successful.

We need to do more.

For starters, we really need to cap the number of National Championships and Heismans a school can win. Five NCs should be enough for any school, and seven Heismans? Please. That's overkill. ND should do the right thing, box up a few of those Heismans -- I'm thinking Bartelli or Bernoulli or whoever from way back when -- and send them to some schools that don't have any. Congratulations, Division 1-AA John Carroll University, you just got a Heisman! That would just make their day, wouldn't it? Maybe we can all have a pizza party after the handover ceremony.

We also need to set a maximum limit of all-time wins. I mean, a .700+ all-time winning percentage is just ridiculous. We can comb through old box scores with White-Out and just change a few. A little dab here, a little dab there. Presto! Now ND's winning percentage doesn't look so threatening.

And there's lots more we can do too. We should probably cycle out all the old dusty records and history as the years go by...I mean, some of that stuff happened so long ago it probably doesn't matter and nobody remembers that stuff anyway. Get that clutter out of here!

And at the end of the day, we won't need to artifically set limits for the size of the media guides, will we? We just won't have as much to write about. See, it's a win-win.

So, keep the ball rolling, NCAA. You're off to a good start with the media guide thing, but let's keep the momentum. We need to sotp letting the big boys throw their weight around. All this history and tradition makes for a very unlevel playing field. Remember, it's all about fairness.

Track Times | by Pat

As the high school track season finishes up around the country, here's a quick look at how some of the incoming Notre Dame football players did.

DJ Hord (right - #735) finished second in the Missouri State Finals in the 100M dash with a time of 10.68 seconds. He also placed third overall in the 200M dash with a time of 21.53. His 4x100 relay team grabbed a third place finish with a time of 42.43.

David Bruton placed third in the 400M dash in the Ohio State Finals with a time of 48.48 seconds. He also placed fifth in the 200M with a time of 22.12 and sixth in Long Jump with 21-11.75. His 4x400 relay team ran 3:23.90, which was good enough for an eleventh place finish.

Asaph Schwapp made it to the Connecticut State Finals in shot put with throw of 48.07, but did not finish in the Top 10 in the final meet.

David Grimes finished third in the state of Michigan in the 100M dash with a time of 11.19 seconds. His 800M relay team finished first in the state with a time of 1:29.83 seconds. They also finished first in the 400M relay with a time of 43.32. Individually, Grimes finished fourth in the 400M with 51.00. His high school team won the overall state champsionship.

Joey Hiben won the state title in Minnesota in Shot Put with a throw of 56-08.75 feet. It was his third trip to the State Finals after competing in them as a sophomore and junior in shot put and the 110M hurdles.

Weis visits Davie | by Mike

Relax. The Davie the headline refers to is Davie High School, not the woeful Aggie himself. As a follow-up to Jay's chronicle of Charlie's spring odyssey, here is a closer look at what happens on one of Weis's stops.

In today's South Bend Tribune, Eric Hansen quoted James Aldridge's coach on the effect of Weis's visit

"He walked into my freshman biology class, and the kids were in awe, to say the least," Merrillville football coach Jeff Yelton said. "It was an honor and a privilege for this to be the first school in Indiana that coach Weis visited. And it wasn't just the players who got a kick out of it. The coaches, the whole community was excited.

"When he walked down the hall, you saw a lot of necks snapping around quickly."

Of course, Aldridge had already committed to Notre Dame. Did Charlie's visits have a similar effect at the schools of undecided prospects? According to the Salisbury (N.C.) Post, apparently so.

Highlights from an excellent Nick Bowton article on Weis's visit to cornerback Raeshon McNeil's high school. Chicks may dig the long ball, but top high school recruits are uniformly enamored with Super Bowl rings.

Weis, who offered McNeil a scholarship in early April, came to Davie to speak with football coach Doug Illing and principal Larry Bridgewater. Because of NCAA rules, Weis couldn't interact with McNeil, but the 6-foot, 180-pound defensive back managed to catch a glimpse of Weis' Super Bowl rings.

A former NFL offensive coordinator, Weis owns four of them.

"Those rings were nice," said McNeil, a junior. "I bet a lot of people's wives would like to have diamonds that big."

However, recruits seem even more impressed with Charlie's decision to visit them personally than they are with his rings.

"I think that when I go into a high school, the fact that it's not just an assistant coach popping in there — it's also the head coach popping in there — sends a message," [said Weis].

That message? We want you. Really.

McNeil and Illing got the point.

"So far he's the only head coach that has come to see me," McNeil said. "And the fact that how prestigious he is, his background and all of that, made it even better."

Added Illing, who spent 45 minutes speaking with Weis and [defensive backs coach Bill] Lewis: "A lot of schools want you, they offer you a scholarship — which is good and everything — but how many times does a head coach come by to see you?

"You must be really, really high on their list when the head man takes time out of his day to come down to North Carolina and (you're) the only individual in North Carolina that he's coming to see."

Weis's personal visits also allowed him to deploy another of his important assets - his personality. By all accounts, Weis seems to be magnetic when interacting in person. Jason Kelly summarized Weis's presence nicely:

He has the personality to develop a rapport with recruits and coaches, the jewelry to establish credibility and, pardon the expression, the jewels to alter the prevailing negativity about Notre Dame.

At once confident and self-deprecating, a family man and a football-aholic, an elite leader and one of the guys, his presence can be approachable and imposing in the same breath.

There's no sense in keeping that charisma hidden in the football offices of the Joyce Center or out on the golf course.

Following Weis's visit to Mocksville, McNeil made a visit to Notre Dame the weekend of June 3, and left with Notre Dame atop his list. With McNeil planning a decision by the end of the summer, it may not be long before Weis begins to see concrete results from his nationalwide tour.

Know Thine Enemy: Syracuse's Greg Robinson | by Michael

(This is part 1 of a series.)

The Irish weren't the only team to undergo a coaching makeover when they hired Charlie Weis last winter. Five of the eleven teams on the 2005 schedule will enter this fall with a different head coach patrolling the sidelines: Syracuse, Washington, BYU, Stanford and Pitt. Additionally, a sixth team, Southern Cal, has a three-headed offensive coordinator to replace the departed Norm Chow.

The philosophies and schemes of these opponents' offenses and defenses will very likely change, but by how much? What can Notre Dame fans expect to see from these teams in 2005, and will these teams thrive under new leadership? Over the next few weeks, we'll evaluate these coaching changes, starting with Greg Robinson, the new head coach at Syracuse.

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Greg Robinson, Syracuse University

Bio/Record: Take a look at Robinson’s bio. An assistant coach for the last thirty years, this is Robinson’s first head coaching opportunity. He is known as a fiery, enthusiastic coach in the mold of Pete Carroll (more on that later). Last year he served as the defensive coordinator for Texas, and prior to that he had served as an NFL defensive coordinator for the Chiefs, Broncos and Jets. Robinson replaces Paul Pasqualoni, who coached at Syracuse for fourteen years and compiled a 107-59-1 record. One month after getting a vote of confidence from new athletic director Daryl Gross, a 37-point blow-out loss in a bowl game changed Gross's tune. "Sometimes you just know you need to make a change."

Notable staff: Former Irish RB coach Desmond Robinson is back after coaching high school football in Connecticut; Major Applewhite will coach QBs after working as a graduate assistant at Texas; former Bears OL coach Bob Wylie is back in football after a brief absence.

Offensive philosophy: Brian Pariani is the new offensive coordinator, and he comes to Syracuse from the Broncos, where he was the TE coach. Robinson’s relationship with Pariani goes back to the days when Robinson coordinated the Broncos’ defense. Pariani appears to have little practical experience running an offense, especially considering that most of his experience at Denver has come under Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan, who are both widely recognized as the designers of the Broncos’ offense. Robinson better hope some of their genius has rubbed off on his friend. Another telling hire was the luring of former NFL offensive line coach Bob Wylie. While this name may be unfamiliar to some, I think the addition of an experienced NFL line coach suggests that Robinson wants an offense capable of pounding the football and controlling the clock. What's been said in the media is that Syracuse is installing a West Coast offense, but what does that mean these days, anyway? Often, that's simply a college football buzzword.

"The offense that Pariani and offensive line coach Bob Wylie have brought with them from the NFL is a hodgepodge of setups. Pariani spent the past ten seasons as tight ends coach for the Denver Broncos, and Syracuse's new attack borrows concepts from the Broncos."

Because of the hirings of Wylie and Pariani, I’m led to believe that Robinson wants to put his stamp on the offense. Defensive-minded head coaches are often stereotyped -- for good reason -- with desiring a conservative offense that protects their defense. Keeping that in mind, check out these comments:

"Offensively, we’re going to be a balanced offense. We know that we have to run the football. We have to have the ability to run the football, but we’re going to throw the football and throw it well, with precision…but, I know what I’m looking for, as far as having that balance on offense and having that aggressive style of defense."

Hasn’t every former defensive coordinator-turned head coach said this, or something similar, in his opening remarks? Or, at least, haven’t the average and worse head coaches said it? On the other hand, Bob Stoops adopted an aggressive, spread offense, and he has already won a national championship. Pete Carroll went out and hired Norm Chow, and he now possesses two national championships. I’m left believing that “balanced” really means “conservative” and that calling it a West Coast offense is meaningless. Mark my words, this is going to be the vanilla offense of a defensive-minded head coach. Robinson simply doesn’t want his offense turning the ball over deep in his own territory, which could make his defense look bad if they give up points.

Bob Davie perfected the art of forsaking an offense to protect his defense, and Syracuse RBs coach Desmond Robinson can probably reveal to his new boss a few of Davie’s tricks of the trade. Perhaps he already has; in the 2005 spring game, the defense beat the offense 34-30 after an ingenious scoring system was devised that enabled the defense to accumulate points based on sacks, third down stops and other stats. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Overall, if I were a 'Cuse fan, I’d be concerned about the offense. An inexperienced coordinator, a brilliant but equally inexperienced coach responsible for mentoring the most important offensive position on the field and a defensive coordinator who wants to keep his fingers in the cookie jar…this is a recipe for disaster.

Defensive philosophy: Robinson and Pete Carroll are tight – personally and philosophically. Both like aggressive 4-3 defenses that look to create turnovers, scores and scoring opportunities. Further, after playing together at Pacific, Robinson worked as an assistant under Carroll with the Jets before assuming the defensive coordinator duties when Carroll became head coach. Primarily from his experiences working with Carroll and Monte Kiffin, Robinson developed his own “read and react defense based primarily on cover 2 or cover 3 protections with a variety of zone blitzes and coverage packages” with the Broncos, and he eventually took it to Kansas City after he was fired.

It’s very similar to what Carroll runs at USC, and what Ed Donatell ran with the Packers for three years (before he was fired) and now with the Falcons defense (all three were on the Jets’ defensive staff together). Another important element of these defenses is that, like Kiffin, one of the safeties is almost always in the box for run support. I'm led to believe that Robinson prefers the two-gap, 4-3 defense often associated with"read and react" defenses, whereas Kiffin, Carroll and Donatell prefer one-gap, 4-3 defenses. Unfortunately, I don't have confirmation of this...

Robinson was fired from the Chiefs because according to this NFL.com writer, “Robinson’s scheme relied heavily on the correct defensive call being made to correspond to whatever the offense was showing or doing. Wrong calls or slow reads could easily open the door to a big offensive play.” As a result, Robinson took a lot of heat and even found himself on the NFL’s Most Overpaid List. The importance of calls and reads ties into one of Robinson’s central focuses in his coaching philosophy of the 2 Es and 2 Is that he described at his press conference – intelligence. Furthermore, this disgruntled KC fan provides some interesting analysis of the scheme’s need for intelligent players:

“Gifted, intelligent players seem to thrive in Robinson’s schemes. Less gifted and less intelligent players get overwhelmed and overloaded and fail. So Robinson’s schemes were good, but overly complicated for Denver’s deteriorating secondary and for KC’s entire stock of defensive personnel. Robinson lacked the ability or the willingness to scale things back for these less-able players.”

That quote may or may not contain the answer for why Robinson earned accolades in leading the Longhorns’ defense last year. After wrestling with lots of conflicting info that I’ve encountered, I’m not so sure it was deserved. I think two things occurred here.

• Mack Brown had very likely stocked far more talent than every other team on the Longhorns’ schedule. The Longhorns’ defensive roster (Derrick Johnson, Rod Wright, Larry Dibbles, Aaron Harris, just to name a few) was a coordinator’s dream.
  
  
• Not only did Brown hire Robinson last year, but he also brought on Dick Tomey, the architect of Arizona’s “swarm defense” of the early 1990s, to coach the defensive line. The combination of Tomey and Robinson is certainly intriguing; how influential was Tomey’s hiring in the overall success of the defense?

Robinson did scale back the defense a bit earlier in the year and later started introducing various blitzes as the season progressed. Nonetheless,as the season went on, an argument could be made that their defensive performance was less dominating.

• Robinson was entirely befuddled by Les Miles’ game plan as Oklahoma State raced out to a 35-7 halftime lead.
  
  
• Against arguably the most talented front seven in the country, Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson ran for 220+ yards.
  
  
• Who would you pick between an NFL coordinator with 2 Super Bowl rings and a boatload of talent versus conservative Lloyd Carr, a freshman QB and a freshman RB? Yet, Michigan had little trouble moving the ball as they scored 30+ in the Rose Bowl.

When Texas faced teams with above-average talent, or when they faced teams with capable running games, just how successful was Robinson’s defense? As Robinson introduced more blitzes into the Texas defense over the course of the season, did that improve them or make them more vulnerable? Would offenses have figured out his system and predictable play-calling even more so in 2005, had he not taken the Syracuse job, just like they did when he coached the Broncos and Chiefs?

As far as the defense he inherits at Syracuse, there’s no question the talent level is nowhere near what he enjoyed at Texas. Little news has trickled out of spring football practices but the emphasis appears to be on simplifying the system. “The new staff is focusing on fewer schemes and just two options - one for a pass and one for a run. "They just let you play. You don't have to be out there thinking about a thousand things." How many times have I heard that before? Generally, I have found it to be the case that people find things easier to pick up or learn when they are engaged and interested in what’s being taught, and I think that’s what Robinson has done at Syracuse – he has infected the team with a new attitude, which it has sorely needed. Additionally, just as he did with Texas, I’d expect Robinson to gradually build more of his schemes into the defense. Syracuse gave up 180+ yards on the ground rushing per game last year, and I’m not certain they have the front seven, especially the interior linemen, to do what Robinson wants.

Prediction for Coach Robinson: Syracuse fans may think they have the second coming of Pete Carroll, but there are three enormous differences between the two head coaches. Carroll’s defenses never got lit up as often as Robinson’s defenses have been. Additionally, Carroll hired a proven offensive coordinator in Norm Chow upon taking over USC. Finally, the Trojans had the talent on-board to turn things around more quickly, which they did. It’s hard for me to buy into the belief that Robinson will turn around the Orange; I’m not sure that his philosophy and background suggests he’s the best fit.

If it is going to happen, though, I see two keys. The first is the offense; what kind of coordinator can Pariani become, and how much flexibility will Robinson allow him? After that, it’s all about recruiting. Robinson has the personality for it, but will the product on the field attract recruits? Looking at Syracuse’s schedule next year, which includes Louisville, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Virginia and Florida State, it’s hard for me to believe he can do it.

Weis-Factor: As coordinators, Weis owns a 3-1 lifetime record against Robinson in the NFL. In all four games, Robinson’s defenses have done a very good job of stopping the run and Weis was forced to air it out more often than not:

• 2002: Patriots 41, Broncos 38
• 2000: Patriots 30, Broncos 24
• 1999: Jets 21, Broncos 13
• 1998: Broncos 23, Jets 10 (AFC Championship game)

Travels With Charlie | by Jay

Steinbeck may have covered more ground, but then again, Steinbeck had a whole year for his leisurely ramble across the country. Charlie, on the other hand, was riding a whirlwind.

"It was a little bit hectic, but I think it was definitely a necessary evil," Weis said.

From April 28 through May 27 Charlie was on the road: visiting high schools, eyeballing recruits, schmoozing coaches, and laying the foundation for his first full recruiting season. Charlie visited somewhere on the order of fifty or sixty different recruits, from Seattle to Orlando, from Boston to San Diego, all in just under a month.

So just where did he go?

It's tough to say exactly. We do have a number of legitimate reports that peg Charlie with certain recruits in certain cities on certain days. Some other recruits we know he visited, but we can't say for sure when. And for all the gaps, we always have hearsay and conjecture.

In any case, here's a wild-ass stab at Charlie's odyssey through the month of May. Consider this as illustrative rather than definitive...that is, "for entertainment purposes only". If nothing else, you'll get a good sense of what a college coach goes through during the dog days of the recruiting season. Off we go.

Charlie kicked off the May evaluation period with a trip to Merrillville, Indiana (1) to visit James Aldridge on May 2. Aldridge, as we know, committed to ND on 5/2. Then Charlie was off to Chicago (2) to see Demetrius Jones and Jamie Cumbie.

From Chicago, Charlie toured western Pennsylvania (3) to see a bunch of guys: Zach Frazer, Jason Kates, Jared Odrick, Jeremiah Hunter, and Darrin Walls.

Next stop was East Rutherford, New Jersey (4) for the Elite Combine followed by a visit to Myron Rolle in Princeton, NJ (5). Charlie then headed up to Boston (6) to see Barry Gallup.

The Nike camp & combine was in Ann Arbor (7) on May 7th, and Charlie was in attendance. Sunday was a rest day in the evaluation period for Charlie, as as we know from the presser on Tuesday, Charlie flew home to Rhode Island (8) for some brief family time on every Sunday in May. On Monday he was in Cleveland (9) to check out Rob Parris and John Ryan. It's possible he also visited Cincinnati sometime around here for a visit with Kallen Wade or Robert Williams.

On May 11 he was in Dallas (10) to see Mike Morgan and Curtis Bailey. Then to Oklahoma City (11) for George West, Gerald McCoy and Laron Moore, a brief stop in Springdale, AR (12) to see Mitch Mustain and perhaps Bartley Webb. Charlie wrapped up this leg in St. Louis (13) on May 14th to see Prince and Mullen, and finally went back to Rhode Island again for the Sunday breather.

Charlie next visited Rome, GA (14), Tucker, GA (15), and Anderson, SC (16) to visit Ben Alexander, Toryan Smith, and Asher Allen respectively, all on May 16th. Mocksville, NC (17) is home to Raeshon McNeil, whom Charlie met with on the 17th. Then Charlie vaulted to Clermont, Florida (18) for a look at Richard Jackson and on to Fort Lauderdale (19) for Daniel Wenger and Sam Young on the 18th.

Details from the 19th to the 21st are sketchy, but there are a host of other east coast athletes that Charlie was rumored to have visited, and he probably spent this time checking out some guys who didn't pop up in official reports. We do know he saw Percy Harvin and Damon McDaniel in Virginia Beach (20) sometime in there. Charlie returned home once again on Sunday the 22nd.

On May 23rd Charlie was off to the west coast to take a look at Taylor Mays in Seattle (21), then headed for Aurora, Colorado (22) to see Butch Lewis.

Charlie then dropped down to southern California on the 24th & 25th for a series of stops: Konrad Reuland in Mission Viejo (23), Travis Goethel in Vista (24), Menelik Holt in San Diego (25), Kai Forbath in Sherman Oaks (26), and Allen Bradford in Colton (27).

Charlie wrapped up the May period with a visit to St. Paul to check out Matt Carufel, then down to Jasper, Indiana for Luke Schmidt, who committed to the Irish on May 27th. Then Charlie finally headed home to reintroduce himself to his wife.

Whew.

Again, the above consisted of published reports, educated guesses and a lot of blind speculation. But whatever the exact itinerary, there's no doubt it was a killer. Here's the whole map, with the places we know Charlie visited:

So, did the effort pay off? Was Charlie happy with the trip, and did he enjoy himself?

In typical fashion, Charlie was bluntly honest when asked that question on Tuesday:

“I’ll enjoy it when I know what the results are."

Jumping Ship | by Pat

For the last few weeks, rumors of transfers from the football program have been swirling via email, IM, and message board posts. Coach Weis addressed these issues during his press conference on Tuesday and confirmed who is leaving and who is staying.

"I don’t know if Duerson will be going to school here or not, but he will not be with the football program. In addition to that John Kadous will not be with the football program and Chris Vaughn will not be with the football program for a semester, but I am not sure where that will take us, but he will not be with us this upcoming semester. I’m not getting into any particulars; I will just say he will not be with the team this next semester and as far as his future I cannot discuss it.”

While Weis declined to comment on Duerson's status as a Notre Dame student, rumors mention that he might continue his football career at another school. He was lightly recruited coming out of high school, but practice reports stated he could hold his own on the field. It will be interesting to see where he ends up and how his career progresses.

The departure of Kadous is a real blow to the offensive line depth chart. After the 2005 season, assuming all of the 5th year eligible players return and no one is knocked out by injury, Notre Dame will only have 10 returning scholarship offensive lineman. What was a very important position in this year's recruiting has quickly become the most important position with plenty of available playing time for any interested recruit. The South Bend Tribune has a story that quotes Kadous as saying he's transfering to the University of Arizona and might take a year off from football.

As for Chris Vaughn, his transfer situation seems to be a bit more complicated. The fact that Weis said he is only off the team for the fall semester suggests a return is possible. However, in a recent update on Louisville's scout.com site (you need a subscription) Vaughn is quoted as saying Louisville is probably his top choice for a transfer. That seems to be a pretty clear sign that he's not coming back to Notre Dame as a student in the fall. With the graduation of Matt Shelton, Rhema McKnight, and Maurice Stovall, a starting spot for Vaughn in 2006 seemed almost a given. But, Vaughn's career with the Fighting Irish appears to be over.

On the bright side, Weis did mention that certain players rumored to be transfer candidates will be back in the fall, ready to suit up for the Irish. In addition to cornerback LaBrose Hedgemon who will return from his year-long suspension, offensive lineman James Bonelli and defensive lineman Ronald Talley, both suspended from spring practices, will return. All three are not expected to contend for a starting spot in the fall, but will add valuable depth at thin positions.

Transfers occur at every school whenever there is a coaching change so the departure of some players, while never great news, was to be expected. Weis hopes however, that the rush for the exit is over.

“As far as I know that’s right. I haven’t scared too many more of them off I hope. I just mentioned guys in general right now that are in and out because when the roster comes out those three will be in and those three will be out."

Distillery | by Jay

Yesterday's hour-long presser with Charlie was so chock-full of interesting stuff that I hesitate to even try and write it up. You'll find some good overview articles (the papers who didn't simply copy Tom Coyne's AP brief, I mean) in BGI, the South Bend Tribune, the Chicago Tribune (here, here, and here), the Elkhart Truth, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, and the Chicago Daily Herald. Also, if you want to watch the entire presser, IE has the full video.

But let's try and boil this down to some quotable essence.

On injuries: "Everything looks to be right on pace for us to come in as healthy as we could have anticipated. John Carlson could have gone either way for awhile. That is a situation where you get the MRI and you get the good news or the bad news and we got the good news.”

On ND's talent level: “There are a lot of good players here. A lot of people take shots at coach Willingham and those people but there are enough players here to be competitive every week and if I didn’t think that I wouldn’t say it. My job now is just to get more of them.”

On freshman getting PT: "I like competition and first of all freshmen that can get into the mix in a hurry are going to get in the mix in a hurry, but they had better be ready to play on special teams."

On the problem with coaches voting in the BCS poll: "Here’s the problem with those votes. You’re playing on Saturday; how do you really know what those other teams are doing?"

On coaching the running backs: "That’s something that, talking to our running backs now, is new for them to understand how here is where the play is called and how it is designed to go but based on the pre-snap look, this is probably where it is going to go."

On Brady Quinn's progress: "He had some major flaws that we had to straighten out and we still have some work to do."

On suspended players: "Bonelli and Talley are back and Hedgeman is back too."

On balancing work and family: "Every day I’m not working, I’m doing something with [my family]. They know I’m not on the golf course unless I’m doing something for work...I don’t go fishing and I don’t go out with the fellows. When I’m not at work, I’m with my wife, Charlie, or Hannah and they know I will give them every second I can that’s not work-related. They know that’s as fair as I can possible be.”

On new QB coach Peter Vaas: "When it came to Peter, he and I have talked several times over the years about the possibility of him coming in and working with us as the quarterbacks’ coach, but the situation was never right. I wanted to hire an experienced guy that had head-coaching experience to replace a guy who had head-coaching experience...I have talked to Peter several times and as soon as David told me he was thinking that way, and as a matter of fact, I was on the road when he was thinking that way – sorry Kevin, but I ran up a $169 phone bill that night talking to Germany at that time. I had the phone number right then. It was 3:00 in the morning over in Germany when I called him. I woke him up and asked him if he was ready to talk and he said, ‘I am now.’”

On the value of a split Offensive Coordinator/QB coach: "So that is what Peter will bring as a valuable resource for me because I will be able to watch the whole play while he can worry just about what his guy is doing...Because several times people who have been the quarterbacks’ coach have really just been the coordinator and I think for the coordinator to coach the quarterback and watch the whole offense at the same time it is really tough to do that."

On the staff's current agenda: "Every day we spend half the day on recruiting right now. We are spending a half day on football and a half a day on recruiting."

On recruiting 'aids': "There are schools where there are probably 150 kids that have pictures of them wearing a super bowl ring...when kids are looking at these visions of playing on Sundays, there is no greater symbol of playing on Sundays than that ring."

Mountaineering | by Jay

Another piece of the scheduling jigsaw puzzle from Jack Bogaczyk of the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia:

Irish eye football series with WVU

Something tells me that within a few years, West Virginia is going to have a new record for football season ticket sales.

The "something" is the way the WVU future schedules are developing. The Irish are coming to Mountaineer Field several years down the road.

Notre Dame Associate Athletic Director John Heisler and his counterpart at WVU, Mike Parsons, have confirmed talks in published reports -- but have nothing concrete -- on a future series. WVU and Notre Dame are expected to play as soon as 2009 or '10.

Those games would be part of Notre Dame's agreement to play at least three games against Big East teams annually, beginning in 2009. One of those three will likely be against Rutgers or Connecticut at Giants Stadium. Another is a Pitt-ND series that runs from 2008-15.

A WVU home-and-home with Notre Dame would join the Mountaineers' impending home-and-home series with Florida State that was part of the ACC/Big East legal settlement. Those games are to be played between 2008 and '12.

Makes sense we'd play the Mountaineers in light of the 3-game Big East deal. WVU is one of the few Big East football programs I could get mildly excited about (the other two being Pitt and Louisville).

Interesting, too, that UConn might be as a possible opponent at the Meadowlands. Previously the speculation was Rutgers/Navy, and this is the first time I've seen the Huskies mentioned.

But let's go back to West Virginia for a second. Frankly, I'd enjoy a series with them. We've crossed paths with the Mountaineers a few times over the years, both on and off the field, and it's pretty clear: they hate us. And not just in a garden-variety "ND sucks" sort of way. There's a special kind of bile for ND leaking out of the hills of Morgantown; after all, ND derailed what was probably WVU's best season in history, and even after fifteen years the bitterness is still fresh:

"The Top 10 WVU Football Games I Will NEVER Watch Again"

1. #3 West Virginia vs. #1 Notre Dame-1989 Fiesta Bowl-Tempe, AZ. WVU has the top team in the nation, and the most exciting player in college football in Major Harris. 3rd play of the game, for the national championship, Notre Dame defensive lineman Frank Stams hits Major while he's on the ground and separates his shoulder, effectively nullifying the WVU offense for the rest of the afternoon. ND wins 34-21 and they play that annoying fight song again. WOULD SOMEONE SHOOT THAT MASCOT? 34-21 Notre Dame.

Some of the tinfoil-hat crowd in Morgantown even believe that Lou "ordered" the hit on Harris.

The disgruntlement crossed over to coaching ranks a couple of years ago when ND was negotiating its bowl options with the Big East. WVU coach Rich Rodriguez had some choice words for the Irish deal and the enmity was pretty obvious:

Rodriguez said something needs to be changed about the way the Big East's bowl selections are made.

"I don't know if slighted is the right word, but I do question sometimes what is Notre Dame's affiliation with our league," Rodriguez said.

Notre Dame, an independent in football but a Big East member in nearly every other sport, was added to the league's portion of the BCS mix after the 1997 season, when the league went 0-4 in bowl games. Miami was ineligible because of probation that year.

"All the athletic directors agreed to this," Big East spokesman Rob Carolla said.

The contract, which was recently renewed, runs through 2005.

"I know this agreement was made earlier," Rodriguez said. "I'm just a football coach and our players are just players, but we don't understand some of the political things. I don't understand why Notre Dame is getting the best of both worlds.

"I think the Big East is a great league and we can stand on our own. In my opinion, Notre Dame either needs to get in or get out."

"It would have been interesting if they had been in the Big East to see if they'd have finished ahead of us," Rodriguez said. "I'm not sure if they can finish in second place in the Big East. They would have faced three of the top teams in Miami, Virginia Tech and West Virginia."

Rowdy Roddy, stirring the pot. You think he wears a kilt?

So mix in a couple of other less-than-savory brouhahas -- the Cooper Rego affair, 'eers hoopsters hawking loogies at our cheerleaders -- and a WVU series has just enough spite and backbiting to make it interesting. Plus, playing at Morgantown would be an absolute delight.

Wait, did I say, "delight"? I meant deathwish. At one point Morgantown was trying to take the title from Detroit for post-game craziness:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University officials will study videotape and photographs to identify rowdy football fans who ignored pre-game pleas and set fires in the streets to celebrate the Mountaineers' 28-7 upset of No. 3 Virginia Tech on Wednesday night.

At least a dozen of approximately 90 fires set early Thursday were described as "sizable" by Monongalia County emergency officials. County officials activated an emergency operations center for about 2½ hours early Thursday and considered cutting off power to Morgantown's Sunnyside neighborhood, where many students live.

Inside the stadium, police used pepper spray on fans who tried to tear down the goal posts after West Virginia's victory. State Police and dozens of yellow-shirted security personnel surrounded the goal posts and kept fans at bay.

Brad Anderson said he was hit by the pepper spray when he ran down onto the field. "We can't breathe. We're hacking up our lungs, but it was worth it," Anderson said.

Fans retaliated by throwing debris at the security officials. After West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez pleaded with fans over the public address system to depart, the field cleared quickly. Outside the stadium, an unknown number of police and fire officers were struck with rocks and bottles, but all were treated and released from hospitals and no serious injuries were reported, Flanigan said.

"I saw people burning couches, mattresses, recliners," said student Harrison Hume.

The fires marked the third time in the last year that fans have started fires following weeknight football games.

So here's the plan: after we win the game, run right out the tunnel and directly into our waiting team buses. If you drop your helmet or something, LEAVE IT. Then haul ass to the Pennsylvania border, Road Warrior-style.

In all seriousness, if we're consigned to three Big East games, then I like the idea of playing a series with the Mountaineers as part of that. They're a decent enough program, in and out of the top twenty. For all his whining, Rodriguez is a smart coach and an innovator, running a no-huddle spread offense that's pretty impressive.

And while it'll be just another game on the schedule for us, for the choleric Mountaineers fans, it would be Wild and Wonderful.

Ranking The Shirt | by Pat

In a previous post, the 2005 version of "The Shirt" was awarded one star. Judging from internet message boards and the like, both the color and design are not exactly causing Irish fans to line up at the Bookstore, cash in hand. But where does it fall compared to previous versions of The Shirt? Here now is one man's rankings of one of Notre Dame's newer traditions: The Shirt.

(For any of the shirts, click on the year to bring up a larger picture. These pictures and more info can be found at theshirt.nd.edu)

#1 - 1992

The shirt that solidified "The Shirt" tradition is also probably one of the most inspired. The official induction of Lou Holtz to the pantheon of great Irish head coaches and the declaration that merely playing football isn't tradition at Notre Dame; winning is. An instant classic.





#2 - 2002

Perhaps a controversial pick here, since any mention of "Return to Glory" brings back painful memories of the lackluster Willingham era. But going on design alone, it's still a great shirt. While other shirts reference things like spirit and love, this shirt comes right out with a battle-scarred helmet raised high in victory and a quote from Rockne about destroying your opponent on the field of play. The ghosts of Rockne and the Four Horsemen remind us of ND's rich history while the "Return to Glory" is a public admission of the mistake that was hiring Bob Davie. A great shirt, unfortunately marred by the coach who couldn't live up to its logo.

#3 - 1990

The one that started it all. Nothing pretentious here and no signs of the over-commercialization of later shirts. Just a fun shirt to be worn by students to the game for a good cause. A simple direct front and a "highlights of ND" design on the back make it a great shirt to wear around anytime. Simple and successful.





#4 - 1994

Another shirt that calls upon the past glory of Notre Dame football. The Four Horsemen, Gipp, and Rockne might be a bit oversold when it comes to Notre Dame football paraphernalia, but this is the first "The Shirt" to use them, so it gets a pass. After 1993's attempt at a dark shirt, the color is wisely brought back to something that stands out in the stadium.




#5 - 1996

Another green shirt and while it is in the Top 5, it's more of a lack of competition than anything else. Nothing too special about this shirt. Just a solid design that keeps it all about football and doesn't try anything too fancy. Bonus points for taking the "Win Over All" Victory March lyrics out of context. No longer just about Ol' Notre Dame overcoming adversity, it now also clearly spells out what fans expect Notre Dame coaches to do against future opponents.



#6 - 1999

The first non-green shirt on the list, the '99 version took a break from previous designs and opted for the final line from the Alma Mater. Maybe it's a bit sappy, but it's one of the few that I'll still throw on and wear around, so I guess that counts for something. It's also the last shirt to feature the Golden Dome on the front.





#7 - 1993

Just before the mid-way point finds the first shirt to use the a line from the Victory March. The '93 shirt is also the first to use the raised helmet graphic that showed up on the 1999 and 2002 shirt. Other than that, it's a pretty average shirt. The dark color isn't ideal if you want it to stick out in the stadium, but the design itself isn't that bad.




#8 - 2000

Not much to say about this shirt. Another year where they simply took a line from the Victory March, stuck in a picture of some football players, and called it a day. Again, some credit for the green color since it stands out in the stadium (I'll leave the 'but it's not our school colors' complaint for others) Not terribly inspiring, not ugly either. Hence a slot firmly in the middle of our countdown.




#9 - 2004

To be honest, I kind of like this shirt. The previous four in the list are all boring variations on a theme. At least they took a design chance with this one. The decision to include Joe Montana was a nice touch. The line from When Irish Backs Go Marching By is decent change from plucking lines out of the Victory March. But where this shirt goes wrong is the approximately 47 font types used on the front and back. This is probably the shirt that draws the most varied responses. Some love it. Some hate it.


#10 - 2001

Another boring cookie cutter shirt in the mold of #5-8. No surprise this was the last of the "Victory March quote" shirts. A bit odd that they leave the end of the Knute Rockne "Gipper" speech hanging.

To Go In There With All They've Got
And Win Just One...

Win just one? What happened to winning all of them? Was this a subtle attempt by Davie to lower the bar? Hmmm....


#11 - 1997

"Hey I know, let's try teal this year!" Or is that sage? I can't tell. Really, what was the reasoning behind the color of this shirt? The "new" ND lining up against the "old" isn't a bad design, but the color is so atriocious that I really wonder what they were thinking when this shirt got approved. I'm sure someone will undoubtly mention that the color bears a striking resemblance to the name of this blog, but if that is what they were going for, then a Grantland Rice quote might have driven the point home a little better. As it stands now, it just looks they they checked the wrong color box on the order form.

#12 - 1998

Another ugly color. And people complain about a normal green shirt? The picture makes it look gray, but the one sitting in my drawer is definitely more of faded olive. And the too-cute 1-9-98 uniform numbers? Pass. To be honest, after this shirt and the '97 shirt, they should have just cancelled "The Shirt" project. It's as this point that it really stopped being a student-run fundraiser and turned into a ham-handed administration attempt to force another tradition on ND fans. I still like the idea, but it either needs a breather for a few years or some serious design effort.


#13 - 1991

I guess this shirt could be ranked higher, but I stuck it here. The main reason being by looking at the back of the shirt you can't tell if it's a football shirt or the logo on school stationary. The Madonna blue is a nice nod to ND's historical school colors, but it also brings Faustian flashbacks for many ND fans. It's not an ugly shirt, but it's also not a football one.




#14 - 2003

Now we're getting into the shirts that were best left on the design table. The 2003 shirt completes the administration sell-out by quoting (in 5 different fonts) from "Here Come the Irish". And while I still like that cheesy song, the whole idea to use the lyric on the shirt smells of marketing synergy. And to make matters worse, the subtle shamrock design on the front looks like a beer stain out of the corner of your eye. I can't tell you how many times I started to wipe off the front my shirt the first time I wore it.


#15 - 1995

This is one creepy shirt. The evil, disembodied head of Knute Rockne hovers ominously and seems to crack a smile as a Notre Dame football player is electrocuted by a bolt of lightning. Why Knute, why? Ara could stop the rain. Can't you stop the lightning? And the purple accents are just a great touch considering ND was playing Northwestern in the home opener. If you plan on brainwashing your kids to like ND, keep this shirt out of sight.



#16 - 2005

Where do I begin? The story goes that the break from the bright color green was to differentiate between the Willingham and Weis eras. However, they still wanted the people who wear the shirt to stick out, so bright yellow (is it supposed to be gold?) was chosen. I suppose it will stick out in the stadium.....if people wear it. The main problem is the ultra-cheesy Joe Theisman quote selected for the back design. It's more suited for a Notre Dame Christmas card than a football shirt. Besides, ND spirit can light up the universe, but we still can't play a night game at home? Whatever. And to put a final nail in the overcommercialization of "The Shirt" project, check out the logo on the sleeve. Could it be any more obnoxious? If they want this tradition to survive, next year's shirt is going to need to be great or else people are just going to stop buying it, or at least stop wearing it to games.

---

Well, that's my take on things. Disagree with any of my choices? Here's an online poll where you can pick your favorite iteration of The Shirt. When you're done voting, click here for the results. Thanks for playing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch | by Jay

Dennis Dodd is still a moron.

"Weis has to scramble to find a new offensive coordinator. Anticipating the possibility of Cutcliffe leaving, Weis said he has a candidate in mind. The new coordinator, he said, will have to adapt to the new offense, not install one. Three months from kickoff, it's never a good thing to have to replace the assistant head coach who is also the guy that designs the offense."

Sprechen Sie Talk? | by Jay

The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger's take on Peter Vaas departing stateside.

My German is a little rusty, but it's still better than Google Automatic Translations. Check this out:

(Cologne) - the ways of the Cologne Centurions and her coach Peter Vaas separate. The Head coach its resignation explained one day before the last season play of the Cologners with Berlin Thunder (not terminated with editorship conclusion of this expenditure yet). "I leave the Centurions and the NFL Europe with a heavy heart", said to the 53-Jaehrige, which had missed the qualification for the World Bowl with the Cologners. Vaas will in the future train the Quarterbacks at the University of Notre lady in the US Federal State Indiana. 1990 and 1991 had already worked there Vaas.

"it is a great opportunity to train again college football which I enjoyed, said always very much" Vaas - and pointed thereby on a contrast for the homeland of the Cologne Centurions.

At the university Notre lady come against it more than 80,000 spectators to the plays. Vaas, which will return today to the United States, strengthens there the team of the new coach Charlie, which can show three Superbowl victories with that new England Patriots. "Notre lady is somewhat completely special for me and my family", said Vaas, whose daughter studies Katelyn also there.

And our hearts forever...love thee Notre Lady.

Vaas won his last game in NFL Europe today, leading the Centurions over his old team, the Berlin Thunder. The broadcasters on Fox highlighted Vaas's imminent return to South Bend, and even cued up the fight song a couple of times during the game. Vaas spoke briefly at the end of the game, wishing his Centurions well, and expressing his excitement at working with Charlie Weis at ND ("Here come the Irish!")

It was interesting watching the game, as it's probably the first time I've watched European football since Tony Rice was taking snaps for the Barcelona Dragons in the nascent days of the old World League of American Football. (Quick -- how many of the original 10 franchises can you name?) The quality of the football is pretty good, but that shouldn't be surprising since a lot of the guys in the league are on assignment from NFL teams, or are better-than-average college players trying to hook on with a pro squad. Look at some of the NFL Europe alums who have made it to the NFL:

Kurt Warner Kelly Holcomb Jake Delhomme Jay Fiedler Jon Kitna Brad Johnson

La'Roi Glover Adam Vinatieri David Akers Dante Hall Marco Rivera Bill Schroeder

And these are just the bigger names. In fact, at the beginning of the 2004 season, you had 182 former Europe players on final NFL rosters for opening day. That's about five or six guys on every team, roughly 11% of the league. By my count, at least 30 of those players were coached by Peter Vaas at one point or another. And that's strictly for 2004, and doesn't count the guys who have already come and gone to the NFL under Vaas during his eight years in Europe.

So for the past eight years Peter Vaas has been working with and developing players with a pretty good amount of talent, and sending a fair number of guys to the NFL. I think this experience should serve him well under the Dome.

In any case, here's something to think about. In a game between the best of college football and the best of NFL Europe, who would win? Say USC played the Berlin Thunder...would the Trojans stand a chance?

Position Filled | by Michael

Replacing David Cutcliffe was indeed a tall order, but it appears that we've quickly and seamlessly found a replacement in Peter Vaas. As Charlie related in a press release today:

"For several years, Peter Vaas has been on our 'radar' and was certainly on my short list (of coaches) when I took this job," Weis said. "After further research, the support for Peter from people I know and trust was overwhelming, making this move an easy one. An additional plus was Peter's Notre Dame experience in 1990-91, adding another coach with Notre Dame ties. I'm looking forward to working with Peter as we prepare to kick off the 2005 season."

You might remember Vaas as a former RBs and QBs coach under Lou Holtz. In fact, his resume is littered with stops all over the place: at colleges large and small, the CFL, and NFL Europe.

In comparison to the high-profile resume of David Cutcliffe, Peter Vaas may seem at first like a huge dropoff. Yet Vaas is an experienced, successful coach with solid credentials, and after you discover a little more about him, his hiring by Coach Weis won't seem so surprising. While losing Cutcliffe was surely a blow, Weis has tabbed a jewel of an assistant coach.

You might look at the smaller schools on Vaas's resume -- Allegheny, New Hampshire and Holy Cross -- and cringe. (It might even remind of your reaction to reading about the CFL acccomplishments of one Bill Diedrick.) Vaas was a three-year starting QB at Holy Cross despite walking-on to a program that could offer athletic scholarships. Upon graduation, he took a job as a janitor and assistant coach at Allegheny, and from there he built his career in the lower tier of college football.

But Lou Holtz saw something in him, and in the early 90s he was hired as an offensive assistant with the Irish. After two years on the Notre Dame staff, Vaas's alma mater, Holy Cross, called him to become their head coach, and it was hard for him to pass up that opportunity. Holy Cross was traditionally a Patriot League power, but times had changed and Vaas took over at a school that had decided to abandon atheltic scholarships. After four dismal years and a terrible record he was fired. Worth mentioning is that his replacement at Holy Cross, Dan Allen, had a history of turning around other programs. But Allen, too, failed to make the Crusaders a winning program again.

After a brief stint in the CFL, Vaas found work with NFL Europe, where his coaching career slowly resurrected itself. Starting as an offensive assistant with the Barcelona Dragons, Vaas was eventually hired to coach the Berlin Thunder, with whom he won back-to-back World Bowl championships. (By the way, take a gander at who the opposing QB was for the Barcelona Dragons when Vaas won his first cup.)

When you consider that NFL Europe is a league that starts up every year with new players, sustained success is directly attributable to coaching, as this article illuminates:

One head coach who seems to have found the winning formula is Peter Vaas, who has guided the Berlin Thunder to a second World Bowl appearance in successive seasons.

Vaas, now nearing the end of his third season as head coach of the Thunder, won the World Bowl in 2001 and is gunning for a place in history on Saturday by having his team become the first to win back-to-back World Bowls.

"This league is so different to the college or NFL ranks," Vaas said. "You have new players coming in each season and that's why your coaching staff is more important here than any place else.

"If you were in the NFL you would have veterans that come back and act as extra coaches on the field and in college you have seniors and juniors that help out the freshmen.

"Here in NFL Europe everybody is a freshman or a rookie and you lean on your coaches a lot more. There is a lot that goes into the formulation of a team each year and it is extremely gratifying and makes me proud that we have taken two different Berlin Thunder teams to the World Bowl."

As a head coach, Vaas is big on garnering team spirit and the results certainly seem to suggest the former college coach at Holy Cross and Allegheny hits the right notes in the locker room.

One man who will back up such a claim is Berlin Thunder linebacker Jude Waddy, who said: "Peter Vaas is a great guy to play for and he certainly creates a great atmosphere in the locker room and on the practice field.

"He can get players going and fired up without getting down on them and he is a lot of fun to be around."

Explaining his coaching style and philosophy, Vaas said: "I try to be very communicative and let people know where the boundaries are. Then once we are inside those boundaries I tend to be very relaxed and loose and try to make the game fun. But if you cross those boundaries I can be nasty.

"We want to create a strong feeling of trust and to get to the World Bowl like we have means we have taken a group of strangers and been able to make them into a team. That is very satisfying."

Here's another NFL.com article on Vaas that echoes much of the same sentiment. Both this and the article above are well worth a full read.

After four years with the Berlin Thunder, Vaas was chosen to be the very first head coach of a new NFL Europe team, the Cologne Centurions, and helped build the franchise from scratch.

A few other things we dug up on Coach Vaas. Check out the following videos. In one of them, Vaas reminisces about a certain favorite game of his:

A great moment was when I was an assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame, we played in New Orleans in the Superdome, against Florida in the Sugar Bowl in a game that we weren't supposed to be in, and we came away with a victory. That was a tremendous feeling.

Want to read an article that Vaas wrote for American Football Monthly? Check out Dragon Attack, which Vaas wrote while an assistant with Barcelona in NFL Europe (complete with some nifty diagrams). This offensive philosophy might sound familiar:

You can create a variety of mismatches and a great deal of confusion through the use of formations and motion, yet you won't confuse your players with a lot of new learning. They must understand the concept of what you are trying to accomplish and react within that concept.

Kory Chapman, a practice squad running back for the Patriots who was optioned to play under Vaas's Cologne Centurions had this to say in a recent Boston Globe blog entry about the difference between the Centurions' offense under Vaas as compared to the Patriots offense under Weis:

"It's a spread offense, sort of how we do it in New England, spreading the defense out and hitting them with the run. I'd say it's similar, but not the same."

Also, do these two comments remind you of anyone else's offensive strategies?

"The new Cologne fans should be ready for an offense that does not have a lot of different plays and wants to beat the opposition through superior execution and unexpected play calling."

"In Peter Vaas' offensive system, the quarterback position is probably even more important than usual."

For that and more on Vaas's offensive philosophies check out this terrific NFL Europe preview from last year.

Vaas's ties to Notre Dame go beyond his brief tenure as an assistant coach in the early 90s. Vaas was also a coach at last year's Notre Dame summer Fantasy Football camp. In addition, his daughter is currently a student at ND. You can read about both on Vaas's online diary, Peter's Points, found on the Cologne Centurions' website. It's a revealing look into Vaas's personality, especially as it relates to his family and former players. Notre Dame is constantly mentioned. (On a sidenote...did anyone else know that Reggie Brooks is currently an assistant for the Berlin Thunder? News to me.) There's even more on Vaas at the Centurions site, but be sure to have your Langenscheidt's English/German dictionary at the ready.

Finally, no one's summed up Peter Vaas better than Barry Terranova, the publisher of American Football Monthly. In the same issue (November '99) where Vaas presented his article on the Dragon Attack, Terranova included this Letter from the Publisher. And Terranova called it...six years ago, even before Vaas's NFL Europe career (the italics are ours):

As the 1980s ended, Vaas was a "hot" coach, coming off of a very successful stint as head coach at Allegheny (Pa.) College. In his five years with the Alligators, he turned a team without a winning season in the previous seven years into a national contender in NCAA Division III. The big boys began to notice and Lou Holtz offered Vaas the chance to join the Notre Dame staff as quarterbacks coach. From Allegheny to South Bend—Vaas had arrived.

In 1992 Vaas made a decision that still haunts him to this day. His alma mater, Holy Cross, came calling, eager to have a favorite son return to take over the program. Vaas knew that the program was transitioning from the only Patriot League school giving athletic scholarship to non-scholarship status. He realized it would be difficult, but this was a chance for he and his wife to go home and raise their kids in the pleasing environment of suburban Boston. He also had a healthy dose of attitude, ". . . to heck with the hardships. . . I'll get it done."

Needless to say, Holy Cross did not enjoy the same level of success in the non-scholarship era, and in 1995, Vaas was unceremoniously dumped after a 14-30 record over four seasons. School administrators knew how difficult it was going to be to win once the scholarships went away. Vaas felt somewhat bitter and betrayed.

Fired, Vaas found himself in a tough situation. He felt labeled as a "small-college coach." Vaas went through a period of soul searching, even questioning the sanity of staying in the coaching profession. But, ultimately, he realized he is a "ball coach" and coaches should coach.

March 1996 began a sojourn that has seen Vaas go from offensive coordinator of the CFL's Montreal Alouetts to his current job with Jack Bicknell in Barcelona. All along the way, he has sent out countless resumes, trying to get back into the college or NFL circle.

So, now what does he do? Keep shaking the trees in hopes a job will fall his way, or enjoy the decent life he has with his family?

I suppose I know the answer. Peter Vaas will keep trying to get back to the Notre Dames of the world. Success has that effect on you—once you've tasted it, nothing else will do. You say to yourself, "If they can do it, I know damn well I can." Hopefully, one day soon, some coach will realize that the true test of a man is how he performs under adversity. And Peter Vaas has not only passed, he has persevered and thrived.

For anybody doubting the appropriateness of Peter Vaas as our new QB coach, this description sealed the deal for me, and it should seal it for others, too. Simply put, Weis has found a terrific offensive assistant, a guy with a sterling character and solid coaching know-how -- and not to mention, some familiar Irish roots. Peter Vaas's perseverence has paid off, and he's made it back to ND...much to our blessing. As Coach Vaas himself said today:

"I'm looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity of returning to the Notre Dame family," Vaas said.

"In this business, you always leave a place with a heavy heart and some sadness, yet arrive at your new place with a smile on your face. That certainly will be the case with this move. I've been in NFL Europe for eight years now, so I'll be leaving a part of me over here, but I'm excited about returning to Notre Dame.

"My past experience in college football was tremendous, and I've had some opportunities to return to college football over the last 10 years. But none of those opportunities were as exciting as this one. Our first experience at Notre Dame was fabulous, something that had a great impact on my family and me. The chance to return to South Bend and to work with - and learn from - Charlie Weis is an amazing opportunity."

Look at the stars. See how they shine for you. | by Pat

"At Noon EDT Monday, Rivals.com AMP presents a behind the scenes look at the Rivals.com rankings process 24 hours before the release of the first five stars!"

"Tuesday, AMP again will bring you coverage of the rankings release with an 8 a.m. EDT sneak peek just hours before the five stars are released!"

"Be sure to tune into Rivals Radio on Tuesday as five five-star selections will be released live at 11:45 a.m. EDT!"

"On the Rivals100.com recruiting network message board, five more of the five star selections will be released exclusively at 11:50 a.m.!"

How the hell did we ever survive so much excitement?

Wednesday capped off two days of celebration and unbridled recruiting hoopla/paranoia as the Rivals Recruiting Network finally unveiled their brand-spanking-new 5-star rankings and Top 100 Recruiting List for 2006.

There were thrills! There were spills! There were shocks and upsets!

There were...well, there were people like me, who wonder why there's so much hype for a list that's going to change plenty of times before National Signing Day in February.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking down my nose at those who follow recruiting. I've already taken the red pill/stepped through the looking glass/eaten the forbidden soul donut/you name it. I follow recruiting as much as the next guy.

But somewhere along the line, recruiting journals decided that providing simple, concise updates on the unfolding story just wasn't enough, and some sort of ranking system was needed. Thus, the birth of the "star system": a scale ranging in complexity somewhere betwen the Periodic Table of Elements and the dichotomous purity of Beavis and Butthead ("He kicks ass / He sucks").

As if mixing together the different player positions into the same listing isn't bad enough (how exactly do you tell that a 6'5 lineman is the #2 prospect to a 6'1 wide receiver?), each service has to have its own criteria. Rivals will only have 27 5-star players. But if your guy doesn't make their cut, just mosey over to Scout, where they'll be listing 50 5-star players. And if he's still not high enough? That's where Max Emfinger comes in. He has just over 200 kids graced with the 5-star label. It seems the main criteria to earn a 5-star rating with him is to be brave enough to pick up the phone when his name pops up on the caller ID.

But wait! There's more!!!

It gets better. Rivals also augments their Stars with some sort of bumfuzzled numerical grading system. Check out this scale.

• 6.1 / Franchise Player. Considered one of the elite prospects in the country, generally among the nation's top 25 players overall; deemed to have excellent pro potential; high-major prospect.

• 6.0-5.8 / All-American Candidate. High-major prospect; considered one of the nation's top 200 prospects; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team.

• 5.7-5.5 / All-Region Selection. Considered among the region's top prospects and among the top 500 or so prospects in the country; high-to-mid-major prospect; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team.

• 5.4-5.0 / Division I prospect. Considered a mid-major prospect; deemed to have limited pro potential but definite Division I prospect; may be more of a role player.

• 4.9 / Sleeper. No Rivals.com expert knew much, if anything, about this player; a prospect that only a college coach really knew about.

A scale that goes from 4.9 to 6.1? It's like GPAs Gone Wild.

Ever since Rivals and Scout (and Emfinger and Lemming and everybody else) started peeling off little gold stars and sticking them on a player's sheet, fans have been using these imperfect rankings as the primary ammunition in countless scintillating water cooler arguments and internet flame wars. And every year it seems to get a little more shrill, a little more hysterical. It worries me that the emotional health of so many people is riding on the whims of a couple of guys in Tennessee surrounded by stacks of videotapes.

A while back I poked fun at how serious the US Army All-American bowl took itself. The same thing can be said for Rivals.com and their Top 100 list. A multiple day, multi-staged unveiling of a list destined to change numerous times between now and next February is just ridiculous. With recruiting, there's plenty of authentic drama to go around; there's no need to drum up even more hucksterish ballyhoo with "behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at our ranking systems" and the like.

So anyway, how'd we stack up? (After that rant, I shouldn't even indulge. But like I said, I'm already a recruiting degenerate.)

ND placed two guys in the Rivals 100, both of them 4-star prospects:

28	James Aldridge	RB		6-1/215	Crown Point (IN) Merrillville	Notre Dame
	His ability to go from first gear to full speed is unmatched by anybody in the nation. His burst helped him rack up 2,100 yards and 22 scores in 2004.

44	Zach Frazer	QB		6-4/215	Mechanicsburg (PA) Mechanicsburg	Notre Dame
	Strong arm, accuracy and Charlie Weis should equal success for Frazer at Notre Dame. Racked up 3,684 passing yards and 27 touchdowns as a junior.

Surprisingly (or not), that's as many as ND has ever had since Rivals started this silliness in 2002. Ok, Greg Olsen made it 3 in 2003, but let's only count guys that make it through freshman orientation. And I applaud Rivals for their sagacity. By my own assessment, James Aldridge was precisely the 28th-best prospect in the country. They nailed it. Bravo, Rivals. (I had Frazer at 42nd, but you can't be perfect.)

Anway, we here at BGS didn't want to fall behind the times, so herewith we present to you our own Blue-Gray Sky Star Rankings™. We'll be updating periodically through the year, and additional rankings may be presented without warning. In the meantime, here's a super-special sneak peek at what we have so far. Can you stand the excitement? Neither can we.

New Coke with Lime ad jingle: 3 stars
Vonage ad jingle: 1 star

Bose Noise-Cancelling Headphones: 4 stars

ABC's Dancing with the Stars: Ironically, only 1 star

Carl's Jr. $6 Low-Carb Burger: 2 stars

South Bend City councilpersons: 1 star

Billy Idol, comeback tour: 3 stars
Billy Idol, original tour: 1 star

The Shirt, 2005 version: 1 star
The Shirt, if worn by Jennifer Connelly: 5 stars

Belushi: 5 stars
Farley: 3 stars
Sanz: 1 star

EZ-Pass: 4 stars

"My bad": 1 star
"Rad": 3 stars

Watching the movie "Sideways": 3 stars
Quoting the movie "Sideways" at a restaurant or wine bar: 1 star

Dancing Grannies: 1 star
Sausage races at Miller Park: 3 stars
Milwaukee Brewers baseball: 2 stars

Star Jones, used to be pushing 4 stars, now just 2 stars

Golden Retrievers: 4 stars

Halls Fruit Breezers Screaming Fan of the Game: 1 star

Southwest Airlines "Festival" Seating: 2 stars

James Aldridge: a whole lotta stars

Rivals Top 100: 1 star

Blue-Gray Sky: 5 stars (alleged regional bias)

The Long View | by Jay

It's all how you look at it.

Consider these pairs of numbers:

130 - 37

1649 - 688

3 - 0

Depressing, right? Well, take a look at this:

And finally, consider:

Sort of puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?

"Now sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down. When you find that you're down, well, just look around. You still got a body, good legs and fine feet, get your head in the right place and, hey, you're complete."

-- a Jackalope, "Boundin'"

One other note | by Jay

One more thing from today's Cutcliffe presser, and it's about our head coach and his propensity to plan ahead. Check out this little excerpt from Charlie today, on who's going to replace Coach Cut:

I have a contingency plan if I lose anybody, so it's not just him. No matter who we would lose, there's a contingency plan.

Just as I told you coming in, I wasn't blowing hot air when I talked about having a depth chart of coaches. Well, once you hire them, now you need to revise that depth chart so you know who's waiting in the wings and who you can get if something happens, and you have to have them at every position because you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to happen in life and what directions you're taking.

Contingency plan? Come on, this is Notre Dame. When it comes to hiring football coaches, we never plan ahead. We turn around three times, bless ourselves and wing it.

Then again, maybe things really have changed. Here's Charlie wrapping up his commentary today:

I'm saying the process is in play. In other words, it's like this. We're already down to who we're hiring and if I didn't come with this answer, A, I wouldn't be very organized; B, I'd have 50 people applying for the quarterback coaching job this afternoon. So they need not apply.

So Charlie actually has a process for hiring new assistants. Just fantastic. And it's a good thing, too, seeing as for the first time in a while, we've got some guys on staff who are undoubtedly looking to move on to bigger and better positions once their stint with the Irish comes to a close. Mike Haywood is unabashedly on record as desiring a head coaching position someday; Bill Lewis certainly has the credentials for another go-around in the NFL; Brian Polian is an up-and-comer who you can bet won't be happy as assistant special-teams coach for the rest of his career. As the Weis era develops over the years, we're going to have turnover in the coaching ranks, and it's nice to know our skipper will have a replacement ready when someone decides to jump ship.

Now if we could only get our administration to have some semblance of a plan when it comes time to select the next head coach after Charlie. There's probably a decade of lead time for this one, guys. Let's hope some of Charlie's perspicacity rubs off.

Cut Out | by Jay

Melancholy news today.

Still in cardiac rehab after his bypass surgery a few months ago, QB coach David Cutcliffe resigned his post as quarterbacks coach today and will take some time off to recuperate. Said Cutcliffe at the announcement presser:

During my limited time at Notre Dame, I learned to appreciate the unique spirit inherent in this university and the people who enliven it. It's a spirit that demands full attention and boundless energy. I'm happy to say that I am on the mend and, in fact, that I am healthier since my bypass surgery than I've been in years. However, it will be months before I can claim that mental, physical, and emotional intensity and would never give any program less than the passion and energy it deserves. To do so would unfairly penalize the Irish players, staff, students, alumni, and devoted friends. As anyone who knows me can attest, it's all or nothing with me.

The good news for Coach Cutcliffe is that it's not a permanent retirement, and it sounds like he'd like to get back into coaching as soon as he's up and about. He's only 50 years old, so his potential career is far from over.

It's a shame for us, though.

Getting a guy with Cutcliffe's experience and expertise to be "just a QB coach" was a real coup for ND in the first place, and it was a confluence of fate that saw him ignominiously dismissed from Ole Miss the same year that Weis took over at ND and canvassed the nation for the best assistants he could find. We were lucky he was available, and we were lucky to get him. I think many of us felt he was the top assistant on the staff; as the mentor to the Mannings, and a very successful OC and head coach in his own right, Cutcliffe was overqualified for the position.

For his part, Cutcliffe seemed genuinely excited to be under the dome. A few months ago the SBT peeked in on Cutcliffe to see how he was adapting to life north of the Mason-Dixon line, and it sounded like he was doing great and was really looking forward to tutoring Brady Quinn. Cutcliffe was also a key member of Charlie's recruiting team, and his southern roots would have been a welcome entry into a region of the country where ND would love to build up some cachet.

One thing that's been overlooked a bit is Cutcliffe's other title, that of Assistant Head Coach. Having a senior guy with former head coaching experience was no doubt one of the big draws for Charlie Weis as he moved into his new role, and Charlie will miss being able to lean on Cutcliffe for advice as he acclimates himself to being a head coach.

ND's losing a hell of a coach and a real gem of a guy. Replacing him won't be easy.

In the meantime, here's wishing him a speedy recovery, and I'm sure any notes of encouragement would find their way to Coach Cutcliffe via the ND athletic department mailing address.