LSU Game Summary...And Some Other Stuff

The haters are already out there. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBS sportsline and virtually every other internet sports publication has already started the Irish bashing. It's amazing how much people love to have on Brady Quinn and Notre Dame. Last night didn't prove anything the USC game didn't (I am not lumping Michigan in there because I don't think they are a better football team than us, we gave that game away). We cannot make mistakes and win against a quality opponent (like LSU) and we made plenty of them. I don't understand how our football team can be so dramatically different this year from last in terms of how we play in big games seeing how we are basically the same team. And I really don't understand how a team like Ole Miss can push LSU to the brink of defeat and we can't. It just goes to show you, as this bowl season proved, anyone can beat anyone on any given day. It also goes to show you that every team we play gets up to play us. We always get their best because everyone loves to hate us. Amazing, we aren't tooting our horn, the media does. But as soon as we are over-rated it is our self-righteous NBC football wielding contract arrogant attitude that is to blame. I'm sure every school in college football wouldn't jump at a television contract if they could get it. Right.

A few things I learned this bowl season. Les Miles isn't good on the camera. He was given a plethora of opportunities last night when prompted with questions and didn't once deliver anything resembling intelligent dialogue. The same can be said for his players. We also learned that Fox can't cover college football games. The commentary, setup, and even sound was terrible. You can't take guys that follow NFL football all year, thrust them into the bowl game, and expect good results. It just won't work. Mike Bobo is going to be one heck of a good offensive coordinator down in Georgia. Don't ever, ever bet against Pete Carroll in games following a bye week or bowl games. Even though USC (particularly Dwayne Jarrett) has no class, the guy is just too good. Additionally, Dwayne Jarrett can taunt his opposition but Jeff Samardzija can't. I don't know if I would call what he did taunting but I certainly would what Jarrett did. The Statue of Liberty play call in the Boise State game was a thing of beauty. Congrats to the media dubbed "BCS spoilers."

If you told me that Darius had 100+ yards rushing and we had a 2:1 time of possession advantage at halftime I would have told you we would win the game. I thought the longer we kept it close, the better chance we had of winning. Keeping their defense on the field for 19+ minutes and posting nearly 250 yards of first half offense were really good signs. I don't know about the fake punt, we might as well have just handed them seven points. But if it works, Weis is a genius. Unfortunately, it didn't, in the second half the roles reversed. They were on the field almost the whole half and we managed a paltry amount of yardage.

Offense

Brady had arguably his worst game of the past two years. He didn't look like the Brady I've seen in the past. His throws were errant and he didn't have a lot of touch on many of his throws. He looked over-hyped. It's tough to be in his position against a team like LSU with a defense like they have but he had time and a running game and he didn't execute. I think he hurt his draft stock because the knock on him is that he can't win big games. I guess people forget about the USC game last year when he outplayed everyone's favorite poster boy Matt Leinart. People must also forget that Peyton Manning never beat Florida. However, real or perceived, last night did nothing to change people's opinions. He did manage to show his footwork again, Brady isn't slow. But we just can't win when we don't capitalize on turnovers, don't catch passes we should on third down, and don't hit open receivers. Throwing off your back foot into the flat on inside man coverage isn't necessarily a good idea either.

I thought the offensive line played a pretty dang good game. They controlled the line of scrimmage and Carlson did an excellent job sealing on the outside. I thought they were going to be the deciding factor in this game and they held up their end of the bargain. I was really impressed with how well they played. Unfortunately, we have a secondary that couldn't cover themselves let alone the other team.

Darius had a good game running, catching, and pass protecting. He looked a step faster last night. He really is invaluable in our offensive scheme. I typically hate the way he runs the ball, last night was the exception.

David Grimes had the game of his life. It wasn't just the amazing catch for the touchdown. He was blocking down field all game long. Weis was using wide receiver crack blocks to seal the inside and Grimes took on quite a few linebackers with success.

I'm kind of surprised that we didn't use Carlson more in the passing game. I didn't play that close of attention but I guess he just didn't get open.

Defense

I don't know how we can be so bad in the defensive backfield. Last night it looked like we had four Clifford Jefferson's out there. Can we just not recruit someone who can cover, anyone, someone? I wish my name was Jimbo Fisher because our defense made him look like a genius. It didn't matter what play LSU called, it worked. I don't know if JaMarcus Russell is that good because he didn't have to make a tough throw all night. I thought we would play a lot of zone and try and give them everything underneath but we tried to mix it up a lot and confuse Russell. It didn't work.

Their offensive line owned our front seven. Our defensive line played their worst game in recent memory and our linebackers were swallowed up by the offensive line and tight ends. We couldn't stop anything and really failed to get much pressure on Russell. Even when we blitzed we didn't get there.

I don't think there was one person on defense that had a good game. I will say this though, we played hard. We may not have played well but we were hitting and playing hard. Duke and Richardson played particularly hard.

Special Teams

The one bright spot all night (as far as tackling goes) was David Bruton. That kid is great on special teams kickoff and punt coverage. Other than that, we didn't have a big play in the special teams game. We had plenty of opportunities on kickoff returns but didn't take advantage on any. The failed fake punt was a disaster.

To say I'm disappointed in how the game turned out would be an understatement. However, I took friendly advice and played it out on my newly acquired XBox 360. Final score, ND 52, LSU 24. That's right, I ran it up.

And to close out...temporarily, a nice article on Tressel here. Thank Kinder. Nota bene that Tressel promises greatness in the classroom. I guess the 34% African American football player graduation rate and largest disparity between white and black graduation rates among all bowl bound teams is considered "great" to The Ohio State University. It's a pity they make so much money on these kids without preparing them for the real world.

More Thoughts...

I kind of got to thinking about a few more things and had some dialogue that prompted me to want to write more.

First, it is laughable that LSU suspended a few of their players for a couple of quarters. Jimmy Johnson said it before the game and he was dead on: "Oh come on Tim [Brown], this is LSU not Notre Dame, these guys will be in after the first series." Weis told our players if any player violated a curfew or broke a team rule they would be sent home. What a joke of an effort at discipline it was.

Second, it was pointed out to me (thank McColgan) that our secondary is really sort of victimized by self-fulfilling prophecies. They've heard over and over again how slow they are and how they always give up the big play. This just feeds off itself. Other teams see and hear this and keep testing us deep more and more. If the percentage of big passing plays given up by our defensive secondary (vs. the number attempted) was examined and compared to other teams I'm not sure there would be grossly large disparity. Teams just go deep on us far more often than "normal." This will continue until we prove we can stop it or until we are able to consistently get pressure on the opposing QB. To me we weren't visibly slower than them last night, we were just greatly out of position on many occasions. It's tough when we have three converted wide outs playing in our secondary.

I don't anticipate this problem getting any better soon. A lot of people are calling for Minter's head but I'm not convinced that is the problem. I feel that Weis knows how to come up with a defensive gameplan. If you know offense you know defense and I'm sure he "checks" the game plan going in. I think the talent gap is more severe than I believe, more serious than I anticipated, and a larger contribution to our defensive performance than I have previously acknowledged. We have more highly regarded talent coming in and Weis has said the first few classes have to be loaded with difference makers while the subsequent ones can have fewer. He's right, we need to have a depth of talent to push people for playing time and be able to play multiple persons at the same position to keep people fresh during the game.

Finally, our wide receiver play this year, at times, was poor relative to last year. While Carlson surpassed Fasano in his play, Samardzija wasn't the same receiver and McKnight dropped far too many balls, many of them in clutch situations. We only played three wide receivers this year (with any consequence) which goes to show you that we don't have the talent behind them to push them to play better or to take their place.

The bad news about our current state of football affairs is that Weis can't seem to (read hasn't yet) beat a top tier team and people are slowing us down on offense. Usually the second year is a good indication of the future for a coach. In this case, let's hope that is the exception rather than the rule because I am certainly not satisfied with our performance this year. The good news is that Weis seems to understand this. He knows we don't have the talent to play with the big boys but he isn't going to say that, isn't going to stop trying to win every game, and isn't going to not support his players in every way possible.

Keep the faith and continue support and let's ride it out.

LSU Keys To Winning

Season In Review

The more and more I think about our season the more I think that the reason we didn't win all of our games came down to one fundamental thing: poor offensive line play. I took a look at this year compared to the last and a couple of statistics stood out at me. On defense we gave up significantly fewer yards, mostly in the passing game, and fewer yards per rush. However, the yards per play was up a little bit and the number of plays against us was up slightly which, given the new rules this year to shorten the game, means it was up more than that. On offense, our time of possession was down and, even though our yards per carry were up, our rushing touchdowns (way down) and yards per game were down.

To me this all points to the offensive line. We didn't have a consistent, tough yardage, inside running presence. Due to that our play action passing game wasn't as effective. This manifests itself in several areas. First, we don't control the clock like we did in the past. This leaves the defense on the field for more plays. Therefore, even though they are playing better than last year they are more apt to get tired and therefore more likely to give up big plays. Second, this takes away our ability to play action and go down field. It isn't just that Samardzija and McKnight can't separate from many of the defenders. Without pulling the safeties up with play action we can't really go down field with the ball. We just don't have the athleticism or speed at the wide receiver position unless we get one-on-one coverage with jump balls. Effective play action helps facilitate that.

Finally, opposing defenses know we have to throw the ball. Any team with a decent defensive line can pin their ears back and come after us. This has resulted in more pressure on Quinn and, consequently, more sacks. It has also created serious problems converting third and fourth downs. Third and long and they send the house, third and short and we can't pick up the tough yards with our running game. There is only so many times you can run a QB sneak. Fourth down is more of the same.

Consistent with the thought that you are never as good or bad as people think you are it is certainly true that the offensive line is solely to blame. The absence of a consistent pass rush threat opposite Victor has been one of the true detriments to our defense. Additionally, our linebacker play this year has been some of the worst I have seen. Looking at Brockington's play and then reading people say he has really improved into a meaningful role tells you how bad we are at that position. We don't take on blocks with the outside shoulder, we don't skate and read upfield, we don't turn plays back inside, and we don't know how to read. The absence of physical running by Darius has also been a primary contributor to all of this. Watching the Army game with a couple of friends it was noted how he goes down on the first touch virtually every play. However, after seeing Aldridge miss the simple catch out in the flat I realized how valuable Darius is and why he is still the starter.

LSU Preview

I'm not going to lie folks, LSU is good. In fact, if they had better coaching they would be playing for the national title. I'm not sure what they were thinking hiring Les Miles but LSU has as much, if not more, talent than any other team in the country. And that talent comes in size, strength, speed, and athleticism. Better coaching, more discipline, and the elimination of self-inflicted mistakes would have them undefeated in the SEC and playing for the national championship. Of particular concern is their talent at wide receiver. Bowe and Doucet, have speed to spare. They aren't of the Mannigham and Jarret mold where they are bigger targets and more of possession type receivers with good speed. These guys have top-line speed. At the running back position they use three different guys, all of whom I'd love to have starting for us. Brady Quinn is having a fine year but what about JaMarcus Russell? He completes near 70% of his passes and has an excellent TD to interception ratio himself (26:7). On top of that, Russell is such a physical presence (goes about 260 lbs) that it is difficult to pressure him from the outside as he steps up into the pocket well. And defensively, they might have the best in the country. They are aggressive, fast, physical, and deep. They hit hard, cover well, blitz from all over the field, and stuff the run nearly as good as anyone in the country. At safety LaRon Landry is about as good as they come. This isn't going to be an easy game for us. LSU is really the last team I would want to draw from any of the BCS teams minus maybe OSU.

Offense

The key to us winning this game is several fold. First, protect the football. We can't turn the ball over and win this game. Second, we must take advantage of their aggressive defensive play. This can come in several forms but the one way I think we can primarily take advantage of it is in the screen game and with double move routes on the outside. This means we have to be able to protect Brady. Big surprise, in order to win, our offensive line must play well. Because LSU has such good safeties, they like to play a lot of cover two. The tight end, hopefully Carlson but Freeman if necessary, will be essential to exploiting this down the middle of the field. I think the tight end, along with solid offensive line play, will be the key to winning this game. Ball possession, controlling the clock, and long, meticulous drives (as Weis likes to call them) are key.

Defense

On defense it will be particularly important not to give up the big play. With the speed they have at receiver, particularly Doucet, they can break it pretty much any play and they will run the bubble screens, quick slants, and seam routes in one-on-one coverage to try and create with their speed. They will also use the running back by committee approach to wear us down. I believe the key will be to get them into third and long and get pressure on Russell up the middle. Coming from the outside will only flush him out of the pocket where he may be even more dangerous than as a drop back passer. Additionally, they run a pretty timing oriented passing offense. Disrupting the passing lanes via pressure up the middle and being physical with the receivers at the line of scrimmage will also be significant to success (see blueprint from the Florida vs. LSU game). We didn't do this with USC, let's see if we learned our lesson. Put Zibi up on the line and let him smack them around a few times, let him take the short zone, and give him help over the top.

Special Teams

On special teams it is unlikely we will get a big return. The most important factor here will be not giving something big up to them. Good kickoff and punt coverage will be essential as one little gap and they can spring it for a score. I also wouldn't be surprised to see us go after some punts and/or fake something ourselves. Weis is liable to pull out all of the stops here.

General Comments

To be perfectly honest, this game could be over at halftime with LSU pulling out ahead and just playing keep away and exerting superior athleticism for the second half. They are every bit as talented as any team in the country and are playing in their own backyard. I pray this doesn't happen because I don't want to hear all the media crap if it does. That said, they aren't coached very well and they are certainly prone to their fare share of mistakes. If we can keep it close and not turn the ball over, we can win as anyone can beat anyone on any given Saturday. Even then we will need a significantly poor game of play on their part to keep it close and I just don't see it happening.

LSU 31, ND 24

The Heisman Trophy Ceremony

If you are like me, you were supremely disappointed with the Heisman ceremony on Saturday night. Not only was it void of nearly any objective, intelligent football commentary, but it has also become like so many other things in college football, another money making scheme. It is more and more blatantly obvious to me that sports journalists (if you can even call them that), and even sports coverage in general, are more interested with creating and spinning stories than actually presenting factual, pertinent information from which the general public can base their own perceptions and opinions. I guess it really isn't that different from other types of journalism though.

I'm not particularly disappointed that Brady came in 3rd in the Heisman balloting. If you don't win, it really doesn't matter what place you finish and I knew going in that he wasn't going to win. The fact that he only got 13 first placed votes is darn near a crime against humanity but he'll go top five in the draft and make a zillion dollars. Troy Smith, on the other hand, might not even be drafted as a quarterback. It's interesting to me (just like the article I sent out last week illustrated) that the Heisman voting has turned from the most outstanding player to the best player on the best team. I've said it all along, no player with a supporting cast like Troy Smith, Matt Leinart, et. al. has can legitimately be considered the most outstanding player in college football without proving week in and week out that they are the most dominating player on the field. Look at the several past Heisman winning quarterbacks. They never did jack in the NFL because the reason they were any good in college was primarily due to the other players on the field and the level of competition they played. Smith will be no different.

What upsets me most about this year's Heisman trophy presentation, experience, etc. was best illustrated by one of Fowler's comments during the actual presentation ceremony. He said something along the lines of "it's hard to find something bad about that kid" in reference to Quinn. I immediately turned to my best friend sitting next to me. We were both thinking the same thing, only he said it first..."can't say the same thing about Smith now can we." Don't get me wrong, by recent accounts and the way he has handled himself this year, Troy Smith seems to finally be understanding the responsibilities that come with his status and success. He needs to conduct himself in such a way that he always keeps in mind what he represents and the type of roll model he is. Brady Quinn even said it in his little interview portion of the Heisman ceremony. But Smith shouldn't get a pass on all of the actions in his past that are much less than reputable just because he had a tough childhood. Additionally, Troy Smith should never have taken a snap over the past two years. If you accept money for playing college football you should be finished, plain and simple. That isn't a grey area of the rules. That one is cut and dry. It's quite disappointing that someone who is guilty of that can be chosen as the winner of college football's most prestigious award and to represent it on the stage Smith does.

The thing I was really pleased about is the fact that after last night I really can't imagine a better ambassador of ND football than Brady Quinn. He is a gentleman, he is respectful, he is the model of a student-athlete, and he is a great poster-boy for ND football. Be thankful he had the opportunity to get the publicity he has had and behave the way he has behaved. It speaks volumes of ND, Weis, and the type of football program we have.

I hate the fact that USC and OSU now have the same number of Heisman trophy winners we do. What's worse, until we get much better (by the current standard of voting) we won't get another one for quite some time. We have a few playmakers on the roster and coming in next year but until we consistently win big games (via a strong supporting cast) we won't be able to meet the qualifications for another winner.

Those Crazy Persons In The Media: Stay the Course

Ok, I've said it already but it needs to be said again. The people who crucify us in the media are the same people who anoint us before. They see improvement on the field, translate that into talent rather than coaching, anoint us as a better team, and then crucify us when we don't live up to their self-placed expectations. This is just proof that most of the so called pundits know nothing about college football. Furthermore, they never realize the obligation they have to delve into the real reasons and blame the truly responsible parties. They just chalk it up as another reason to hate the Fighting Irish.

I know what you're thinking, Weis talks just like the pundits do. But what else should he do? Is the guy going to bash his own players? Is the guy going to say we shouldn't or can't win against a certain opponent? Will he ever do anything but blame himself at the forefront of the interaction with the media? No. Does he know we aren't where we need to be in terms of talent? I'm sure he does, but he sure as hell isn't going to tell the general public that. That's not fair to the players he has right now nor is it productive to the future direction of the program.

The notion(s) and argument(s) that we don't have the talent of the top teams in the country and don't deserve a BCS bid aren't ill-founded, they are just ill-constructed. It is readily apparent that we don't have as much talent as other top teams in the country. I don't know if anyone has ever disputed this. We have talent, and in a good amount in some cases and at some positions, but not the kind of talent that allows us to win without mistake-free football. Weis isn't going to publicly admit that. That would be devastating to the team and players he currently coaches. What he is doing is only losing to top 5 football teams, winning the games he is supposed to, and winning recruiting battles.

The concern I have is that, while at New York and New England, Weis always had pretty good defenses. That isn't the case right now. And this is not only true from a talent level but also potentially from the coaching level. That has to improve and that is a valid, well-founded, even well-constructed concern. But the media's constant over-stating and then criticizing of our football program is pure publicity, story-spinning, and hate for a university that tries to do things right. And for all those people out there who think we lower our standards to recruit...go talk to Dwayne Jarrett. He was peeved because we stopped recruiting him when we found out his grades weren't up to snuff. He took it personally that we said he wasn't smart enough to attend Notre Dame. Last time I checked it isn't our responsibility to make sure high school athletes who want to play college football do their homework.

Stay the course, keep the faith. I have doubts as does many people close to the program. But stay the course, keep the faith, let's keep winning these recruiting battles, doing things the right way, and conducting ourselves with respect and class.

Woodworking Projects

One of my favorite things to do is build stuff. I have a variety of tools (nail guns, skill saw, double-bevel miter saw, compressor, jig saw, router, etc.) and have completed several projects I am pretty proud of. Typically I work with my buddy Vinnie (Vincenzo Siciliano, he's German). Most of them are shown below. If you are in the Cincinnati area and want some work done just let me know. I apologize for the appearance of the pictures below. It's really tough to get the picture editor in this thing to do what you want it to.

Cornhole Sets

These are the sets Vinnie and I made for a few people while on vacation, er a work assignment, down in South Carolina near Hilton Head.

Some more sets we did for a friend we met in Hilton Head.

And finally, for the Marines in MCAS Beaufort (just outside of Hilton Head).

These are some sets Vinnie and I made for our friends we work with here in Cincinnati. Yes, it was physically painful to do the OSU set.




















Some UC sets we did for another friend in Cincinnati.

























A few examples of some of our finer stenciling work...





















Anyone a Browns' fan?

How about the Bengals?

And last, but not least, the best sets in the world.

Shelves

Here are some shelves that Vinnie and I built. The set on the left was my custom design for a friend I work with. The set on the right Vinnie and I built for his wife.

Built-In's

Over this past Christmas my cousin and I built some built-in's for a room in his house. Here is the unfinished look (no cabinet doors, caulking, wood putty, sanding, painting, etc.) with a couple of finished pictures below.

Entertainment Center

Another Christmas, another project with my cousin. Before:

After:

And soon to come, the finished pictures...

USC Game Summary

When Weis first signed on as our coach at Notre Dame I didn’t really know much about him. As time progressed his candor in both press interviews and his book has allowed me a glimpse into what makes the man tick. After learning of his background with Parcells and Bellicheck and his success on the very elite level of the NFL I was encouraged that we would have a decided coaching advantage in every game we played under his tenure, a remarkable change from what I was used to. I was, however, misguided as to the extent that coaching can improve a team. Saturday night was living proof of this. I am still baffled how a USC team with less offensive talent could put up more points and with more ease than they did last year against our improved defense. I knew that we wouldn’t score as many points, USC’s defense is vastly improved this year over last (when injuries just plagued their secondary), but I really thought we had a better shot at stopping them with Bush et. al. gone and a better defense.

We were not poorly prepared for the game Saturday night. The comments of Weis, Quinn, Zibi, etc. after the game are evident of that. Although I’m still uncertain as to what our exact goal was on defense, the consistent success we had at the end of the first half was evidence that Minter did have a game plan that worked, albeit only temporarily. What was readily more apparent to me was the talent gap between USC’s receivers and our secondary. Trust me, I hate to admit it. I think it is almost allowing defeat through an excuse. But Dwayne Jarrett and any member of our secondary will only be mentioned in the same sentence to impart the unavoidable knowledge of what came to be Saturday night. Jarrett is in a class of his own. This talent gap was also evident on the USC defensive side of the ball where their speed really gave us a lot of problems. The thing I struggle with is as follows: for me, talent gaps are evident in players not being able to make one-on-one plays. What I saw a lot of times Saturday was USC receivers making catches wide open. It’s tough to say how much blame should be based on talent vs. coaching but it is very likely a bit of both.

Like I said after Michigan, I thought losses like this (large point differentials) were a thing of the past. To me, they hurt so much because it just gives the nay sayers more ammunition. The anti-ND sentiment will be prevalent throughout the media this week with many “experts” saying how ND is over-rated and not in the same class as many of the top teams in the country. In my opinion, that is true, but it has been that way since the beginning of the season. Remember, these are the same idiots that ranked us pre-season number two. It is through their own mistake that they have the circumstance to be able to criticize us this way. At the beginning of the year I thought we were a three or four loss football team. As it turns out, we only played two (maybe three) quality opponents. But you are never as bad or as good as anyone says you are. Writers love to spin stories and they will do so in absence of knowledge or logic. The general opinion after the game was that USC beat us badly. The truth is that we didn’t take advantage when we had the opportunities and the game should have been much closer than it was. This wasn't like the Michigan loss where we gave them everything we could. In this game we played fairly solid football. It is just that we have to play flawless to win against a team like this because of the talent gap. We couldn't string it together on a consistent basis. Last year we did, this year we didn't. Quinn is an excellent football player, not to mention QB, but he can't do it all.

Give USC credit, they played well. Pete Carroll, as much as I hate him, is as good of a college football coach as the NCAA has seen in some time. He is masterful at getting his players prepared for games, motivating, and recruiting. Weis should take some notes from him as we have come out really flat in many of our big games during his tenure. Carroll’s halftime adjustments are also excellent. That said, we didn’t take advantage of the opportunities we created. Had we done that the game would have been closer and the outcome much more in doubt. I’ve come to realize that good football coaches can only put players in the position to make the play. They can’t make it for them. That’s were talent manifests itself.

Before I get into some general comments on the game, I’d like to point out the fact that USC has little class. They are embarrassing to the university with their actions at the pep rally and after plays on the field. Only people who are around class and can recognize the difference know this. Pete Carroll, for all of his worth as a college coach, cares more about winning than winning the right way. Don’t get me wrong, Carroll, at least in the public eye, conducts himself with class. But I have to figure he isn’t always like this behind closed doors since this behavior doesn’t trickle down to his players. Further evidence of their lack of class was the “Quinn rhymes with Brokeback” sign and scream of “The Four Horsemen were gay” on college gameday. I even heard a story of a ND fan getting strangled by a USC fan in the stands. No kidding, charges were filed. I don't write this to take solace in the fact that we have that and they don't. I write it because the University of Notre Dame football program has high visibility and with that comes a responsibility to conduct ourselves with good behavior. I write it because we must understand what many other big college football programs don't. The visibility of Weis and the football program means we have a tremendous asset. We can sell the things we want to sell and represent the ideals that the university stands for to the public at large. Other programs don't always realize the responsibility that comes with this power. I implore you as representatives of the university, do not act like what I have described above. Treat our opponents with respect and class. Celebrate with our team, alumni, and university, never against the opponent. Represent the university the way it should be represented and with the class it deserves.

On to the football stuff…

Offense

On the offensive side of the ball we lined up in more formations and with different personnel packages than I had seen all year. I have to reason that USC felt the same way. The problem is, none of it really seemed to work effectively and consistently. Weis definitely had a very specific game plan against USC. Unfortunately for him, instead of playing mostly zone defense, Carroll employed tight man-to-man coverage which we really couldn’t shake. Their secondary blanketed our receivers for much of the game and even when Quinn had time there was rarely someone open. No matter what Weis tried, they adjusted and their speed compensated for any slight lapses they had. Even though that is all true, we still moved the ball, we just couldn’t get touchdowns inside of the red zone.

Brady had a decent game putting up more total offense against USC than any other player has all season. He had tons of very critical dropped passes that our receivers should have caught. I think he did the most with what he had considering there were so many few open receivers. He did miss a couple of throws that, had he completed, would have been excellent plays. He also showed some pretty good speed on that one run. He didn’t look like a Heisman Trophy contender since he didn’t make plays when we needed them but he could have used some help in that department. Brady is inconsistently clutch. Against quality opposition he doesn’t consistently make the big plays when we need them. However, that is as much a function of the talent around him as it is his play alone. He also spent a good deal of the game on his back. Go and watch the Michigan game, see how many times they even got close to Troy Smith. It’s tough for a QB to do it all (even though that is the perception about Smith).

Rhema had a really inconsistent game. His two long balls were beautiful catches but he dropped so many critical passes that it really killed drives for us. Samardjiza had a less than decent game. His inability to separate himself from their secondary was quite evident. He also lacked physical play.

I thought Freeman played very well all things considered. He had the one drop but his blocking was above average and, for the most part, he performed when needed in the passing game.

I hate to say this but I think Bob Morton is the worst offensive lineman in the country.

I think, in general, the offensive line played pretty well in terms of giving Quinn time. They didn’t protect him all that well (he was hit often) but we couldn’t get anyone open so it became a difficult task. They also did fairly well in the running game when our draw plays weren’t all that predictable.In some instances Weis got too cute with the running play calls. Overall, I thought the offensive line played well enough for us to win.The lack of separation our receivers created was our biggest downfall on offense. The three false starts by Harris were inexcusable.

I don’t understand why we didn’t go to no-huddle when we couldn’t move the ball. We waited until it was too late in the game. It would really have negated a lot of the defensive strategy of Carroll and allowed Quinn to focus on fewer decisions seeing how he was running for his life a bit.

I was extremely disappointed with our lack of execution on our fourth down attempts.

This just in…David Grimes and George West are quick, really quick.

Defense

Under Chow USC began what I can best describe as a timing passing game. Like Mike Williams before him, Dwayne Jarrett is a tough, physical, athletic receiver that suits this type of gameplan. Whether it be in play action or short drops, USC wants to take advantage of a precise passing game that relies on timing between the quarterback and his receivers. They don’t utilize the shotgun, rarely employ five step drops and almost never use seven step drops. The advantage of this is it effectively negates the opposing defenses ability to get pressure on the QB. It is also very effective when coupled with an effective running game and play action. Finally, it makes an offensive lineman’s job, relatively speaking, easier. The downside is that it requires a very astute QB and talented skill position players. The way to stop it, to me, is force teams into third and long situations and play press, bump-and-run coverage to disrupt the timing in the passing game. We didn’t seem to try and do that. Weis mentioned that we did in his post game interview but it didn't seem to be happening. On top of that, I thought that a real key to this game would be to get pressure on Booty and we didn’t seem to blitz much at all to try and do that. Even when we did, we didn't get there. Like Leinart before him, Booty isn’t tough and is easy to rattle. We should have had a more determined effort to knock him around. When we consistently stopped them that is what we were doing, getting pressure on him and forcing him into non-ideal, less than manageable situations.

I thought our front four played a very physical game. They really pursued well down the line of scrimmage. They didn’t get to Booty often but that is as much a function of the three step drop passing game as it is their success rushing the passer.

Our linebackers were absent for much of the game. They were pushed all over the field. Where USC has fast linebackers that are physical and can take on offensive lineman, we are ineffective in shedding blocks at the second level. It really showed up in this game. The reads weren't there and we don't understand how to take on a block with the inside shoulder and force a play back inside.

I thought Mike Richardson had one heck of a game. He really played well minus one play.

Obviously the secondary, in general, played poorly. They couldn’t cover Jarrett but most of the time it looked like one-on-one coverage and I hope that it was because of mental errors, not because Minter left them alone on islands. If that were the case I would hope we were blitzing and I didn’t see a lot of it.

I was thoroughly frustrated with USC’s ability to convert short yardage situations on the ground In many cases, that is pure determination. We needed to want it more.

Special Teams

I thought our kickoff team had one of its worse performances of the season. Minus the one punt, we had good punt coverage. Our return game was average at best.

Closing Remarks

In all honesty I hope we don’t go to a BCS bowl. I think the outcome will be mostly the same against another superiorly athletic team. Our receivers won't be able to separate from their secondary and our defense won't be able to pressure the QB without sending the house and leaving an inept secondary in one-on-one matchups. That is the bottom line of this game and I don’t want to be embarrassed again. Additionally, I think this type of thing will get worse before it gets better. Our recruiting in the sophomore and junior classes was atrocious, both in numbers and in talent, a true testament to Willingham’s gallant laziness and excellent golf game. The talent may be there with Weis’ first two full recruiting classes but it still has to be developed out of its infancy. Next year will likely be a very rough year.

I have spoken very highly of our assistant coaches. However, at this point, I’m leery of whether or not Minter, Oliver, Polian, and Latina are cutting it. Oliver has defensive line talent, Abiamiri, Laws, and Landri will all play on Sundays. But we can’t get pressure with the front four alone. I really don’t understand this at all. Polian hasn’t shown consistent improvement in our special teams and this is an area we desperately need to improve in. Latina can’t seem to teach our offensive line the meaning of run blocking. Minter, I don’t know what is going on with him. Our blitzes don't pay off getting to the QB and pressuring him nearly as often as they should. But all of these coaches had significant strengths and impressive resumes. For some reason, they aren’t producing I only hope that it isn't the head coach's relationship with them. It looks like some of them aren’t that impressive on the recruiting trail either. Weis needs to learn. He needs to adapt. Whatever his psychological ploys are for getting the team ready to play in big games, they aren't working. If his assistants aren't performing, he needs to get rid of them. That is one of the things that sunk Willingham. Maybe it is a difference between the pro's and college. I don't know. Weis has still only lost (minus MSU last year) to teams ranked in the top 5 but he really needed this win as a clause on his resume. He has been owned in big games.

Oh yea, if anyone wants a new Heisman Trophy candidate, Darren McFadden is your man.

Air Force Game Summary

My best friend (Scoggins) was kind enough to record the game for me so I could watch it last night. Unfortunately, his DVR was on the fritz and I wasn't able to see a large portion of the game. Due to this, I asked him to write something and he has done so. Peppered in are my comments.

First, I wanted to give a little comparison of the Virginia Tech game experience vs. one at ND. VT fans are crazy devoted. I've never seen so many cars in the team colors, magnets on the sides, tents with Hokie stuff plastered everywhere, etc. It was really incredible how they go all out in their paraphernalia. Lane stadium is also quite cool. It has an old school feel to it. It only holds ~65,000 but everyone is right up on the field and it gets pretty dang loud. My seats were incredible, on row five, right behind the Hokie bench and right next to all of their recruits. The great seats and great hosts made it a really good time. If you want to see a defense play, watch VT. I know it was Kent State, but VT's front seven are pretty much as good as any in the country. They don't even give up a touchdown a game. That's just obscene. Xavier Adibi is one of the best linebackers I've seen in person.

On the flip side of the coin was the commercialization of the game. I'm of the opinion that ND will pretty much sell their soul to make a dollar. owever, I count my blessings that the university doesn't taint our football games with advertising. Lane stadium had advertising all over the place in the form of banners and signs as well as commercials played on the jumbotron during time outs and the like. I'm glad and proud of the fact that ND doesn't do that, that they keep the experience about the game, and that we don't have so many bells and whistles in our stadium that it takes away from the game being played on the field. I would have thought we would have led this charge on this changing landscape of college football.

On to the game. Lots of help for our national title hunt this weekend. Mark my words, the comparisons are coming, and they aren't favorable. We will be compared with Arkansas who got absolutely housed by USC early in the year. People are going to say they aren't the same team, they are much better than us, they play better competition, etc. It's coming, get ready for it. It was only a matter of time until Texas lost (I believe Florida is in the same boat but I could be wrong because they have so much dang talent). Their secondary is terrible. It's kind of funny how national perception works. The national perception is that our defense is terrible against the pass yet Texas gives up way more yards in the air on a per game basis than we do. People love to hate on the Irish. A loss by Arkansas to LSU next weekend and then a win against Florida in the SEC title game would pretty much guarantee us an appearance in the national title game provided we take care of business against USC.

A few general comments. We average 71 plays a game this year. We only ran 46 against Air Force. Part of this is because everything worked on offense. Part of it is because our defense was horrendous on third down. That said, the game was over in the first quarter. There are, however, plenty of things to be concerned about. If we continue to improve as a team over the next week and don't turn the ball over, I don't see how we can't beat USC.

Offense

Brady Quinn played his best game of the year. He had time to throw and he put pretty much everything on the money. His stats are now superior to Troy Smith's in both touchdown passes and yards while even in the other areas. And all this without a defense or running game. It's ridiculous that they are even mentioned in the same sentence. Let Troy win the Heisman, be picked in the third round, and never start a game in the NFL. Who freakin' cares. Brady is really hitting his stride from what I can see. He made some absolutely tremendous throws on Saturday. His ability to throw on the run is continuing to improve. Right now, there isn't anyone in the country playing better. If our offensive line gives him time against USC he'll carve them up for the second straight year.

And speaking of Brady playing better and the offense getting in stride I'm going to take some shots at our front office. The reason our offense is hitting stride right now is because we have played a couple of mediocre defensive football teams in a row. Good job scheduling guys. Let's put them at the end of the season so we work out the offensive kinks for our last few opponents instead of looking at everyone else who puts their pushover games up front to prepare for the rest of the season.

Weis finally woke up and went no huddle on and off through the game. You just can't stop Quinn and company if you're limited to running basic defensive packages. The no huddle forces teams into doing this.

Weis' teams don't turn over the ball. I think there have been six or seven games this year where we haven't turned the ball over. That's just phenomenal. You will win a lot of games doing that, a whole heck of a lot.

Losing Carlson should not be understated. His ability to stretch the middle of the field is very valuable in this offense. Freeman is a competent backup, but I don't expect him to be able to go deep down the middle as well as Carlson.

Darius had a great game mostly because we were throwing down the field at will. He continues to be one of the best in the game at pass protection. People always say you have to be able to run the ball to open up the pass. That's true, but sometimes you can use the pass to open up the run. That is exactly what we did in this game.

Aldridge again looked good and the increase in meaningful playing time means Weis is liking what he sees more and more. He will play the best player so don't expect that Darius starting next year is a foregone conclusion. Just ask Wooden about that one.

Defense

It is difficult to play against an option offense. It takes discipline in the secondary and at the linebacker position. However, we got absolutely killed on play action. With a team like Air Force, you have to force them to beat you via third and long where play action isn't a threat. We didn't do that.

Allowing 400+ yards of all-purpose offense is just inexcusable against a team like this. There is no reason for us to be so bad on third down even if they are the national leader in that category. That had to be a point of emphasis going into the game and we didn't execute on it. Against a decent, let alone good, team we won't be so fortunate for them to not be able to take advantage of their opportunities.

We got lots of backups plenty of meaningful minutes.

Duke, Zibi, Lambert, and Richardson laid some pretty good licks out there.

Air Force obviously watched the Navy tape. Their first play from scrimmage was a jet sweep just like Navy ran with so much success.

Brockington had a pretty decent game. So did Lambert. The PI call on him wasn't a very good one.

Special Teams

Our kickoff coverage was shaky again and against the last ranked return team in the country no less. Allowing two blocked extra points and missing a third is just terrible. Weis better fix this fast. That is completely uncharacteristic of a team he coaches and the source of my concerns. Laws blocked yet another field goal attempt. The guy is making a living getting push on the inside. Bruton continues to do well covering punts down the field.

The Weis Perception: Take Your Pick

First of all, I want to apologize in advance for not writing anything about this weekend's game. I will be down in Blacksburg watching Virginia Tech beat the snot out of Kent State. In addition to that, it seems that finding the game on TV will be difficult in and of itself. This is my meager replacement for my usual writing.

Last night I was thinking a lot about how good Charlie Weis is as a coach. I've voiced concerns in the past based on what I see and what I read in the media. However, I think that I have been believing too much of what I read, too much of the numbers. I saw something last night that really woke me up to this. If you want an example of how someone can slant statistics, look at these two statements.

Charlie Weis has yet to beat a team that finished the year in the top 25.

Charlie Weis has lost four games in two years, three of which came to "great" teams (USC, Michigan, OSU), and three of which came by relatively small margins (USC, MSU, OSU).

Now, I'm not saying Michigan this year is a great team. And I think that, at that point in the season last year, MSU was playing slightly above their ability (but the way they finished the season was way below their ability). But OSU was arguably the second best, and perhaps the best, team in the country at seasons end last year and USC was definitely up there.

This sort of brings the argument of how a strength of schedule should be determined to the forefront. Do you use the ranking, general perception, and record of the team you play at the time you play them to determine how worthy of an opponent they are? Or do you use their "status" at the end of the season? Both have their merit. However, the latter fails to account for the fact that a defense going against Weis can be perfectly demoralized for the rest of the season after he and Quinn are done with them (just ask Purdue last year).

Additionally, people talk all the time about how Weis is winning with Willingham's players and how he shouldn't be given credit for winning with those athletes. Well, last time I checked, Willingham never put together a dominating offensive performance against anything that even resembled a decent defense and he was routed in several games (USC three times) while Weis has only one big loss to his name. I really wouldn't even consider that a blowout and especially not a one-sided loss due to coaching (you simply can't win a game with 5 turnovers). So Weis took essentially the same players and turned 0.500 teams into 9/10 win teams. How, you might ask? He never loses to someone he shouldn't lose to.

So you can view it however you choose. Go Irish.

North Carolina Game Summary...And Some Griping

Ok, this week's tirade will surround the ABC/ESPN Troy Smith Heisman Trophy anointing once again. If Saturday wasn't proof that Brady Quinn is more deserving than Troy Smith, I don't know what is. Don't get me wrong. I don't think Brady Quinn is a great QB. Good, possibly very good, but not great. I also don't think he is "college football's most outstanding player." The argument I'm making isn't that he is deserving of the Heisman. The argument I would like to make is that he is more deserving than Troy Smith.

Troy Smith had a very average, perhaps even below average, game on Saturday against a team that just isn't very good. He had only 107 yards passing, no touchdowns, and one interception. If Brady Quinn were to ever have that type of game, we sure as hell would lose. It really wouldn't matter much who we were playing. But what did OSU do? They won. Why? Because Troy Smith has playmakers around him, he has a running game, and yes, even a defense. Brady Quinn has an "off" game against Georgia Tech in which he proved that his leadership is invaluable to our team and he effectively drops out of a Heisman race that was, at least at season's beginning, his to lose. Troy Smith has a fairly bad day at the office and he gets a pass on criticism. What is it with everyone loving OSU? And I can tell you right now what's going to happen. OSU is going to beat Michigan by a few scores (because Michigan really isn't that good, I've been saying this for weeks) and Troy will come out looking like a hero because of the perception of the type of football team Michigan is.

Brady Quinn has very little if any of those things (a running game, playmakers, defense, etc.). Last year I would have said Jeff Samardzija was a playmaker. This year, not so much. It's funny, I'm not the only person who thinks this given that Bunting kind if snickered when reporters asked after the game why they didn't try to double team him. Obviously, we don't have a running game. We can't consistently run the ball against some of the worst defenses in the country. On top of this, Brady spends much of the time on his back. Go look up how many times Troy Smith has been sacked (I know, I know, he is more mobile and that helps him out). Our defense, while at times plays well, isn't consistent, gives up big plays, and very rarely generates any sort of effective pass rush.
Without Brady Quinn, we are nearly nothing. We are an ineffective offense. He is a leader, he is tough, he is a playmaker, and he has a very good arm. His decision making and ability to read defenses is suspect, but his mechanics, talent, and intangibles aren't. Troy Smith is a gamer, he is as clutch as they come, and he has incredible athletic ability. But he isn't the most outstanding player in the country, not by a long shot. There are too many others around him that make him better, things like an offensive line, a defense, and playmakers. These are the same things that made Matt Leinart an unworthy winner of the Heisman Trophy as well.

Ok, enough of that. I'll move on to the real stuff.

Offense

Plain and simple, Brady Quinn is the reason we win football games. What I said above is true, we don't really have playmakers, but you don't need them to win in football. Everyone likes the Reggie Bush's, the Calvin Johnson's, the Larry Fitzgerald's. But Weis never had superstars at New England. He had solid players that contributed, knew their roles, and did what they could do well. We have the same thing. Jeff Samardzija isn't a great athlete. He's a good athlete, but he isn't great. He has excellent hands (when he wants to), can jump, runs good routes, and performs when given the opportunity. But the reason he has succeeded so much is because Weis hasn't asked him to do more than he can, to do the things he isn't capable of doing, the things his natural abilities aren't suited for. Carlson is the same way. He isn't really a great tight end in the pure sense of the word. But he frequently comes up big because he consistently does the things he is good at. Weis splits him out wide to get him on a linebacker or safety who just can't cover him one-on-one. At any rate, my point is that Brady Quinn alone isn't the reason that we win, but without him we don't win football games. If Brady Quinn had gone pro after last year, we would have likely won only 5 or 6 ball games this year. He had a very good game on Saturday. I counted four bad passes, but you can't be good all the time. For someone who was pressured much of the day, he really played well.

Our offensive line continues to play poorly against severely under-talented competition. I don't understand how essentially the same offensive line from last year can have regressed so much.

Carlson had another solid game. He continues to write his NFL paycheck on a weekly basis. I hope he stays around for another year but I doubt he will. The tight end class in the draft this year is weak and there's really no reason for him to stay around to prove something else. I just think he would be a tremendous asset for a new QB to have, a tight end who can stretch the field down the middle and who also blocks fairly well.

It looks like Aldridge is going to be the downhill running back we need. Give the kid a hole and he really hits it hard. He also has the ability to take a few tacklers with him and he isn't slow.

We are missing Schwaap in the running game. McConnell just can't cut it, especially when we need to kick a defensive lineman out or lead on an outside linebacker. In the inside he is fine, but when we need him to make a one-on-one block on the outside, he struggles.

Obviously Samardzija broke the career touchdown receiving record. All in all, he had a pretty good day. But he should have had another touchdown catch. You can't drop those in the endzone like that.

Defense

The front four, well really three of the front four, played a tremendous game. Laws and Landri were really pretty unblockable most of the game. Victor was a manchild. He has really come along these last few games. And if he wasn't held every other play, he'd have twice as many sacks as he currently does. I hope Laws remains next year for senior leadership on that line next year. And I think Abiamiri is really earning him a draft position right now.

Overall, the defense really didn't play that poorly. Giving up less than 250 total yards and about 30 on the ground really is respectable. We just have to cut out the big plays. The kickoff return also made the game look closer than it was. The one thing our defense didn't do well was tackle. This was especially true when we got to the quarterback. We let Dailey get out of our grasp way too often.

Despite what it looked like, Lambert really didn't have that terrible of a game. Wooden, on the other hand, kind of did. It's probably some residual effects of not playing for a little bit of time.

This game the defense played well up front and then sort of leveled off. There was an emphasis by Weis on getting good play early on in the game by the defense. It seems like when we work on something on defense, some other area goes untouched and regresses. In fact, this seems to be a general trend of our team overall, something I address right below.

Summary

I am growing in concern that Weis' attitude about only caring whether we win or lose isn't going to cut it. I do agree, wins and losses are the only stats that matter. However, we seem to be guilty this year of playing to the level of our competition. When a team does that it isn't indicative of improvement. At some point, this will come back to bite us. The game on Saturday should have been over at halftime. We should have come out in the second half, drove down the field once with our first team, scored, and put in the scrubs. Weis doesn't seem to have the head coaching thing down where he is able to put our team in the proper mindset. This could be merely an adjustment from the professional to college level. Rarely did the teams he coached ever come out flat, and that was in much longer seasons with many more games. But for some reason, we just don't seem to have the right mindset many of the times. On top of that, he has yet to fix our anemic running game. With the talent we have on the offensive line there is no excuse for our running game our the way we protect our QB.