Again, I forgot to DVR the game. Without this excellent technology my ability to critically evaluate our play is significantly diminished. I'll take a shot at a few things offense, defense, and special teams followed by a wish list for next year.
Offense
Jimmy Clausen took a step back in this game. He went back to evading the pass rush by moving laterally instead of forward in the pocket. He needs to develop a pass rush clock in his head. He ran out of bounds several times, taking a loss, instead of throwing the ball away. His interception was a horrendous decision. And his deep balls lacked strength, were thrown too late, and had too much air under them. That said, he threw the ball on the short and intermediate routes very well. When given time, he is a very accurate quarterback. Elimination of the freshman mistakes and gained speed and strength will go a long way in improving his game.
Once again Robert Hughes ran well. He is showing why he was so highly regarded in high school. Despite his good play there is no excuse for James Aldridge not getting carries, save an injury or lingering pain. Armando Allen should also get a minimum of ten touches a game. It doesn't matter if that comes in the form of returns, receptions, or carries, but he looked two steps faster than any Stanford defender when he was on the field.
David Grimes played pretty well. Duvall Kamara did also, at least at times. He has to be more aggressive when the ball is in the air using his body to shield the defender. George West is the best blocker of the group and showed it during the game.
Again, the offensive line play against Stanford was horrible. There were times when they played better, but they were still far too inconsistent. Sam Young and Michael Turkovich are starting to play much better in the run game but Young still has to be quicker in his first step off the ball, particularly in the passing game.
Notre Dame cannot turn the ball over four times and win many ball games. This is especially true when they turn the ball over going in to score and/or on their end of the field. The fact that the Irish only gave up fourteen points despite turning the ball over so frequently is a true testament to the play of the defense. Of course Stanford helped, turning it over several times of their own as well as not being as talented of a team.
Defense
Hats off to Corwin Brown (again), the defense went back to playing inspired football. That was true for no one more than Tom Zbikowski. He played much harder in this game than he has in recent weeks. Trevor Laws deserves a medal for his play this season. It's going to be a shame that he is left out of All-American discussions. No one makes that many tackles playing defensive end in a 3-4 scheme, no one.
Notre Dame's tackling, at times, was absolutely atrocious. It was like defenders were bumping chests. It was very, very disappointing at times.
David Bruton is steadily improving. He made the biggest impact the Irish secondary this year. Not only is he a lights-out gunner on the punt team, he is so rangy he has really helped our secondary improve in the passing yards they give up. Notre Dame is third in the country in passing yards surrendered per game at 161.6 (link here). That is a huge improvement over previous seasons. Part of this improvement is due to a more porous run defense, i.e. teams didn't need to throw the ball. But some of it is certainly due to improved play in the secondary.
Darrin Walls play in pass coverage continues to be impressive. If he can get stronger and learn to be more physical coming up to stop the run, he will be one of the best corners in the country. It's time for Notre Dame's secondary to become a strength. With Walls, Bruton, McCarthy (Dan and Kyle), Harrison Smith, Raeshon McNeil, Gary Gray, and the two freshmen Jamoris Slaughter and Robert Blanton, Notre Dame has a solid nucleus of players to build upon. Combine that with more talent up front to apply pressure to opposing quarterbacks and the defense should be drastically improved in the near future. There will be some growing pains with the younger players and it is still imperative that the coaching staff continue to build depth, especially on the line, but the Irish are moving in the right direction.
Special Teams
Special teams continue to be poor. If it isn't penalties on punt returns, it's poor blocking on kickoff returns. The Irish have the athletes and speed to return a kickoff, there really is no excuse for not getting one this year, especially with the level of competition Notre Dame faced down the stretch. Add to that the fact that Notre Dame can't kick touch backs or make very makeable field goals and this is a huge area of concern for the Irish.
Wish List For Next Year
My wish list for next year is broken into two parts. The first part is the players themselves. The second part is for Weis and the rest of the Irish coaching staff.
Players
1) First and foremost has to be improved play on the offensive line. This improvement must occur in several areas. The offensive line must improve getting to the second level. They must improve the physicality of their play, particularly on short yardage situations. They must improve their communication with each other. They must improve their pass protection. And they must do all of this to allow us to go four and five wide to challenge the depth of opposing teams' secondaries.
2) The inside linebacker play must improve. This isn't all about athleticism, this is about coaching and learning by the players at that position. They don't scrape with their shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage, they don't read and/or react quickly enough, they don't take proper pursuit angles, they don't take on blocks with the proper shoulder, and they don't tackle well. Yes, they may not be fast enough to chase down backs to the outside. Yes, they might not be strong enough to shed blocks. But the problems stated here are purely technique. Talent and athletisicm via improved recruiting will correct the speed and strength issues, coaching has to correct the technique and fundamental play.
3) Special teams must improve in all areas. There is no excuse for Notre Dame to hesitate kicking a field goal from forty-five yards in. There is no excuse for the Irish not having 30-40% of their kickoffs result in touch backs. There is no excuse for not having at least one punt or kickoff return for a touchdown given the athleticism in the return game. And there is no excuse for all of the penalties in the kicking game. Special teams won't win many games on their own unless the team performs at a very high level. They will, however, lose a team many games if they aren't competent.
4) Clausen must improve his speed and strength over the off-season. Forget staring down receivers. Forget not getting through his progressions as quickly as he should. If Clausen does not improve his arm strength and speed he will continue to suffer when pressured and throwing down field. His leadership is there, his competitiveness is there, his toughness is there, and his accuracy on short and intermediate routes is outstanding when given time. But his first step towards improving his play has to be getting stronger and faster.
5) The wide receivers for the Irish must improve their blocking. There were so few long runs primarily due to poor wide receiver blocking. The yards gained on hitch and arrow routes in the past weren't there due to poor wide receiver blocking. The Irish can't even run sweeps due to poor crack-back blocking by players at the wide receiver position. And double move routes, faking the block, weren't executed well because the receivers didn't do it well the rest of the time. This is imperative to improve the running game.
6) If Stanford proved anything, it's that getting a hat on a hat when executing a screen play is paramount. This is partly the offensive line's responsibility. This is partially down field blocking by the receivers. But having an effective screen game is such a huge weapon on offense. It isn't just that it slows down a pass rush, it's that when you can call and execute a screen pass on non-obvious screen downs (i.e. downs that aren't obvious pass pressure downs by the defense) it gives defenses a totally different thing to worry about. Defending the screen is difficult when properly blocked and Notre Dame's ability the past two seasons to execute it nearly every time they ran it was supremely under-estimated.
7) Improved play at the running back position is also highly desireable. All need to work on pass protection and ball security. Allen needs to work on patience, waiting for the holes to open (link here). He has the speed to be a break-away back. He just needs to wait for the holes to open and then accelerate through them. Hughes and Aldridge both need to improve their speed. They are physical runners who make the most of what is given to them. They just need to be more of a deep threat. Finally, Weis needs to make adjustments in the depth of the formation sets to accommodate the differences in speed and quickness of each back. Aldridge and Hughes shouldn't be set as deep as they are.
8) The Irish really need to be able to get to opposing quarterbacks when Corwin dials up the blitz. This is imperative to take pressure off the secondary. Too many times over the past two years Notre Dame has tried pressuring opposing quarterbacks via blitzing only to fail. There aren't many quarterbacks out there that can execute the short, quick (three step drop) passing game effectively and consistently. Even if they do, the speed in the secondary is able to minimize run-after-catch yards provided they tackle well.
9) The Irish need young players to step up and be leaders.They need players to drive accountability across their peers. And it needs to be something at each position group. Offensive linemen to hold other offensive linemen accountable. Linebackers need to hold other linebackers accountable. This needs to be true for each position and is imperative, it can't be only the coaches driving responsibility.
Weis
Where to begin? Despite all of the things stacked against this team this year, nothing adds up to 3-9. It's simply inexplicable, and some part of it was poor coaching. Weis has to become a more consistent leader. He must adapt how he prepares the team for the game such that they come out firing at the beginning. Too many times the offense dug their defensive counterparts into a hole they couldn't get out of via three-and-out's or turnovers in Irish territory.
Weis has to adapt from the NFL style of coaching to the college style of coaching. This includes changing practice schedules to include more time for fundamentals and drills as well as improving practice physicality. This includes a more (read different) approach to special teams. This includes trying to slim down and simplify the playbook. There is no need to increase the number of things the offense is trying to exectute in an effort to gain an schematic advantage. Sometimes the answer to not doing something well isn't to try something else, it's to practice that thing until you become better at it. Notre Dame must first improve in a limited number of areas that their talent and personnel are suited for. You can't run a double screen or a stretch zone running play without knowing how to block first. And Weis must re-evaluate the effectiveness of his style of offense at the college level when presented with youth at one or multiple positions.
Weis must find and develop leaders amongst his players. If players don't step up and do this on their own Weis must initiate it. This includes increasing the development of talent at the position level. Weis must put his assistants in a position to improve the play of the players or he must find assistants who are more capable of doing so.
Finally, Weis must change his play calling. That doesn't mean going for it less on fourth down. It doesn't mean not calling running plays that havne't been historically successful on third and/or fourth and short. This doesn't mean going down field more or less. This is about changing his philosophy of attacking opposing teams. Weis can't design his game plan soley around what they do poorly and what he thinks we do well. He must realize the risk associated with calling certain plays due to the chance of properly executing them versus the reward achieved by successfully executing them. He must recognize, based on past game experience in similar situations, with similar talent, and with similarly experienced players, the appropriate rate of success associated with executing his play call. College football isn't the NFL where a large percentage of plays are executed at a very high level. He must also realize the importance of sticking with what is working. Virtually all of this comes down to understanding not just what the Irish do well and the opponent does poorly, but also the future game implications of his decisions.
Weis can be successful at Notre Dame. There is no doubt about it. In fact, the Irish faithful will have their long-term answer to his success very early next season. It is too much to expect a great team next season, but the Irish also might not play any. Going 8-4 or 9-3 versus 11-1 next season will be all about Weis' abilities as a coach to implement constant team improvement as the year progresses. There is little evidence the Irish made any this year. That will continue to occur as long as the players don't get the blocking, route running, tackling, fundamental, etc. part of the game down before moving to the playcalling and scheming part of the game. This is even more true now, with such a young team, than it may ever be again (if he continues to recruit so well).
With this in mind, this argument may be a moot point. Notre Dame may gain experience and fill the upper and lower classes alike with depth and talent. However, Weis must still develop them. When he arrived he had experience, players that knew fundamentals. But his coaching staff didn't teach this to them, the previous one (as bad as it was) did. With little to no improvement this year there is reason for concern that Weis and his staff cannot teach these things, cannot instill fundamentals, cannot develop the talent they recruit. If they can't Notre Dame will never become a great football team with Weis at the helm. If they can, watch out. Imagine Weis' offense the first two years of his coaching tenure with more depth, greater athleticism, and a talented defense.
