A Look Ahead: vs. Washington

Well, obviously the scary thing here is the fact that the Huskies beat USC. They are 2-2, but have played a tough schedule. They played LSU very well in their season opening loss, beat USC, beat Idaho, and lost to a pretty good Stanford team. However, USC was without their QB and Washington lost to Stanford 34-14 this week. QB Jake Locker threw 2 INTs on his way to a 16-31 passing performance. Their leading rusher averaged 3.9 yards a carry. The Washington defense gave up 321 rushing yards to Stanford. So far they've given up 31, 23, 13, and 34 points. I have to admit that I'm a little surprised the line has us favored by 14. ND comes in at #33 and Washington is no longer receiving votes. My feeling is that this offense should only get better after toughing out this win against Purdue with all our injuries. Hughes established himself as a nice powerful runner and we should have Allen's big play ability back. Weis said he probably could have played last week. Add to that the threat of Tate now out of the backfield and suddenly I like our running game! Clausen should be more himself the more time he has to heal and we can bring in Crist for a few series if we need to. By the way, Jimmy is projected to throw for 3366 yards, 30 TDs and 3 INTs at this point. Someone needs to step up as Tate's compliment on the outside, but Rudolph and Tate alone make us pretty dangerous. My prediction: ND 34 Washington 24. I think this win coupled with a few losses to top 25 teams and we'll find ourselves cracking the top 25 again after this week.

Tate Golden As Banged Up Irish Win

Well, it certainly wasn't an impressive performance, but we did see some really nice things in a 24-21 win at Purdue. Boiler up is one of the worst war cries I've ever heard! Good to see a coaching staff mess up (calling a timeout when we were about to spike the ball, giving us 2 shots at the endzone) worse than ours usually likes too! Huge clutch throw and catch from Clausen to Rudolph with 25 seconds to go. Definitely not Jimmy's best performance, but he was obviously hurting and toughing it out. He did throw his first INT of the season, but over 1000 yards in 4 games and 10 TDs and 1 INT is a pretty good start. Crist got some good experience and didn't hurt us. 5-10 for 45 yards and no INTs. I had no idea Allen wouldn't play at all, but it was nice to see Hughes step it up and rush for 68 yards and a TD while averaging 4.5 a carry. But how about Golden Tate!? Suddenly doubling as a running back, he rushed for 55 yards and a TD while posting 57 yards receiving. He seems ready to step up in Floyd's absence, and although no one else really established themself as his compliment, we had 8 different guys catch a pass. For once penalties didn't hurt us! Purdue really shot themselves in the foot here. They had 13 penatlies for 103 yards to our 6 for 41. Nice change for us! The defense held speedster Ralph Bolden to 67 yards on 3.9 a carry. As a whole, Purdue averaged 2.8 a carry. Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of pressure on the QB, but we did have 2 sacks. It was really good to see Te'o get one of them! Darrin Walls had a nice INT too. This is certainly not a signature win, but encouraging to see how deep we are and hope that with Allen getting healthy, Clausen getting healthy, and Aldridge back in a couple weeks, we have a lot of weapons. I think with Florida St., North Carolina, Pitt, Washington, and Texas Tech all going down we will be somewhere around #28 or #29. A win next week and bye the next, and I think we'll be top 20 going into the USC game. My look ahead to Washington will come in a couple days.

A Look Ahead: at Purdue

Well, the 2-1 Irish head into Lafayette at #32 in one poll and #34 in the other. Purdue comes in at 1-2 after their loss to Northern Illinois last week. The line has us favored by 8. Purdue has given up 31 to Toledo, 38 to Oregon, and 28 to N.Illinois. My prediction is a lot of points for ND even without Michael Floyd. I hope Charlie spreads it out again with Tate, Rudolph, Kamara, and Parris. That is pretty tough to defend. My question is can we get any kind of pass rush? If we give QB, Joey Elliott all day like the MSU QB's, he's going to kill us. He's completing 61% of his passes with 4 TDs thus far, but he has 5 INTs. They also have a solid RB, Ralph Bolden. He has 421 yards and 4 TDs in 3 games. However, N. Illinois held him to 64 yards and our run D looked decent last week. He is averaging 6.8 a carry though. My prediction: Notre Dame 42 Purdue 27. We can hope to move up a little with Miami and Virginia Tech playing each other, TCU @ Clemson, Washington @ Stanford, Texas Tech @ Houston, and Georgia Tech/North Carolina. I say we're right around #30 or a little better after this week.

Huge Win! Huge Loss.

Where do I start? My dad and I show up at ND Stadium not knowing where our seats were. We get there and fidn out we are on Field Level, front row behind the endzone. My feet were two steps from being in the grass on the field! Unbelievable experience! Thanks Bets! I had amny words with Sparty the Spartan. I finally got the last word! Let's start at the end. No sacks or INT's all game. A ridiculously little amount of pressure on the MSU QB's all game long, but my man, Kyle McCarthy comes through with the one big defensive play of the day with a game winning INT when all State had to do was kick a short FG to send it into OT. Couple that with the fact that McCarthy led us in tackles and I might call him the MVP of the game. To stick with the defensive theme, I thought the run D was pretty good, but if we can't get any kind of pass rush going, QB's are going to pick apart what is actually a pretty good secondary. I'm waiting for Manti Te'o to become a factor. Now sticking with D and bringing coaching in, what is going on that we have guys running in on D, looking confused, and running off? We got a penalty the one time because I think we had like 15 men on the field. We continuously looked confused and I blame coaching there. Maybe not Charlie's fault, but it's a bad reflection. Penalties were once again crazy. I think it's a combo of a poorly disciplined team and bad calls. It felt like the officials were marching the Spartans down the field. The season ending play for Floyd was clearly a TD. The pass interference call late in the game against us was terrible. Rudolph had a blatant face mask they didn't call. At the same time, we deserved some too, and that makes us seem like an undisciplined team. I think Charlie is in trouble folks. I think we need to win 9 or 10 games to keep him off the hotseat and now that Floyd is out for the year I don't think there's any way. Pitt beat Navy who looked awful good against OSU. Both teams now scare me. Washington beat USC and climbed into the top 25. We still play BC and USC and people say to fear Stanford. If we win 9 games, I'll be ecstatic! Now to be a little more upbeat, how tough is Clausen? Broken toes and we throws for 300 yards and 2 TDs with no INTs! This kid is tough as nails. He can take a hit and play through pain with the best of them. He's completing 68.1% of his passes with 951 yards, 9 TDs and 0 INTs after 3 games! Are you kidding me? That's on pace for 3804 yards and 36 TDs. Floyd ended his 3 game season with 358 yards and 5TDs(really 6). That was on pace for 1462 yards and 20 TDs. He's going to break ND records if he has a healthy junior and senior season, but now we need Robbie Parris or Duval Kamara to step up. Golden Tate becomes the big play guy. He has 301 yards and 3 TDs in 3 games. Not too shabby(on pace for 1204 yards and 12 TDS), but we need one more guy to step up in Floyd's loss. Maybe freshman Shaquelle Evans can help some? Kyle Rudolph will definitely break Irish records for TE's. He had the most receiving yards for a freshman TE last year and has 162 yards in 3 games already this year. I like Charlie's game plan with the spread out 4 receivers. We're awful hard to stop that way. Armando Allen looked really solid again, and I have to admit the Wildcat looked really good. Allen to Parris on the TD pass was pretty sweet. Armando is on pace for 1304 yards and 12 TDs. I'm hoping James Aldridge may be back this week for a little pick me up. Purdue has given up a lot of points to Toledo, N.Illinois, and Oregon, so I really don't see why we don't score 40 in Lafayette, but will our D get any pressure on QB Joey Elliot? We actually dropped a little in the votes to #32 and #34. A preview to the Purdue vs. Notre Dame match-up will be ready by mid-week. Thanks again Betsy!!!

A Look Ahead: vs. Michigan St.

Well, let me start by reminding you again that I will be at ND stadium with my dad! Next, it is somewhat encouraging that MSU lost to C.Michigan this week. Clausen has 651 yards while completing 67% of his passes and has 7 TDs to 0 INTs after 2 games. Michael Floyd has 320 yards and 4 TDs! Armando Allen looked like he may finally be ready to be a feature back, and I actually thought the D was pretty good even if the 38 points allowed don't show it! We go in ranked #30 in one poll and #31 in the other. The line favors The Irish by 10.5 points. Once again, it's hard to imagine us not scoring a lot of points. Michigan St. seems to like shoot outs. If C.Michigan can score 29, I think we have to be able to put up some pretty big numbers. How bad will Charlie mess us up with his play calls? Will we have a hangover from the loss or come out fired up? My prediction: ND 38 MSU 24. Believe it or not, I think we'll win this one, @ Purdue, and vs. Washington, then have a bye, and go into the USC game ranked right around #20. Just in time to lose and get knocked out again!

Time For A Change

I'm surprised at how strongly I feel about this right now, but I'm ready to see Weis go. My dad will like to hear this, but I'm done already. I said they should win 9 games or he goes. After the play calls in this game along with the penalties, I'm ready to say it's the coach's fault. ND was clearly the better team today. Penalties flat out killed us. As dad would say, that's a reflection on the coach for lack of discipline. I think the officials stuck it to us some too though. We're up 34-31 with a little over 2 minutes to go, and we pass 2 times? Run the ball and run the clock. Michael Floyd is out of the game and we throw to freshman, Shaquelle Evans. Just a poorly played game. Tate drops 2 TD passes. Multiple delay of game penalties. Terrible play calls. Missed 28 yard FG. Jonas Gray fumbles whe he shouldn't even have been in the game. Armando Allen dominated the game. Kyle Rudolph was great, but they never threw to him. Why do we run the "Wildcat?" Why did we run a QB draw on 3rd and 5 inside the 25? It's sad because we should be saying the D has looked pretty good. Michael Floyd is a stud. Armanda Allen had a career game. Instead Clausen and Weis's decision making killed us, and we still can't kick a reasonable FG. Add to that that Floyd is injured and we play Michigan St. next week. Atleast I'll be there!

A Look Ahead: at Michigan

Well, week one sure looked good. I still believe week 2 will be a win too, but you don't go into the Big House and expect a cake walk! My Michigan fan friend Court and I are pictured left. Atleast he is the rare Michigan fan that cheers for ND when they aren't playing each other! Michigan has some enthusiasm coming in after a 31-7 win over W.Michigan, but I'm not sure how much that means. They have 2 freshmen QB's that both looked pretty good. Denard Robinson actually led them in rushing with 74 yards on 11 carries and a TD. Tate Forcier was 13-20 for 179 yards and 3 TDs, but our defensive secondary is quite a step up from W.Michigan, and we got pretty good pressure on Nevada as well. Can the freshman take the pressure of his first ND/Michigan game? WR Junior Hemingway accounted for 103 of the 179 receiving yards and 2 TDs. I'm sure we can expect a better running game with the offensive line that Michigan always boasts, but they don't seem to have the dominant RB they usually have stepping up yet. Obviously we can expect a better defense than Nevada's. They only gave up 38 rushing yards and that is still what worries me about our offense. They did give up 259 passing yards to W.Michigan though. I think our passing game is a little more potent! The Irish jumped up from #23 to #18 with very few teams in front of them losing. The line favors ND by 3. My prediction: ND 31 Michigan 24. 2-0 and a climb to let's say #16 after week 2.

Notre Dame Is Back!

That was the rallying cry before the game started, and it seems appropriate after game 1. You could see the swagger before the first kick-off, and I have to say I was extremely excited! It just got better from there. Notre Dame 35 Nevada 0. I like Aldridge at fullback. He wasn't a great RB, but he's a solid running FB. I hope he's going to be all right for next week. Rudolph looked good from the start with a nice juke on a LB, then a TD. Then what can you say about Michael Floyd!? Not a fan of the "Wildcat" formation with an average RB like Armando Allen. Let's get rid of that. The defense was definitely the question mark coming in. It had been 7 years since ND had shut out an opponent. Yes, we have to keep in mind that we played Nevada, but they did bring in an experienced QB who nearly had 20 rushing and 20 passing TD's last year. Freshman phenom, LB Manti Te'o showed his speed pretty early. Not a spectacular play, but ran the QB down from behind. LB Brian Smith had 2 sacks in the first half. Overall, the defense was a nice surprise. Allen had some nice runs, Gray did too. A look at the top 25 hurts a little. Iowa and OSU almost got upset, but pulled them out. #16 Oregon lost to #14 Boise St. 19-8, but I don't think we'll pass them. As of this post, I'm sure #20 BYU will wind up losing at #3 Oklahoma. As far as future opponents, Navy scares me! They gave Ohio St. all they wanted at OSU. 31-27. They have led the NCAA in rushing 4 straight years and now have the best passing QB they've had in 6 years. Purdue beat Toledo pretty easily, but gave up 31 points and their new QB threw 3 INTs vs. Toledo. Michigan St. beat Montana St. 44-3, but what does that say? Boston College beat Northeastern 54-0. Michigan beat W.Michigan easily.

Offensive MVP: How could it not be Floyd? 189 yards and 3 TDs. Clausen had nice numbers(15-18 315 yards 4 TDs) too, but a lot of that was because of his weapons!

Defensive MVP: LB Brian Smith set the tone with 2 sacks in the 1st half. Freshman Manti Te'o seems to already be a crowd favorite though.

Pleasant surprise: The defense in general.

Disappointing: Maybe the running game, but it was sufficient.

I'd say look for us to be #22 or #21 in the new polls, and I expect a win next week, so we can climb to #20 or better very easily. Go Irish!

National Champs!?

I don't think so, but Lou Holtz is calling it. I think he's losing it a little. I am excited though! By the way, I apologize for the late post. I will get a game preview and prediction out much earlier from now on. With starting at a new school and starting basketball workouts I've been so busy, it snuck up on me! Anyway-Nevada. It sounds like a joke, but this is one of the few teams we'll play with an experienced QB. Not only that, but he is a dual threat. He almost posted 20 rush TDs and 20 pass TDs in the same season last year. They can really put points on the board, and right now, the ND defense is the question mark. The good news is that our secondary is experienced and pretty solid. Bad news is our line is very suspect. LB's-I'm not sure, but I am ready to see if freshman phenom, Manti T'eo is ready for this level. The really fun part is that Nevada has one of the worst pass defenses in the country. Couple that with our strength, and it should be fun to watch. They do have a solid run defense so with our struggles last year, it will be interesting to see if we can run the ball. I guess Allen gets the bulk of the carries. The experienced and improved line could make the difference-let's hope! The line has ND favored by 14.5 points. I think we'll put a lot of points on the board. Let's say Irish 45 Nevada 24. I'm ready to get started!