Movin On Up!

Golden Tate (81 yards, TD 61 rushing yards, TD)and Jimmy Clausen (22-27 267 yards, 2 TDs 0 INTs)set the tone again! Tate is just unbelievable! The 50 yard catch he made to end the 1st half was as impressive as I've ever seen. He had no business catching that ball. He simply took it away from the defender. That coupled with his runs provided the highlights for the first half. Jimmy was 18-21 including 11 straight completions in the 1st half. Robert Hughes (137 yards, TD)ran really well in Allen's absence. The big surprise was freshman Theo Riddick. He is a speed guy who has mainly been a kick returner, but kudos to Weis for going with him over Jonas Gray with Allen out. Gray is a bust who never needs to play. I cringe when he gets the ball. We got Rudolph (58 yards)a little more involved, but I don't understand why he doesn't get more balls. I don't like to see Clausen hurt, then to make matters worse Crist gets hurt after he throws his first TD. Kamara (36 yards, TD)looked pretty good again. Wow. think about this offense when healthy: Allen, Hughes, and Riddick and RB. Tate, Floyd(maybe next week), Kamara, Parris, Goodman, and Rudolph. Are you kidding me!? With #13 Virginia Tech losing to unranked NC, #14 Oklahoma St. lost bad to Texas, #22 S.Carolina losing to Tenn, and #21 WV losing to unranked S.Florida, I expect us to land as high as #19 in the BCS rankings. As for the Heisman watch: Tebow had 164 yards passing with 2 TDs and 0 INTs and 2 rushing TDs. Colt McCoy had 171 yards and 1 TD. Alabama RB Mark Ingram was off this week. Cincy QB Pike didn't play for the 2nd straight week due to injury. Boise St. QB Kellen Moore had 278 yards and 3 TDs.

A Look Ahead: Washington St.

Well, there is every reason to believe that this should be the easiest game left on our schedule. Coming in at #25, we have the opportunity to move up to about #22 in my estimation. Interesting games include: N.Carolina @ VT, WV @ S.Florida, Texas @ OK St., USC @ Oregon, Purdue @ Wisconsin, S.Carolina @ Tenn. Washington St. comes in last in the PAC-10 and 1-6 overall with their one win being over SMU in OT. They are averaging giving up 37 points! Get this: They are averaging giving up 279 passing yards! Let's hope Clausen can help pad his Heisman candidacy. I think it's just a question of how many games we win. If we win out, I say he wins it. I'm just not convinced we'll win out. Anyone else getting nervous that Clausen and even Tate may consider going pro after this season? Washington St. has played 3 different QBs who have totaled 7 TDs and 10 INTs. Their running attack averages 2.2 yards per carry and they have no one who has rushed for more than 1 TD this season! The early line has us favored by 31! Maybe for once we won't have a nail-biter? My prediction: ND 45 WSU 17

Always Interesting!

It's never easy with this team, but all that really matters is the win! First time against BC since 2000. Started off pretty good with Allen running well. He ended up with 98 yards on the game. Hughes was disappointing though. Then Tate makes some nice catch and runs as always, but we settle for the FG. Good news continues when Robbie Parris starts, and I figure our offense is going to click vs. this defense. However, we just didn't seem to get it going. The botched FG for a TD was very heads up and impressive, then it was called back. Hughes failed to get the TD out of the Wildcat. The run D was really impressive though. Montel Harris had 264 yards and 5 TDs last week and we held him to a 1.7 yards per carry average and 38 yards! Of course we managed to make their QB look good, but Kyle McCarthy came through big time again with 2 huge INTs! Golden Tate had another impressive performance with 128 yards and 2 TDs. He may end up breaking some ND records. Wow! Jimmy ended up with 246 yards and 2 TDs. Not bad. I just don't understand why we can't get Rudolph more involved. How about Duval Kamara though! I've been so disappointed in him, and he finally comes through with 7 catches and 60 yards. He really could be our answer for having Michael Floyd out. Floyd just may be back in a couple weeks though. With this win and #25 Kansas losing, we definitely should be back in the top 25. #16 BYU got man-handled too. With Washington St. next week, I expect us to be around #20 in 2 weeks. As for the heisman watch: Alabama RB Mark Ingram had 99 yards and 0 TDs. Tim Tebow had 127 yards 0 TDs 2 INTs, 88 yards rushing and a TD. Colt McCoy had 269 yards 3 TDs and 1 INT. Miami's Jacory Harris had 256 yards 2 TDs and 3 INTs, but most importantly, they lost. Cincinnati QB Tony Pike didn't play due to injury. I like Jimmy's chances at this point, but I think the Irish would have to win out. What I don't like is that Pitt and UConn both look pretty good right now. I don't think Navy or Stanford can be overlooked either!

A Look Ahead: Boston College

As you can say with many of the Notre Dame opponents, this is always a tough one no matter the talent level due to the rivalry. These two teams have played so many times and had so many great games. ND comes in at 4-2 and BC comes in at 5-2 with losses to VT and Clemson. BC's biggest win thus far is vs. Florida St. They start a freshman QB, but he has pretty good numbers with 9 TDs and 4INTs. I would think the bigger concern would be sophomore RB, Montel Harris who has 10 rushing TDs to go along with his 756 yards and a 5.6 YPC average. But with this ND defense, I'd rather face a good RB than a good passing game. The BC defense definitely gives up it's share of passing yards. Once again, I find it really hard to believe we won't put up big umbers in the air. Clausen update: 1804 yards, 14 TDs 2 INTs. Projected: 3608 yards 28 TDs 4 INTs. Tate update: 719 yards 6 TDs. Projected: 1438 yards 12 TDs. Pretty impressive by both. Love that Parris, Goodman, and even Kamara can contribute some. Really want to see Rudolph get more throws in his direction. Like the combo of Allen and Hughes. Let's get this offense really rolling the rest of the season! I call another high scoring affair in this one. I like that we play at home. This is a must win. We are #26 in one poll and #30 in the other. With #24 Kansas playing #25 Oklahoma, Pitt vs. S.Florida, TCU vs. BYU, and UConn vs. WV, I think we can move up to about #23 with a win. Then with Washington St. the next week, we can continue to creep up. I call another high scoring affair in this one. The early line has ND favored by 9.5 points. I say ND 38 BC 31.

Tough Loss

Moral victory? Maybe. For once, it wasn't embarassing. I think the difference was pass protection/pass pressure. Jimmy was being rushed most of the night and Barkley had plenty of time most of the time. The run defense wasn't bad. We just didn't get much pressure on the QB most of the night. Freshman QB, Matt Barkley had a career night. Too many big missed takcles too. We could have really jumped way up the rankings with all the top 25 losses, but I guess we'll just hope to start our climb again slowly. WR Robbie Parris stepped up big time with 9 catches including some clutch ones. Kamara even had some big ones. I just don't understand throwing to him when the game was on the line. Clausen ended up with 260 yards and 2 Tds with no INTs. He was only 24-43 though. Tate ended up with 117 yards and 2 Tds. The Wildcat looked good. I liked Goodman back there. Loved the fake FG. That was awesome! This performance actually encourages me that we could win out. However, that is no easy task with now 6-1 Pitt, BC, Stanford, and Navy. Michael Floyd may be back as soon as the Navy game on Nov. 7th though. Even with his injury problems, he and Clausen are easily on pace to shatter ND records.

A Look Ahead: USC

All right. This week, #17 Auburn, #20 Mississippi, #24 Missouri, #26 Wisconsin, #28 Georgia, #29 Stanford, #31 Michigan, and #32 BC all lost. Therefore we crept in at #25 in both polls. Nice to be ranked again. This is actually right where I thought we'd be. We had a week to get much needed rest and healing time. We have Aldridge back for the 1st time since week 1. Hughes has established himself as a power runner. Allen's ankle should be fine. Clausen got some much needed healing time. Most everyone has Jimmy in their top 3-5 Heisman candidates, and some have him #1 at this point. A strong showing vs. the Trojans, and he might have a shot. Jake Locker of Washington had 238 passing yards against USC. Freshman QB, Matt Barkley has been good, but a look at the numbers shows 3 TDs and 2 INTs. Not all that impressive. I'm worried about their running game, but at times our run D has been pretty good. What I really don't like is that their D has only given up 3, 15, 16, 6, and 3 points! They certainly haven't gone against a passer like Clausen though. I think we'll beat the 16 points that Washington put up against them. We are at home. Early line has USC favored by 8. My prediction: USC 31 ND 21. Sorry, I'm just not very confident, but I will hold out hope and cheer my head off!

Bye Week: Couldn't Get Here Soon Enough!

Well, if any team in the nation could use a week to rest and heal, the Irish are it! Here's to hoping the rest will do Clausen and Allen a lot of good. Last I knew they thought Aldridge would be back for USC as well. With Aldridge, Hughes, and a healthy Allen, we have a lot of weapons. Of course this USC game is the only one going into the season that I thought we had no chance in, and that's probably the case, but I do like that Washington beat them and Jake Locker threw for 237 yards in that game. I like Jimmy's chances of being productive against them this year. The scary part is that the USC D has given up very few points this year. They really have been good against the run. Of course Washington also beat them when their starting QB was out. I'll do a more in depth look and make my prediction next week. We are currently #28 in one poll and #34 in the other. With #24 Mizzou playing #21 Nebraska, #20 Miss playing #3 Bama, #22 GT playing FSU, BC @ VT, Wisconsin @ OSU, and Michigan @ Iowa, I think it's very safe to say that 5 teams in front of ND will go down. I'm hoping by deafult we could find our way to #25 going into the USC game. I sure hope so because Stanford is 4-1 and looking good. BC is looking pretty good. Pitt and Navy scare me too! On a positive note, Jimmy leads the nation in QB rating. He's 4th in passing yards, and 7th in passing TDs. Better numbers than Colt McCoy, Tebow, and Terrell Pryor. I think he has to have a real Heisman argument at this point. Obviously our W-L record and what he does from here will make it much more clear.

Just Win Baby!

One thing is for sure, these ND games are exciting to watch! I only got to watch the 4th quarter and OT live, but wow! What can you say about Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate? They are both so clutch and how can you be any tougher or more of a leader than Clausen? Jimmy ended up with 422 yards and 2TDs with an INT. More impressively is how cool he is under pressure. He's now on pace for 3706 yards, 29 TDs and 5INTs. Gotta like his Heisman chances at this point! How about Tate!? A 31 yard run to go along with his 244 yards and a TD. What a tough runner for a WR. He's on pace for 1445 yards and 10 TDs. Another huge catch for Rudolph. Evans and Parris had some big catches. I was getting a little perturbed about Hughes not getting more carries early, and I'm definitely concerned about Allen's health, but I think we've found a nice power back in Robert Hughes! Man if we could get everyone healthy we have so many weapons! This defense is what gets me. They give up a lot of points, but they do some great things too. How about all those goal line stands? That was almost unbelievable! I thought that terrible roughing the snapper call might lose the game for us, but we came up big. Then how about McCarthy? Almost had another game winning INT, but eventually had the game-winning hit. Huge sack from Brian Smith who has been looking better and better. #22 ,#24, and #30 all went down. I'm hoping we'll maybe come in around #30 or a little better. With a little luck from losses to ranked teams on our bye week and we could go in right around #25 vs. USC in two weeks. I think the bye week couldn't come any sooner for us. Give us some time to rest and heal, and maybe we actually have a chance against USC? A detailed post looking at Allen and Aldridge's status, our reamaining opponents and why we have a chance vs. USC will be up in a few days. Go Irish!