Can you believe that Mike Anello is coming back as a 5th yr Sr! What a story this kid is. He's got something like a 3.93 GA and job offers waiting for him on Wall St. and he comes back to be a special teams player!!! Guys's got heart. ya just hope ND has a great season just for him if nothing else.
That's why he's coming back! :lol: Why would he want to be on Wall Street these days when he could continue playing on Saturdays in Notre Dame Stadium. His career can wait. I hope he has a great season.
Sid, you're probably right about Wall St. LOL. More positive press on the upcoming season for ND....geez I don't know what's going on .....I got so use to the media being down on ND it just seems strange to see so many of them putting a positive spin on the Irish hopes for the upcoming season. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/04/01/notre-dame/index.html?eref=T1 Personally. I've been disappointed so many times I refuse to let my optimism run away with me this year. Just show me!!! I'm tired of hearing about it....just show me!!!
While I don't know about Anello, my nephew who is graduating this year in the A&M Business Honors program with a BA in Accounting and MS in Finance told me that many of his classmates who previously thought they had locked up jobs in the finance sector got letters saying they were sorry but the job isn't there anymore. Fortuneately for him PWC is still hiring! Terry
Anello is coming back because there are no jobs for him. He has a year left of football and he is taking graduate classes. I just read his story in Business Week on a plane ride.
A couple of years ago U of M had a player who chose to return for another year although he had been accepted at Harvard in one of the graduate programs (maybe law.) What made it impressive (at least to me) was that the player was the long snapper.
Terry, Yes, I'm excited about Floyd too and couple more offensive players but I still have that doubt about the offensive line and I don't think I'm gonna get over that feeling until I see a couple more performances out of the OL like we saw in Hawaii. No doubt the KEY to this season and probably CW remaining at ND will be the performance of the OL. you want to believe they have to be better and if the do we have seen what JC can do when he is given time. Hell, if the OL shapes up, JC, Floyd, Tate, and Rudolph will all be stars this year.
Tim I know that this might sound strange but there may not have been any O line in the country that improved more than ND's last season. In 2007 ND was the worst O line in protecting its passer. Ranked 119th they gave up an average of 4.83 sacks per game. Last year they were 45th giving up an average of 1.69 sacks per game. I would imagine that the off season emphasis was to improve the pass blocking and it showed in the stats. This off season, the obvious need is to improve the run blocking. Like you I'm crossing my fingers.
I love the hitting reports that are coming out from IE. They need that full contact, bruise'em style....
I like everything that I am hearing about the Spring. It's been awhile since we've had 2 QB's who are completely healthy and fully participating in the Drills. It's been awhile since we had enough depth at WR that nicks and nags to a few don't hamstring the passing game. It's been awhile since we had excitement brewing on the defensive side of the ball. It's been awhile since we had hope for the OL. Lots of good stuff right now, of course it is spring and this is pretty common all over the NCAA. Hopefully I'll still be pumped after the Nevada game!
The Irish are loaded with talent, game tested and balanced through the classes. If the coaches can coach up to the level of the talent they recruited we should, at a minimum, be playing in a BCS bowl. If not, we will probably be welcoming new coaches next year.
BGI has a free practice report: Practice Report BTW I watched the Weis press conference from Friday and I continue to wish there were things Charlie would just not take the bait on and give an answer. Point, a reporter asked Charlie why he allowed Ivan Maisel full access for a couple of days, and while there is nothing wrong with the question I didn't like Charlies answer. If I were advising him I would have told him say that they do this every year with various programs and they asked us this year and I thought our fans would enjoy it...end of answer...no follow up nada...that's it. Instead he drifts off into burying the hatchet and everybody knows how I feel about that organization...I thought it was just another instance of Charlie talking way too much giving out way too much information that we don't need to know about. Other than that I thought it was a great press conference. I didn't know we had a walkon TE, who seems to be doing very well and so we have 4 TE's ready to play this year. That's a big difference from last year where they really only had Rudolph most of the year. If you guys read the analysis of the Irish Offense that the guys over at BGS put out you could see how the lack of TE's really hurt the Irish offense last year. I liked what he had to say about Hafis Williams as well. Terry
I was listening to Mike Frank's Power Hour last night. He said that if Jimmy Clausen has a good year, sort of a Brady Quinn 2005 year that he will go to the NFL. He was pretty confident of it, I was really suprised. While I hope that Jimmy does in fact have a great year and has to make a decison like Bradford, McCoy and Tebow had last year, I hope he makes the same decision that those guys did and come back for his last year of eligibility. Mike said that it rarely helps a guys draft status to come back for another year, that all it does is give NFL more film to find their flaws and criticize them. Maybe he's right, I don't know. But I find it hard to believe based on Jimmy's first 2 years that he could jump up to a first round draft choice based on what he might do as a Jr. It certainly does make it critical that Charlie get a really top QB in this class because he'll be the backup as a Freshman if Jimmy goes Pro. While I doubt that Charlie can get 2 top signal callers in one class, I mean he's no Bob Davie, if he could he really should. Here's hoping Jimmy has a great year but decides to come back and play that 4th year.
Clausen's old man has been thinking NFL for him since Pop Warner. The kid rode into South Bend in a limo and he'll leave the same way, at his earliest convenience. That's my hunch.
No doubt that was the reason he chose ND, both his brothers played at Tenn and his complaint was that Fulmer promised him they would be developed for the NFL and they weren't. Maybe that was Fulmers fault or maybe the brothers just didn't have it. But either way that was why Jimmy went to ND and did not follow the brothers to Tenn. Mr. Clausen looked at Brady Quinns leap from Soph to Jr year and figured that since Charlie at the time was getting 100% of the credit for Tom Brady's developement and then Quinn blossomed that Charlie was the guy. No doubt they also saw that the QB depth chart was thin and that Jimmy would likely start as a freshman.
JC <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> I heard the comment Mike Frank made too and I was surprised also. I don't think Clausen will go to the NFL no matter how good a season he has this year. I think he will stay at ND for 4 years regardless. I don't have any specific reasons just a gut feeling. <br/> <br/> I also believe JC could pass for 4000 yds if he has has the time provided by a descent OL and a descent run game to go with it this year. I've run out of optimism though, just show me is my new moto. I'm tired of all the this is going to be better and that's going to improve talk that we hear every year only to be let down in the first game of the season. ND has the talent NOW, let's see it on the field. SHOW ME!<br/> <br/> It is important that Charlie try to pick up 2 good QB this year anyway.</t>
If he has the time to throw and the running game comes aroud because of improved line play then Clausen could easily be the premier Throwing QB in college football this year. He has an incredible touch and accuracy and he also has probably the best corps of receivers going today.