Seems like the Irish have had a good spring. The new coaches have seemingly meshed, the players seem to have accepted them and like the changes. From what I read Jimmy has had a good spring and so has Dayne Crist. The WR are hard to figure, with Tate playing baseball, Floyd nicked up a bit it gave Goodman, Kamara, Parris, and Walker lots of reps. That is a good thing but as far as I can tell none of them just stood out, all had good and bad days. RB's Armando Allen seems to be the man. DB's best group we've had in a long time. LB's. Still a pretty young group and the scheme has been evolving from 3-4 to 4-3 under (what ever that is) to 4-3 and 4-3(under). Have read that Toryan Smith had a great spring. Won't know about this bunch till they tee it up. DL: Don't know much about them, young, inexperienced, etc. With young DL's strenght and stamina are a problem. Then of course we aren't deep. This could be a problem area or maybe not. OL: Biggest thing here is that apparently Paul Duncan has seized the job at LT. OL is as deep as it has been in a long time and Young is a 4 year starter, Wenger is a returning starter, as is Stewart. The rest have all played enough that the OL should be better. That's the key for the offense. The one thing that hurt us in the early going last year was our FB kicking but Brandon Walker seemed to turn the corner and even though he missed a kick against Pitt, I think FG kicking will not be a weakness in 2009. We probably will still struggle with KO's getting to the endzone next year. Punting should be good. From what I've read Te'o should be in the mix at LB in the fall, so should Zeke Motta and maybe even Tyler Stockton on the DL. Hard to imagine any of the other freshman getting into it early. All in all I'm looking forward to the season. I'm hopefull for a 9 or 10 win season and good bowl bid. This is the most talented and deepest team in awhile, wheter or not they will be coached as well as some of the great teams from the past that's the real question.
I forgot to mention that Kapron Lewis-Moore has had a great spring and probably will be a DE starter next fall. Also in 2007 we heard a lot about Kerry Neal, but he's been injured and I don't hear much about him anymore.
Spring Game today, supposed to be a beautiful day in the Bend. Since it's offense vs defense we of course don't know really what to root for...if the offense looks sharp and effective does that mean the defense is no good or if the defense dominates does that mean the offense is no good. Oh well I hope the guys look good, have a good time and nobody gets hurt. The biggest thing is that a lot of recruits will be there, hopefully they will have a good time and we get a few commits this weekend. Terry
Terry I read with KLM might not play. What type of injury does he have? I'm surprised that Blanton is listed ahead of Walls.
Beautiful day. Great experience. We had lunch in the Monogram Club tent and mingled with former players. We sat in the reserved Monogram Club section (yellow seats) on the north 30 yard line on the vistors' side, about 20 rows up, among several former players and their families (Brian Hamilton, Jeff Burris, John Covington, Adrian Jarrell, Lee Becton, Ken Berry, etc.). The game was interesting from the perspective of the defensive intensity. Granted, Floyd and Tate had not practiced much during the spring, but it is notable that they never broke free from the DBs, certainly a good sign for the defensive secondary. That and a relentless rush from the defensive front 7 contributed to Clausen's poor passing performance. For me, the highlight of the passing game was Rudolph's receptions over the middle and his YAC. Crist looked OK, not great, but OK is good enough for now. Montana looked poised and completed a couple of nice throws over the middle in one sequence. The O line blocked well for the running game and OK, not great, for the passing plays. Allen looked very quick, Hughes looked strong , and Gray looked very good. All three ran hard. Hughes and Gray gained nice yards after first and second hits. My personal reaction to the game is a feeling of optimism relating to our pass coverage and our running game. The defense looked better and the O line looked improved. I'm hesitant to talk about areas of concern because in an intrasquad game, what looks bad on one side of the ball is unsually caused by what looks good on the other side. Despite the lopsided score - due to a goofy scoring system - I felt that the first units on both sides of the ball played well. The 48 yard field goal was great. It cleared the goal posts by a good margin. We all felt that He could have kicked it from 58 yards and made it. I saw that someone on NDNation said it barely cleared the uprights. Wrong! (Edit note: I stand partially corrected. After watching the video replay, I realized that the ball did not clear the crossbar by as much as we originally thought. It did more that "barely clear" but it probably would not have cleared from 58 yards.) It's not uncommon for me to to feel optimistic after a spring game, so you can take my analysis with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I'm guessing we will be a better team in 2009 than last last season. How much better is yet to be determined.
Spring Game <t>Sid,<br/> <br/> Thanks for the report. I know it's difficult to get a lot from the spring game and as we have seen in the past and it's not always a very good predictor of future performance. It was good to hear the running game seems to have taken a step forward and also the defense as a whole. I'm not that concerned about the passing game as I'm sure that will be the least of of concerns come regular season and with a fully healthy OL on hand.</t>
Here is a more concise and accurate report on the game from the South Bend Tribune: ND Spring Game Article Hopefully, the running game we saw Saturday is an indicator of what we will see in the fall.
I just read though the whole topic and enjoyed the reading. The way this topic flowed was very informative and impressive. I wish a lot more topics could be this way on Skybox. It sounds like Notre Dame is on track to improve, which is what I have always thought would happen if Charlie Weis were given enough time. I looked at the starting lineups and remember three of those starters that Gator fans thought were going to be Gators, Allen, Wenger and Young. Three good players who I wish had become Gators. Anyway nice information, thanks.
Yeah, and our backup QB really is noticeably less talented than our starter so we have a true backup. Take that! :wink:
The jury's still out on that, George. As I said in an earlier post, Crist looked OK, but Clausen did not distinguish himself enough to show clear separation between him and Crist. The huge difference between the two is that Clausen has established himself via game experience, and Crist has yet to take a real-life snap. Notwithstanding my analysis, I see your point about Crist being a true backup. :roll:
Whatever bowl game we play in - and we WILL be in a bowl - you can bet that there will be a DVD available. :lol:
I can see the Huskers going 6-6 and playing in the Goody's Headache Powder Bowl in Celina, Kansas. 8)
I know a certain someone that will need some Goody's Headache Powder if that is true. Then again, I've never known someone being so excited over a Gator Bowl victory so maybe he won't need that headache medicine afterall.
I got ya! I look for our backup to get considerable playing time this year in order that he's the best, instead of 4th best, in the SEC this year! Let's just hope it isn't playing time because our first stringer is hurt.