Notre Dame Preseason 2013: To Be or Not to Be edition

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, fellow Irish fans, than are dreamt of in our football seasons. But in six days, we blind ourselves to all that lies outside the House that Rockne built, and with our cheering thousands rise above the worms of doubt that seek to spoil our hope that we will rise up to the top again.

We have nothing but wondering to fill the preseason hours. Despite the obvious tragedy of our most recent game, there is no point in looking back and recounting the ills of prior seasons; that way leads to madness. But nor can we move forward with conviction until we have seen this year's players act the thing out.

To [win], or not to [win]: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler [on] the [field] to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To [win]: to [lose]
No more; and by a [win] to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That [fans are] heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.

Let the speculation now begin.


"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

So guys. Everett Golson went and got himself suspended (from school and from the team) for violating the student Code of Conduct ("cheating on a final" seems to be the general consensus, but in the spirit of not spreading libel, I cannot say I know for sure), which leaves us in a pickle YET AGAIN when it comes to the quarterback position. We've also got a stable of virtually-untested running backs (GAIII notwithstanding), a bevy of wide receivers with no superstar among them, and a thicket of tight ends with no heir apparent to the line of players we've recently sent into the pros (Eifert, Rudolph, Carlson, and Fasano).

Which means no one knows what our offense is really going to look like this season. Similar to last season, sure, but with no obvious threats. This means everyone must be considered an equal threat, until our main villain-of-opposing-defenses is revealed. Which I'm kind of excited about. For one thing, the shroud of mystery upon our offense can only work to our advantage--and for another, I'm wicked excited to see who steps up.

Wide receiver/shark whisperer TJ Jones and offensive tackle Zack Martin have been named co-captains for the offense. Jones will probably be the top WR target this season (as well as our punt returner, apparently), but Sports Illustrated has DaVaris Daniels pegged as ND's offensive player to watch. Personally, I'm hoping to see more of senior Daniel Smith and super-fast sophomore Chris Brown hauling catches to the end zone (like you do), and I also really, really want to see George Atkinson (THE THIRD) have a breakout season. He'll most likely be trading touches with Cam McDaniel, but if USC transfer Amir Carlisle can manage to stay NOT INJURED, he'll probably have a breakout season, too. Personally, I'm hoping everyone steps up--then we'll get to watch new and dazzling plays unfold from our offense all season. It'll be like Christmas every Saturday until December! (Oh, wait--this is already how I feel about football season. In, uh, an entirely non-blasphemous way.)

The best news, of course, is that our entire coaching staff has carried over from last season, which means there has been no adjustment period for any of the players in terms of coaching communication--except for the freshmen, of course--but HEY GUESS WHAT GUYS? For the first time in years we have so much depth on the team that most of the freshmen WON'T PLAY. Not that they don't want to play, of course--but they WON'T HAVE TO. They will have time to learn and adjust and get stronger before they officially take the field as starters. Which--again--can only work to our advantage.

In other offensive news, if you're worried about the O-line, don't be. Sure, we graduated Center Braxston Cave, and we don't exactly have a specific unit etched in stone, but what we do have are returning starters Chris Watt, Christian Lombard, and Zack Martin, and--most importantly--a unit that acts like a UNIT. From BK's presser: "That group works so well together. Boy, they do everything together. They hang out together. There's a continuity in that group that exists in their DNA as offensive linemen. You know what I mean? That's probably one of the units that I'm less concerned about that group playing together because they do it as a way of life."

Last but not least (for the offense): senior QB Tommy Rees has been named the starter for the first game--but not the whole season. Given Brian Kelly's penchant for playing multiple quarterbacks, I would not be surprised to see senior Andrew Hendrix and freshman Malik Zaire appear at various points throughout the season. But unless Tommy starts throwing six picks (or pick-sixes) in every game, I wouldn't expect him to be completely ousted as the starter, either. Rees knows the offense verrrry well at this point, and you can count on him to make the right read. You just can't always count on him to make the best throw--especially not if the pocket starts collapsing like an undercooked souffle. However, if you're worried about Coach Kelly getting all fancy with the play-calling, don't be (well, mostly):  "Probably won't be running as much option with Tommy, but we'll do things that suit him." Good. Keep your promises, coach. (Point of interest: Coach Kelly's actually turning play-calling over to offensive coordinator Chuck Martin this year. We'll see how that goes.)


Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love [Bob Diaco].

Yes, I know I'm defiling Shakespeare. But never mind that. Let's move on to the sterling unit that saved last season and sent us to the national championship. Oh, defense--shall I compare thee to a summer's day? How do I love the? Let me count the ways. Oh, frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! (This is no longer making sense, but hey, it rhymes. Um...let's move on.)

So: no more Manti Te'o. He's going to be playing on Sundays soon (just like Robby Toma said). Kapron Lewis-Moore is gone, too, along with Zeke Motta and Jamoris Slaughter (all of whom got picked in the NFL Draft this year)--but never fear, you guys. Never. Fear. Bob Diaco's defense is still stacked deep with talent, featuring:
-Irish Chocolate aka Louis Nix aka guess-who's-on-all-the-preseason-watch-lists THIS year, punks?
-Newly-named defensive captain Bennett Jackson
-Stephon "I've-got-more-sacks-than-a-potato-factory" Tuitt
-sophomore standout KeiVarae Russell
-Kona Schwenke
-Justin Utupo
-Sheldon (I-hope-you're-not-eating too-many-honey-buns) Day
-Dan Fox
-Carlo (near-convict) Calabrese
-Austin Collinsworth (no longer injured!)
-Lo Wood (also no longer injured! we hope)
-Elijah Shumate
-Okay, I could go on, but then I'd just be listing the entire defense, wouldn't I?

Also worth noting:
-Danny Spond is no longer on the team. He decided to stop playing football, due to health concerns; he left early during training camp, which can't have been easy--but I can only commend him for making this decision. As much as I love football, I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly, I can tell a hawk from a handsaw. When it comes to health (obviously), the wind is southerly. So--way to go, Danny Spond. Way to make the tough decision. (Live long and prosper.)
-Jesse Biongovi is on the team now; anybody wanna lay odds on how many times the Notre Dame Band features Bon Jovi songs in its halftime shows this year?

Anyway--as we all know, the defense was the anchor of our team last year, and it's gonna be the anchor of our team this year. Nobody's expecting a repeat of last season. But that's all to the good. Last season, we got called lucky a lot. This season, I don't want us to be lucky. I want us to be GOOD.

I don't think anyone's expecting another perfect regular season. After all, we watched our perfect regular season get beaten by Alabama, didn't we? And now Manti's gone, and Golson's got himself chucked out for a semester, and our star tight end's off to the NFL, etc etc etc. We're #14 in the pre-season poll (not that this means anything). Yet in the Notre Dame locker room, they've hung this:

"Presumptuous," at least one blog has called us.

I call it AWESOME.

Do I think we're going to go 12-0 again? I HAVE NO IDEA. I mean, right now it seems kinda far-fetched that we will run the table and get back to the national championship again. It seems nearly as far-fetched as it would have if someone (besides Lou Holtz) had told me at the beginning of last season that we WERE going to go to the national championship. And you know what? That kinda makes me mad.


What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties!

How full of ridiculous bias!

Okay, so I promised that if I wrote another rant, I would include a link to this article, and here's where it comes in:

Over the past 13 years, Notre Dame has been one of the most UNDER-RATED teams at the beginning of each football season. (Just look at the numbers; they'll tell you it's true.) Now, I'm sure there are people out there who would want to argue that this statistic is only true because Notre Dame is always OVER-rated by the end of the season--and they sort of have a point, considering we haven't won a bowl game against a ranked opponent since 1994...OUCH. Then again, some of these people are the same people who said Notre Dame had "the hardest schedule in the country" at the beginning of last season, and by the end of last season had proclaimed that Notre Dame's schedule was "easy," so I am not 100% sure we can trust their opinions.

Nevertheless, I think that we are, in fact, underrated this year. I'm not saying we should be #2 or anything; we did lose to Alabama, and as mentioned, most of our offense is a big fat question mark (etc etc etc).

So now we've got to go out there and prove ourselves. Again.

I suppose every team has to prove itself every season, but it just irks me to overhear people saying, "Notre Dame's not going to go undefeated this season." "Haha, yeah, no way."

A;DGA;OFDIJA;SODGIJAW;OGI

YOU GUYS. The season hasn't even started yet. I DO NOT NEED TO HEAR THESE SENTIMENTS.

I am as aware as anyone what our situation is this year. But it is in no way outrageous for this team to claim they're going back to the national championship this season. It is, in fact, a way less outrageous statement coming from this team than it would have been coming from any of Notre Dame's teams for the last, oh, fifteen years or so, considering over 80% of the players on this team HAVE PLAYED IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.

I am just saying.

Now, I know it's impossible to stir up the same kind of optimism and fervor that we would have had if we'd actually won the championship game (ahahaha--can you imagine?), but nevertheless, tickets for Notre Dame's regular season games this year are already re-selling for more money than tickets for any other college football program in the country (according to this article from Forbes)...so clearly SOMEONE out there is excited for our chances this season.

And the point that I am trying to make, beneath all this waffle, is that I think we're going to be much better this year than we're expected to be. Yes, we lost some superstars--but we also spent most of last season proving that we've figured out how to play like a team. And I think this year's team--especially the offense--is going to be slightly less flashy and slightly more consistent. Look, this even came up in coachspeak at Brian Kelly's latest presser:

Last year we had some bold personalities. You had a Manti Te'o that had a very bold personality. And sometimes we took on his personality as a team.

This one represents more of a group. So every single day this is a group that comes to work every single day with a consistency. So I think that's what I see more than anything else is that I know what I'm going to get from them every single day because it's it's a deeper group in the sense that there's not just one personality. It's across the board.

And that is super A-OK fine by me, because when you don't have superstars, that's exactly what you need to beat teams like Stanford. And USC. And Alabama. You need to be grounded in what you do, and not get all outta whack just because you're playing in a big game. If we prove nothing else this season, I hope we prove that we're consistent. (CONSTANT VIGILANCE!)


Words, words, words.

All of this is just babbling conjecture, of course. We won't know anything until we see the team get out there and play.   

It's after midnight now. You know what that means, guys? Only FIVE DAYS 'til Irish football. 

To be honest, I know very little about what we can expect from Temple on Saturday. Historically, Temple has been one of the, uh, weaker D-I programs--but these days, coaching for the Owls is apparently a good springboard for your career; Temple was pretty good for a couple years under Al Golden, who was subsequently hired by Miami-FL. After Golden left, Steve Addazio took over and led the Owls to their second-ever bowl game victory (the first was in 1979). Then Addazio (after a 4-7 season) left to coach at Backup College (good choice, BC), and Temple hired Matt Rhule, who had worked as an assistant at Temple for six years before spending the 2012 season as an assistant line coach for the New York Giants. Quarterback Connor Reilly was just named Temple's starter this week, as I learned from this article on OwlScoop.com.

Unfortunately, that article was not very informative about Reilly's strengths, or Temple's team strengths (although it does mention Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt, because clearly they're relevant). The Temple football blog I found was not very comprehensive, either (although this post helpfully lists several teams Temple's beaten in the last few years that Notre Dame lost to). Soooo I'm just going to have to go with my gut feeling on this one, guys: pretty sure we're gonna win. Might have to check with Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix on that one.

In the meantime, make sure you've got The Shirt clean and your tailgate playlist ready (and, you know, your rally beads and your face tattoos and your shamrock earrings and your blue-and-gold nail polish all set) for Saturday. It's officially game week. And I am ready to BRING IT.

GO IRISH BEAT OWLS!

"You wait all year long for football season, and then it comes and it just flies by."

--Dayne Crist

Five days! Or four, or three, or whenever the hell you read this--it's almost here. It's so scintillating I had to write another preseason football rant.

Crist -- the second coming! (Oh wait. Too irreverent?)

So most of us ("us" being crazy rabid Irish fans) were not overly shocked by the announcement that Dayne Crist would be the starter for this year. Although as this article in the Observer points out, it wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion that Crist would be named the starter.

"Call it whatever you want," Coach Kelly said. "I've got two really good quarterbacks who are ready to play championship football."

Crist and Rees are so statistically even that it became "very cloudy" trying to determine the #1 and #2 QB based on numbers. This is a good problem to have. Kind of like waking up in the morning and asking yourself, "Which car do I want to drive today? The Ferrari, or the Lamborghini?"

Not such a hard choice when you know you can switch off at your leisure. Much harder when you've got to make a commitment.

But we've made the choice, and now we've got the Ferrari. Or the Lamborghini. Whichever. You decide.

High-Octane overdrive

After naming Crist as the starter, Coach Kelly noted, "He overcame a knee injury to start the [2010] season, then underwent another knee injury and infection for the spring. He didn't have a great spring, but fought through it and had the kind of summer and preseason camp you want your players to have. He's a much better football player, a much better quarterback. He's the kind of guy I wanna coach. He's tough mentally. He handles himself in that leadership position the way I want our quarterbacks to handle themselves. I didn't know Dayne very well last year. But I do now."

Crist has plenty of tenacity, but he owes a lot of his improvement in the off-season to Rees. Both quarterbacks would have worked hard in any case, I'm sure--that's just the kind of strapping, stalwart youths they are--but nothing makes you run fast like the knowledge that you're being chased. They were both forced to play smarter, work harder, and get better faster. They couldn't have done it on their own, and the best part is they know it. Crist himself said after winning the starting job: "I told Tommy--you gotta keep pushing me."

Just as long as you don't bust your knee again, Dayne, I think we'll all be happy.

Goooooooooooo--oooooooooooo--ooooooooo--ooooooooooOOOO! Irish!

So I've been neglecting the special teams, but the good news is Coach Kelly hasn't. In fact, he's talked a lot about them during fall camp, particularly in terms of player development and the overall direction of the program.

First things first, in case you were wondering who's going to be in the backfield waiting to receive punts and kickoffs this year, the answer is "Theo Riddick, Theo Riddick, Theo Riddick." (Yes, that is a direct quote.)

Second, freshman kicker Kyle Brindza will be handling kickoffs. (Possibly also punts.) I think Ruffer's still getting the nod for field goals and extra points, but it's definitely Brindza on kickoffs. I'm quite enthused to hear this, considering Kyle is the first great kicker we've actually recruited in, oh, I don't know, FOREVER.

Of course, it's difficult to determine whether a kicker will remain consistent (and who can tell whether they'll be "great"), because the quality of their game is mostly in their head and their playing time largely consists of nothing...nothing...nothing... OMG SO MUCH PRESSURE DON'T SCREW UP ...nothing...nothing...nothing.

However, if you take a look at the first three lines of Brindza's player bio, you will likely feel reassured:

Set Michigan state high school record with 19 made field goals as a senior in 2010, including six of nine from 50 yards or more ... averaged 43.2 yards per punt and 60 of 63 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks in 2010 while handling kicking and punting duties for Plymouth High School in Canton, Mich. ... rated ninth-best player in Michigan by Detroit Free Press

Ninth-best player. A kicker. Ninth-best. In the state.

I love our recruiting staff.

Thirdly (or is it sixth and lastly?), Coach Kelly noted that he's been utilizing special teams to help younger players gain valuable game-time experience. Both Bennett Jackson and Lo Wood played on special teams last year, and this year they're expected to aid Gary Gray and Robert Blanton at cornerback. This year, freshmen running backs Cam McDaniel and George Atkinson III are slated to play on special teams so they'll be ready to contribute next season--or even this season, if need be.

This is a common enough strategy--widely used to break in NFL rookies everywhere--but things are different when your players have limited eligibility. Although this system works for now, Kelly would eventually like to abandon it. "I'd prefer that we have enough strength and depth in our program that we didn't have to play guys in special teams roles to get them game-time experience. Down the road, we won't have to do this, because freshmen won't be expected to play as second-year starters."

Whoa, guys.

Whoa.

I've grown so accustomed to witnessing the career arc of players like Brady Quinn, Golden Tate, and Manti Te'o from freshman year onward that the concept of an all-upperclassman team now seems strange. No more four-year starters? Really? That's kind of...sad.

Except that it's not.

If you're starting freshmen, that means you haven't got any upperclassmen who can play the position better. And that doesn't mean your freshmen are so spectacular--that just means you've got some serious holes in your depth chart. Very rarely do you get a player like Julius Jones or Denard Robinson (try not to gak on the maize-and-blue here), who are so straight-up good you'd be crazy to keep them off the field. (Although between you and me, I think Coach Kelly's trying to build the kind of team where you could keep those players off the field for a year. If you wanted to.)

I'm sure it's agonizing for players who were brilliant in high school to come to college and have to wait years before they can start. But if you've got the right system in place, it's much better to give players time to redshirt than it is to just throw them in and let them learn as they go. Game-time experience is valuable, but you shouldn't be getting playing time as a starter when you're still trying to learn the plays. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but the end goal is to build a team where freshmen don't have to start. Not unless you want them to.

Looks like that's the road we're headed down once more.

Let's hope so.

Tidbits

Right. I've waffled on longer than I intended to (everybody's shocked), so in closing I'm going to provide you with some favorite quotes and tidbits I've picked up from interviews, articles, and und.com videos in the last week or so:

Movin' on up. The Irish were ranked #18 in the USA Today preseason poll, #16 in the AP preseason poll, and #14 in Sports Illustrated's college football preview. These are the highest preseason rankings since 2006, when the Irish opened at #2 in the AP poll. (Wow, that seems like a zillion years ago.)

Great Expectations. Most pundits' predictions have the Irish headed to a BCS Bowl game with a nine-win season. My favorite matchup so far has the Irish playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl--although actually I'd love to see us play in the Sugar Bowl again. (Any excuse to go back to New Orleans, really.)

We're number...4? Sports Illustrated is fond of rankings. In this year's college football preview, they ranked the best gameday traditions, best overall gameday experience, and best coaches in college football. Notre Dame appeared on all three of these lists, coming it at #10 on the coach rankings with Brian Kelly; #9 on the best game day traditions with the postgame alma mater; and #4 on the best overall Game Day experience, behind Texas A&M, Wisconsin (really? Wisconsin?) and LSU.

Coach Kelly on accountability and the 'Canes: (if you haven't heard about the NCAA's investigation of Miami this might not make sense to you) "That's not to say that the guys at Miami didn't want to go to school--but they had other things in mind, too. As a coach, as a program, you recruit guys who understand that they're coming to a university to get a degree--and understand the value of that degree and what it costs--and play football. The rest of the stuff--we're gonna have to be more vigilant, everybody. Everybody says, 'well, that's just the NCAA.' I think it's a cop-out. I think it's the NCAA, the institution, the coach. I think it's everybody."

Manti Te'o, man-beast. Junior linebacker and All-American candidate Manti Te'o is currently listed on four presason watchlists for awards (Lombardi, Butkus, Bednarik, Nagurski), following a sophomore season in which he recorded 133 tackles--the most since Notre Dame's single-season record of 147 was set in 1983. (Better go ahead and gird your fibers for the season, kids. There's gonna be grass stains.)

ND's version of the Gameday Bus. Apparently this year, the football team is changing up its pre-game traditions. They'll attend mass in the Basilica as usual, but instead of walking to the stadium afterwards, they'll walk back to the buses, which will then drive pretty much all the way around campus before ending up in the tailgating lots south of the stadium and heading back to the Gug. There, the team will have a final pre-game meeting to go over the game plan. After the meeting (a little over 2 hours prior to kickoff), they'll walk from the Gug to the library, swing by the statue of Fr. Hesburgh and Fr. Joyce, admire their reflections in the reflecting pool (this part optional), and then walk down stadium quad to the stadium. Lest we forget, stadium quad is where Cartier Field used to stand--home to Knute Rockne, the Gipper, the Four Horsemen, and the first fabled notions of that blue-gray sky. This is also the part of campus where the Navy trained when they came and saved our school from closure. Fans are encouraged to line the route and cheer.

Season Opener Stats. (courtesy of und.com)

Notre Dame and USF will meet on the gridiron for the first time in the 123-year history of Irish football. The Bulls are the 140th different opponent in Notre Dame football history. The Irish own an all-time record of 117-19-3 (.853) when facing an opponent for the first time.

The Irish are 102-15-5 (.857) in season openers and have taken 20 of the last 24.

The 102 seasons Notre Dame has won its opener, the Irish went on to post winning records 93 times (91.2%), with four losing seasons and five .500 records

Revenge of the Skip? (okay, I don't think Skip Holtz wants revenge, but I'm tired, so just go with it - these are more tidbits from und.com)

Skip Holtz, a former member of the Irish football team and assistant coach and son of former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, returns to Notre Dame Stadium as he leads USF Bulls into Saturday's season opener for both teams.

Holtz's playing career at Notre Dame lasted one season, 1986, where he predominantly saw action with the special teams unit. Following graduation, he worked as a graduate assistant under Bobby Bowden at Florida State and a wide receivers coach at Colorado before returning to Notre Dame as an assistant coach under his father, Lou (1990-1993).

During Skip's two seasons as offensive coordinator (1992-1993), the Irish posted a 21-2-1 record and averaged 37 points per game, good enough to earn them a top-10 ranking nationally in total offense.

Last one -- a quote from the golden boy...

Crist, on confidence: "If you're not confident, it's because you're not prepared. I think we're gonna prepare better than anybody in the country."

Damn skippy.

GO IRISH BEAT BULLS!

Irish Football is BACK

....for spring practice, I mean.

I can't say anything about how the team will actually perform this fall. But I can say that I like how they're performing at this exact moment, based on the approximately five minutes of actual practice footage I've seen. Which clearly makes me an expert on the subject and entitles me to extrapolate on it at length, with the aid of key quotes, press conference clips, clever inferences, and the possibility of over-exaggerated extended metaphors which, if nothing else, seemed like a good idea at the time.


Take her to warp speed, captain!

So the main reaction to the first spring practice of 2010 (which took place yesterday, for those of you who haven't been paying attention) seems to be that it was fast. Really fast. Fast like a cheetah. Fast like a viper. Fast like Golden Tate on a straight route up the sideline past the Purdue secondary. (Sorry. Was that too much 2007 too soon?) Fast like the USS Enterprise or...whatever.

The point is, X out of X football journalists recently polled state that yesterday's spring practice was the "fastest" and the most "up-tempo" of any Irish spring practice they've ever seen, stretching back to at least the Devine era. No-huddle offense. Helmets on at all times. No standing still.

...you know, except for the necessary amount of standing still required to wait for instructions / water / the players' bodies to cool down enough so they don't vomit / pass out / begin imagining that the faces of people who mocked them in the past have suddenly been transposed onto the faces of the players on the other side of the ball.

This may or may not be an accurate assessment of the actual amount of hustle involved in practice, considering, you know, I wasn't there.

So anyway. This tempo of this practice seems promising, if you believe in the whole "you play like you practice" mantra. It seems to suggest a higher level of conditioning necessary to survive the practices, let alone the games.

Thinking optimistically...this may make it easier for the team to adjust to game speed in the fall, and might possibly improve the players' overall stamina enough for them to actually play all four quarters of football. And at this point, that would be something of a feat, considering how effing long all our home games have become (thanks NBC). On the flip side, too much intensity during practice could leave the players without their legs under them when game day actually does roll around.

But Brian Kelly has been a head coach for 19 years now (this season will be his 20th, I believe), so I'm going to have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.


Beam me up, Scotty

It's only one day of practice so far, so it's impossible to say we've really arrived anywhere. It's impossible to draw any real, concrete conclusions. But here's a chunk of the WNDU article on yesterday's practice, complete with some optimistic quotes from Kelly's pre-practice presser:

"I think probably the thing that is absolutely non-negotiable is the intensity through repetition," Kelly told the media before practice.

Kelly said he doesn't want to hear any talking, complaining or see any fights at practice. But he does want to see some fight.

"If we can get the fight back in the Fightin' Irish, that's what I'm looking for," Kelly said. "I want to compete our butts off for four quarters.

"I want our guys to go to practice and compete, compete and compete."

For the most part, this is the sort of pre-season stuff you'd expect any new coach to be saying. I mean, you'd certainly hope that any new coach coming to Notre Dame would want to say something corny like he wants to put the "fight back in the Fightin' Irish." And any coach worth his cleats should be promising that his team's going to play for four quarters.

But it's one thing to claim "intensity through repetition," one thing to say that you want your guys to "compete, compete, compete." It's entirely another to go out on the first day of practice and prove it.

So... what do we got so far?

High-tempo practice. Lots of focus, lots of action. Lots of work toward getting the players to “think on their feet.” As previously mentioned, these practice sessions have been like nothing we’ve seen from ND spring ball for the last, oh, thirty years or so (at least), but as Kelly himself remarked after today’s practice, “It doesn’t mean it’s better, it’s just different for ‘em.” It’s intriguing, but we’ll just have to wait and see whether this approach pays dividends in the fall.

Chips all in. Anyone who could walk was on the field yesterday, including Dayne Crist and Kyle Rudolph, both of whom underwent off-season surgery. Both are looking to be in pretty decent shape for the coming season (we hope). The reporters are saying Dayne Crist will probably be the starter at QB, which seems logical, but it's impossible to make any concrete statements at this point, considering Kelly is operating with

No depth chart. Kelly apparently prefers to practice with different “pods” or groups of players, rather than dividing them into first-string and second-string teams. All the players are out there competing for a starting spot; nothing's guaranteed. Which, theoretically, is the way it should always be in spring ball, and it's definitely nothing less than you'd expect from a brand-new head coach. But I really like that there's not even a hint at first-string or second-string yet, except from the reporters. The players (including Dayne Crist) all seem to be feeling the pressure to get out there and compete, to earn the spot they want. Like I said, nothing really unusual here, but it’s still nice to see.

The position shuffle. A number of players have shuffled position already – I’m just going to mention a couple.

Sophomore running back Theo Riddick has been moved to slot receiver. I have to say I like this move. By all reports, Theo is the fastest guy on the team. Which means he’s faster than Golden Tate. Last year, Theo picked up most of his playing time on kick returns for special teams, and a few really scrappy plays against Washington State that, were it not for a few well-placed shoestring tackles, might’ve turned themselves into scampers for the endzone. (Okay, he may have had a few more carries than that, but mostly I remember the WSU game, because that game was really fun to watch, because we were, you know, winning.) I’m very curious to see how his speed will transfer to a receiving position. If you will recall, Golden Tate played fullback in high school. One could surmise that this experience had an extremely positive effect on Golden’s ability to make plays after the catch. It’s possible that the same could be true for Theo Riddick. Possibly. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, it’s only spring practice.

There’s also been a lot of flip-flopping throughout the linebacker corps. Harrison Smith is switching from outside linebacker to safety, Steve Paskorz is moving from inside linebacker to fullback, Manti Te’o is switching from middle to inside linebacker, and inside linebacker Brian Smith is switching to outside. The reason for all the switching? Apparently Kelly likes his strong, physical players on the inside and his athletic, faster players on the outside. Which makes sense, really, doesn’t it? Giving the faster guys more of the field to cover? But again, we’ll have to see how this all shakes down in the fall. I certainly hope all the shuffling in the linebackers will prevent one of the safeties from becoming next year’s leader in tackles. Not that I didn’t love Kyle McCarthy, but come on – when a Safety is your leading tackler, you’ve got some serious defensive issues.



To infinity, and beyond!
(Oh wait, that was a Buzz Lightyear reference.)

So anyway. One month of spring practice before the Blue-Gold game, which, sadly, I will not be attending. (Sigh.) ND’s spring practices this year started later than…pretty much every other school’s…so let’s hope these up-tempo practices and some intense focus can get us where we need to be by the end of April.

Six months or less ‘til football season……

GO IRISH BEAT BOILERS!

Things that don’t completely piss me off: aka Notre Dame Football’s off-season

It’s not that I’m particularly fond of the off-season or anything. It’s just that the football team can’t do anything to break my heart over the off-season. (Well. Unless they decide to start going around knocking over liquor stores, getting into fights with our basketball players, stealing rosaries from little old ladies on the side of the road, etc. But since Brian Kelly is all about making sure his players are “tough gentlemen,” we’re going to go ahead and assume that he is not going to put up with that sort of hanky-panky during the off-season. Just as soon as he makes sure Michael Floyd gets whapped thoroughly around the wrists and ankles [but not the shoulder—anything but the shoulder.] for a bonehead underage drinking violation that occurred over winter break, I’m sure the team will be all in tip-top shape.)

The exciting news of the moment is that we finally have an entire football staff assembled, we’re going full-speed ahead on recruiting, we have five early enrollees on campus for spring ball, and now—it’s just a game of waiting.

Which is why I’ve got to babble about all this, because I hate waiting.


Interesting Tidbits

--So I hear the football players have all been put on diet plans. FINALLY. One would think that this is pretty much a no-brainer. I mean, come on, you’re unleashing college-age males into an all-you-can-eat dining hall three times a day and you expect them to just magically make all the right food choices on their own? Ppbbbt.

--In the midst of the coaching flux, we’ve managed to lose only two recruits. Whose names I can’t remember, but they’re lousy little de-committers, so who cares anyway?

--Our QB situation is distressing, but not as dire as it could have been. Dayne Crist will still be recovering from his torn ACL during pretty much all of spring ball, but the good news is that we’ll still have two fully healthy quarterbacks on campus for spring ball: one of the early enrollees on campus this semester is freshman QB Tommy Rees, and he’ll be competing alongside Nate Montana, who is back from his less-than-lackluster stint at Pasadena City College (35% in pass completions…youch). But hey, two-and-a-half quarterbacks competing for a starting job is better than nothing, and keep in mind that Kelly has experiencing winning games with inexperienced quarterbacks. In 2008, the Cincinnati Bearcats rotated five different quarterbacks through the lineup and still managed to win the Big East.

Also, in the fall, Crist, Rees, and Montana will be joined by freshman QB Andrew Hendrix. Hendrix was almost a lousy de-committer, backing away for a bit after Weis was let go, and he almost got himself sucked into Urban Meyer’s Evil Recruiting Vortex of Death, Lies, and Doom. (Whoops, sorry Urban, forgot you’re still busy being indefinite about your leave of absence. I’ll have to rephrase that. “The Indefinitely Absent Urban Meyer’s Former Recruiting Vortex of Statements That May or May Not Have Involved Death, Lies, Doom, and Visions from God”) But then Hendrix backed away from Florida, reconsidered, and decided he’d rather attend, to use Hendrix’s own words, “the best University on the face of this planet.” Good boy, Andrew. Way to suck it up to the alumni. You’re going to fit right in here. (You can see this quote on his blog, where he briefly describes the decision-making process involved in committing to the Irish over the Gators. It seems to involve a lot of gut feelings, but no direct visions from God.)

--Jack Swarbrick has been discussing the Irish’s future football schedules with the media. If you are like me and you despise the 7-4-1 model Kevin White came up with, you will be pleased to see this quote from Swarbrick:

We have the goal of the 7-4-1 model, but there may be some years where an opportunity presents itself that we may go to 6-5-1 or 7-5. We’re open to those sorts of modifications.

Yessssssssss. This makes it possible for us to schedule more games with schools that have great football traditions, and who aren’t willing to get skewered by the Irish’s refusal to screw people out of home-and-home series (which is the only thing that makes 7-4-1 possible). However, Swarbrick followed up this comment by saying,

I'd like to try and figure out how to keep the Stanford relationship, because in so many ways, that's an institution we like to do business with and have multiple relationships with across the university. ...I'd like to do more with Duke and Wake and some of those schools. It's really more institutionally focused - what's a good fit for Notre Dame? What sort of looks and feels like us?

Which sort of makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

That is SO not the point of football scheduling, Jack. SO not the point. I mean, okay, I have nothing against building relationships with those schools academically, but not at the cost of sacrificing games with schools that actually have decent football programs. I mean, Stanford is one thing, but Duke? Wake Forest? (Tulsa? WESTERN MICHIGAN?) You’re killin’ me, Petey, you’re killin’ me.



Upcoming: Observations on ND's new coaching staff

BRIAN KELLY!

It's a mixture of relief and--dare I say it?--optimism: Brian Kelly is the 29th head football coach at the University of Notre Dame. For a lengthy, in-depth recap of Kelly's coaching credentials, I recommend the always superb Blue-Gray Sky.

For now, all you need to know is that this is a man who just coached the Cincinnati Bearcats to a perfect season, and now they're going up against Florida in the Sugar Bowl. (Although popular opinion seems to be that Cincinnati's going to get smeared all over the Superdome. I offer no opinion on this except to say that you all should know how I feel about Urban Meyer by now, so--Go Bearcats!) And now Mr. Kelly is forgoing the chance to coach in New Orleans by taking up residence in the Gug's big, cushy corner office.

Before I get going on the new coach and start paraphrasing everything I just heard in the press conference, I just want to say: mad props to Jack Swarbrick for keeping the lid tight on this thing right until the very end. I commend you, sir. Also, I found it a very classy move that you presented our new head coach with a medal of Mary instead of a helmet or a football jersey. Way to be true to the spirit of Notre Dame.

Coach Kelly--apparently a Boston Irish Catholic--seems to get the spirit of Notre Dame, too, which is pretty much essential for anyone who's going to attempt to lead the football team at Our Lady's University. He spoke of the university's tradition, its high academic and athletic standards, and approached the university not only as a fan but as a coach. He spoke of developing players who work hard on the field and are gentlemen off the field. He spoke of Notre Dame in a way, I thought, that represented Notre Dame.



Plumes of reactionary optimism

For as despondent as I've felt since the end of the season, I have to say I was pretty darn pleased to get that e-mail announcing Brian Kelly was our new head coach--because if it wasn't gonna be him, who else WAS there? I think, at this current moment in time, we actually did get the best man for the job. And I have to say, I'm way more up-in-the-clouds about all this than I thought I'd be.

Part of this, I think, is reactionary: looking for (and finding) things in the new head coach that were lacking with the last. This sort of amplifies the feeling of all-around glee at the thought that Notre Dame finally has a coach who
A) comes in with a .747 win percentage after 19 years of coaching
B) has proven he can turn limp programs into national champions (Grand Valley State, D-II) and conference champions (Central Michigan, Cincinnati)
C) has been a head coach--IN COLLEGE--for almost two solid decades

This man has a proven track record. He's not being sucked in through the NFL. He is not a gamble. (You know, so I assume.)

In case you've missed out on my biggest beef with Charlie the last couple seasons, here are the two things I've griped about the most:
1) Lack of fundamentals
2) Having a head coach who's still learning how to be a college head coach. (And by that I mean--watching in agony as he figures out that no, you can't treat college kids the same way you treat guys in the NFL, and no, college players don't come pre-conditioned with great fundamentals, and no, no matter how clever you think this play is, if your players aren't disciplined and consistent, all the scheming in the world isn't going to help you.)

And pretty much right off the bat Brian Kelly proved that he understands the nature of being a head coach in the college game.

Two little words that one reporter called "vague," but which were music to my ears: player development.

Ah, yes--YES! There it IS! College players have to be DEVELOPED! That is the why college football has become so crucial to the success of players in the NFL, is it not?

This is not to say that Charlie didn't know how to develop a player. I mean, he developed Brady Quinn. I'm just saying--Charlie came from the pros, he ran a pro-style game, he's a pro-style man, and I...

You know what, I'm just going to stop talking about Charlie. He came, he did what he did, he helped turn the program in the right direction, I wish him the best.

Back to Brian Kelly and player development. I liked this quote:

...it's not just about being bigger, faster, stronger, it's getting your players to trust. It's getting your players to be accountable on a day to day basis. It's developing them as young men, and you have to do that through relationships.

Boom! Right there. This is a man who knows he's dealing with college kids, knows he's dealing with people who are still maturing and learning how to manage themselves, and that is as crucial a part of the college game as anything else. Another choice example:

Eating at Burger King at 3:00 in the morning is not going to make you the best for your 8:00 workouts. Not being on time, not paying attention to detail, not being purposeful in what you do on a day to day basis. Attention to detail is absolutely crucial in this process of winning, and so when I talk about working on winning, I mean you do that from the first day you step on this campus if you want to win.

This is not me accusing the players or the previous coaching staff of anything in particular. This is just me saying that the new head coach is talking like a man familiar with success, familiar with making success happen in a college system, and familiar with how college kids work. And that, to me, is extremely promising.


Another comment that I particularly liked was this one, which almost certainly struck a chord with me because it's exactly the sort of thing I've been griping about for the past few seasons:

You don't win on Saturdays with Xs and Os. You win on Saturdays because you've been working on it all week, and so it's that attention to detail. It's morale, it's camaraderie, it's one voice.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! THANK YOU. Thank you thank you thank you. You have NO idea how good that is to hear. No idea.

(Once again, not trying to disparage anybody. I'm just sayin'--when your life for a few years is X's and O's, like Charlie's life was, you tend to approach the game in X's and O's.)

Something else that pretty much made me want to jump up and down and pump my fist in the air:

I think it's important to point out that you win and lose football games as a whole.

Yes. YES. YES!!!! I mean, I know this is sort of obvious to anyone who pays attention to the fact that football is a team sport--but it strikes me that, too often these days, people don't really approach it that way. I mean, theoretically head coaches do, but speaking as a lay person, it seems like teams are often lopsided--strong on one side or another--due to the leanings of whatever position their head coach happened to coordinate before he became the head coach.

I have this problem as a fan, too; I expect teams to be lopsided one way or another. For example...when I'm watching the Indianapolis Colts, I pretty much expect Peyton Manning to go out there and win the game for them. I know, somewhere in my head, that of course the defense has to do its job, and Peyton would be nothing without his O-line and his receiving corps of thrifty ballcatchers. But let's face it--when the game's on the line, I expect Peyton Manning to go out there and win.

It's the same problem watching defensive teams--you know, like how Da Bears used to be. How many teams can you watch throw six picks against Arizona on Monday night and still expect them to be able to win? The Bears did it a couple years ago. It was absurd.

Anyway, the point is--at the very least, Brian Kelly is approaching football the way a head coach needs to approach football: as a head coach, one who will oversee ALL aspects of the game:

So offense, defense and special teams has been what I'm an expert at. And when I talk about expert at it, I mean I don't just rely on one side of the ball. As a head football coach, you are responsible for all those areas, and as you can tell probably from my experience in Division II, we had when I started two full time coaches. So you couldn't just be the offensive coordinator; you couldn't just be the defensive coordinator; you had to be involved in all those areas. I will be intimately involved with what we do defensively as the head football coach.

Now, of course, we don't know how any of this is going to translate, but I hope for the best.

I look forward to our special teams next year.



Enough about the past. Let's talk about the future.

First off, Brian Kelly is a living-in-the-present type of guy:

Well, we go to work right away. We don't get a five year plan. This is a five minute plan. I mean, we're working on it immediately, and we expect our football players to play at a high level immediately.

Boom! Hit the ground running. I like it.

Second, let's focus in on our immediate future: recruiting. Kelly said that recruiting would be the first thing on his docket: calling our recruits, trying to keep the commits, going out there and fighting for the future of the Irish. I'm curious to see how this goes, and if any more of our recruits will end up falling through the cracks. Some players commit because of the coaches and then de-commit once they're gone; not all of them can be total badasses and commit after the head coach has been fired like Louis Nix.

In a related note, it will be interesting to see which Irish coaches are retained for the staff, too. Coach Ianello's already taken the head coaching job at Akron, and considering the state of our defense I think pretty much everyone expects us to have a new defensive coordinator...but I'm curious to see who of the remaining staff will stay, and what kind of impact that will have on recruiting.

Regarding the approach to recruiting and the kind of players Kelly is going after, the one big thing he mentioned was passion:

They have to love to play this game. So in the recruiting process, as we go from coast to coast in finding that right profile, I want to be around players that love to play this game. I love being around it. If you're not passionate about what you do and how you do it, you probably won't connect with me. So I'm looking for that passion, and it's got to resonate with me in the recruiting process. Yeah, we'll look at the profiles, but I've never gotten caught up in profiles as much as making sure that that passion is there.

After the effort the Irish team put forth this season, I think everyone's pretty much zipped their mouths shut Re: accusing the team of not playing with passion. So it's nice to see that the requirement for passion is there. (You would assume that anyone willing to kill themselves to play at the level of D-I football is passionate about the game but, you know, based on the clearly 100% accurate storytelling of the movie Rudy, not everyone who suits up on Saturdays always has their full heart in the game.) It might seem a little iffy to hear him talk about not getting "caught up" in the profiles of players, but for now I'm willing to ride with him on this one. In recent years, coaches at programs like Boise State, TCU, and (dare I say it?) Cincinnati have proved that you don't have to have a team full of top-rated, emu-faced recruits to win games. You've just got to make sure you can make the players you've got work as a team.

So...we'll see how it goes.

The last snippet I want to post has to do with our team--the current collection of next year's Fighting Irish. As I said, I think our team proved this season that they are hungry for victory--hungry for excellence. The letdown at the end of this season (UConn?? Really? UCONN????? Sorry, I still can't get over it.) will become a blip in Irish football history if Coach Kelly can turn this team's drive and potential into the one thing that matters most in the world of college football: wins.

As I've said all season, potential is frustrating. Potential is maddening. Potential, if unmet, eats you up from the inside.

And that, I think, is at the core of this whole idea of player development, of taking the potential of each player, and then moving them, as Kelly says, "to a level they can't get to by themselves. That's player development. That's at the core of what I mean, to get people to do things that they normally wouldn't do on their own."

So let's see how it goes. Let's see if we can get there. Let's see what Coach Kelly makes of the players we have here, and the players that we've yet to gain.

And of our team, the new head coach says this:

They want to win. They want to win. They're like any other football program that I've been around; they want to win football games, and they want to be led. They want to be developed. I could tell that immediately.

You do not come to the University of Notre Dame because you want to be average. You want to be the best of the best. And that's why I'm here. It inspires me to be around young men like I had in front of me today.

In the words of Rocket, kids: GO GET IT.

GO IRISH BEAT BOILERS!