Irish Blogger Gathering: Tailgate Edition

Sarah at Bad Trade is hosting this week's Irish Blogger Gathering, and she has chosen that most venerable of American sporting traditions - the tailgate party - as this week's topic. So grab a brat and a beer and enjoy this week's B.S. session. My answers follow below, Sarah's original post and the responses of the other members of the IBG can be read over at her place.

1. You're having some beers and brats outside Notre Dame Stadium, just chilling with friends. If you could have one Notre Dame player or coach drop by to share a drink, a brat and some stories with you, who would it be?

George O'Leary, without a doubt. I'm sorry, that wasn't nice.

My first thought was Father Ted Hesburgh. He's not a player or coach, although I could perhaps bend the rules to make him an honorary coach or something here at OC Domer. Fr. Ted is a bit of a name dropper (it's actually pretty funny how many names he can drop into any given conversation, the guy knows EVERYBODY), but he really is a fascinating guy to chat with and he really did transform Notre Dame into the University we know today.





But I want to be true to the original question, so I would have to go with former Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Moore. Joe Moore was on Lou Holtz's staff from 1988 (National Championship year) to 1996 and was certainly among the best assistant coaches ever associated with Notre Dame. Coach Moore's tenure at ND ended when new head coach Boob Davie let him go and somehow managed to get the University sued and held liable for discriminating against Moore based on his age. That was probably the first sign that Davie wasn't cut out to be head coach at ND. At any rate, Coach Moore was seriously "old school" and it would be awesome to give the guy a cold beer and let him tell the uncensored history of Lou Holtz's tenure at Notre Dame. I would also love to hear Coach Moore's expletive-laden analysis of why the current Irish offensive line can't run block worth a damn. Maybe we could figure out a way to get Coach Weis and Coach Latina to join us? Coach Moore died of lung cancer in July of 2003. A couple of nice articles about his legacy and career can be found here and here.


2. What was your best experience ever with a tailgate party?

I don't get to a lot of games, so I don't do a lot of tailgating, but the one that sticks in my mind is 2005 at Stanford. That game was on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. We rented a big Chevy Tahoe and drove to Northern California. As a belated birthday present we picked up my mom and took her with us into San Francisco and spent a great day in the city on Friday (Pier 39, Alcatraz, cable cars, Lombard Street, etc...) capped off by the Notre Dame pep rally held in our hotel.

On Saturday we headed down to Stanford for the game. Because Stanford's fans are totally weak, tickets to the game were readily available (I still get mail from the Stanford athletic department today trying to sell me Stanford tickets), so my two brothers were able to get tickets too. Although our plan to meet before the game for some tailgating was woefully thin on details, we miraculously managed to park within just a few feet of each other in a grove of trees not too far from Stanford Stadium. I had purchased a tiny gas grill before we left Orange County, and we all chipped in with bringing food and drinks.

It was a perfect day for football, cool and crisp. We fired up the grill, broke out some cold drinks, and had a great time. My daughter was wearing her "Play Like a Champion Today" yellow T-shirt, my son was in his #10 Brady Quinn jersey, and we were all tossing the football around. We don't get together as a family very often, so having my mom, both my brothers and their wives, and Mrs. Domer & the OC Kids there and enjoying a great afternoon made it a really memorable day. To top it all off, the Irish beat Stanford that night (in a game that was closer than it should have been), and we were all there for the post-game ceremony when they officially began ripping up the turf and tearing down the old Stanford Stadium so they they could build a newer, smaller one for their fans to stay away from in droves. We still have some of that turf tucked away somewhere.


3. There are lots of great tailgate experiences around the country - what school's tailgate tradition do you most want to experience?

They say that game days at the big SEC schools are absolutely amazing, but the place that sticks in my head for no obvious reason is Penn State. I've heard that Happy Valley is just an amazing place to visit for a game. We have some friends who went to Penn State, and my experiences hanging out with them at parties and backyard barbecues leads me to believe that those Nittany Lions know how to tailgate. To me, Midwestern tailgating bundled up in a sweatshirt against a little November chill seems more authentic than tailgating in the South in 90-degree heat, and I think eating a brat and chugging a beer in Happy Valley would just be a lot of fun.

Of course, there is something to be said for tailgating in Southern California. Hard to describe though.


4. Indiana decides that their drinking laws are far too un-draconian (I'm from Wisconsin. I don't understand these things like "kids aren't allowed in bars," "your parents can't give you liquor if they are supervising" and "no alcohol purchases on Sunday"), and drinking is now forbidden on Saturdays. The Excise Police stop by your tailgate, and proceed to dump out the liquor you were attempting to hide from them. What do they pour out?

Well, if we're in our usual low-budget tailgate mode, we're looking at some Corona beer (with slices of lime), and some excellent California wines for the ladies (possibly a nice Zinfandel and some Pinot Grigio from Napa and Sonoma counties). If we're tailgating upscale, there will be some nice vodka for mixing Cape Cods, and things are gonna get ugly if they find that bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label because that stuff is way too expensive to be pouring out on the ground.

5. OK, I couldn't leave it alone completely. How do you feel about the impending end of the Coach Willingham era at Washington?

Look, it's a crappy thing to say but I have to admit I feel a little vindication as an Irish fan and alum. But that's only because the University was unfairly accused of racism when they fired him. The bottom line is that Coach Willingham was not getting the job done in recruiting or on the field. If he had brought in better talent and won more games he'd still be the head coach and they'd be sizing him up for a statue outside the stadium next to Ara's. But since he and his supporters brought race into it, it has become necessary for TW to be publicly exposed as a poor football coach so that Notre Dame put those charges of racism to rest. When politically correct U of W fires Willingham after he has destroyed their football program, that should be the end of the matter for both ND admirers and detractors.

In a way it's unfair for the current players and Coach Weis to be dragged into this. It's not their fault that Willingham was fired - but it somehow falls to them to defend the University's honor by beating Coach Willingham and the Huskies. It's kind of weird, really. But I would bet that Charlie and the team aren't thinking about Ty Willingham at all. I am sure they are just worrying about playing with energy and speed and executing their assignments so that they can get to 5-2 on the year.

Jimmy Clausen Has a Bright Future (If he lives to see it)

Boy, losing gets old in a hurry. What can we take from Notre Dame's 31-10 loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions in Happy Valley? Here are my thoughts following the game, in no particular order.

Jimmy Clausen is the real deal. He is amazingly poised for a young quarterback. He had command of the offense, can make all the throws, and generally makes very good decisions. His future at Notre Dame (and beyond) looks very bright, provided he lives to see it. But he still has a learning curve to climb. Some of the six sacks he suffered (for minus 50 yards) were his fault because he held onto the ball too long. A sack is better than an INT, but he has to be quicker to throw the ball away. We had a couple of delay of game penalties that the QB has to avoid. His numbers for the game were 17 of 32 for 144 yards and 1 INT. He missed on some throws, but he also was robbed of a TD pass when Irish receivers dropped two passes in a row in the end zone late in the game. It will be fun to see what he can do when Coach Weis opens the playbook for him. The play calling today was ultra conservative, relying on quick, horizontal throws toward the sidelines. Unfortunately, nobody was breaking any tackles or making guys miss, so all those plays were for very short yardage or even negative yardage. In short, we'll be fine at QB if we can get our other problems fixed.

The offensive line had another poor game, although I thought they played a slightly better game physically than last week. When they were blocking the right guys, they weren't getting physically beat as badly as last week. Mentally I thought it was another dreadful performance overall, despite more plays than last week where they gave an appearance of actually having a clue about what they were doing. Penn State brought a lot of pressure, but not as much as did Georgia Tech. Yet, there were far too any instances of PSU defenders running free into the backfield. Added to last week's woes this week were way too many penalties committed by the offensive line. False starts and holding penalties killed off drives when we were moving the ball, or killed them off before they even started. Against Georgia Tech I felt the guards were the biggest problem. Today it was clearly our tackles. Sam Young had numerous egregious mental errors, and left tackle Paul Duncan was just plain getting beat by the outside rushers. The running game never got going. Running backs were greeted by defenders well before getting back to the line of scrimmage. Much of my pre-season expectations revolved around our young but talented offensive line being able to at least drive block to establish a power running game. So far the power running game is completely AWOL. Call me old fashioned, but I really think you ought to be able to run over your opponent when the occasion calls for it. I never really though I'd miss Darius Walker, but I do.

Travis Thomas was a liability today. He ran the ball six times for 12 yards, and got flagged for a 15-yard personal foul when he was beating up a helmetless PSU player laying on the ground after a punt play. What the hell was up with that TT? That display by TT looked much worse than the personal foul Justin Brown was ejected for last week, and I can only assume the referee didn't see the whole thing or Thomas would have been tossed. Thomas lost his starting RB role to Armando Allen this week. Thomas has not looked good carrying the ball, and he just lacks the speed to reach the corner. He looks like a linebacker playing RB.

Where's Waldo? Better yet, where's Aldridge? We desperately needed to establish a power running game today, yet I only saw James Aldridge line up at RB on one play (when he fumbled). Did Coach Weis bench him because of the fumble? Or was something else going on?

Golden Tate is going to be a star. He flashed his speed when he got juked running down on kick coverage, then turned and ran down PSU's speedy A.J. Wallace 68 yards later at the 27 yard line, saving a touchdown. He showed great hands and tremendous play making ability when he out-maneuvered a PSU defender to catch Clausen's longest pass of the day, even though the completion was negated by a penalty.

Duval Kamara is going to be great, but he is still raw. Kamara had some chances today to make plays, but couldn't hold onto the ball. One chance was a perfectly thrown jump ball in the back of the end zone that clanked off his hands and cost ND a late TD.

David Grimes is a solid receiver, but I'm not yet convinced he's a solid #1 receiver. I expect Parris (or Kamara or Tate) to establish themselves as the true #1 guy soon.

Zibby looks good on the punt returns, when he actually returns them. He is fair catching much more often this year, and I wonder why? Is Coach Weis trying to avoid injuring him? Is he trying to avoid a costly turnover deep in our own end of the field?

Junior Jabbie got a little more time at RB today. He seems to the designated QB protector on obvious passing downs, but also looked good on his one carry for 5 yards.

Our defense is good enough to win games, if the offense carries it's fair share of the load. Unlike the O-line, the defense does not have a "tempo" problem. They came out playing with very high energy, and put Notre Dame ahead early with a fantastic interception return for a touchdown. I was impressed with how quickly and how well all the defenders turned into blockers after Walls pulled down the interception. That was a good indicator of solid coaching by Corwin Brown and his assistants. Here are the numbers on Penn State's offensive drives:

First Half

• 4 plays, 11 yards (Walls INT)
• 2 plays, 13 yards (fumble recovered by Brockington)
• 6 plays, 0 yards (punt)
• 9 plays, 22 yards (punt)
• 6 plays, 51 yards (PSU TD)
• 6 plays, 5 yards (punt)
• 1 play, 7 yards (fumble recovered by Laws)

Second Half

• 4 plays, 7 yards (PSU Field Goal)
• 3 plays, minus 9 yards (punt with Zibby's 47 yard return)
• 7 plays, 65 yards (PSU TD. Drive included 51 yard pass completion)
• 4 plays, 11 yards (punt)
• 10 plays, 62 yards (PSU TD)
• 3 plays, 4 yards (punt)
• 4 plays, 38 yards (end of game)
  

Despite playing on a very short field, the defense gave up only one sustained drive in the first half. The remaining PSU possessions ended in three punts, two lost fumbles, and an INT. That is very good defensive play by any measure. The defense started the second half playing well, before giving up the one big play they allowed, a 51 yard pass down the seam that was misplayed by Bruton. Eventually the defense just got tired, and PSU iced the game by running the ball down our throats on a 10-play, 62 yard TD drive. We could still use some depth in the D-line, but I consider the defensive woes of recent years to be largely solved. Right now it's the offense that is killing us.

Were those Big Televen officials? I didn't hear during the broadcast where the officiating crew was from, but they were not helping matters, especially in the first half. Certainly Notre Dame earned the penalties we were flagged for. But did PSU really not commit ANY penalties the whole first half? In particular, I saw several blatant holds that should have been called against the Lions in the first half, but weren't. Late in the first half, with the Irish trailing by a touchdown, Penn State snapped the ball with 22 seconds remaining. Morelli ran for 7 yards then fumbled. Trevor Laws recovered and the Irish had the ball with just 9 seconds remaining. The officials reviewed the play to confirm that Morelli fumbled, but they didn't correct the clock to reflect the time remaining when Laws fell on the ball. The clock should have been stopped as soon as Trevor covered the fumble and the ball changed possession. But it ran for several seconds before the officials realized that Penn State had turned the ball over. It's not a huge deal, but a few more seconds might have given us another play or two to try for a TD or get into position for field goal attempt. I did feel that the game was called more evenly in the second half.

John Carlson has not been enough of a factor in the Irish offense. I suspect it's because he's been held in to help with pass protection since our running backs have not proved able to pick up the blitzers.

Kicking game has been fairly solid. Kick-offs have been acceptable, though not stellar. Place-kicking has been good from short range. Punts have been good. Price didn't have any shanks, and uncorked a couple of long ones. Coverage in the kick & punt game gets an "F" today. Punt team gave up a TD return. Kicking team gave up a 68 yard return.

Anthony Morelli is going to break the hearts of Penn State fans this year. He was only 12 of 22 for 131 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. For those keeping score at home, that's fewer completions, for fewer yards, for a lower completion percentage than some kid named Clausen had today. Morelli looks good when he has all day to throw and wide open receivers. But he was awful under the modest pressure the Irish were able to put on him, and he's going to cost PSU some games with his poor decision making.

Final thoughts. Although the game got away from the Irish in the second half as Penn State's running game wore down our tired defense, I am very optimistic about our new defense under Corwin Brown. They are giving up some yards in the power running game, but they pursue well, get decent pressure on the passer, and have been good in coverage. Like everyone else who has seen them play I am somewhat astonished by our offense, and not in a good way. I think the line made some progress on their "tempo" problem this week, but still have a lot of work to do. When and if the O-line starts to gel, I think we have a quarterback and enough play makers to enable the offense to hold up it's end of the bargain and help the Irish win some games. I only hope that the "gel" thing happens before we're 0-8. The good news is that the Michigan Wolverines are at least as befuddled as we are right now at 0-2 and we actually have chance to go into the Big House and win a game, which I didn't expect was possible two weeks ago.

Can you fix "tempo"?

Okay, it's been a long, painful week of introspection and depression. We got our asses handed to us by Georgia Tech. Congratulations to the Yellow Jackets and Coach Gailey for having his team better prepared to play on Saturday. As Irish fans, we can only wish them well. If Georgia Tech wins the ACC and goes to a BCS bowl game it might make the Irish look just a little less pathetic than we feel right now. Just a little.

But we have to go on the road this week and play a Nittany Lions squad that believes they are all that and a bag of chips. They were already feeling pretty good about themselves before they hung 59 points on sacrificial lamb Florida International University. I think I've made my feelings about such scheduling pretty clear already, so we'll have to move past that.

The one arguably good thing that came out of Saturday's debacle is that Coach Weis is done being cute with the quarterback situation. If Demetrius Jones and/or the offensive line had played better on Saturday, we might still be living through the long national nightmare of a continuing quarterback controversy. Watching all three of his quarterbacks under fire convinced Charlie Weis (if he didn't know it already) that the future is now for the Irish quarterback of the future, Jimmy Clausen. One can only hope that the public announcement of the starting QB and a return to an offensive style that the players are more familiar with will contribute to team stability and confidence heading into Happy Valley. I take some solace in the fact that, as bad as last Saturday was, both Evan Sharpley and Clausen showed some ability to move the ball through the air when we were in a passing mode on offense. And when the ball was in the air, the Irish receivers surprised me in a couple of ways. First, they were open! Second, they did a good job catching the ball.

But will Clausen have the time he needs to deliver the ball down the field? As I wrote last Saturday, the Irish offensive line was badly outplayed by Georgia Tech. Watching the game at home, it seemed that our guys were having a very difficult time figuring out their assignment. It seemed to me they were completely confused about who they were supposed to block, thus allowing Tech defenders numerous free runs into the Notre Dame backfield. In talking about the loss, Coach Weis had a different take. It wasn't that our guys didn't know what to do, it was a "tempo" problem.

“It isn’t just the players playing each other, it’s handing the speed of the game. You can simulate it in practice the best you can, but obviously they did a much better job than we did of handling the speed of the game. They controlled the tempo with their defense versus our offense.”

And again -

“I thought the speed of the game, especially the offensive front against their defensive front, we were playing at two different tempos.”

What does that mean? Is that like "Well, Mr. and Mrs. Domer, it's not that little Johnny can't read. He actually reads very well. It's just that he reads at a slower tempo than the other children."

Oh, is that all?

And, more importantly, can you fix a "tempo" problem? Because if we don't fix our "tempo" problem I have a very strong feeling that this could be an issue down the road. Like this week in Happy Valley. Or in Pasadena. Or when the Trojans come calling.

This "tempo" issue has been discussed before here at OC Domer. Following the fan appreciation day practice in August I posted my thoughts on what we learned (or didn't learn) from that public practice. Included in my ramblings was the following:

It seemed to me that the line play was only going about 80% speed. Very little real smash-mouth going on. That, and the poor overall quality of the video posted at UND.com (too small, too grainy) makes it very difficult to evaluate line play. So I won't try.

Much has been made of the coaches requiring the defense to "run" a lap around the field when they lined up with only ten men on one play, as though the coaches were really cracking the whip. I was disappointed in how most of the guys dogged it on the lap. They pace was very slow, and many of the guys cut the corners in the end zones. I know the guys are fatigued after a week of camp, but maybe the reason USC and LSU run laps around us on game day is that we don't really "run" our laps at practice. Practice slow and play slow. Maybe I'm being unfair and too harsh, but that "lap" bothered me.

So maybe we've had a tempo problem for a while. If so, I am really disappointed. Living in Southern California, I am subjected to a rather steady stream of USC coverage. I've built up some immunity to it and no longer break out in hives. One common, recurring theme from those who visit Trojans' practices is that they are impressed by the high tempo of USC practices. If I know that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the current top program in the country is their high-tempo practices, surely that word has gotten out to the coaching community. Why wouldn't we (Notre Dame) be trying to emulate that? And if we are trying, why isn't it translating to Saturdays? Is it because we're coaching it wrong? Or is it because our guys are just too slow to play at that higher tempo? I sure hope it's the former, because coaching techniques can be fixed. If it's the latter, we're in serious trouble, because you can't teach speed.

It's commonly said that teams will improve the most between their first and second games. I hope that's more true of the Irish than Penn State. In my pre-season expectations post I felt that the Irish matched up pretty well with Penn State, strength on strength, weakness on weakness. I still feel that way, although one of the strengths I was counting for Notre Dame was an offensive line that would "have it's way" with PSU's defensive front. I certainly don't expect that anymore. I expect to see a Notre Dame team that has dramatically improved from week 1 to week 2, but that still has a way to go. We compete, and we return to respectability, but we lose by a touchdown.