Joy to the World

The. Best. Christmas. EVER!

How awesome was it to see this Notre Dame football team play the way we all expect Notre Dame football teams to play? When faced with a 7-6 team from the Western Athletic Conference, the Irish did what Notre Dame should do to teams from the WAC - they crushed 'em.

I had a lot of questions and an uneasy feeling in my stomach going into the game. In my pre-game post I wanted to know if the team would be their traditional bowl-game slow, sluggish and sloppy or if they would show up focused, fast, and physical. I guess those questions were answered. Granted, we weren't playing a top-tier team in a BCS bowl, but after watching the Irish lose at home to Syracuse and fritter away games against Pitt and UNC this season, the key questions were about team morale and whether these players still wanted to play for Coach Weis. Clearly, the team is still behind Charlie, and just as clearly Coach Weis and his staff figured something out about how to prep for a bowl game, because the team was dominant. They totally out-classed, out-played, and out-coached Hawaii. Memo to U of H coaching staff: Nobody in the WAC can cover Golden Tate one-on-one.


The preparation and focus is all the more impressive when you consider that the team was taking semester final exams through Friday of last week, and had to deal with the long (and delayed) flight from South Bend to Hawaii to play the Warriors on their home field.

Jimmy Clausen had all his weapons available and looked as good as he has ever looked as Notre Dame's quarterback. He was throwing the ball with impressive zip and pinpoint accuracy. He was calling the game perfectly at the line, changing the play calls to take advantage of poor judgment by the Hawaii coaches whenever they had single coverage on Golden Tate. Boy did he make them pay for that. The offensive line gave Jimmy plenty of time to throw, and was just effective enough in the running game to keep the Hawaii defense honest.

It was great to see Michael Floyd back in the lineup, although I wonder if he's okay since he wasn't much of a factor after three Hawaii players went helmet-to-helmet with him on a 15-yard catch over the middle on Notre Dame's first drive of the game. TE Kyle Rudolph was excellent in the middle of the field with 4 catches for 78 yards. Three of his four catches were for gains of over 20 yards and an Irish first down. And of course Golden Tate was sick. He had just six catches on the day, but made them count for 177 yards and three touchdowns. And his best play of the day may have been his amazing punt return for a touchdown that was called back on a questionable roughing the punter call.

It was also great to see Armando Allen finally get loose on a 41-yard catch-and-run, a nice 18-yard TD touchdown reception, and a 96-yard kick return for a TD. We've been waiting for AA to break out, and I hope we see a lot more of that #5 in the future.

The defense was aggressive and opportunistic, harassing the U of H QB all day, deflecting a bunch of passes and forcing a couple of turnovers.


All-in-all, a great day to be Irish.

I want to congratulate coach Mike Haywood on being named the new Head Football Coach at Miami University of Ohio. Good luck Coach Haywood.

Which opens up the discussion heading into 2009 of what changes we will see in the Irish coaching staff moving forward. Jack Swarbrick and Coach Weis made it clear that some "obvious" changes would be made in the program in the very near future. Replacing Coach Haywood is obvious enough. Charlie hinted in talking to reporters that he had a pretty good idea who he wanted to bring in to fill that position. The question is: Who?

Will he be grabbing a coach from the stockpile that is created by coaching changes in the NFL and college at the end of each season? Will he be poaching a coach from a position on a stable NFL or college staff by offering a nice promotion to OC?

I would really prefer that Coach Weis find a seasoned, successful coordinator and play-caller. Charlie really caught a bad break when David Cutliffe developed heart trouble and left the staff. That was actually a brilliant hire by CW that I hope will be the template for hiring a new coordinator. Charlie needs somebody he can trust with game-planning and play-calling so that he can worry about being head coach, not an OC. He can't spend another four years mentoring a young coach to be an OC and eventually a head coach somewhere else.

What other "obvious" changes will we see?

I have been hoping for a new O-line coach for years now. John Latina may be a heck of a guy, but his linemen can't run-block. Even in a dominant win over Hawaii two days ago, Notre Dame had a net 65 rushing yards on 34 attempts, for an average per rush of just 1.9 yards. Not good enough. (Our best rusher, Robert Hughes, averaged just 3.2 ypc versus Hawaii).

Ron Powlus is another guy who is a development project as a coach. We need a QB coach who has proven ability at developing top QBs, especially as Charlie moves away from full-time devotion to the offensive side of the all. If CW wants to be more head coach than OC, he needs a proven commodity developing his young, talented quarterbacks. This is also important for recruiting future QBs as well.

I can't get out of my head the image of one of our offensive linemen in the Boston College game literally being tossed backwards into an Irish running back like a rag doll. Coupled with our generally woeful power running game, that play told me that our strength and conditioning coach Reuben Mendoza needs to be replaced. Our big guys are constantly being pushed around by our opponents' big guys, even when our our big guys are bigger. That has to change.

Coach Weis was able to bite the bullet and re-make the defensive coaching staff when it was clear that changes were necessary. Hopefully the Christmas glow of a great bowl win won't obscure the fact that he needs a similar makeover on the offensive side of the ball this off-season.

The pictures in this post are from the thesmokingcamera.com. (Click on the pics for terrific larger views). The Smoking Camera belongs to Joe Marquez, a photographer who lives in Hawaii. He went to the Hawaii Bowl and has a gallery of 144 images from the game on his site. If you like these pictures, go check out his site. (You might also like his gallery of NFL cheerleader pictures).

What's Hawaiian for "Must Win"?

Normally a Hawaii Bowl match-up between a 7-6 Hawaii Warriors squad and some 6-6 team from the Midwest would best be described as "meaningless" or "forgettable." Not so this year, because that 6-6 team from the Midwest is Notre Dame, everyone's favorite soap opera college football program. Love 'em or hate 'em, few are neutral on the Fighting Irish. And ESPN, which has rights to the broadcast, is making the most of it in hyping today's only bowl game at every opportunity. So the sports world will be watching tonight - and for good reason.

Certainly this game is inconsequential as far as the final BCS standings go this year, as neither of these teams threaten to shake up the Top 25, win or lose. But tonight's game has HUGE implications for the future of one of the most storied programs in the history of college football. A win tonight for the Irish would avoid the stinging (and very rare) stigma of back-to-back losing seasons for Notre Dame. If the Irish look good in a win tonight it will be an enormous step in the right direction for the program. It will mean a winning season following the 2007 3-and-9 debacle, it will mean an end to the most publicized bowl losing streak in the history of the world (finally), and it will mean that this team and these players are still committed to playing hard for each other and for Coach Weis. A win for ND would bring a measure of stability back to the program. It will (for the time being) vindicate Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick's decision to retain Charlie Weis as head coach, and will likely calm the jittery recruits who are wondering if committing to Notre Dame and Charlie Weis is a smart thing to do right now.

On the other hand, a loss in this "meaningless" bowl game could send the Notre Dame football program into a death spiral. Back-to-back losing seasons, an extension of the bowl losing streak. If, worst case scenario, the team looks flat and uninspired in a loss, questions will be raised about whether Charlie Weis has lost his team or whether he even has the ability to be an effective college head coach. Although Jack Swarbrick has decided to retain Coach Weis for now, he clearly did so in a manner that leaves open the possibility of revisiting that decision at any time. If the team looks bad in a loss in Hawaii, I think the Weis era could be over. If that happens it will be a huge setback for the program as the University scrambles to find a replacement while salvaging as much of the 2009 recruiting class as possible.

So those are the stakes in this meaningless, forgettable football game. Ho hum.

What about the game itself? On a neutral field the Irish would probably be favored by about a touchdown. In Aloha Stadium the Irish are a slight favorite (maybe 2 points). Clearly Notre Dame has "better" athletes than Hawaii. But as we have seen with this Notre Dame team, that counts for precisely "squat" (See "Syracuse"). Hawaii has a history of playing very well on their home (hard as a rock) turf, and of making things very uncomfortable for their guests from the mainland. By contrast, the Fighting Irish have a recent history of showing up at bowl games in warm-weather venues looking slow, sluggish, and sloppy. Not a great combination.

In reading the pre-game coverage of the teams, it is obvious that the Warriors will be "up" for this game. It is essentially "senior day" for them. They want to send their seniors off in style by getting a big win against a big-time program in front of their home fans. Hawaii is a senior-laden team that will be playing with a huge chip on their collective shoulders. The Aloha Bowl will be a hostile environment.

How will Notre Dame respond? That is the big question. As I sat high up in the corner of the L.A. Coliseum for the game against USC, one of the two positives I took from that game was that the team had not quit. They played against USC with some attitude and refused to be pushed around by the more talented Trojans. Although they were overmatched, they were not resigned. If they can bring that same attitude to Hawaii it will be a good start, especially since Hawaii has a reputation for being pretty chippy and cheap themselves (much like USC).

The good news for this bowl game is that we aren't playing the 2005 OSU Buckeyes or the 2006 LSU Tigers. Talent-wise, Notre Dame should be able to handle the Warriors. The teams have similar records and similar statistics, and Notre Dame has amassed its records and stats against a higher-caliber schedule than has Hawaii. On paper, this is a game that Notre Dame should win. The key question is: Will they show up? Has Coach Weis learned from his 2005 and 2006 bowl experiences how best to prepare a team to play after a layoff? Has the team practiced hard and fast and done their homework? Does the team have the pride and the desire to do what it takes to win this game?

Those are things I will be looking for. If I see a Notre Dame team that comes out focused, fast, and physical, then I'll feel that Jack Swarbrick has made the right decision for Notre Dame. But if the team looks like they ate too much at the luau, like they'd rather be home for Christmas, like winning the game just isn't that important, we'll know that Jack bricked. And that maybe he should revisit his decision.

So, you know, no pressure.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
not a computer was stirring, not even the mouse.
The widescreen was tuned to the Worldwide Leader,
with hopes that Bob Davie would not be on-air.

The children were nestled all snug on the couch,
while visions of leprechauns danced in their heads.
And OC Wife in her sweatshirt, and I in my hat,
had just settled in for a long bowl game broadcast.

When out in the street there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.

The sunset reflecting through the OC marine layer
gave the lustre of Vegas to objects below,
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a Cessna Citation, N42ND painted on the tail.

With a deplaning passenger so large and so gimpy,
I knew in a moment it must be Coach Charlie.
More rapid than blitzers, his entourage came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them all names:

"Now Jimmy! Now Bruton!
Now, Wenger and Olsen!
On, Allen! On, Aldridge!
On, Floyd and Golden!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away!
Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the November winds fly,
when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the Indiana sky
so up to the house-top the Domers they flew,
with a golf cart full of toys, and Coach Charlie too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
the shifting and cutting of each players' cleats.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
down the chimney Coach Charlie came with a bound.

He was dressed all in polyester, from his head to his foot,
and his sweats were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of playbooks he had flung on his back,
and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes--how they smoldered! His dimples, how dour!
His cheeks were all windblown, his nose it was runny!
His droll little mouth was drawn up in a snarl,
and the beard on his chin showed he needed to shave.
The cap of a Sharpie he held tight in his teeth,
and his crewcut sat on his head like field turf.
He had a broad face and a really big belly,
that shook when he hobbled, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was large and grim, a right frightening old elf,
and I gasped when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
and wrote on my wall - his plan - will it work?
And lifting his laminated play card aside his nose,
and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his biz-jet, to his team blew his whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he flew out of sight,

"A BCS Bowl in '09 - and we'll beat the Warriors tonight!"

2nd Annual OC Domer Player of the Year Award

The ballots are in. The results have been tabulated. It's time to announce recipient of the 2008 "OC Domer Player of the Year Award." The OC Domer Player of the Year Award is intended to recognize the Notre Dame football player or players who played the best when it mattered the most. The award is based on a horrendously complex and intricate scoring system that would take too long to explain and that you wouldn't understand anyway. Suffice it to say that the primary criterion was a consistently high level of play, with significant bonus points awarded for exceeding expectations.

Last year, the winner of the first ever OC Domer Player of the Year Award was David Bruton. Congratulations to David for having another terrific season in 2008, and good luck to him in the upcoming NFL draft. I look forward to watching him play on Sundays for many years to come.

The OC Domer Player of the Year for the 2008 football season goes to: Michael Floyd.

The freshman wide receiver from St. Paul, Minnesota came to Notre Dame as a highly regarded prospect. From his Notre Dame bio page:

Gatorade Player of the Year for Minnesota as a junior and senior ... named Minnesota Player of the Year as a junior and senior by the Associated Press ... named first-team All-American by USA Today following his senior season ... placed on Parade All-America team as one of the 58 best players in the country and one of four all-purpose players ... one of 30 players named to the EA Sports All-America first team ... named a second-team All-American by Scout.com ... earned first-team all-state accolades from the Minnesota Associated Press as a junior and senior ... recipient of 2007 Minnesota Mr. Football award ... named the state's Player of the Year by St. Paul Pioneer Press ... ranked the top wide receiver and the third-best player on the Detroit Free Press' Best of the Midwest Top 20 list ... rated the 15th-best player in the nation by Tom Lemming and CSTV ... Scout.com ranked him as the 16th-best prospect in the country ... touted as the 27th-best player in the country by Rivals.com ... ranked No. 28 by Sports Illustrated/TAKKLE.com ... rated the 29th-best player on the ESPN 150 list ... labeled by Scout.com as the top player in Minnesota and the fifth-best wide receiver in the country ... Rivals.com considered him the top player in Minnesota and sixth-best wide receiver in the nation.

But, quite frankly, I've seen recruits arrive in South Bend year after year with impressive accolades and lofty expectations only to watch them get mired in the depth chart, or lost in the crowd, or hurt, or to just fizzle out once they get onto the field. Can anybody say "whooosh!"? So I was hopeful that Mike Floyd would inject some talent into the roster at wide receiver, and that he might actually push for playing time in 2008.

I had no idea that he would absolutely blow up the depth chart and establish himself as one of the top 2 Irish receivers before there was even a hint of Autumn cool in the air in South Bend. Yet that is what he did, as he set about re-writing the record books for Notre Dame freshman receivers. He scored a touchdown on his first catch for the Irish in the first game of the year, against San Diego State. Welcome to Notre Dame!

Floyd absolutely transformed the Notre Dame offense.

Pre-Floyd, the Irish had one real threat at the receiver position, Golden Tate, who could be taken out of the game fairly easily with one good cornerback and a little safety help. The other Notre Dame receivers did not strike fear in any defensive coordinators, as they lacked the speed to stretch the field or run away from coverage. The result was that opposing defenses were confident in their ability to defend the Irish down the field with minimal manpower, thus freeing up defenders to play run defense at the line of scrimmage or to blitz Jimmy Clausen. But once Floyd took the field, the game changed. You can't double team everyone, and both Tate and Floyd are talented enough to make any single defender look really bad on the instant replay. If you choose to focus on either of them, the other will kill you. Both guys can score from anywhere on the field. If you try to taken them both away with safety help, TE Kyle Rudolph will exploit the seam in the middle of the field. The bottom line is that having both Tate and Floyd in the lineup causes major headaches for opposing defenses, presenting them a lot of tough choices. The obvious choice is to respect Notre Dame's passing game a lot more by committing more defenders to the secondary, which frees up the ground game for guys like Armando Allen, Robert Hughes and James Aldridge.

Although only a freshman, Michael Floyd changed the personality of the Irish offense from a dink-and-dunk attack with a pedestrian running game to a dynamic quick-strike attack that could score touchdowns from anywhere on the field. In essentially a nine-game season (he was injured very early in the 10th game, against Navy), Floyd broke Notre Dame's single-season receiving records by a freshman with 46 catches for 702 yards (15.3 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. Floyd has earned all-freshman second team honors from Sporting News, CollegeFootballNews.com, Rivals.com and Phil Steele.

Congratulations to Michael Floyd on a great freshman campaign and on being named the 2008 OC Domer Player of the Year. I look forward to seeing Michael back on the field for the Irish against Hawaii on Christmas Eve, and for the next three full football seasons.

OC Domer Player of the Year Runner-up was: Golden Tate. When I asked for input from OC Domer readers about who the Player of the Year should be, Golden was right there with Michael Floyd as a vote-getter. Golden had a great year and he should be congratulated and thanked for his terrific play. In the end, a key factor in choosing the OC Domer Player of the Year is the degree to which a player surprises the voters (i.e., me) by far exceeding expectations. Golden was outstanding this year, but for the most part he was expected to be very good. Thus he didn't garner as many points for exceeding expectations as Floyd.

OC Domer Player of Year Honorable Mentions go to: Mike Anello and Brandon Walker.


Who are your Notre Dame Players of the Year? I'd love to hear from you.

Mustangs Run Away with the Championship!

The Nevada Mustangs won a close Championship game over runner up "Go T. Harding on D. Anderson", 125-115 to win the 2008 OC Domer Fantasy Football League title. Congratulations to the Mustangs and to THDA on a great 2008 season. Enjoy your trophies. The Big LB captured the 3rd Place medal for 2008. Everyone else gets a "participation" ribbon.

I hope you all enjoyed playing in the OC Domer FFL this year. I enjoyed being the commissioner and I hope you'll all come back for more next season.

Welcome Home

Lots of tears in the OC Domer household tonight, but they are all tears of joy. The OC Domer Daughter received a letter today from the University of Notre Dame Office of Undergraduate Admissions. It was a large flat envelope, and when she opened it up and slid out the contents, all I could see was a picture of the Golden Dome emblazoned with the words "Welcome Home."

Our Katie has been admitted to the First Year of Studies Class of 2009! Wow.

She has worked so hard for so long toward this goal, and we are all so happy for her and so proud of her. She did it!

The picture above was taken earlier this Fall by Tammy, an OC Domer reader who went back to campus for a game and lit a candle and said a prayer for our Kate. Then she went the extra mile by taking this photo of the candle she lit and sending it to me. Thank you again Tammy, and I hope you don't mind if I share these candles with everyone. I also want to thank all the Grandmas and uncles and aunts and cousins and friends and neighbors (and teachers and counselors and high school principals) who have kept Katie and her dream in their prayers.

Go Irish! Beat Hawaii!

Is it over yet?

3
20
38
35

Those are the margins of loss for the Fighting Irish against USC over the past four seasons. Those numbers are not trending in the right direction. USC is a very good team. Losing to the Trojans is not a reason for despair. But getting embarrassed on national television year after year is a situation which calls for correction. And it has become clear to me that Charlie Weis cannot be relied upon to make that correction.

I just got back from the game. Beautiful evening. Found a nice parking spot that only cost $30. Went to the IrishFest event put on by the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles, and was totally stoked that the Band of the Fighting Irish made the trip to L.A. and put on a great show.

But the game stunk. Again. I have been to the last three Notre Dame games against USC, and have been disappointed almost to the point of humiliation the past two years. Who would have thought in 2005 that in 2008 I'd be wistfully remembering the days when we only lost to USC by 20?

Just a few quick thoughts on tonight's game.

1. The defense played a great game. They really did. Only a few breakdowns, usually after the offense left them in very untenable positions. If the offense had shown any competence at all, the defense played well enough to compete for a win tonight. Unfortunately for Charlie Weis, he has almost nothing to do with the defense.

2. The team actually played with some pride tonight. Starting with a pre-game near-brawl, it was clear that the Irish were not going to be intimidated and were not going to back down from anyone. You don't want to encourage fighting or thuggery, but I was actually very glad to see the Irish players giving every bit as good as they got all night. Where the hell has that kind of confidence been?

3. The offense was pathetic. No first downs in the first half. No first downs until the very end of the third quarter. It was so fun to sit in the Coliseum surrounded by USC fans who cheered and mocked the Irish when they finally got a first down. Good times. Too bad Notre Dame doesn't have an offensive guru for a head coach. Oh, wait a minute ... we do! Or do we? USC was begging Notre Dame to run the ball all night, dropping guys back in coverage and playing with 7 or fewer in the box. Why did it take the offensive brain trust 3 1/2 quarters to test the middle of the defense with James Aldridge?

4. Jimmy Clausen is killing us. Normally this is the part of the post where I criticize the offensive line. But I'm giving them a break this week. Clausen badly hurt the team again tonight by throwing the ball to guys who were blanketed in coverage. Do I have to explain this? INTs cost the team the chance to score points or, at the very least, to manage the field position battle. They put the defense in a nearly impossible spot, practically gift-wrapping scoring chances for a USC offense that doesn't need any more encouragement. Memo to Jimmy: Kyle Rudolph is still NOT open. Duval Kamara is open, but he isn't 8-feet tall.

The only question in my mind is whether Charlie should coach the team in whatever lame bowl game actually invites us.

Classy moment of the evening in the Coliseum: The USC fans chanting "Ten more years! Ten more years!" when Charlie Weis came out of the tunnel and onto the field before the game.

Top two rumors in the Coliseum men's room at half-time:

1. John Gruden to Notre Dame.
2. Pete Carroll to the San Francisco 49ers.

Irish Blogger Gathering: Thankful for what, exactly?

The Irish Blogger Gathering returns to its roots this week as Subway Domer is the host. I apologize for not participating in the IBG last week, but I was in poor humor and I just wasn't feeling it on last week's questions. I've got company coming in just a few hours for Thanksgiving, so I don't have time for lengthy answers this week, but I did want to throw in my two cents' worth. And here we go:


1. Regardless of what you may have heard and what may happen, what do you think should be the fate of Charlie Weis? Please give an explanation in detail along with a possible replacement if you said... FIRED. No Urban Meyer bullshit here. He's not coming. Get over it.

As I just wrote in my last post, I'm done defending Charlie Weis. The loss to Syracuse on top of the blown games at North Carolina and against Pitt tossed me right out the back of the CW Bandwagon and into the mud. I'm not calling for Charlie's head, and if it was up to me I'd give him one more season because we really are very close to being a 9-2 team right now. But changes have to be made on his staff.

2. Recruiting. Colin Cowherd has been murdering the recruiting services and Notre Dame. He thinks that the recruiting services rank Irish recruits higher than what they should be because of a marketing plan. Everyone else on the outside is falling in line with this thought. What are your opinions? Please explain and provide a solution.

I'm a big fan of Colin Cowherd and I get at least 90 minutes of him every morning on my drive to work. But he's wrong on this one. The kids Notre Dame is getting are already rated 4 and 5 stars long before they commit to Notre Dame. Cowherd has never cited a single case of a 3-star kid becoming a 4-star overnight after committing to ND. In fact, my perception has been that in the past the services have downgraded Notre Dame recruits after the Irish sign them. In my view, the problem is that Charlie Weis gives too much credence to Scouts Inc. and Rivals. He chases after their 4- and 5-star players because he wants to have a highly rated recruiting class, and I think he isn't doing a good enough job evaluating the rated kids to see who really are the most talented players and who would do best in the Irish system. Not every 4-star player will fit our scheme. Maybe a 3-star is really underrated by everyone else and would be a great fit at Notre Dame? A lot of the Scouts Inc. and Rivals stuff is just hype and B.S. created by overzealous dads and high school coaches sending out highlight videos to every program and media outlet in the country. My solution is to concentrate harder on bringing into the program guys who play the game like Mike Anello. Highly rated guys who don't play with enough passion for the game are useless.

3. I made a comparison in a poorly written post about this team mirroring the 2004 team. I generally don't like doing comparisons to other years, but I felt it was valid. What is your take? Is the 2008 version of ND like the 2004 team, and do you think the 2009 team could have similar results to the team in 2005?

I'm going to have to agree with the part where Subway said "I generally don't like doing comparisons to other years."


4. Is Michael Floyd the Notre Dame team MVP? Why? If not, who then?

This gives me a great opportunity to solicit nominations for the OC Domer Player of the Year Award for 2008! I have a couple of ideas about who I like as the possible winner this season, but I want to give my readers a chance to provide input before I make a final decision. If you have any ideas about who should win the award this season, you can e-mail me or leave a comment to this post.

Last year's winner was, of course David Bruton, who has justified my faith in him with a tremendous season in 2008. Runners-Up in 2007 were Trevor Laws and Pat Kuntz. Honorable Mentions went to Robby Parris and Duval Kamara.

The criteria for the OC Domer Player of the Year Award are as follows:

The OC Domer Player of the Year Award is intended to recognize the Notre Dame football player or players who played the best when it mattered the most. I want to recognize the guys who showed up and gave quality efforts against the best teams we faced, not the rest of the teams we faced. The award is based on a horrendously complex and intricate scoring system that would take too long to explain and that you wouldn't understand anyway. Suffice it to say that the primary criterion was a consistently high level of play, with significant bonus points awarded for exceeding expectations.

I look forward to hearing from readers with nominations. Of course, my answer to this IBG question will have to wait until the formal announcement of the OCDPOY Award winner.

5. What is Notre Dame's biggest problem schematically and mentally?

Schematically, our biggest problem is that our big guys get tossed around like rag dolls by our opponents' big guys. Both our offensive line and our defensive front seven play like they are on roller skates. The O-line can't win the battle on 3rd-and-2, and our defensive front seven can't take on a blocker and stuff a running back in the hole, preferring instead to run around blocks, leaving seams in the defensive front big enough to drive trucks through. Our two safeties shouldn't be leading the team in tackles - especially on running plays.

6. Notre Dame is a 30 point underdog to U$C. It's safe to say that none of us thought that ND would ever be that big of an underdog in this rivalry game. Your thoughts and please include a prediction for the game.

The good news is that, as of right now, the weather in Los Angeles is supposed to be good on Saturday night. So I won't have to stand in the rain while watching my team get pummeled by USC. Hopefully.

My thoughts on the game? If Michael Floyd were playing I would have given the Irish a puncher's chance against USC. The Trojans have been vulnerable at times this year, and Stanford (who lost to the Irish) gave USC all they wanted for three quarters. But without Floyd in the game, USC will double up on Golden Tate and force the Irish to run the ball, which we will not be able to do against the Trojans. I was at last year's game back in South Bend, and my lasting memory of that game was of how pathetic the Irish pass rush was against USC. Here's a picture I took of it:


And that wasn't a fluke example. I have a bunch of these pictures that show 7, 8, or 9 yards between Mark Sanchez in the pocket and the nearest Irish defender. Will the vaunted Jon Tenuta "pressure" show up this week? I expect Sanchez to be under a little more duress this Saturday, but our defense hasn't exactly struck fear in the hearts of opposing quarterbacks this season, and we haven't seen an offensive line of USC's caliber yet this season.

I expect the game to be ugly, again. But I'll be there, and I'll be cheering, and I'll be hoping for a miracle.

But here's the problem. Let's say that the Fighting Irish show up on Saturday, play out of their minds, and shock the world with a win over USC. Woo-hoo!! I would be totally pumped and it would be a day I would remember forever.

But once the stadium quiets down and the elation eases, I'd be left with this question: How in the world does a team with the talent to beat USC lose to North Carolina, Boston College, Pitt, and Syracuse? And the answer would have to be: bad coaching. So even a win over USC wouldn't be a cure-all, and it might actually raise more questions than it answers.

I'm Done Defending Charlie Weis

Regular OC Domer readers know that I have been a supporter of Coach Weis. I have applauded his recruiting, and made excuses for last year's 3-9 embarrassment. I've gone to numerous dinner parties full of USC alumni and I've talked about how young this team is and how they're going to do great things in the future. And I believed it.

But I'm not sure I believe it anymore.

Coming into this 2008 season I looked at the schedule and I genuinely felt that the Irish were capable of beating 11 of 12 teams on the schedule. Accounting for some youth and inexperience I allowed that this team would probably lose a couple of games it should win, putting us around 9-3, give or take a game. Looking back over the schedule today I still feel that going into this week's contest against USC the Irish could be, in fact probably should be, 9-2 or 10-1.

Notre Dame has lost five games to the following teams: Michigan State, North Carolina, Pitt, Boston College, and Syracuse.

In three of those games (UNC, Pitt, SU), the Irish had the lead and control of the game at halftime (or later), and then vomited all over themselves. Does anyone really dispute that Notre Dame should have won those games?

Clearly Michigan State was a better team than Notre Dame. And we were never really in the Boston College game due to numerous costly turnovers, although I still cling to the belief that we should have found a way to win that game.

But if this team had only won the games where they had significant second-half leads they'd be 9-2 today.

What the heck happened? Why were the Irish badly outplayed in the second half of each of those games? What the heck is going on the Notre Dame locker room at half-time? Are they all taking a nap? Stuffing themselves full of pizza and warm milk? Or are we just getting seriously out-coached?

When we lost to North Carolina and Pitt, I was deluded enough that I could eventually console myself with the thought that although the losses were total nightmares, at least we were competing and losing very close games to pretty good football teams. But then 2-8 Syracuse came to town.

Just to be clear: Yes, the loss to Syracuse does supplant the loss to Pitt as the worst loss of the Charlie Weis era. I don't care how young this team is, or how cold it was, or how close were were to hitting a late field goal to win the game. There is no way a Notre Dame football coach in his fourth year at the University should bring to Notre Dame stadium a team and a game plan incapable of beating a 2-8 Syracuse squad.

When Notre Dame is playing freakin' Syracuse, Coach Weis should be able to win the game with Nate Montana at quarterback leading our scout team against the Orange. There is no way that Notre Dame offensive linemen should be pushed around by players from Syracuse. Yet that is exactly what happened.

After the Michigan State loss I had thoughts about the Irish running game that I think are still relevant today:

But I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get, I don't get WHY THE FIGHTING IRISH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME STILL CAN'T RUN THE FOOTBALL!!!!!?????? I just don't understand it. I'm not going to analyze match-ups and videotape and break down the X's and O's of why. That shouldn't be necessary because I hold it as an article of faith that NOTRE DAME SHOULD BE ABLE TO RUN THE FOOTBALL!! We should be able to recruit talented, large, smart football players and teach them to consistently push around the smaller, less talented, less smart players from other schools. That our offensive linemen can't consistently win the battle at the point of attack is a FAILURE.

And this is not new for 2007 and 2008. Even when the Irish were having great offensive success and winning a lot of games in 2005 and 2006, they could not consistently run the ball. I've been saying since the Brady Quinn era that if your best short yardage play is the quarterback sneak you have a real problem. Even when Darius Walker was putting up decent numbers, he wasn't doing it via the power run game. It was mostly draw plays, and it was mostly on his own after dodging defenders in the backfield.

I don't know if it's Coach Weis' system, or offensive line coach John Latina's ineffectiveness, or the players we've brought into the program - but Notre Dame football will not be a credible Top-10 team until we can line up and reliably run the ball for 3 or 4 yards even when the opposition and everyone in the stadium knows it's coming.

Our starting five offensive line consists of three juniors, one senior, and one freshman. That isn't really a very young unit. If they can't win the battle at the point of attack against Syracuse, we have a serious, serious problem. What I don't know is (1) Is Coach Weis' scheme just totally neglectful of the power running game? (2) Is offensive line coach John Latina simply incapable of teaching our players how to run block? or (3) Are our players really just less talented than the players at schools like Michigan State, Boston College, and Syracuse?

What is clear is that something has to change. Either the scheme and offensive philosophy has to change to place more value on the power running game so that we can control the ball and the clock to protect a lead, or we need to find a coach or coaches that have proven themselves capable of teaching large young men how to run block. I called for John Latina to be fired last season after the Irish lost to Boston College, when I wrote:

Well, unlike Coach Weis, I am not an offensive guru. But I can see pretty clearly that our offensive line can't block. Run blocking or pass blocking we are playing very, very poorly. Often our guys are just getting beat. But it seems that just as often our guys are missing assignments and letting defenders go completely unblocked. True, there are some young guys on the line getting their feet wet. But Sullivan, Duncan, and Turkovich are veterans of the system and Sam Young now has roughly twenty starts under his belt. If those guys can't figure out who to block by now and at least put a helmet on them, then they are not being coached very well. And this is not a new problem. Under Coaches Weis and Latina the Irish have NEVER been able to run the ball with authority. Our best short-yardage play for two years has been the QB sneak. Even when our running game has worked, it has usually been Darius Walker running draw plays. [...] Coach Weis certainly bears his share of the blame, but so does offensive line coach John Latina. Notre Dame may not have the best talent along the offensive line, especially in the upper classes, but there are MANY, MANY teams across the country who are getting far better play from lesser talent than Notre Dame has. The difference is coaching. If for no other reason than to show he takes the problem seriously, Coach Weis has got to give John Latina his walking papers. A new offensive line coach is certainly not going to make matters worse.

I was right in 2007 that Coach Weis needed to find a new O-line coach, and it's painfully obvious that I'm still right. Only now, Coach Weis needs to make that change (and probably other changes) if he is to have any chance to save his job. I don't envy Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. He's been on the job for all of four months and he has a very tough decision on his hands. He will either cut Charlie loose and be faced with the job of finding a suitable upgrade, or he'll keep CW and spend the next year having to defend the poor performance of his predecessor's hire. But that's why he gets paid the big bucks.

If it was my call, I'd give him another year, provided he could present a serious plan for addressing the team's glaring deficiencies (i.e., at the very least getting a new offensive line coach). After all, as ugly as it is, this team really is close to being 9-2 right now.

If Swarbrick decides to keep Weis I'll support him, if Charlie is let go I'd be okay with that too. However it goes, the Irish are my team, Notre Dame is my University, and I'll be sending in my Sorin Society donation at Christmas time.

But I'm done defending Charlie Weis. How can you defend the indefensible?

Orange you glad you're not Syracuse?

Yes, very light posting this week. My Mom taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I figured that rule applied after the Navy game.

The Irish actually did some nice things against Navy, especially on defense. But for me, all the good was washed out by the way in the Coach Weis and the team nearly gave the game away at the end. Let's just hope that Charlie learned a valuable lesson from that experience. It's a 60-minute game. I'm, sure he and the rest of the coaching staff constantly preach to the team about playing hard for a full 60 minutes. Maybe now Coach Weis will realize that as head coach he needs to coach hard for the full game, and not take his foot off the gas with a 20-point lead. A 20 point lead, as we learned last Saturday, can be erased in just 3 fluke plays. I know Coach Weis wants to respect the service academies when we play them and not run up the score. But 20 points is not running it up. 30 points is not running it up. Over 40 may be running it up. Those midshipmen and cadets are not going to quit! They are serious about playing a full 60 minutes and trying to beat you. Respect them Charlie, but leave NO DOUBT about the fact that Notre Dame is (or should be) in an entirely different class of football programs. Those games should not be close either in reality or in perception.

Syracuse comes to town today. This just in: They're not very good at 2-8 and are 20-point underdogs to the Irish, and their coach Greg Robinson is a terminated lame duck. But Notre Dame better not look past them. The Orange has played the 28th toughest schedule in the country (compared to #40 for ND), and one of their two wins came over Louisville (28-21). They haven't won many games, but they haven't been blown out much either. Be sure that they will come into South Bend looking to prove something on national T.V. And the brisk weather in Michiana won't bother the team from upstate New York much - they're used to worse.

But it's Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium for the newly Bowl Eligible Fighting Irish, and I expect all the players to play hard in front of the home crowd for the departing upperclassmen. It will be cold (forecast high is 31 degrees) so I don't expect anything fancy from either team. Should be a smash-mouth, ball control game - which favors the Irish. What we should see is a relatively vanilla display of dominance by the Irish, and hopefully no on-side kicks by the Orange.