The Shark stays a Cub - forgoes NFL draft

I'm sure that puts a big grin on my buddy Brad's face, as the biggest Cubs fan I know, but I must say that I am a little disappointed that Jeff Samardzija is not going to play in the NFL.

I wanted the Shark to enter the NFL draft for mostly selfish reasons. I think he would have been one of the best receivers to come out of college in the last few years, and his presence near the top of the first round of the NFL draft would help recruiting.

However, I must begrudgingly admit that he probably made the safe choice. As a general rule, a baseball pitcher is going to be less injury prone than a receiver that gets hit almost every time he touches the ball. The money in baseball is potentially much greater than in the NFL, and he could have a much longer career.

My biggest concern is WHERE he signed on as a pitcher.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge Cubs fan. But I cringe when I hear the words "Kerry Wood" and "Mark Prior." The Cubs, famous for their curses, have been cursed of late when it comes to talented young pitchers. Hopefully, Jeff will be more Zambrano and less Prior.

Jeff, good luck in your career with the Cubs, and I wish you the best of luck.

Finally, it's official

In a noon press conference, Coach Weis introduced today our new defensive coordinator, Corwin Brown, and our new Quarterbacks coach, Ron Powlus.

Corwin Brown, for those unfamiliar with him, is of the Parcells-Belichik-Groh-Weis coaching tree. In fact, Coach Weis said that after speaking with Belichik, Parcells, and Crennel, that only one name was mentioned by all three - Coach Brown. Coach Brown was brought up in the Belichik defense, which has been notorious at the Patriots for being successful even when there are injuries - at one point, they had a wide receiver in defensive coverage. He doesn't have any coordinating experience, but he should bring some more intensity to the defense.

With these changes, I see the team improving in four key areas:
(1) recruiting - Powlus was in charge of on-campus recruiting for the last two years, and he has been tremendous in closing the deal with a lot of visiting recruits - as a Pennsylvania kid, I expect Coach Powlus to be in charge of the Pennsylvania-Ohio region. Brown is a Chicago kid with lots of contacts in the Chicago area, and he will be tasked with rebuiilding the once impenetrable pipeline of Chicago kids to Notre Dame.
(2) youth - Many people look at youth and inexperience as a disadvantage, but I think that in this context, it works in our favor. Young kids don't have bad habits, and they will be learning from the best. Corwin Brown will have the benefit of Coach Weis above him, and Coach Lewis below him, both of them teaching him how to manage the defense and assist him with the managerial aspects of his new position. Powlus, himself a former ND quarterback, will have one of history's best quarterback coaches teaching him the ropes as well in Coach Weis.
(3) energy - Coach Brown is an in-your-face guy with a lot of intensity and energy, which hopefully will help this team to play with more passion and pride. Too often under Coach Minter, the team looked like it was going through the motions. The only times I recall the defense playing inspired was when Coach Weis took it upon himself to get them fired up. Now, he won't have to bother. The youthful energy also will help us in recruiting - look at how Petey the Poodle over in South Central is doing with his "I'm a young energetic coach... Energetic, anyway!" routine. It will bring some vitality to a program that needs a shot in the arm.
(4) a new slate - This is a program in transition, suffering through the last painful shudders of a coach that nearly destroyed the program (don't believe me? count the seniors left from Ty's second recruiting class...). This is a program that has overachieved under Coach Weis tutelage, and is on the verge of taking the next step, from perennial BCS contender to perennial National Championship contender. The conventional wisdom believes that next year will be a "down" year, with this team going 7-5 or 8-4, and getting a berth in the Cotton or Gator bowl. I am not ready to give up the ghost just yet, however. We'll have a young QB, and an inexperienced defense learning a new system, but the talent level is really starting to ratchet up.


Talent Level in Transition

2006 Starters Scout.com Ratings

5 stars:
Rhema McKnight
Derek Landri
Sam Young

4 stars:
Bob Morton
Brady Quinn
Jeff Samardzija
Victor Abiamiri
Ryan Harris
Chinedum Ndukwe
Tommy Zbikowski
Travis Thomas
Trevor Laws
Ambrose Wooden
John Sullivan
Terrail Lambert

3 stars:
Geoff Price
John Carlson
Ashley McConnell (started due to injury of Schwapp)
Joe Brockington
Darius Walker
Maurice Crum
Ronald Talley
Mitchell Thomas
Asaph Schwapp
David Grimes

2 stars:
Dan Santucci

1 star:
Mike Richardson


2007 possible starters' Scout.com ratings: (ty's recruits in italics, my projected starters in bold)

5 stars:
Jimmy Clausen (QB)
Justin Trattou (DE)
Sam Young (OL)
James Aldridge (RB)
Konrad Reuland (#2 TE)

4 stars:
Tommy Zbikowski (S)
Travis Thomas (RB/LB)
Trevor Laws (DL)
Ambrose Wooden (CB)
John Sullivan (OL)
Terrail Lambert (CB), Gary Gray, Darrin Walls (CB - pick 1 for nickel back)
Raeshon McNeil or Sergio Brown (S = pick 1)
Michael Turkovich, Chris Stewart, Bartley Webb, Dan Wenger, Matt Carufel, Eric Olsen, Chris Little, Matt Romine, and Emeka Nwankwo (OL - pick 3)
D.J. Hord, Duval Kumara, Greg Little or Golden Tate (WR - pick 1)
Kallen Wade (DE)

3 stars:
Geoff Price (K)
John Carlson (TE)
Maurice Crum (LB)
Joe Brockington (LB)
Asaph Schwapp (FB)
David Grimes (WR)
Ian Williams (DL)
Toryan Smith (LB)

2 stars:
Ryan Burkhart (K)

1 star:
none

As you can see, the slow transition from 3 and 4 star kids to 4 and 5 star kids is coming around, and when we get all of the pieces in place, this will be one hell of a football team. This will be the last year we will see any of Ty's recruits, and if recruiting stays on course, you can expect fully 1/3 of the team to have 5-star talent by 2008.

You know who this team reminds me of? USC 2003

My pre-preseason prediction: 9-3, with an outside shot at a BCS berth. I predict losses to Michigan and USC, and a third loss to either Penn State, Georgia Tech or UCLA.

Best case scenario: 11-1, in the national championship game (we would have get lucky to split the games against Michigan and USC, and play to the maximum of our potential to win all the others)

Worst case scenario: 7-5, in the Insight Bowl. I just don't see us losing more than 5 games - we should handle Navy, Air Force, Duke, and Stanford easily, and I can't see this team doing worse than 3-3 versus Penn State, Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Purdue, UCLA, and Fredo. The other two losses would be to Michigan and USC - Michigan has too much experience, and USC has too much talent.

Recruiting fizzle

With national signing day just around the bend, it appears that Notre Dame's recruiting cycle is about over.

Will Blackwell, our final remaining big-time Defensive Tackle target, committed to LSU.

Major Wright, the hard-hitting safety, is widely being reported as an Ohio State lean.

We still have a shot at running back Robert Hughes out of Chicago, but rumors put him going to Illinois. (Which is unfortunate, as we will be having an open tryout at running back in Spring practice with Darius leaving)

We may get another recruit or two before the big day, but I doubt we'll see any big Top-100 splashes coming out way.

All told, however, this is another top 10 recruiting class, and provides this team with the base it needs to be competitive going forward. We are still a little thin, expecially at defensive line, but our depth is slowly improving (albeit with inexperienced but athletic players).

Still no word on Corwin Brown. I wonder what's taking so long?

New Defensive Coordinator - Corwin Brown

There is no official word yet from Notre Dame, who is probably still going over his resume with a fine-toothed comb to avoid another O'leary fiasco, but it has been widely reported that the Irish have hired Corwin Brown as the new defensive coordinator.

Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros
- young
- energetic
- good coaching pedigree (studied under Belichik and Parcells)
- African-American (I wrote a paper on this last semester, and more African-American coaches are needed throughout the upper echelon of football at all divisions)
- proven recruiter
- from Chicago, usually a pipeline for the Irish
- aggressive style of defense
- great reputation in the locker room
- came from NFL coaching ranks
- former NFL player

Cons
- Michigan grad
- young
- not a lot of coaching experience (6 yrs. total)
- has never been a coordinator before
- Michigan grad

Actually, I really like this hire. I think he exactly the salve that this team needed. Minter played a wait and react style of defense that relied on different looks rather that blitzing and jamming receivers. It fit with our less than stellar talent level of the past couple of years, but he did not teach it well enough for the kids to execute the scheme effectively. Brown will bring in an uptempo style of defense that is attacking and puts more emphasis on athleticism, which has gotten a great shot in the arm over the past two recruiting classes.

The end result of all of the news this past week has assured us of one thing:

Next year will be totally different.

We'll be breaking in a new QB, RB, WRs, and several O-linemen. Our only returning weapon on offense is All-American tight end John Carlson (which is key for a new QB). With all of the new talent on the field, and Weis' penchant for moulding the offense around the players, what we see next year will be completely different from the last couple of years.

On defense, we lose a handful of starters, but we should see a majority of the defense composed of freshman and sophomores. Trevor Laws will be back to anchor and lead the D-line, Crum will hopefully move backoutside where he can lead the linebackers, and Tommy Z (with all of his detractors out there) will come back to the team to lead an Irish secondary that should be our deepest and most talented secondary in years (if also one of our youngest).

This combination of 5th-year senior leadership and young inexpereienced talent will be interesting to watch. If the veteran guys can provide the stability and leadership that the underclassmen need, this team could far exceed most people's expectations, much like the Trojans did in Carroll's third year. Alternatively, replacing so many talented players, especially a leader like Brady Quinn, could mean a huge step back for the Irish. In Carroll's fateful third year, he had a veteran QB - we won't.

We still have a couple of weeks until national signing day, at which time we'll know for sure whether we can land the much-needed Will Blackwell and super safety prospect Major Wright among the remaining undecided players. Hopefully, Corwin Brown can come in and fire up the players still on the fence and turn a decent recruiting haul into one for the ages.

Welcome the the Irish, Coach Brown. Best of luck.

Team News

Darius Walker is leaving for the NFL.

I’m a little surprised by this move. Darius is a millionaire already, due to a racial harassment lawsuit he won in high school. Money isn’t an issue.

He would have been returning as the leading offensive weapon from the team. He would have been the odds-on favorite to be voted the offensive captain. He would have had the opportunity to become the all-time leading rusher in Notre Dame history.

On the other hand, he would have been the leading returning starter from an offense that will lose a quarterback, two receivers and at least one lineman to the NFL. He would have to run behind a young, retooled offensive line and catch passes from a young inexperienced QB.

I wish Darius the best, and I hope that he has a long and successful NFL career.

In other news, Chris Little, one of the top offensive line prospects for this year, surprised everyone and committed to the Florida State Seminoles during the U.S. Army High School All-American game. Prior to the commitment, since November, Little had been reported as a Notre Dame lean, and many considered his commitment to be little more than a formality. However, the week of the All-American game Little decided hastily to stay close to home to be near his mother. After discussing the decision with his family, however, Chris Little realized that his first instincts were correct.

Chris Little then decommitted from Florida State, and made a verbal commitment to Notre Dame.

Also, Coach Weis has announced that 9 fifth-year eligible players will be returning to the team. Those players include: All-Americans John Carlson (TE) and Tom Zbikowski (SS), Dwight Stevenson (OL) and Trevor Laws (DL) among others. This announcement helps fill in some of the holes left by next year’s senior class, which is by far Ty’s worst recruiting class. Especially considering the Darius Walker announcement, these returning starters provide next year’s team with some much-needed senior leadership, as young freshman and sophomores will be playing all over the field.

There is still no solid news concerning the future of our defensive coaching staff, which has widely been rumored to be undergoing significant turnover this offseason. The rumor mill pretty much agrees that defensive coordinator Rick Minter is on his way out. Also rumored to be potentially gone is Special Teams coach Brian Polian. I’ll let you know a soon as I get more specific information.

Now, I have to get back to Intensive Trial Ad week.

Complete Domination

I don't know what happened in the locker room at the half, but the team that came out in the second half got worse going into the second half.

Coach Weis' playcalling was completely ineffectual, as the offense completely sputtered.

The defense tried hard at the beginning of the half, but from the moment that the review reversed the fumble recovery by Wooden, this defense was beaten. They got tired, and the offense never gave them any opportunity to catch their breath.

Brady Quinn looked downright average in the second half, which is a tremendous credit to the adjustments that the LSU defense made.

We stopped running the ball, and couldn't complete a pass to save our lives.

LSU totally dominated us in the second half, and my confidence in this coaching staff is shaken. Don't get me wrong, I still think that Weis is the savior of Notre Dame football, but our defensive staff needs a complete overhaul. As we get Weis' recruits in here, which will increase the overall strength and speed of the team, we will get back to Notre Dame football.

The worst part of this whole debacle is the draw that Notre Dame got going into the bowl game. LSU got to play a home game against a lower ranked opponent, and as par for the Irish, they were placed in a bowl game above their achievements. If we weren't Notre Dame, we would have gotten a shot at Wake Forest, Boise State, Louisville, or Oklahoma - all teams that we could have beaten. Instead, we were paired against the hottest team in the country, and much like the USC and Mishigan games, we were overmatched.

I'm beginning to think that to break our bowl streak we will be playing in the National Championship, because otherwise we'll consistently be in over our heads.

Congratulations to LSU - they whooped our ass.

The good news - now I get to focus on recruiting for a while. Any high school football player that watched that game can see that we need the help, and I expect us to sign another top 5 class.

So much for "9-3 is not good enough" - 10-3 in this case is actually far worse, as we got blown out of games 3 times, whereas our 3 losses last year were all in close games to the end.

Back to the drawing board.

Ironic as it may be

This team has actually benefited from the games this year in which they fell behind early. You see, this team has the look of someone who has been here before. Someone who got knocked down and has gotten up off the mat before.

This team weathered the early storm of emotion, when LSU looked like they would roll, but Coach Weis made some adjustments, the defense settled down and realized that Ja'Marcus Russell isn't the god the media made him out to be. The offense continued to run their game, and all of a sudden the Irish are tied back up.

they just got beat for another deep pass, but the difference between last year and this year is that we caught him and dragged him down before scoring, forcing LSU to earn their score.

And on 1st down, we stopped 'em. Even if they get a score here, (which they just did on a Russell QB draw) we have shown we can hang with this team. In fact, I expect that in the second half, we'll correct the problems in covering Early Doucet, and I think we just might win this game in the end.

A couple of things we need to stay on top of - we need a linebacker in the middle of the field playing a short zone and spying on Russell. Russell doesn't have the speed to get to the edge, but if he gets his load moving up the field, it's like trying to tackle a fullback.

Second, as stated above, we need to contain Early Doucet and force the LSU team to dink and dunk their way down the field. If they don't continue to get the big plays, we will outscore them.

Third, we need to feed the Tigers a steady diet of Darius Walker, seasoned to perfection with a splash of Aldridge and a pinch of Prince. Walker is already over 100 yards, and he is the lubricant that greases the wheel of our passing game. In fact, the last second drive I'm watching right now is classic Brady Quinn. I think this is great practice for the end of the game, when he's going to pull a glorious win out with one of his majestic last minute touchdown drives.

End of 1st half: Notre Dame 14, LSU 21