Ramblin' Domer Podcast - Part Deux

The second installment of our weekly podcast will once again be taped at the downtown Buffalo Wild Wings, but this week we've moved the taping to 9pm on Saturday night.  Also, I promise to have the podcast posted much quicker this time around.

This week is our NFL draft special, with a breakdown of the entire first round.  Also up for discussion is the Ben Roethlisberger scandal, whether the NBA is poised to make a comeback, and some talk about Spring practice in preparation for next week's Blue/Gold Extravaganza.

If you're in the area, come join us!  Or, if there's anything you'd like us to discuss, please leave the suggestion in the comments.

Podcast is up!

http://ramblindomer.blogspot.com/2010/04/ramblin-domer-podcast-inaugural-event.html

So, our first podcast is up.  Not a horrible effort, even if I do say so myself.  Enjoy!

Please feel free to provide any feedback or suggestions.

Technical difficulties

Sorry for the delay in getting the podcast up - I was having some technical difficulties, and I also got delayed by opening day at Wrigley Field.  I promise to get it up as soon as I can!

Ramblin' Domer podcast

A good friend of mine and I have decided to start a weekly podcast, discussing general sports topics.  He's from down South (Georgia to be exact), and is a big fan of all things Atlanta - Falcons, Braves, Hawks, and the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech.  As I'm the original Notre Dame homer, die-hard Cubs fan, and Redskins junkie, we rarely agree.

We're calling it the Ramblin' Domer, and the first weekly podcast will be on Friday.  I'm not exactly the most technically adept person in the world, so hopefully all goes well, and I'll have the first podcast up sometime Friday night.

We're always looking for topics, so please feel free to e-mail or comment with any questions you'd like us to address.

Or, if you're in the South Bend area, you can come on down to the Buffalo Wild Wings in downtown South Bend on Friday night at 8 pm and join us!

Conference talk

With all of the talk recently about conference realignment, I thought I'd put in my two cents worth on how I'd like Notre Dame to handle this if the Big East gets raided by the Big Ten during this process.

If the Big East can no longer be a viable football conference, I think Notre Dame should lead the charge to keep the Big East alive as an elite non-football conference, thereby allowing them to remain independent in football.

Here's how I'm seeing this shake out.

First, all of the football members of the Big East will be gone to join other conferences, which takes out Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, and West Virginia.

That leaves what is still a deep and talented basketball conference, with Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova, and Notre Dame. Of course, we'll want to add a few schools to the conference - at least four, and possibly as many as eight. And the Atlantic 10 Conference would be a great conference to raid to fill out the new Big East.

In attempting to fill out the conference, there are lots of candidates, but I've come up with a 16 team conference that would fit well together not only athletically, but also in philosophy and academics.

Here it is:

University of Notre Dame Fightin' Irish, Notre Dame, Indiana
Georgetown University Hoyas, Washington, D.C.
Marquette University Golden Eagles, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Villanova University Wildcats, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
George Washington University Colonials, Washington, D.C.
St. Louis University Billikens, St. Louis, Missouri
Duqesne University Dukes, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DePaul University Blue Demons, Chicago, Illinois
Seton Hall University Pirates, South Orange, New Jersey
St. John's University Red Storm, Queens, New York City, New York
Providence College Friars, Providence, Rhode Island
University of Dayton Flyers, Dayton, Ohio
St. Joseph's University Hawks, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Xavier University Musketeers, Cincinnati, Ohio
Butler University Bulldogs, Indianapolis, Indiana
Loyola University Chicago Ramblers, Chicago, Illinois

I really like this conference, for a lot of reasons.

There is certainly a heavy Catholic influence here, as there are 14 Catholic Universities, and only two private secular Universities. There would be no public universities involved at all. This conference could easily become an all Catholic conference by adding Loyola Maryland and Creighton, and taking out Butler and George Washington.

Also, there are some other colleges that would fit well that would add more secular schools, such as Temple and George Mason.

From an athletics standpoint, this would certainly be a competitive conference. Georgetown, Notre Dame, Villanova, Marquette, Loyola and St. John's can all claim a national title in basketball. We all saw what Butler did this year, nearly winning the title. St. Joseph's, DePaul, Providence, and Seton Hall have made the Final Four, and Xavier and Dayton have made the Elite Eight. George Washington has made the Sweet Sixteen. St. Louis and Duqesne are probably historically the weakest basketball teams in the conference, but they do bring other things to the table.

Academically, this conference would be a superstar. Using U.S. News and World Report rankings as a standard, Notre Dame and Georgetown are in the top 25 academically among national universities. George Washington, Marquette and St. Louis are in the top 100, and Loyola and Duqesne are 119 and 128 respectively. Four other schools make Tier 3 in the rankings. (Say what you will about USN&WR rankings - they are the most widely distributed and comprehensive academic rankings available, so I'm going with them.)

Even the schools that don't appear in the U.S. News National University Rankings are still quality academic institutions. Providence College has been ranked by US News and World Report as one of the top two regional colleges in the Northeastern United States for the past nine consecutive years. Dayton graduated 96% of its student-athletes in 2008, the most of any Atlantic 10 Conference school, and tied for 10th in the nation in such achievement - they are also ranked as one of the top ten Catholic Universities in the country. Butler is #2 in the Midwest Master's Universities rankings (just behind Creighton, another school I considered). Xavier is 3rd. St. Joseph's is 8th among Best Universities-Master’s (North), and has a top 25 business school.

There are three ranked schools among graduate business programs, and 10 of the top 100 law schools in the country.

They are all similarly sized schools, with an average enrollment of 12,500 students, with a low of 4,500 (Butler) and a high of 25,000 (DePaul).

Villanova was once part of the Atlantic 10 before joining the Big East, and there are lots of historical and geographical connections between the schools.

Unlike the current Big East, where there is ongoing tension between the football schools and non-football schools, this conference would be a completely non-football conference. This would allow Notre Dame to continue its independence in football, mush as it does now with its relationship with the current Big East.

*****

As for the football schools currently in the Big East, I'm sure they'll land on their feet. All this talk could be nothing, but if the Dominos start to topple, here's the biggest shakeup I could see happening:

Big Ten (16 schools):
11 current members
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Connecticut
Missouri

Pac-12:
Current 10 members
Utah
Colorado

Big XII:
Loses Colorado to Pac-10
Loses Missouri to Big Ten
Adds Arkansas from SEC
Adds TCU from MWC

SEC:
Loses Arkansas to Big XII
Adds West Virginia

MWC:
Loses Utah to Pac-10
Loses TCU to Big XII
Adds Boise State
Adds Hawaii

ACC (expands to 16 teams):
Current 12 members
Cincinnati
Louisville
South Florida
Navy

It's also possible that the Big Ten will add only one team, which means there may be a much smaller trickle down effect. Perhaps East Carolina or Central Florida will join the Big East if it's Pittsburgh to jump. I could see more shifting if Missouri is the one to jump - The Big XII would try to get Arkansas, then the SEC might try to poach West Virginia, again leaving East Carolina or Central Florida to join the Big East. Or, the Big XII could add Utah instead, with the MWC grabbing Boise State to replace them.

All in all, there are a lot of interesting possibilities for conference realignment as this whole thing shakes down. What are your thoughts?

Irish Blogger Gathering: Insert Spring Cliche Here

So, I've not really been with the posting this year so far. The offseason is a dead period, and there wasn't much news out of campus as well. However, with Spring Practice starting under the new regime, there is now no shortage of excitement or questions. The Irish Blogger Gathering is back and better than ever, with the year's first IBG post being hosted by the founder of IBG, Subway Domer.

So, without further ado, here goes:

1. Notre Dame is looking at vast changes on both sides of the ball. Kelly will implement his version of the "Spread," which is run at an excruciating pace, and the Irish defense will, once again, make the transition from the 4-3 to the 3-4. Asking to pick one side of the ball that intrigues you the most would be a disservice to us all. Instead, list your biggest hope and your biggest fear for both the offense and the defense.

Offense biggest hope: Getting playmakers on the field. Coach Weis certainly was no slouch at recruiting offensive talent. And although I would love to have seen Golden Tate's speed and athleticism in this offense, there is plenty of talent remaining. Michael Floyd has dropped some weight to make him a little quicker, and he'll certainly be the #1 target as he hopefully can stay healthy and make a push for his own Biletnikoff award. To relieve the logjam at running back, Theo Riddick is now lining up at the slot, leaving Armando Allen as the man at running back. However, all-everything 5-star recruit Cierre Wood will be pushing for time as well, along with Jonas Gray and Robert Hughes. At receiver, we also have ridiculous depth, with John Goodman and Duval Kamara trying to make their mark as veterans, and youngsters Shaquelle Evans, Deion Walker, and Tai-ler Jones trying to learn the fundamentals to take advantage of their natural athleticism. And don't forget that we still have arguably the nation's best tight end in Kyle Rudolph who will be on the field pretty much all the time.

With all of that talent on the field, and the wide-open style of this offense, opposing defensive coordinators are going to have their heads spinning trying to find enough people to cover them all.

Offense biggest fear: Dayne Crist's knee. I know he's rehabbing, and way ahead of schedule. He's running around in practice, and in the limited video coverage available, he certainly looks nimble enough. However, this is an option offense, which means that his mobility is crucial to the success of this offense.

When undersized Nate Montana and a couple of true freshman are our backup options, of course I'm going to be worried about the health of our #1 QB. Not since Brady Quinn in 2005 have I been so concerned with the health of our quarterback. I know that Coach Kelly went through 5 QBs en route to a 10 win season a couple years ago, but with EVERYONE learning the new offense, we need the veteran presence, leadership, and athleticism of Dayne Crist to keep things together while we work through this learning curve.

Defense biggest hope: Linebacker dominance. With Manti Te'o growing as a player and Brain Smith in his senior year, we have two top caliber linebackers to build the 3-4 defense around. There is a lot of unproven talent at the other positions. Coach Kelly talked about putting Smith and Te'o on the outside, where they can take advantage of their athleticism, and try to get more size and physicality inside. If we can find some toughness and intensity inside at the linebacker position, we will be tough to move the ball against. It does give me hope that our defensive coordinator is also tasked with the inside linebacker position coaching job. With the athleticism sealing the outside, and physicality stuffing the gaps inside, the only option for opposing offenses will be to beat us through the air.

Defense biggest fear: Which of course leads to my biggest fear on defense - the secondary. I really hope Chuck Martin knows what he's doing. The Corwin/Tenuta experiment took some of the best pure talent we've had in the secondary in decades and made them look like the Keystone Cops. Now, we have some serious concerns about the talent at safety, and while we are still insanely talented at corner, those kids need to be re-taught how to play the position. If we can't stop people from throwing against us, we are going to be in for some high scoring games this year.

2. The mainstream media, and ESPN in particular, have been riding Brian Kelly's jock for about a year now, and were collectively praying for Notre Dame to fire Weis and hire Kelly. Do you agree, or disagree with this statement? What changes in media coverage do you think we will see in 2010 and beyond?

I can't argue with the fact that the national media is in love with Kelly. They are in love with Kelly. But that's partly why I'm so excited about this hire.

Think back a few years to one of the low points in Irish football, when we made the O'Leary hire and subsequent firing. At that press conference, Kevin White call Coach O'Leary "straight from central casting." At the time, I was lukewarm at best about the O'Leary hire, and extremely skeptical about the Willingham hire.

This time around, though, I think we really DID hire the guy straight from central casting. Get ready for a lot of "Kelly Green" headlines and comments. An Irish Catholic from Boston, Kelly was of course a Notre Dame guy growing up. More importantly, I couldn't have written a script for the career trajectory of a coach better than Kelly's. Over 20 years of head coaching experience, with proof that he knows what it takes to win a championship at every level. Indeed, he left an undefeated BCS school when a battered Notre Dame cam calling, simply because it was Notre Dame. He's a politician, too - he knows how to manage not just the operation and teaching of his football team, but also the media and public perception. There are no skeletons in the closet, no worries about fat jokes, resume padding, or golfing addictions. Just a football coach that gets it.

I think that the media this year will treat Notre Dame much like their own fanbase - cautiously optimistic. Much like Tom Crean at Indiana University basketball, EVERYONE wants him to get this right, believes that he's the right guy to get it done, and will do whatever they can to support the rebuilding of the program.

If we struggle out of the gate, the media will be forgiving and talk about learning curves and culture change. As soon as we start winning, everyone will remember why Notre Dame is the most loved and hated team in sport - it will be as bad as the coverage of UConn in women's basketball. Maybe worse.

3. With new regime changes, players that were once lost in the muck sometimes find themselves in a situation to become key members of the team- or even starters. Identify one of those players that will be that "sleeper." Explain, in brief detail, why your guy will rise above and become the proverbial; CREAM. Oh yeah... it must be a junior or older to qualify.

Kapron Lewis-Moore. Ever since he showed up on campus, everyone has been talking about his athleticism. All of a sudden, Coach Kelly is now talking about his leadership. I think that this year, he will develop into a beast outside rushing the passer. Indeed, I think that he is in a position to have one of those synergistic seasons that could make him an All-American and get him some consideration for major post-season awards.

4. If you could change the Blue-Gold Game experience in any way- what would it be? Some years, the game can be quite boring and offer no real insight for the upcoming season. Are we all doomed to be underwhelmed every year, or can you make the change that makes spring ball slick like Rick on a pogo stick?

I don't know about the logistics involved, but I'd like to see us take advantage of the unique relationship with the Naval Academy, and have an inter-squad scrimmage at the end of the Spring. The only way to get a sense of where we stand is to see our players go against a quality opponent.

Short of bringing in another team to practice against, there isn't a whole lot I'd change about the Spring Game. The format is tough, because there is no good way to score when you have one team playing themselves. Was that pass touchdown a function of the awesomeness of our pass offense, or the sucktitude of our pass defense? Who knows?

5. EVERY coach talks about the importance of special teams, and says that they are a major priority for the team. Is there anything that Coach Kelly has done to back him up on his own statements? What phase of special teams would you like to see more improvement from?

Unlike most coaches, who focus the first few practices on installing the offense and defense, Coach Kelly started in on special teams from day 1. So, that's one tangible way that he's showing a commitment to special teams.

I'd like to see the most improvement in our field goal units. We have been up and down in that area for quite some time. The ability to consistently hit a field goal from distance opens up the playbook in the redzone, allowing you to take some risks when you know you can count on getting at least 3.

6. Last topics are a bit, off topic... A)With the arrival of Spring Football, comes a lot of "color" discussion. "The Shirt," is always a favorite subject of debate for Irish fans. What is your opinion of "The Shirt," and if you were in charge of it all- what would it look like? B) There is a lot of talk about the Notre Dame uniforms possibly being altered. What would you like to see, even if they aren't changed?

A) I love the shirt, and I collect one each year. When I pull one out, it instantly reminds me of that season, with all of its ups and downs. As far as this year's shirt, you'd have to be a complete dumbass to have anything but a Kelly Green shirt for the first year of a coach named Kelly. And what I'd also do is try to go back to our roots and traditions in preparing this year's shirt. No talk of "Return to Glory". No silly made up sayings. Indeed, what I'd probably do is something simple like "We Are N D." Notre Dame Football 2010 on the front, with a picture of the current stadium facade. And another "We Are N D." on the back, with a picture of the old stadium, or the Four Horsemen or something old-school on the back.

B) Notre Dame's uniforms are pretty good the way they are. I have always been a big fan of the traditional uniform, and I'm not a huge fan of changing them.

However, I admit that I also really like the green jerseys (I own two of them). I wouldn't be entirely opposed to making our jerseys Kelly green for the entire season, as a nod to the new regime. But mostly, I think we should just keep them simple and traditional.

If I were to make any changes to the current uniform, I think that the traditional blue jerseys with shiny GOLD numbers would be pretty cool looking, too.

*****

Well, there you have it. Hope you all are as excited about the new regime as I am. Can't wait to get this season underway. Go Irish!

Coaching Staff Finalized

Brian Kelly has finished assembling his coaching staff. At first glance, I'm pretty happy with the staff he put together. Let's take a look at the roles each coach will play on this staff.

Position responsibilities

Bob Diaco will be coming with Kelly from Cincinnati, where he was the defensive coordinator, and he will continue in that role. He did an outstanding job this year getting 10 new starters to come together and play well. However, this to me is the most controversial hire, as he has limited experience as a defensive coordinator, and that's the one area where we need the biggest improvement. I had hoped Kelly would look for a bigger name to put in charge of the defense, but clearly he is confident in Diaco's ability to handle the job.

Charley Molnar is also coming from Cincinnati to be the offensive coordinator. In one of those "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type of moves, I think this is a great idea. While Coach Kelly will call the plays, they've clearly come to an arrangement that they are happy with, and I'm excited to see our new offense with better talent than Cincy ever had.

Tony Alford was retained from Coach Weis' staff. He will be moved from running backs to wide receivers, which I'm excited about. Rob Ianello was a great receivers coach, and Alford should be able pick up where he left off, and bring a bit more toughness to the position.

Tim Hinton is coming from Cincinnati, and will take Alford's running back job, which was his position with the Bearcats.

Kelly also borught Mike Elston with him from Cincy to coach the defensive line, and Paul Longo, the strength and conditioning coach.

A familiar face was brought back to the University as well, as Mike Denbrock was named the tight ends coach. A long time member of Ty Willingham's staff, he came with Willingham from Stanford and followed him to Washington. He spent last year at Indiana State as associate head coach, linebackers coach, and special teams coordinator. Although not officially announced yet, my money is on Denbrook being announced as the special teams coordinator, due to his previous experience in that position for Indiana State.

Kelly also hired his old buddy Chuck Martin, who was Kelly's assistant that took over GVSU when Kelly left, and who has won several national titles as the head coach of the Lakers. Martin will coach the defensive backs. Due to the fact that he was a head coach last year, Martin may get the edge over Denbrock as special teams coordinator.

The final piece of the staff is Ed Warinner, who was the offensive coordinator for the potent Kansas office the last few years. He'll be coaching the offensive line.

Recruiting responsibilities

The following picture shows the past coaching stints for every member of Kelly's staff.



As you can see, with only a couple of exceptions, this is a midwest coaching staff. To a certain extent, this makes sense considering Kelly himself has only coached in the Midwest. But, not one coach on the roster has coached in Texas or Florida. However, Kelly has managed to take that into account in assembling this staff.

Diaco and Molnar, the coordinators, are both native New Jerseyites, so they should be able to maintain the stranglehold Coach Weis put on the northeast, and continue developing the Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania pipelines.

Mike Denbrock, with his experience on the west coast at Stanford and Washington, is clearly a perfect fit for west coast recruiting.

It appears that Mike Elston and Tony Alford will work together in Florida. Alford has a year of experience recruiting for Notre Dame already, and as he was responsible for pulling Louis Nix out of Florida, when we didn't even have a head coach, I think we'll be fine there.

Chuck Martin will cover the Chicago area, and as a native Chicagoan, he should do well.

Kerry Cooks, despite only coaching in the midwest, is a native Texan. Therefore, he will be our Texas recruiter. This is probably the weakest coach from a recruiting standpoint, and Texas is a big responsibility.

Hinton will probably be the lead in recruiting Ohio - he's actually coached at three different high school in Ohio, and all of his experience has come from coaching in Ohio. He apparently has some experience recruiting Florida as well, so he'll have some role there as well.

I'm not sure what role Warriner will take in recruiting, but he does have a lot of experience at Kansas in the Big 12, so I'm hoping he'll work with Cooks in Texas and the plains states. I'm sure he'll recruit Colorado along with Denbrock, as he had a stint at Air Force.

My guess is that Alford will be named the recruiting coordinator, as he has already learned the ropes of recruiting at Notre Dame, and is clearly very good at it.

Analysis

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the staff. They are all college coaches with lots of experience developing players. I think Alford is a great recruiter, and I've heard good things about Tim Hinton's recruiting ability as well.

I wish we had at least one more guy with some experience recruiting nationally, and I also wish we would have gotten a big name coach for defensive coordinator. Other than that, though, there's a lot to get excited about.

Several of the staff members took what would essentially be considered demotions to come work on this staff - Martin went from head coach to position coach and Warinner went from coordinator to position coach. Although I think Denbrock will get bumped up when he's named special teams coordinator, he took the job without knowing that for sure, a small step down from his job at Indiana State.

Most importantly, there isn't anyone who will be essentially learning on the job. It may take Alford a while to adjust to coaching the receivers instead of the running backs, but everyone else has done their job somewhere else at a high level.

I think Warinner and Martin are the best hires, while I'm a little shaky on Elston and Cooks.

Now, it will be fun to watch as the coaches hit the road and close out this recruiting season.