Notre Dame 0-4?

Ken Lagerquist · Post by **Ken Lagerquist** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:09 pm

Whats going on with the Irish this year??? They are in shambles. How can they be fixed??? If they dont do something soon, they will be 0-8. Not going good.

Post by **Simon Miller** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:34 pm

It's only going to get worse. Here are the latest theories:

They are young and inexperienced.

Willingham tanked the last two recruiting classes (This year's Seniors)

The Charlie Weis "Schematic Advantage" is no longer in play.

Unfortunately all of these have a little bit to do with it, but adding to all of this is the fact that Notre Dame doesn't play Eastern Middle Mississippi State Junior College, North Idaho College, or Southeastern Iowa Institute for the Deaf and Blind for their first 3 games. Seeing the schedules of these other schools makes me want to puke.

I was strapped in for a bumpy ride this season... but I didn't know it was going to be this bumpy.

I will hang in there.

Ken Lagerquist · Post by **Ken Lagerquist** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:16 pm

Simon Miller wrote:It's only going to get worse. Here are the latest theories:

They are young and inexperienced.

Willingham tanked the last two recruiting classes (This year's Seniors)

The Charlie Weis "Schematic Advantage" is no longer in play.

Unfortunately all of these have a little bit to do with it, but adding to all of this is the fact that Notre Dame doesn't play Eastern Middle Mississippi State Junior College, North Idaho College, or Southeastern Iowa Institute for the Deaf and Blind for their first 3 games. Seeing the schedules of these other schools makes me want to puke.

I was strapped in for a bumpy ride this season... but I didn't know it was going to be this bumpy.

I will hang in there.

Yea, i totally agree with you. They are young and they will come around, but most likely not this year. It does go to show you how good Brady Quinn was tho, his experience helped them alot. Weiss's juniors should be stepping up to help this team win, but that probably wasnt a good recruiting class for him.

You are definitely correct about them having a tough schedule, i would have to say they have the toughest schedule in the country this year. No cup cake games for them, and thats what i like about that program, the only thing about it is, they NEVER get a break from those games, and there are times when they get beat up and need a rest. But if they play the schedule well, it weighs more for them, so Kudos to their schedule.

My Buffs are 2-2, a much better record than last year, they are a couple of years away themselves. I wouldnt mind seeing them play ND too. Anyway, hows things back there??????

Post by **Simon Miller** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:47 pm

The Junior class was the class from the year Golfingham got fired. It sucked from March-October, (WILLINGHAM) and then when he got the axe, and Weis took over it was November. Then he chose to stay on board with the Pats (Superbowl Year) so he couldn't do much to salvage the class.

So factor in Golfingham's stellar recruiting in his 2nd and 3rd years (This year's Juniors and Seniors) and you don't have to be a football expert to see why the Irish are struggling.

Casey Fisher · Post by **Casey Fisher** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:30 am

The sad thing is that talk around these parts (the Northwest, and mostly Huskies fans) is that it serves Notre Dame right in firing Willingham. Many of them truly believe that he is a better coach than Weis and that Weis only won with Tyrone's recruits and the Huskies are on the rise and Notre Dame is in the tank because of this.

It will be anxious to see though if Notre Dame fans actually want Weis fired after this year. I definitely think he deserves a few more years even if they go 2-10 this season.

Ken Lagerquist · Post by **Ken Lagerquist** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:39 pm

I really think Weis should have been trying to recruit a Top QB before this last year, that QB should have been waiting in the wings until Quinn left. I think Clausen is a year too late, but he should be fine. I hope he doesnt turn into a Rick Meier!!! Or any of those other scrub QBs they have had the last several years. It is really tough for a Freshman to come in and do something against a schedule like ND plays year in and year out.

Post by **Simon Miller** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:04 pm

Even if Weis and Willingham are considered equal coaches, which I still don't believe, Weis has proven to be a tireless recruiter and completely devoted to ND. Willingham couldn't touch him in that area.

So I will hold my final judgement on Weis until this year plays out.

If Navy snaps the streak this year, and the Irish win 2 games, Weis is officially on my hot seat. There are coaches all over the college football landscape winning with far less talent.

On the other hand, if Tyrone finishes more than 1 game above .500 this season, I will be shocked.

Post by **Simon Miller** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:03 pm

Here is something else to think about: (I borrowed this from another web board)

QB-True Freshman
HB-Sophomore and two true freshmen
FB-Redshirt Junior and sophomore
TE-5th year senior, sophomore, freshman
LT-sophomore
LG-Junior with no previous starting experience
C-5th year senior
RG-sophomore with no previous starting experience
RT-Junior with no previous starting experience
WR-Junior (Grimes)-previous #3 wide receiver, sophomores (West, Parris), true freshman (Kamara)

And that is only the offensive side of the ball. Some may point out the fact that some other school has one or two Freshmen stepping in, so therefore ND coaching must be lacking. A D-1 football program can not play the schedule ND has with this amount of inexperience, and expect anything other than what has happened. I saw improvement last Saturday, and expect to see it all season. Add the talent that is arriving next year, and the future looks very bright.

When underclassmen start nearly all the way across the offensive side of the ball-something is bad wrong.

Ken Lagerquist · Post by **Ken Lagerquist** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:28 pm

Simon Miller wrote:Even if Weis and Willingham are considered equal coaches, which I still don't believe, Weis has proven to be a tireless recruiter and completely devoted to ND. Willingham couldn't touch him in that area.

So I will hold my final judgement on Weis until this year plays out.

If Navy snaps the streak this year, and the Irish win 2 games, Weis is officially on my hot seat. There are coaches all over the college football landscape winning with far less talent.

On the other hand, if Tyrone finishes more than 1 game above .500 this season, I will be shocked.

Simon, i do agree with you here. But i know u know this, but yes there are teams winning with far less talent, but they arent playing the schedule ND is playing with those players, thats why they have the cupcake schedules. But i think in the long run, maybe next year and the year after, ND is going to be dangerous. I dont think Weis should be on the hot seat. ND was very quick to give him a 10 year extension, but i think it will work out in the long run. Just because a coach and team have one rough season doesnt mean they should be looking elsewhere for a coach. Thats the one thing i really dislike about college sports and even pro sports with their coaches, if they win for a couple eyars and then have a bad year, they are gone, maybe they should look at some of the players. It is proven time and again that some of these so called top recruits go to college and never amount to anything. U just hope that they develop into something u think they will.

Mike Nordin · Post by **Mike Nordin** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:12 am

I agree with you guy mostly. One of the problems we had in high school football was that we lacked coaching consistancy. My Soph year we had Mr. F in his last year, then coach Kuntz "the clap" our jr year, and then Mr. stepping stone himself Coach Duncan. We had talent all through that and I think we could have posted 1 or 2 more wins each of those seasons, but change and uncertainty can effect seasons. The best teams are those that have long term coaches that BUILD programs.
On the other hand, I do think Weis need to improve on some play calling, it seems he is stretched out and might need to rely on his assistant coaches more, and maybe, I say maybe because I personally have never coached D-1 football and I'm probably talking out of my butt, he should lighten up on playing his game and play more against the teams he is matched up against.
All in all, because of dedication and hard work, pillars in ND football, he should be given some slack and see what happens next year.

Casey Fisher · Post by **Casey Fisher** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:03 am

I agree with most everything said on here. Let’s face it, Notre Dame lost a lot of good players from last year’s team. This year’s team is young and these tough losses will only make them stronger in the future as these pups are gaining valuable experience.

However, in my opinion, this early season debacle would not have happened if Notre Dame was in a conference… It is time for the Fighting Irish to join the Big 10… Here me out on this Golf Coach. (I got a few facts from an article on cnnsi).

Here are some facts:

In 1988, the last time Notre Dame won the National Championship, there were 25 Independent teams not in a conference. This included powerhouses Florida State, Miami, Penn State, and West Virginia. Today there are only 3 Independent teams – Notre Dame, Army and Navy.

The unfortunate byproduct of being an independent: In years (like this one) where a BCS berth is out of the question, what is left to play for? Your only other bowl partnerships this year are with the Gator and Sun bowls, which, if they pass, leave you waiting and hoping that some other spot opens up, because literally all but one of the nation's 64 bowl bids are locked down by -- that's right -- a conference.

The Irish already play half of a Big 10 conference schedule anyway… Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and Purdue. They would only have to play 4 more Big 10 teams.

While the rest of the country's powers tend to ease into the "meat" of their schedules (i.e., their conference opponents), Notre Dame starts out with the main course while saving the appetizers (Navy, Air Force, Duke and Stanford) for the end. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, yet it's unavoidable because the Penn States and Michigans of the world do belong to conferences and therefore only have room to play you in September. This doesn't necessarily mean the Irish would then go on to beat an Ohio State or Wisconsin this year -- maybe they'd only be delaying the inevitable 38-0 beatdown -- but at least their season would not be over after four games.

I know Notre Dame has a contract with NBC that runs through 2010 I believe, but I’m sure the Big 10 would work that out as they would love to show Big 10 home Notre Dame games on NBC.

To sum it up, the time is now… I know this would be a hard pill to swallow for the Irish faithful, but things have changed and there are no more Independent teams. They would have a better chance to compete for a National Championship if they were in the Big 10.