Pittsburgh Preview

The Irish are fresh off their first victory of the season, and should be in a great mindset going into their second road game of the season at Pitt. Although Notre Dame win last weekend, it was far from a stellar performance, and hopefully the coaching staff ground the point in the team’s head all week that turning the ball over four times won’t get it done on the road. This brings us to the Pitt Panthers; Pitt suffered a heartbreaking loss last week against the Iowa Hawkeyes, after letting a commanding double digit lead slip away on the road in Kinnick Stadium. So the Irish will be facing a team eager to put last week behind them, just as Notre Dame was in last week’s game against Michigan State. This should make the Irish very aware of how desperation can change the attitude of a football team; Pitt is going to come out in the first quarter and play with a certain crispness that hasn’t been on display all year because of the amount of time those players have had to dwell on a very bad loss. At quarterback for the Panthers will be Tino Sunseri; a player much like Kirk Cousins of Michigan State, he’s not going to wow anybody with any one thing he does, but does everything fairly well. Although he did throw three interceptions last week against an Iowa defense that is lacking in talent, his decision making is usually pretty good and he’s willing to check down to his tight ends and running backs. Pitt is adapting to Todd Graham’s spread attack this year, as opposed to the pro style offense Dave Wannstedt had, that produced NFL backs LeSean McCoy and Dion Lewis. Even though Pitt will try and spread Notre Dame out, the Panthers don’t have the athletes on the field to match up with the speed of the Irish secondary. The Irish will be able to key on Ray Graham, the one true running threat in this offense besides Sunseri; Graham had 22 carries for 99 yards last week against Iowa, and is a back that finds a way to gain positive yardage every time he touches the ball, an attribute he shares with Panther alums McCoy and Lewis. As was the case last week as well, Sunseri looks to have one receiving option he looks to find in Devin Street; Street is more of a big play target, as he accumulated 7 catches for a 19.7 yard average (138 yards) in last week’s game against the Hawkeyes (I am referring to their game against Iowa only because the other two teams they played were Buffalo and Maine). With regards to the Pitt defense, it’s by far the weakness of this team as the Panthers allowed Iowa to rack up 475 yards of total offense, 399 of which were through the air; these numbers reflect a terrible secondary filled with slow players who can’t tackle. Brian Kelly would be advised to throw the ball often against this secondary, and use the run as a means to break a big play. I think this game will be in control for the Irish midway through the second quarter, and they will finally put their foot on the throat of an opponent and put them away early in the second half and win going away 41-13.

Michigan State game

For what seemed a lot longer than two games, the 0-2 Irish finally got their first win of the year on Saturday, as they beat the Michigan State Spartans 31-13 in front of another capacity crowd at Notre Dame Stadium. Although the Irish turned the ball over four more times in this game, their superior talent advantage finally took over and overcame the stupid mistakes this time. These turnovers allowed the Spartans to hang around in a game that was not nearly as close as even the 18 point differential would indicate; as has been the pattern the past five years with this program, they will stay close with the inferior teams and come up with enough in the end to win and will find ways to blow games against elite competition. It’s hard not to be optimistic when surveying what happened on the field against a team in Michigan State that was overrated, but was nonetheless the #15 team in the country. But this Notre Dame team hasn’t even played a complete half of football this year, much less a full game. They should be able to work on this aspect of their game, as the strength of schedule takes a dip for a few weeks, as the Irish begin a string of games against Pittsburgh, Purdue, and Air Force. Tommy Rees continues to make mistakes at quarterback that have to concern Brian Kelly; when Kelly made the move to Tommy Rees, it wasn’t for his extremely gifted arm or athletic ability, it was because he was able to engineer the offense and get the ball consistently to playmakers on the outside. But with Rees’ recent struggles with turning the ball over, it might be wise for Kelly to have a short leash on Rees and possibly mix in Crist to add more athleticism and explosion to the position. I’m not a big proponent of switching quarterbacks in and out, but if neither player is taking the reins, it might be a better bet to make them interchangeable and keep them defense off balance. On the other hand, the two horse combination at running back is carrying this offense right now; with Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood, a lethal two back attack is on display every down, and it has become the calling card of this offense with the recent struggles at quarterback. Luckily the two running backs are playing as well as they are because without the run game, the Irish would still be searching for their first win. The defense played pretty good at times during the game and other times not so good; Kirk Cousins was allowed to hit his underneath receivers throughout the game, but the Irish defense shut down anything deep and didn’t allow the Spartans to get a big play and momentum in their direction. This is the nature of the personnel on the defensive side of the ball, as there are a lot of speed guys in the secondary, but nobody who can physically shut down the opposing team’s top guy. The evidence of this being B.J Cunningham going for 12 catches and 158 yards; the Irish can single him up and shut him down, so they must play the corners deep and allow him to catch everything underneath. The defense still hasn’t played anywhere near the caliber that it was playing at at the end of the season a year ago, but there is a lot of room to grown and gain confidence during these next three weeks, with the Irish playing inferior talent.

 

 

Michigan State preview

The Irish must regroup and quickly, as they will need to have their full attention on the opponent this weekend. That opponent is the Michigan State Spartans; a team that has made a habit of not only beating the Irish, but doing it in heartbreaking fashion. The perfect example being the finish last year in East Lansing. The 2011 edition is sure to not disappoint either, as both teams came in to the season in the top 20 and even though Notre Dame has lost their first two games, the Irish still posses top 20 talent. Offensively, Michigan State is led by senior quarterback Kirk Cousins; he is a player much like Kellen Moore of Boise State, he does not posses a lot of raw football talent, but he puts his team in a position to win and doesn’t make mistakes. Cousins has been remarkably efficient in his first two games this year, completing 34 of 42 passes for 405 yards and three touchdowns. These are statistics that don’t blow you away at first glance, but rather highlight the remarkable balance this Spartan team has; this team can also run the ball efficiently as well, as leading rusher Edwin Baker has carried the ball 24 times for 147 yards in two games and backup tailback Le’Veon Bell has carried 23 times for 114 yards. Expect this two headed monster to be on full display, as the Irish have shown the propensity to give up huge rushing games to Spartan tailbacks in the past. But the rush defense isn’t the major concern for the Irish this week, as Michigan showed the whole country last week, these Irish defensive backs have no idea how to play the ball in the air. This is a dangerous combination with an efficient quarterback like Cousins, as he will be able to throw the ball where he wants too, and will not be lobbing the football in the air so Irish DB’s can circle under it. Cousins will be throwing up and over the defense, and trying to exploit a very porous secondary; which is why the pass rush for the Irish must be the best it’s been all year, in an effort to force Cousins to throw the ball out of rhythm and at the very least make Cousins uncomfortable in the pocket. The defensive line hasn’t proven it can push the offensive line in the backfield in the first two games, so outside linebacker Manti Te’o  (has 1 of the 3 ND sacks this year) and Harrison Smith must wreak having havoc on the passer in this game. The defense must blitz a lot more, even if it means leaving the DB’s alone in one on one coverage against the Spartan wide receivers, who have collectively not been extremely dangerous so far this season. Although Cousins has found a favorite target in this core of quiet wideouts, in the person of B.J Cunningham; Cunningham has had two very solid games to start the year, accumulating 203 yards and a touchdown on 14 catches. The Notre Dame DB’s must jam Cunningham off the line of scrimmage, if they stand any chance of containing him; he isn’t a flashy or dominate wideout, but the Irish secondary hasn’t shown any signs of being able to slow down anybody’s top receiving threats yet this year, and those were against two quarterbacks who aren’t nearly as comfortable as Cousins when it comes to throwing the ball. This Spartan team isn’t anything great in terms of talent compared to some other teams that are on the schedule, but they are one of the more disciplined teams; an area the Irish have struggled in the most, and what has directly led to them losing the first two games of what was suppose to be a very promising season. But on the other hand, this is also a problem that is easily correctable and should be in the forefront of every Irish player on that field on Saturday. If they can concentrate on protecting the ball and not giving Michigan State any easy scoring opportunities, I see the Irish winning the game 24 -21 and thwarting a last minute drive by the Spartans at the end to seal the win.

Michigan game

It’s hard to objective when a game like this game was witnessed. It had to wrench the heart of every Irish fan to see the defense (which was the strength in last week’s game) dismantled by a below average passer in the waning moments of a season defining game. Defensive backs were caught looking in the air, having no idea where the ball was, and numerous tackles throughout the game were blown, leading to huge plays for the Wolverine offense. It was just incredible to watch division one college football players go out in the biggest game of the year so far, and look so unprepared and so lost. it looked as though the defensive backs weren’t even taught how to look for the ball in the air, as if they had not done a single ball drill the whole season. The offense gave the defense 31 points to work with this week, more than enough points against an average Michigan team. The offense even scored with just 30 seconds left on the game clock, all the defense had to do was avoid any blown coverages and wrap up their man in bounds when he caught the ball and the win would have been theirs. But as has been the case the past decade of Notre Dame football, the team finds some way to keep themselves from attaining the victory. This would be easier to understand if the defense hadn’t been playing well coming into this game, but the defense had been the strength of this football team for the second half of last year, and in the opener last week. But the offense didn’t do themselves any favors either on Saturday night, as they had four more turnovers, which brings the total for the year to nine already. For 75 percent of the game, this team looks so fluid and so talented, and looks like they could play with any team in the country; but in the other 25 percent, the scoring parts of the game, this team absolutely falls apart and trips over themselves more than anybody in the country right now. The frustrating aspect is that it’s not just one player or one position; it’s everyone on the field on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, from receivers dropping balls to blown coverages by DB’s. The biggest disappointment on the offensive side of the ball had to be the play of Tommy Rees; although Rees is still only a sophomore, he had proven himself to be a leader on this offense, but with his lack of care for the football in the red zone, Rees set a bad tone for every one on the offensive side of the ball. In looking for positives coming out this game, I was really impressed by the play of Robert Blanton; he looked to be the only DB in the game that was ready for what Michigan was throwing at him, and his effort to stop the Michigan touchdown albeit for one play was the play of the night in my opinion. As the leader of the secondary, Blanton was trying all he could to show his lack luster teammates what pride and effort was all about, and his effort should ave payed off if not for a lucky bounce back to Denard Robinson on the next play at the goal line. The Irish have no time to sulk about what happened at the Big House on Saturday night, as they play the Michigan State Spartans, the team they have struggled with the most during this decade of mediocrity. Even though it will be the case again next Saturday, the Irish cannot afford to lose any focus just because they more talent than the other side; as they have learned in these first two weeks, just because they have more talent than the other team they’re playing does not mean they deserve to win. It’s a must win every week from here on out for this team, so they have to get the first next week and start there.

Michigan Preview

After all the turmoil of last week’s debacle at home, the Irish have to remember that it’s still just one loss; they can’t afford to let the feeling of failure linger anymore, and possibly ruin the season. So that’s why the change at quarterback by Brian Kelly was exactly the remedy for the confidence of the Notre Dame offense. Tommy Rees brings a sense of confidence into the huddle that Dayne Crist just couldn’t provide; the players on this team know that Rees can get the job done because he did it down the stretch last year, when everyone doubted this team at that point too. Other than the interception in the end zone last year against Tulsa, Rees has played splendidly under pressure, and has the kind of mental makeup that can handle the rigors that go along with being the quarterback at Notre Dame. Turning our attention now to Michigan; a team with more questions than the Irish, but also a team with stability at the quarterback position and a perfect 1-0 record as well. They are led by electrifying quarterback Denard Robinson; a phenom last year in Rich Rodriguez’s spread attack, but is having to adapt to the much more subdued I-formation lineup instilled by Brady Hoke. Robinson was used in a conservative manner in last week’s game against Western Michigan; he was 9 for 13 for just 98 yards, and rushed for 46 yards on 8 carries. A far cry from the Heisman like rushing stats Robinson was putting up early last season. This is a big advantage for Notre Dame, as they won’t have to defend Robinson in space nearly as much as they did the previous year, and will only have to key on conventional formations featuring Fitzgerald Toussaint and Michael Shaw. Toussaint got the bulk of the carries against Western Michigan, as he carried 11 times for 80 yards and a touchdown; with Shaw carrying just 4 times, but for 54 yards, an impressive 13.5 yard average. The Michigan attack is clearly one-dimensional, as Denard Robinson hasn’t proven yet that he can pass to compliment his phenomenal running ability; so the Notre Dame defense can stack the box and make Robinson beat them with his arm. This will also allow the Irish to play tight coverage, take away the underneath routes that Robinson loves to go too, and stop up the running lanes for Toussaint and Shaw. Another huge advantage for the Irish on Saturday night is going to be the defensive side of the ball; the two units are incomparable right now, as the Irish have playmakers in Manti Te’o, Darius Fleming, and Robert Blanton and the Wolverine defense looks like a bunch of lost individuals. Michigan gave up 279 yards of offense to Western Michigan; in giving up 183 through the air and 114 on the ground in just under three-quarters, this Wolverine defense is primed to give up big plays through the air and have cratering holes in the defensive line. Even though the Irish will be starting a new quarterback on Saturday night in the Big House, I would still give the quarterback edge to Notre Dame because of what Tommy Rees has done in the past and the huge progress he made at the end of last year. Denard Robinson is still a work in progress in my opinion, and is much more a running back trying to play quarterback. I think the Irish will keep it interesting for three quarters and end up pulling away in the end due to blown coverages in the Wolverine secondary and mediocre quarterback play by Denard Robinson. 38-23 ND.

      

South Florida

After almost three hours of weather delays and too many miscues to count, the Irish dropped a 23-20 decision to the South Florida Bulls. In what had to be one of the worst halves of football in the history of the program, the Irish came out flustered and seemingly surprised by the speed and intensity of the game. The game couldn’t have started any better, as the Irish put together a near flawless drive down to the USF 2 yard line; but that’s where the dominance of this Notre Dame stopped, and the mistakes came in catastrophic proportions. The first, and most damaging of these mistakes was made by senior tail back Jonas Gray. As Gray pushed to get across the goal line, a USF defender ripped the ball free and Kayvon Webster was the beneficiary and streaked 96 yards the other way for a touchdown. This 14 point turnaround really set a negative tone for the rest of the game, as the Irish were fighting uphill the rest of the way. From that point on; the Irish offense couldn’t get anything going for the remaining of the half, and even when the offense put a solid drive together, a fatal mistake would be made to end it without any points to show for it. After Dayne Crist operated the offense with precision on the opening drive, a total lack of confidence appeared to take hold of his game for the remainder of the half. He gave his team absolutely no leadership after the backbreaking 96 yard fumble return, and was one of the key reasons why the Irish played their worst half of football in some time. In Crist’s defense, his receivers gave him absolutely no help; the amount of easy drops by the entire receiving core was just embarrassing, and showed how unprepared they were for the speed of the game and their opponent. This lies solely on the coaching staff, and is absolutely unacceptable considering the entire off season has been used for building off the successes of the end of last season. This might also shoe that this team might not be mentally prepared to handle success and the expectations that go along with it; it’s been said that there are huge expectations everyday at Notre Dame just because of the jersey these players put on, but this is the same expectation at all high profile programs across the country. These players appeared to have underestimated their opponent from the outset, and seemed to be looking towards the inaugural night game at Michigan next weekend; this is a mistake that has the possibility of lingering throughout the season if it’s not corrected now, a mistake the coaching staff can redeem themselves for after this debacle on the opening Saturday of the season. The weather was also a major factor in this game, and appeared to help the Irish; mainly due to the massive momentum advantage USF enjoyed going into the half, the delay allowed Brian Kelly to thoroughly think about his quarterback situation and finally send Tommy Rees out, the man who led the Irish to such a strong finish the following year. Rees nearly engineered the improbable comeback in the second half, but came up just short, as the whole was just too steep to climb out of. I think it’s clear who deserves to start now, and maybe this setback was just what needed to happen for Notre Dame to be able to progress through this season and still be able to achieve its goals. Even after all the disappointments featured in the game, two major bright spots emerged; the first being Cierre Wood, who ran the ball 21 times for 104 yards and a touchdown, and the Irish defense who time after time were called on to make timely stops after the Irish offense turned it over, and especially in the first half when the bulk of the mistakes were made, the defense held USF to a punt or field goal. It took the defense a drive or two at the start of the game to establish themselves, but once they did it, they returned to the dominant unit that carried them in many games down the stretch of their late season winning streak. Next week is Michigan, and the players can’t dwell on this defeat or they’ll get beat again, this time by a team with more talent and more to prove.

    

 

2011 Season Opener: South Florida Preview

The South Florida Bulls are a dangerous opening opponent for the Irish this week. The Bulls are loaded with athletes all over the field (as is the case with every major college program in the state of Florida), and they are going to wreak havoc in the Notre Dame secondary all game. A.J. Love is the biggest name in the South Florida receiving corps; even though Love was injured all of last year after he tore his ACL in the spring game, he is the most experienced target for quarterback B.J Daniels following the departure of Dontavia Bogan. The biggest name by far on the Bulls offense is Daniels; going into his junior season as a three-year starter, Daniels has provided South Florida with stability at the quarterback position and a versatile athlete who can make plays with his arm and legs. On defense for the Bulls, standout sophomore linebacker Sam Barrington returns for his junior campaign, and is looking to build on a sensational sophomore season where he was the team’s leading tackler. Barrington seems to always know where the ball is, and is always causing problems for the ball carrier. Barrington’s success dates all the way back to high school, where he was a standout at Delray Beach; even in his high school tape, it’s very evident that Barrington had a head for how the game was played and could play it instinctually. Although there is immense talent on this South Florida football team, with it has always been the undisciplined areas as well. If South Florida stays away from the dumb penalties and mental mistakes, this is going to be a tight game throughout; but if the undisciplined areas show up, this could result in a beat down at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday afternoon. I’m not predicting this game to be a total blowout for Brian Kelly’s team, but the Irish will slowly start to inch away late in the game and come away with a 31-17 victory. Crist and the offense won’t be at full tilt yet, which is obviously expected; but the focus will be there for the offense and the defense will continue to do their thing and pick up where they left off last year.

2011 Season Preview

It’s the first week of September and college football season is here again; the Irish will be looking to improve on an 8-5  2010 campaign, which showed significant improvements on the offense and most importantly defensive side of the ball. First year head coach Brian Kelly also added much needed depth to the program by giving underclassmen significantly more playing time, a facet of the team that was badly lacking in previous seasons under then coach Charlie Weis. It was a somewhat tumultuous off season for the Irish; Michael Floyd was suspended indefinitely following a DWI arrest, and the Declan Sullivan investigation finally wrapped up. With regard to football related stories, there was a hotly contested starting quarterback battle between Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees; this was a battle eventually won by Crist because he had a better throwing arm and overall tools. I do think Kelly must start Crist right now because of Crist’s injury last season, and Kelly wants to give him a fair chance to fight for his job. But I also think the team rallied around Tommy Rees at the end of the season, and allowed themselves to really gel at a time when they could have folded. As for the upcoming 2011 season; the Irish have nine very winnable games on the schedule,with tough games against Michigan State, USC, and Stanford sprinkled in between. I see this team going 8-1 against the teams they should beat, with the only stumbling block coming in the second game of the year when they travel to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines. In the three really tough games the Irish, I see Stanford beating the Irish in the last game of the season to possibly spoil a shot at getting to the national title game. 10-2 is a very realistic expectation for this team, as the Irish return key starters on defense and lose only one key component off the offensive side of the ball with Kyle Rudolph leaving for the NFL. These players have now had a full year under the new coaching staff, and appear primed to build off the successes of the end of last season.

   

Floyd returning for his senior season; Rudolph entering the draft

Michael Floyd has decided to return for his senior season with the Irish; this is a major turnaround considering the events that had transpired at the start of the season, with the departure of Charlie Weis and the pro-style offense Floyd had been recruited for, it wasn’t looking as though Floyd would want to stick around. But with the implementation of the spread and the run of success the Irish had to end the season, it must have intrigued Floyd enough to stick it out for his final season in South Bend, and try to raise his draft stock which had him as only the 8th best receiver coming out. This is positive news for the Irish offensively because Kyle Rudolph’s draft declaration had already put a significant dent in the Irish offense and Floyd would have left the Irish without any major threats in the passing game. With Floyd coming back, and the emergence of players down the depth chart such as Tommy Rees and Cierre Wood, the offense is now able to work underneath the defense and the loss of Rudolph will not be as noticeable. Tyler Eifert really stepped up in Rudolph’s absence this season and really did a great job primarily in the running game, as the offense was able to get the corner on sweeps to the outside. Even though Rudolph would have dwarfed these numbers, Eifert caught 27 passes for 352 yards and 2 touchdowns. Although Eifert isn’t the threat in the passing game that Rudolph is, with so many weapons on offense the Irish won’t feel the obligation to get Eifert the ball as opposed to Rudolph, which possibly could have ended in the quarterback forcing something.

Sun Bowl

In a game marred by turnovers exclusively on the Hurricanes side of the ball, the Irish took advantage and accomplished what has become a very elusive feat the past decade, a bowl win. It wasn’t a BCS game, or even a New Years Day game; but it was a bowl win nonetheless and is a major stepping stone to build on heading into next season. The Irish took advantage of 4 interceptions on consecutive possessions by two Miami quarterbacks (3 from Jacory Harris and 1 from Stephen Morris) and turned those turnovers into 10 points. It was disappointing at the time to see the Irish only get 10 points off these turnovers as the Miami defense was very vulnerable to getting completely blown out. But these feelings quickly changed as the Irish defense held strong, and the offense moved the ball with relative ease against a Hurricane defense which had been tough all season. The offense scored a touchdown on their opening possession and their following possession to begin the game, this gave the whole team a lot of momentum that they would carry for the rest of the game. Even though their was a lot of help given to them by the Hurricane quarterbacks, the Irish offense played their best game of the season against the best defense they had seen all year. The only downside of the second half of the game was the inability of the offense to completely put Miami away; as the offense kept kicking field goals, the Irish defense began to give a bit and the Hurricanes suddenly found themselves within site of the Irish at 30-17 with 4:01 to go in the game. But as has been indicative of the second half of the season under new head coach Brian Kelly, the Irish erased all doubts as their offense capped off a final drive of 2:38 with a field goal, and drove the final nail in the coffin of the Hurricanes. The Irish offense rushed the ball 48 times for 196 yards against a very talented Miami defensive line, and in turn this also allowed the offense to be on the field for a staggeringly lopsided 15:39 difference in time of possession (37:09 to 21:30). This difference allowed the Irish offense the ability to finish off the Hurricanes in the on the final deciding drive of the fourth quarter, with the game still in the balance with the lead down to 13 points. Robert Hughes and Cierre Wood carried the bulk of the load with 39 carries between them (27-95 for Hughes and 12-94 for Wood) for a total of 189 yards. Hughes played the part of the meat grinder, as his persistent drives into the middle of the Hurricane defensive line opened up holes later for Cierre Wood to gash the Hurricane defense for larger chunks, including a touchdown of 34 yards at the beginning of the second quarter. Tommy Rees played very intelligently for a freshman playing in his first bowl game; Rees threw for 201 yards and 2 early first quarter touchdowns and let it be known that it was going to be a long day for the Miami defense. Michael Floyd had a memorable game in what was quite possibly his final game in an Irish uniform, as the junior standout hauled in 6 catches for 109 yards and 2 touchdowns and cemented his name as clearly one of the top receivers in the upcoming draft. In a small side note, David Ruffer did miss a field goal for the first time in his college career, but made three others and put his name in the conversation for top kicker in the country at the start of next season. The defensive standout for the Irish was clearly Harrison Smith; as has been the case the entire season, the 6’2″ senior strong safety always seemed to find himself in the correct spot on the field and finished his senior campaign with 7 interceptions. The other defensive leader of this team all year has been Manti Te’O; he didn’t have his best game of the year as he only accumulated 6 tackles (1 solo), but for the entire season the sophomore inside linebacker has been other worldly by accumulating a ridiculous 133 tackles (66 solo) in only his second season of college football. Te’O will be the anchor of the Irish defense next year and will be a major reason why the Irish should have a breakout season next year and reach the 10 win plateau. The Irish finished the season at 8-5 after a 1-3 start; although 8-5 is not what Notre Dame strives for, things are clearly looking up in South Bend and expectations will be very high again at the start of next season, as the Irish showed what kind of depth they have  in the program with backup offensive players carrying this team for a significant portion of the season.