Thursday, August 09, 2007

Remembering Harry Oliver



For those who have not heard, Harry Oliver has past away.

Monday, August 06, 2007

We Talkin' About Practice

Practice started today, and I just finished watching the first practice video of the season. I feel like I could go head butt my dog, and I don't own a dog. Sure, you cannot learn much from such a short sampling of stretching and drill work, but seeing the gleam of the golden helmets in the sunshine is a beautiful thing. How wondrous it is to here pads cracking, whistles blowing, and the tough love of Bernie Parmelee.

About the only thing that could be gleaned from the practice video was that the freshmen need some coaching, which is to be expected, and we have good coaches who are quick to correct them. I could clearly hear the ND coaches giving instruction to Taylor Dever, Golden Tate, and Matt Romine. This is not too surprising since this was their first day of practice, but they are going to have to prepare quickly because they will be needed on such a young team. If the youth can gel, this could be an exciting season.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Expectations

While surfing the message boards, I have read a lot of people positing that 8-4 would be a good season for ND this year. The prevailing thought is that this year's team is too young and that the previous regime left the cupboard bare. If you believe any of that, I have a bridge to see you in Brooklyn.

There is no reason why this team cannot be successful. They are young, but the younger classes are more talented than their predecessors. It is a trade-off.

Additionally, there is another factor that may work in ND's favor. In their first two years, Weis and his staff were beholden to doing right by the players they inherited. This season they will be free to develop their younger players and use them anyway they see fit. I fully expect that we will see a much different attack than what we have seen in the past. There is no need to build a team entirely around ball control passing as there was when Quinn, Walker,and those receivers were around.It would have been a dick move by Weis to use a more varied attack featuring his younger players while Quinn and the gang were still on the team, but now things have changed.

Finally, regardless of the team's make-up, the expectation at ND should always be a national championship. Teams that are not supposed to be very good do sometimes when championships. However, teams that do not expect to be good and have fans that do not demand them to be good never when them. That is what seperates ND from Purdue.