Bye Week Blues

It is time for the bye week, which would be a great time to reflect back on the first half of the season if it were worth reflecting on. Unfortunately, this might be the worst Notre Dame team in history. It is the worst team in my lifetime at the bare minimum.

If you think that is hyperbole, just look at the facts. The Irish are 1-7 and have 273 yards rushing on the season. Lou Holtz's teams used to average that many per game. They have a lower per game rushing average than any team the in NCAA has had in the last eight years. Their 1-7 start is the worst start by an ND team since Joe Kuharich's 1960 squad started off with the same record. However, that team averaged 11 points scored per game, which is one more point per game than this year's team is averaging. To put things bluntly, these guys are just plain awful.

The bright spot in all this is that the next four games should be the easiest on the schedule. Of course, the next four opponents probably feel the same way about ND. Navy has to be licking their chops at an opportunity to take ND down for the first time in four-and-a-half decades. The Irish appear ripe for the picking this year.

The main culprits in all of this are the offensive line and the special teams. The Irish have a behemoth offensive line, some of which came in with All-America accolades in high school. They are blocking (or should I say not blocking)for a team that is averaging 1.1 yards rushing per carry and has 430 yards lost rushing this season. This is the worst offensive line memory.

The special teams are not much better. Armando Allen and Golden Tate have tremendous ability as return men, but there is almost never any blocking for them (a theme it appears). Likewise, the Irish have had a field goal blocked, missed a couple of extra points, and just had a fumble lost on a punt return this past Saturday when Munir Prince was not paying attention and was hit with a punted football. Basically, the special teams are almost as awful as the offensive line, but nobody is quite that awful.

The only solution at this point is for head coach Charlie Weis to can John Latina and Brian Polian. Latina has coached the offensive line for the past three season, and it has been at least five years since ND has had a running game. Polian was the special teams coach over the past two years before the job was supposedly turned over to a coaching committee. Either way, the special teams have been horrible for the past three years. Likewise, Polian is coaching the linebackers this year, and the linebackers are the weak spot on the defense. It seems obvious what needs to be done.