Friday, January 19, 2007

Major Wright to Visit

For those lamenting the lack of defensive recruits in the class of 2011, there is some good news afoot. Major Wright is visiting ND this weekend. This is the first weekend that Corwin Brown will be Notre Dame's defensive coordinator, which is being announced this afternoon. We are about to find out whether "Nuclear" Minter was the reason for the poor defensive recruiting.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Corwin Brown To Be DC

The defensive backs coach of the New York Jets, Corwin Brown, is expected to be named defensive coordinator for Notre Dame. Brown will replace Rick "Nuclear" Minter, who saw his defenses consistently torched through the air over the past two seasons. Brown played for the Jets and Patriots from 1993-1998. Charlie Weis was on the staff of each team during that time period.

Statistically, this looks like a good move. With Brown coaching their defensive backs, the Jets finished fourteenth in the NFL in pass defense allowing 201.4 yards per game, and they were seventeenth in completion percentage allowed at 59.4 percent. Meanwhile, ND was sixtieth out of 119 in pass defense and allowed 203.38 yards per game. The Irish were ninetieth in passing efficiency defense. Finishing in the middle of the NFL is much more impressive than finishing near the bottom of the NCAA against a schedule that consists of three service academies that throw the ball about once a millenium.

The biggest question mark regarding Brown is that he has no experience coordinating a defense. However, being promoted from NFL position coach to NCAA coordinator is a natural progression, a la NFL coordinator to head coach. Hopefully, the former will be as successful as the latter. After all, Barry Alvarez was only a linebacker coach at Iowas before Lou Holtz hired him as DC, and we all know how that one turned out. May this hire be equally successful!

No More Hoops Top 25

Keeping track of all the basketball games around the country has been to time-consuming. As such, I have decided to longer keep a basketball top 25. I will be continuing my football top 25 and hope to have a pre-season edition sometime this spring.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Nine Fifth Year Seniors

At Darius Walker's press conference it was announced that nine seniors have applied for a fifth year. With Walker's departure, there are only seven true scholarship seniors on the team, which means there are more fifth year seniors than true seniors. Thanks a lot Ty!

ND's fifth year seniors:

Tom Zbikowski
Travis Thomas
John Carlson
John Sullivan
Trevor Laws
Dwight Stephenson, Jr.
Joe Brockington
Ambrose Wooden
Geoff Price

Darius Walker Enters NFL Draft


Darius Walker is entering the NFL draft, and I think it is the right decision. His draft potential is as high as it is going to get, and he would have more competition for carries at ND next year than he has had in the past. This marks the end of an era for ND football. Almost all of the 2005-06 offense will be gone in 2007, and the '07 offense will consist almost entirely of Charlie Weis recruits. Walker would not have fit in well as the lone hold-over of the old era, and this is a nice clean break for all involved. Good luck to Darius in the NFL!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Gators Win Subway Irish Football Title

The Florida Gators have won the BCS national title, and they are also the champions of the Subway Irish rankings. I also considered Boise State for the title, but the differences in margin of victory gives the edge to Florida.

Subway Irish Final Top 25

1. Florida (13-1, W 41-14 vs 1 Ohio State)
2. Boise State (13-0, W 43-42 vs 5 Oklahoma)
3. USC (11-2, W 32-18 vs 2 Michigan)
4. Ohio State (12-1, L 14-41 vs 3 Florida)
5. Michigan (11-2, L 18-32 vs 6 USC)
6. Oklahoma (11-3, L 43-42 vs 4 Boise State)
7. California (10-3, W 45-10 vs 18 Texas A&M)
8. Louisville (12-1, W 24-13 vs 16 Wake Forest)
9. Wisconsin (12-1, W 17-14 vs 14 Arkansas)
10. LSU (11-2, W 41-14 vs 10 Notre Dame)
11. Auburn (11-2, W 17-14 vs 17 Nebraska)
12. Arkansas (10-4, L 14-17 vs 9 Wisconsin)
13. Wake Forest (11-3, L 13-24 vs 8 Louisville)
14. Nebraska (9-5, L 14-17 vs 11 Auburn)
15. Notre Dame (10-3, L 14-41 vs 12 LSU)
16. West Virginia (11-2, W 38-35 vs 20 Georgia Tech)
17. Penn State (9-4, W 20-10 vs 13 Tennessee)
18. Texas A&M (9-4, L 10-45 vs 7 California)
19. Texas (10-3, W 26-24 vs Iowa)
20. Rutgers (11-2, W 37-10 vs Kansas State)
21. BYU (11-2, W 38-8 vs Oregon)
22. Tennessee (9-4, L 10-20 vs 22 Penn State)
23. South Carolina (8-5, W 44-36 vs Houston)
24. Georgia (9-4, W 31-24 vs 15 Virginia Tech)
25. Virginia Tech (10-3, L 24-31 vs Georgia)

Dropped out: 20 Georgia Tech

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Dead Again

ND lost another bowl game. What else is new? ND has not won a bowl game since Kurt Cobain was alive and Cheers was on television.

It has become quite apparent that ND was not a great team this year. They played three good teams, and they were blown out three times. When playing weaker opponents, ND looke much better.

This leads me to believe that a lack of talent is the biggest problem with ND football today. Well coached teams rarely get upset, and it has only happened to Weis one time in 25 football games. ND almost always wins when they have better or equal talent to their opposition. However, ND almost always gets blown out when they step up in level and face top level talent. The bright side is that these days should be numbered since the 2006 and 2007 recruiting classes will be much better than their recent predecessors.