A turning point for the Irish?

Just wanted to throw out some thoughts on the big ND victory in the Aloha Bowl:

1) Loose, relaxed, healthy, and motivated can go a long way

What a difference it makes for this team to actually play with some confidence. One of the problems that I've noticed with ND football over the last 10 years or so is that we are so uptight out there on the field. Maybe our guys get bogged down with the day to day stuff in South Bend and schoolwork and all that. For whatever reason, there are a ton of guys who are either disappointments or straight up busts at ND that suddenly break out when they get to the NFL. How does that happen?? Is there something in the water at ND that stifles these guys in college??

This team went to Hawaii, relaxed, focused on football, and what do you know. They go out and play their best game in probably 3 years (if not longer). They were flying around, everyone was making plays, and the special teams looked better than it has looked than at any time in the Weis era.

I know it was just Hawaii (who is not a very good team and lost to some bad teams at home this year), but we SMOKED them. Good teams beat bad teams like a drum, and that's exactly what we did in this game. All three phases of the game played well, and everyone contributed. How do we look like gangbusters in the Hawaii Bowl but struggle to beat similar teams (SDSU, Syracuse) during the regular season?? Why can't we replicate that type of performance during the regular season? It's not like this team had a ton of practice time to revamp their team. We had like half a dozen practices before this game, and yet we played our best game.

Maybe our guys have too much on their plate in South Bend. Maybe they have to spend too much time shake alumni hands and going to "functions" and studying and doing all the other non-football stuff (going to mass, etc) that they are worn out by gameday. I really think there might be something to that. For this Hawaii trip, our guys had fun, they bonded, they focused on football, they were isolated from all the South Bend/ND drama, and it worked.

There's always been something strange about ND bringing in all these top 10 players and then watching these guys underachieve. Maybe there is too much "other" stuff going on in South Bend that our players can't focus on football. That's not a Weis problem. It's an ND problem. Football should be about fun, especially in college. ND the school needs to make sure that the players are having fun and enjoying themselves. When the players are enjoying the game, they are more likely to play well.

2) ND looked healthy, but why did they look so unhealthy at the end of the year??

If you looked at Clausen during the Hawaii Bowl and went back and looked at him down the stretch against Navy, Syracuse, and BC, it was like watching a different player. He had zip on the ball, he was stepping into his throws, and he was playing with confidence. Same goes for the linemen. These guys were worn out at the end of the year, but they looked good against Hawaii.

I think a big priority for this team in 2009 is going to be to focus on team conditioining. We were completely gassed in November both mentally and physically. You can't be a winning team if you are sucking wind and breaking down at the end of the year. That has to change if this team is going to be a BCS-caliber team.

Clausen needs to get stronger and get himself in the best shape of his life going into next year. If he breaks down again in the second half of next year, we are going to lose to the Pitts and UConns and Stanfords of the world. The same thing will apply for all of our linemen. We can win the battles up front if we are mentally and physically tougher than our opponents. ND was a soft team this year, and that can't happen again next year if we are going to be good.

3) Should Weis coach from the press box??

Call me crazy, but I actually contemplated this idea for quite a bit during the game. It might not be the worst idea in the world. ND was JACKED UP on the sideline for this game, and guys like Corwin Brown and Haywood were down there firing people up. We need that on the sideline. ENERGY. When Weis is down there, the sideline looks like a morgue. Maybe the players are intimidated by Weis. Maybe he makes them nervous or something.

Word is starting to filter out that Corwin Brown gave the pregame speech of his life before the Hawaii Bowl. I guess Weis let him do the speech, and the players were ready to run through walls for this game. VERRRRRRRRRRRRRY interesting. The same source seems to indicate that the players have to stifle laughter when Weis tries to give a speech. I really think that we might be better off with Brown down there on the field and Weis up in the booth giving his insight.

Weis learned his trade in the booth. He might be more effective up there calling plays and observing things from above. He can leave the motivating and player interaction to Corwin Brown and whoever he brings in as the offensive coordinator. I'm not gonna lie, I like this idea a lot. Play to your strengths. Weis is not a motivator, but he knows schemes and things like that. Corwin Brown is a fiery guy who can handle the sideline stuff.

Just throwing that out there. Weis can still be the head coach in charge of recruiting and the staff and all that, but maybe he should let his staff take more of a role in handling the players. That is not Weis' strength, but it could be a strength for some other guys.

4) Are we the Arizona Cardinals of college football??

This analogy has come up, and I think there's probably a lot of truth to it. We are a pass-happy team that runs into trouble when teams get physical with us and wear us down. By the end of the season, the pass-happy stuff is less effective when the weather starts turning sour.

I hate playing like that, but that is basically who we are. If we could put together a dominant (and physical defense) to go with that offense, it can lead to a winning program.

This team will go as far as Clausen takes us. Let's be honest, Weis doesn't put a whole lot of focus on running the ball, so we are going to need to give Clausen time to throw and make sure that he is healthy enough to carry the offense for a 12 game season.

Weis has put us in position to become a steady 9-10 win team down the road, and I'm actually fine with that. It is certainly an upgrade over the past 10 years. If he continues to recruit well, he could emerge as the John Cooper of Notre Dame. And that's not a knock at all. Cooper had a good run at Ohio State and produced a lot of very good teams. They never got over the hump, but he recruited a lot of great players and increased the overall stature and profile of Ohio State football. They became a big time brand again under Cooper, and Weis may have a similar effect on ND's stature. If Weis continues to recruit well, he'll probably do enough to stay at ND and hopefully produce some really good football teams.

5) How much of a bounce will this win give us going into next year??

I'm not sure, but it certainly helps to go out on a high note. There have been no shortage of teams in recent history (Texas in the Holiday Bowl and Alabama in the Independence Bowl) that have used a bowl win as a springboard into a great offseason and a great season the following year. If guys like Clausen and Tate use this game as an opportunity to take the leadership roles on this team and motivate the guys to come together as a team, we may look back on the Hawaii Bowl as the turning point of this program under Weis.

It's going to be an interesting offseason, and I'm looking forward to seeing what changes are made. I think we'll see some assistant coach changes, and I think we'll see an improved attitude going into next year.

Go Irish. We'll have plenty of coverage of the ND football team in the offseason.

And Aloha Means Goodbye!

Somewhere Larry Biel and Chad Ford are high-fiving about the Irish coming to the Islands for the Hawaii Bowl. Maybe we could talk Biel into doing the game for ESPN so that we could get a few “Aloha means goodbyes” and “WITH AUTHORITY” lines out of him.

Maybe I’m in the minority on this one, but I like this game for the Irish. Do we belong in the a bowl game at 6-6 after that disastrous finish?? No, not at all. If there were fewer bowl games, we would not have been invited. And to be perfectly honest, I would have had no problem with ND turning down a bowl bid. But let’s be real here. There was no way ND was turning down a bowl game. What schools are turning down bowl bids these days?? Alabama played in the Independence Bowl last year. I don’t even think you are allowed to turn down bowl games anymore. At the end of the day, ND was accepting a bowl bid no matter what.

Considering the other options that were out there, I’m actually pleased with the game that we picked. In my eyes, it’s a win-win situation. If our team actually takes this game seriously, circles the wagons, and wins the game, we could use it as a springboard into next year. Texas went into their Holiday Bowl game last year with something to prove, and they used that game as a rallying point headed into this season. Alabama did the same thing in Shreveport. I hope the ND players view this game as an opportunity and not as some sort of vacation. Hawaii is not a great team by any means, but they at least have somewhat of a name and the game should get a pretty good tv rating being around the Christmas holidays. If we go out and make a statement on national tv, it could be a turning point for this program under Charlie Weis. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a believer in Charlie Weis, but I hope he views this game as the start on a path to redemption. He better be treating this game as the Super Bowl like Bo Pelini did when he was the interim coach at Nebraska. If he wants to grab some facemasks, I’m all for it.

And if we lose, big deal. This season has been a disaster anyway, so another loss isn’t going to affect our program any more than the Syracuse game or any other loss in the last 15 years.

Recruiting is also going to play a big story here. It sounds like Manti Te’o is still legitimately interested in ND, so we can use this game to put a huge sell on Te’o to come to South Bend. Te’o is the next Rey Maulauga. If we lose this game but pick up Te’o, the trip will have been worth it.

Will I be surprised if we come out flat and lose?? No, of course not. We’ve been uninspired for over two months now, so nothing would be surprise me at this point. Hawaii is a thugged out team playing at home, and I will not be surprised at all if they are in Clausen’s face all night long. They are going to be fired up to play ND, so we better be prepared to match their intensity or it could be a long night.

Kirk Herbstreit said it best last night on the ESPN bowl selection show. Guys like Jimmy Clausen and Tate and company are now juniors. I know they are technically sophomores in class, but it is time for them to start thinking like they are juniors and the leaders of this program. The clock is ticking, and the window is closing up ever so slightly on their careers as hard as it is to believe. If Clausen and company want to be remembered as champions, they need to start with this game in Hawaii. They have reached the crossroads of their ND careers. If they are going to treat Hawaii as vacation to hang out on the beach and drinks mai tais, that’s how they’ll be remembered as ND. But if they go out there and run the Rainbows off the field, they could use it as an opportunity to get focused for 2009 and 2010.

As for the complaining from fans saying that ND should have gone to a different bowl like the Texas Bowl that more fans could have attended, give me a freaking break. The Texas Bowl?? What fans were going to attend the Texas Bowl?? Heck, I have been to 3 road ND games this year and swore that I would go to whatever bowl game the Irish played in, and even I lost all interest in going to the bowl game to see this team after we lost to Syracuse. Fans were not going to be signing up for the Texas Bowl or the Independence Bowl or any bowl that we ended up in. At this point, the bowl game is about the players and the coaches. The players voted to go to Hawaii, and I don’t blame them. If they wanted to go to Hawaii, then that’s cool with me.

Anyway, that’s my take on the Irish bowl game. If people don’t watch to watch, I don’t blame them. If we win 24-21 or something and look lousy, I doubt it will soothe the pain of the god awful season and surely will not clear up the controversy swirling around Charlie Weis. But maybe just maybe the Irish will show up ready to play on Christmas Eve and bring home a big win.

--- As for the Irish hoops team, tough loss on Saturday, but I’m not too stressed out about it. We are what we are. We have an experienced and talented team, but we also aren’t exactly trotting out a roster loaded with five star recruits. We are capable of beating anyone, but we also have enough weaknesses that a good team can beat us on any given day. Ohio State is a good team with a lot of talented young players (every guy on that team is a 4 or 5 star recruit other than the JUCO point guard and there are 3 future NBA players on the roster) and a good coach, they were “up” for the game, we didn’t play well, and they beat us. It happens in college hoops. If we played that game next week, it could be an entirely different story. While we didn’t play well at all, we battled back and showed a lot of heart to make it close.

Some thoughts on some players:

Harangody – Good to see Harangody back in business; hard to complain about 25 points out of him

McAlarney – Ohio State admittedly had a great game plan for us in this game by extending out on our shooters and going all out to shut down Kyle McAlarney. They were blanketing KMac the entire game. Credit to Thad for coming up with that game plan. While I agree that this strategy is a blueprint for beating ND, there are very few teams that are disciplined enough and have the athleticism to execute that strategy. Most teams do not have the discipline to get out on our shooters like OSU did, and KMac will burn those teams. I'm willing to tip my hat to Matta and say that he had a great game plan that his team executed. It happens. There have been plenty of games where Brey had a great game plan against an opposing coach (Rick Barnes, Bill Self, Boeheim, Calhoun, Pitino, etc) and put us in position to win big games. You can't win them all in college basketball, but I'll take my chances with Coach Brey in most games.

As for KMac, he probably needs to find some other ways to contribute and score for this team when the other team is taking away the three. And I’d like to see Brey work on getting McAlarney better looks even when teams are keying on him.

Ayers – Not to bang on Ayers, but we need to get more production out of him in 34 minutes when the other team is concentrating on KMac. 3 boards and 1 assist in 34 minutes to go with 3 3s when he was basically being ignored for most of the game?? Ayers is a senior. We probably need him to be more assertive.

I actually think Ayers is better off coming off the bench. He was better last year off the bench. He’s a little bit like David Graves in that respect.

Speaking of David Graves, they showed a montage of the last ND-OSU game on the scoreboard at the game, and then introduced Graves to the crowd. What a moment! He has packed on some pounds. Graves was always one of my favorite players at ND.

Zeller – As we have seen so many times in the past, Luke Zeller is a bit of a tease on the court. No knock on Zeller (who seems like a great guy from a great family), but he’s not capable of being a major contributor on a big time team. The guy is 6’11” but seems to be incapable of getting inside and banging for rebounds. If he’s not rebounding, he can’t get minutes in big games.

We need some people to step up to fill the void of Rob Kurz on the boards. OSU is not even a good rebounding team, and yet they got way too many second chance opportunities. If Zeller isn't going to give us an inside presence, then Nash needs to play more minutes. Nash should be on a mission to grab defensive rebounds. If I was Brey, I would be pounding that into his head. If we grabbed a few more boards yesterday, we would have won the game.

Bench - Did anyone even score off the bench?? I don't recall Peoples or Nash scoring at all. If a team is going to try to take out McAlarney as a strategy, we need guys like Nash and Zeller and Peoples to step up.

I know Kurz is a loss for this team, but it’s not like he’s Troy Murphy or something. He is replaceable. We have talented young guys who can come up and replace his minutes. Guys like Nash and Hillesland and Ayers need to step it up.

Tough loss on Saturday, but I think we’ll be fine. If we can regroup and get off to a good start in the Big East, we can put this loss behind us.