Suggestions for Notre Dame Fans
Yes, you read the title correctly. The Notre Dame Football program is at a unique crossroads this week as it recovers from a marathon loss to Pittsburgh and is preparing to face Boston College. This week is more crucial to the outcome of the season for the Fighting Irish than their bye week was two weeks ago. Why? Because this week, as Notre Dame Football fans, we will see two different things: first, we will see how a very young team will bounce back after a tough loss at home to an opponent that they should have beaten very soundly and second, we will see how Charlie Weis, as head coach, will go about repairing his limping program that has a few very blatant problems while capitalizing on the things his team is doing correctly.
Usually, I write an article every week that recaps the previous weekend’s game. Recently, most of the things I’ve highlighted as strengths of the game or weaknesses of the game have reoccurred several times throughout the season and such is the case this week. Rather than recap the Irish’s performance against Pittsburgh, I think it’s more important for the sanity of the fans to write an article detailing the program as a whole.
Anybody, Irish fan or not, that is ready to throw Charlie Weis, Corwin Brown and the entire Notre Dame Football team under the bus because of their loss to Pittsburgh had way too high of expectations for this football team coming into this season. Unfortunately, people have already been talking about Weis being fired this off-season. The fact is that most level-headed Irish fans or pundits knew that this season would turn out to look something similar to what we’re seeing right now. Most erratic fans saw what Notre Dame did against Michigan and started buying tickets to all of the BCS bowls—reselling on eBay the tickets to whichever game in which the Irish didn’t play. Even a victory against the Trojans of USC didn’t seem out of realm of possibility and the history books were all but published documenting the biggest turn around for any football program in Notre Dame’s history.
The harsh reality is that this program is right where they should be. Is it where we want it to be? No. They are beating the teams that they should and are competing with teams that are ranked somewhere near the bottom of every Top 25 list. The kind of progress that this team has shown from last season to this season is remarkable and it takes a person blind to facts and logical thinking to not realize this.
Sure, there are things that this program needs to change, most notably the mistakes of the coaching staff. Charlie Weis, for the love of all things holy, take back the laminated piece of paper from Mike Haywood! This offense has become very predictable in the second half of nearly every game this season and is a large part of why the Irish can’t close out a tight game successfully. Unfortunately, I think that this coaching staff has gotten used to being behind in a football game and don’t want to risk coaching to win a game, rather than coaching to not lose when the Irish are ahead. This team cannot afford to be run in such a manner. When this young team is ahead in a game, the coaching staff needs to put the pedal to the floor instead of beginning to utilize their defensive driving skills.
Additionally, this team is still playing with a plethora of mental errors coming in crucial spots. Harrison Smith commits a personal foul that stops a scoring drive that the team desperately needed against Pittsburgh. Mike Floyd tries to lateral a ball in the closing seconds of the North Carolina game instead of going down, possibly giving the option of another play. Jimmy Clausen throws an interception for a touchdown in the first play of the second half against North Carolina and throws two more interceptions against Michigan State. But, the mistakes are not exclusive to the players. As Anthony Pilcher noted, it took Corwin Brown three drives to find a way to stop the “wildcat formation” that Pittsburgh was running on Saturday. The excruciating result of these mental errors, however, is that the Irish very well could be 8-0 right now, but that doesn’t mean that they should be.
The bright spot is that this team has a plethora of young talent that is still improving at a rapid place. This team is still playing with upperclassmen that didn’t see much time before last year and underclassmen that have still yet to develop physically and mentally. Sure, underclassmen make their mistakes, but it’s imperative to understand that once this team matures into next season like they matured into this season, the Irish will be fielding a squad that most Irish fans will be proud of. We’ve seen flashes of their abilities this season, but as the squad matures, the spaces between the flashes of brilliance will begin to recede.
This week is a critical one for this program, its players, its coaches and its fans. This week will define this entire season. If the Irish can play next weekend and pull out a victory in Boston, it will certainly be the turning point for this program for years to come. Boston College is a team that is sitting exactly where the Irish are in terms of skill and experience and if the Irish can manage to win, it will mean that they have begun to rise above mediocrity.
If there’s anything that Weis has shown in his first three and a half seasons at Notre Dame, it’s his willingness to adapt and change when necessary. If there’s anything that most Irish fans have shown is their unwillingness to accept mediocre seasons which, I’m sorry to say, is what we’ll have to accept this season. But the future is bright at Notre Dame! If this season is any glimpse of the potential this squad possesses for years to come, buy your BCS tickets for next year.
Jon,
I have to respectfully disagree. The team is not where they should be right now. You must consider that 2007 was far worse than it had to be. The Irish should have won five or six games last season, poor coaching decisions by Weis exacerbated the problems/weaknesses of the team and they failed to reach even those modest expectations. The schedule this year is worth two or three wins, minimum, over last year and the Irish are starring 7-5 in the face.
Time will prove that Michigan State, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh are not good football teams and the Irish had no business losing to the last two. There has been only a very small amount of improvement from last year when you take into account the quality of the Irish opponents. I don’t see evidence that suggests the Irish will improve enough to be a BCS contender next season. Team is young, but experienced, and another off-season won’t mask the underlying problems in Weis’ approach on offense.
There are several pieces of mounting evidence that suggest Weis isn’t going to get it done, it isn’t just this game. He has continually ignored the positives and necessity of an effective running game, the team doesn’t play with emotion, and the Irish do not consistently perform well in the most fundamental aspects of football. The book is out on how to stop the offense and the defense will continue to struggle against any good running football team so long as the offense doesn’t stay on the field.
You simply do not lose games at home to an average opponent with a backup quarterback that spots you three turnovers after holding a two touchdown lead. It is nearly as inexcusable as burning two timeouts on the same play. The Pittsburgh coaching staff made adjustments at halftime, Weis and his staff didn’t.
I’d love to be proven wrong, but the evidence that suggests Weis will succeed is shrinking while the evidence that says he will fail is growing.
Anthony, what two teams do you figure still left on the schedule have a chance to beat the Irish? I assume you would have USC occupying one place, but even this bipolar Irish team ought to be favored in every other matchup.
Most realistically optimistic preseason predictions thought an 8-4 season would be achievable and a reasonable improvement. That’s still a very possible outcome, and even probable in my book.
There’s no doubt that the coaching staff has put the team in a position to lose close games they could have won and I don’t see Jon saying anything different.
The point is that it isn’t quite time for fans to start thinking of committing mass murder.
I think BC is our other probable loss. I predicted the Irish to go 8-4 this year with losses to MSU, Pitt, USC, and one other game they shouldn’t lose because of youth (i.e. BC or UNC). After seeing Pitt, BC, and UNC play, I dramatically over-estimated them as a quality opponent.
With MSU, I can rationalize the loss. They matched up well against us; an average-to-good defense with a potent rushing attack. I don’t think our intensity level or pedestrian rushing attack was acceptable in that game, but I can stomach the loss.
Against UNC we had the lead, but we gave it away with a host of poorly timed turnovers. I can chalk that up to a young team.
But I can’t rationalize Pitt.
We had a two touchdown lead, facing an average opponent playing a backup quarterback who gifted us three interceptions and had a terribly inefficient day. And we were playing at home.
It wasn’t second half coaching adjustments. We didn’t pack it in, we came out firing in the second half, even more than the first. The same was true against UNC. In both games we continued to call plays aggressively.
In the second half against Pitt, we had no fire. Even in the first half the offense had no fire. They played a little more physically, but they still didn’t have intensity and emotion. We have to develop that killer instinct, that edge. I’m not even sure if the coach has it. For all of the talk about “pounding it” and “nastiness” I have yet to see it on a consistent basis.
I’m beginning to think that the no-huddle offense makes the players think too much, work to get ready for the next play, etc. rather than have fun, get revved up, etc.
There is a consistently underlying factor that we don’t play tough, physical, and emotional football on offense. I think this is partially a function of the offense we run. There’s little physical about spreading teams out. And this is very concerning given the level of emphasis Weis placed on it during the off-season.
I’m not ready to get on the “fire Weis” train. In fact, I don’t think Weis failing is a viable option. On the contrary, I want him to succeed. But the evidence is certainly mounting that he cannot get it done. This was an inexcusable loss.
Pittsburgh was an inexcusable loss, no doubt about that, but there’s a few things you should consider.
First, seeing a loss first hand does nothing to help your psyche. You can rest assured that when my brother and I saw ND lose to Navy last year, we both wanted to put bullets in our brains.
Second, this team has a ton of potential but they are still learning – even the coaches. This is Haywood’s first season calling plays and it shows. The team came out flat in the OT, with the exception of Armando Allen, and the coaching staff just couldn’t get the offense to punch it into the endzone.
The fact of the matter is that this isn’t a team that should be 7-1 or even 8-0. They had the opportunity to be, but they made mistakes which is what young team do. Next year, if the team is better than this and they are sill making the same mistakes, then you can go ahead and figure that Weis or the majority of his coaching staff isn’t getting it done in practice. But, don’t pull that trigger yet.
I agree, I’m more reactory than objective at the moment. My game recap will try and paint a less subjective picture. But here is where my rationalizing has the hiccup.
The coaches shouldn’t still be learning and the team shouldn’t come out flat.
This is year four of Weis’ tenure. If he doesn’t know it now he never will. If we hadn’t had last year I doubt someone so proud and stubborn would have learned what he did to begin with. He and the staff earned some leniency in the first two years with seasons that exceeded expectations. They continue to earn leniency through good recruiting. But 3-9 last year and games like this one are chewing up the chain quickly.
And what does it take to motivate these players? If 3-9 and multiple beatdowns isn’t enough to make you take pride in your team and how you play, what will?
I feel that we continually make excuses, lower expectations, etc. because of last season, the dearth in numbers in the upper classes, and the poor recruiting Weis was left with. But last year shouldn’t have been as bad as it was and those recruiting excuses are running out. Everyone points to next year but if there has been only marginal improvement from 2007 what indication is there it will be dramatic in 2009?
But just marginal improvement from this year to next year should earn us, what two more wins? Three more wins? Wouldn’t that put us into contention for a BCS bowl game?
The three losses that this team has suffered this season thus far have come at the hands of coaching mistakes, most notably play calling (Haywood) and mental errors at key skill positions that are currently being manned by underclassmen.
Next year, Clausen, Tate, Kamara, Allen, Hughes will all be juniors. Aldridge, most of our offensive line, and most of our secondary will be seniors. We will be fielding a team that will be full of upperclassmen. If the Irish turn in a performance next year like they have this year so far, then I would agree with your statements. But, I just can’t do that right now.