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Articles Archive for March 2009

News, Off-Season, Personnel »

By Jonathan Hunn · March 21st, 2009 · 0 Comments · 355 views
Spring Cleaning for the Fighting Irish

Spring cleaning…for anyone who isn’t a spitting image of Danny Tanner, this term evokes many feelings of disgust, hate, and loathing. At least, that’s what I feel when I think of spring cleaning. It’s a tedious task that usually takes up an entire Saturday–a Saturday that could be spent watching TV, playing video games, or watching videos of Jerome Bettis clown-stomp the Florida Gators. However,…

Miscellany, Off-Season »

By Anthony Pilcher · March 18th, 2009 · 8 Comments · 5,265 views
Improving the Irish Rushing Attack: Personnel, Predictability, and Synergy

At times during the 2008 season the Irish offense looked like a passing juggernaut. Other times Notre Dame sputtered when faced with a short field, frequently failing to produce an effective rushing attack. This led to poor red zone and third down efficiency that cost the Irish more than one game.

In fact, many of the problems with the 2008 (and 2007) offense were due…

Miscellany, Off-Season »

By Anthony Pilcher · March 4th, 2009 · 5 Comments · 4,076 views
Notre Dame Run Blocking: Positives and Negatives of the Zone Blocking Scheme

As discussed before, three topics contributing to the success and demise of the 2008 Irish offense will be discussed this off-season. The first installment, Part 1, detailed the positives and negatives of head coach Charlie Weis’ offensive philosophy and play-calling approach. The second installment consists of three segments detailing Notre Dame’s struggles running the football.

The first segment, Part 2a, outlined the level of rushing…