Turning a ship around is a long and arduous task. It takes time to get the vessel corrected. After Charlie Weis left the Notre Dame program, it had all the tools to head in the right direction, but the helm was turned the wrong way. Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s Athletic Director, was charged with the task of finding a new pilot for the program and …

September 4th marks the debut of the Brian Kelly era in South Bend. For the fourth time since 1997 Notre Dame has a new coach, and, once again, Irish fans are wondering if he can lead them back to prominence and succeed where his three predecessors failed.

To be certain, Kelly brings with him many attributes absent from the three previous coaches. He has college …

Spring is definitely in the air. The trees have started to bud and most of the snow is melted away. People have pulled their grills out of the garage and the bravest of souls have taken the chance during the mildly warm weather to sport their flip-flop sandals. Fortunately, to beat the winter blues out of our systems, spring also brings spring football, much to …

Usually, when a coach gets let go and a new regime is brought in, it’s because the original system wasn’t producing results and, like a pendulum, the administration heads to the opposite side of the philosophical spectrum. The transition can be full of bumps and many things can happen in that short period of time. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, …

The 2009 Irish offense has been dissected, detailed and summarized. Now it’s time to turn to the other side of the ball.

Many (myself included) believed Notre Dame’s 2009 defense would be a large step forward from a 2008 unit that was below average. The Irish returned a host of starters, an off-season coaching responsibility realignment by head coach Charlie Weis put co-defensive coordinator Jon …

Clashmore Mike staff writer Anthony Pilcher was interviewed Saturday on the Joe O. & Rock show on 670 The Score regarding the hiring of Brian Kelly as the head coach at Notre Dame.

What follows are some further responses and elaboration on questions from the interview. The audio of the interview itself can be found at the bottom of this article.

On Brian Kelly’s Impact …

Notre Dame dropped their fourth-straight game Saturday and completed a second-half season slide for the second consecutive season. The Irish finish the regular season at 6-6, the six wins about at the expectation level of the most pessimistic fans.

For the 33 Irish seniors, it was a bitter way to end a season ripe with high expectations. For head coach Charlie Weis it was a …

The 2009 regular season finale for the Fighting Irish will take place in Palo Alto Saturday. Notre Dame faces a much-improved Stanford team and is trying to avoid a four-game losing streak to close out the season. Doing so will be no small task.

This game once looked to be the final hurdle to an Irish BCS berth, now it appears to be an extremely …

Notre Dame couldn’t complete the comeback Saturday, falling 27-22 to Pitttsburgh at Heinz Field. The Irish offense sputtered for three quarters while the defense kept the score close in the early going.

For the second consecutive week, the team looked unprepared and unmotivated until the fourth quarter. This final 15 minute period showed some potential for the Irish, but head coach Charlie Weis hasn’t found …

Notre Dame lost at home to the Midshipmen for the second consecutive time Saturday. The Irish looked unprepared on both sides of the ball and the players appeared to play without emotion for the first time this season—a costly mistake when facing a Navy team that always gives maximum effort.

As expected, the determining factors of the game were red zone offense and first down …