October 2009 Entries
I didn't make the trip to San Antonio this week, but that won't stop me from making a prediction. (Mostly because I'm pretty sure I'll get this one right.)
It's tough to decide which Washington State statistic is the most damning, but with all due respect to the Cougars' 119th-ranked defense, 111th-ranked offense and mediocre-to-awful special teams, I'm going to go with the 112-3 scoring disadvantage WSU has been on the wrong end of during the first quarter this season. That means if Notre Dame can strike early, Washington State could get the "here we go again" feeling, and the game...
Toney Hurd Jr. gave Notre Dame quite a welcome-to-Texas present on Friday afternoon.
Just a couple hours before the Irish were scheduled to land in San Antonio for Saturday night's game against Washington State, Hurd, a cornerback from Missouri City, Texas, gave his verbal commitment to the Irish, according to Scout.com and Rivals.com.
Hurd is a three-star player on Rivals' five-star scale and also had scholarship offers from Auburn, Cal, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas A&M, among others.
He's the 18th player to verbally commit to play at Notre Dame next season.
At some point, it has to happen, even if Notre Dame fans don't want to think about it.
But it won't happen until after the Irish finish their regular season.
The "it" is the conversation between coach Charlie Weis and Jimmy Clausen, his star quarterback, about whether Clausen should leave school early to enter the NFL draft.
"We're not even going to address the subject until the first week in December," Weis said. "We've already addressed the fact that we're not going to address it. We're just worrying about the next five games, starting with Washington State. Let's see, first of all, how...
Notre Dame will wait "right to game time" to decide whether running back Armando Allen (ankle) and receiver Robby Parris (leg) will play Saturday against Washington State, coach Charlie Weis said Thursday.
"I want to do everything I can to win this game, but at the same time, if there's some players that are right on the cusp of being able to go or not able to go, if I think a week (off) would do them good, then I'll give them a week," Weis said.
Parris could play if he had to, Weis said, but it's more likely that he'll sit...
Freshman Ben Turk will be Notre Dame's punter Saturday night against Washington State after beating out senior Eric Maust this week in practice.
"I think that the incumbent will stay," coach Charlie Weis said after Thursday's practice. "I think that 35 (Turk) kicked significantly better than 43 (Maust), so he'll be the guy."
Weis was pleased with the way Turk responded to his poor outing against Boston College and the public criticism that followed it.
"When the head coach comes out and tells the media it's going to be an open competition this week, and then he goes out as a freshman, after...
Here are some photos I snapped during Thursday's media tour of the new Purcell Pavilion. Enjoy.
The new entrance to the building won't be open until January. Here's what it looks like now:
No new scoreboard yet. That's expected to come next year. For the time being, we're stuck with this:
Here are the new courtside seats. The media has been moved behind the basket.
The view from near the team benches, which are on the opposite side of the floor:
The new seats. Every seat in the building is now the same (that means no more bleachers, but capacity has dropped from 11,418 to...
It was a done deal. Kapron Lewis-Moore had decided to go to Texas A&M.
And then his mom, who preferred Notre Dame, started crying.
Anyone with a mother knows how this one turned out.
“So eventually I ended up signing here on signing day,” Lewis-Moore, a sophomore defensive end with the Irish, said Wednesday night.
Wanna Lewis, Lewis-Moore’s mother, didn’t know much about Notre Dame until the Irish began recruiting her son. Once she learned about the school, she did everything but pack his suitcase and shove him onto a bus for the airport.
“My mom’s a big part of my life, and she challenged...
Harrison Smith thought his move back to safety was permanent, but he kept a stack of tapes from last season just in case.
It turned out to be good thinking on his part, because Smith is once again playing strong-side linebacker, which is where he spent the 2008 season.
“I felt like I didn’t play good enough last year,” Smith said. “Even though I wasn’t playing Sam, I kind of put things in my mind like, ‘I could change that if I played Sam again.’ So when I moved back, it kind of was easier, because I’d mentally already thought about things...
Here are the special ticket designation home football games for next season, followed by just what those designations mean:
Sept. 25, 2010 Stanford SENIOR ALUMNI GAME
Oct 16, 2010 Western Michigan PARENT & ALUMNI FAMILY GAME
October 30, 2010 Tulsa PARENT & ALUMNI FAMILY GAME
November 13, 2010 Utah PARENT & ALUMNI FAMILY GAME
Notre Dame contributing alumni who graduated 35 or more years ago receive priority status on their alumni ticket application for the designated Senior Alumni game (Sept. 25 vs. Stanford). In the event that demand from senior alumni again exceeds supply, as in recent years, tickets will be allotted in descending order...
Irish receiver Golden Tate has been immortalized on the Web site upnextinsports.com, which is the sports offshoot of the popular icanhascheezburger.com and failblog.org.
Here's the photo, which can also be found here:
Someone explain this to me: It was raining and 53 degrees at Notre Dame Tuesday and the Irish play their next game in a dome in a warm-weather city. So they practice outdoors? Huh? The prevailing theory is that the start of practice was just held outside to irritate the media, and Notre Dame did, in fact, finish up practice in the Loftus Center.
When the media was ushered in for the start of the viewing window, a couple of fans tried to sneak in along with us — and were given a pretty quick heave-ho. If I was trying to...
The University of Texas is almost impossible to beat when it comes to recruiting in-state football talent.
But that doesn’t mean Notre Dame is going to stop trying.
Saturday’s game against Washington State at the Alamodome in San Antonio is Notre Dame’s chance to showcase the program for some of Texas’ top high school players, most of whom don’t know the Irish too well.
“I think with the amount of Texas schools you have in Texas, and with their success, you probably don’t get as many students thinking about Notre Dame,” said Irish lineman Chris Stewart, a native of Spring, Texas. “The only...
Kyle McCarthy, Notre Dame's leading tackler, is moving from strong safety to free safety — and he'll have a familiar face as his backup.
McCarthy is listed as the starting free safety on this week's depth chart, supplanting Harrison Smith — who is now listed as co-starter at SAM linebacker with Darius Fleming. McCarthy's backup at free safety is his brother Dan, who's making his first appearance on the depth chart this season.
Sergio Brown is the starter at strong safety, with Jamoris Slaughter as his backup.
Notre Dame's shakeup in the defensive backfield continued with Robert Blanton moving back to a starting...
No surprises here: Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen is a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award, given to college football's best quarterback, and teammate Golden Tate is a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to the nation's top receiver.
Finalists for the O'Brien Award will be announced Nov. 23, and fans can vote at VoteOBrien.org. Fan voting counts for 5 percent of the total for each round, and at last check, Clausen was running seventh. Here's Clausen's competition for the award:
Matt Barkley, USC
Daryll Clark, Penn State
Jacory Harris, Miami
Case Keenum, Houston
Dan LeFevour , Central Michigan
Jake Locker, Washington
Colt McCoy, Texas
Kellen Moore, Boise State
Tony...
Ben Turk's six punts for an average of 32.7 yards Saturday against Boston College — with a long of just 38 yards — have dropped him back into a competition with Eric Maust for the job, coach Charlie Weis said Sunday.
"I had that discussion with Brian (Polian, Notre Dame's special teams coordinator) this morning, and I think after what we saw in the game, yes, I think we have to at least let Eric have a shot in practice and see how it goes," Weis said Sunday.
Maust has averaged 39.8 yards on 14 kicks this season. Turk's average is 35.7...
Many Notre Dame fans weren't happy with the 2010 schedule, which was released last week and had the Irish facing Western Michigan and Tulsa, but coach Charlie Weis said scheduling has become a "very difficult task."
"I stay out of scheduling because I've got enough problems to worry about, and the last thing I want is, 'Weis is now handling the scheduling.' So I make sure I stay out of that one," Weis said Sunday. "But the role that (Notre Dame administrators) have, that they're dealing with, trying to find opponents, especially when, 'Is it a home-and-home, is it just a...
We heard Jimmy Clausen's side of the story of the postgame confrontation Saturday. Boston College receiver Rich Gunnell had this to say about it to ESPNChicago.com:
"In the beginning of the game, we were warming up, running on the field and [Clausen's] out there chirping and talking all this trash and he pushed, I think, Justin Jarvis. He just pushed him for no reason, and I just looked at him like, 'What are you doing? Who do you think you are?'
"He's just sitting there still talking and then afterward, he was trying to be all friendly. I was like, 'I don't...
My cell phone is in the shop, so no picture of the field at Notre Dame Stadium to go with today's prediction. But trust me: It ain't pretty. It's been raining most of the day, and the field here's generally not the greatest to start with, so you can imagine what it's going to look like in four hours. But, the weather does seem to be clearing up a bit (the sun just peeked through), and, as they say, it's the same for both teams.
I think Notre Dame has good reason to be nervous about today's game. BC always plays...
It’s not quite open tryouts, but Notre Dame is taking a look at some different players this week as it tries to shore up its secondary, which starting strong safety Kyle McCarthy said Wednesday was "underachieving."
“Up until this point, we haven’t had the production we want from a bunch of positions,” co-defensive coordinator Corwin Brown said Wednesday night. “Everybody’s got to do a better job, starting with me, but then our guys have to do a better job. We’ve been doing it at corner, we just have to make sure at safety we’re doing the same thing.”
Free safety Harrison Smith,...
Notre Dame wide receiver Robby Parris, who was injured in last week's loss to USC, practiced some on Wednesday and is now listed as questionable for Saturday's game against Boston College.
Parris, who did not practice Tuesday, was originally supposed to miss all of Wednesday's practice and was considered doubtful for BC.
A limited number of tickets for Saturday's Boston College-Notre Dame game are on sale now through the Notre Dame ticket office. Tickets are $68 each and may be purchased in person at the Joyce Center, by calling (574) 631-7356 or by visiting und.com/tickets.
The tickets aren't expected to last long.
Also, Notre Dame has tickets available for the Oct. 31 game against Washington State to be played in San Antonio and the Nov. 21 home game against Connecticut.
Notre Dame's Kyle Rudolph is one of 22 players on the midseason watch list for the John Mackey Award, given annually to the nation's top tight end. Here's the list complete midseason list, which will be trimmed to semifinalists on Nov. 16.
PLAYER
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Tuesday’s weather in northern Indiana was much warmer than it’s been lately — 64 degrees — so it was a good day, for a change, to watch a football practice. Notre Dame players were in full pads at the LaBar Practice Complex with scouts from the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders watching.
Quarterback Jimmy Clausen had his right foot heavily taped and was limping around the field at the start of practice. Receiver Michael Floyd was a partial participant (he was catching soft tosses, but not absorbing contact), and receiver Robby Parris and linebacker Darius Fleming were both absent from...
Notre Dame fans, meet your new Wildcat: John Goodman.
The Irish sophomore receiver is the most recent player to step in as the ball-carrier in the Wildcat formation, running it once for 13 yards last Saturday against USC.
Goodman said the coaches approached him during Notre Dame’s bye week about lining up as the quarterback in the formation because of his experience at the position in high school, and it was so effective in practice that they decided to use it against the Trojans.
“It was working a lot (in practice),” Goodman said. “I didn’t make any mistakes, was reading it well, and...
Golden Tate has had about enough of visiting bands in Notre Dame Stadium.
The Irish receiver slid under the USC band while trying to make a catch in the crowded southeast corner of Notre Dame Stadium during last week’s game. When he got to his feet, Tate shoved a drum out of his way.
“I feel like someone could get hurt with those guys over there, if they dropped their instrument,” Tate said. “I just kind of got frustrated and pushed it out of the way.”
Tate, of course, did a swan dive into the Michigan State band — thinking it was the...
With so many things in Notre Dame's favor going into today's game — the Irish have a veteran team, one of the nation's best quarterbacks, the smallest talent differential between themselves and USC in years and a home crowd that's dying to see them beat the Trojans — I want to pick the upset.
But I've decided I just can't trust Notre Dame's defense enough to do that.
Maybe the two weeks to prepare will have given Jon Tenuta time to give his team some tackling pointers and come up with a game plan to fluster Matt Barkley. And maybe all those...
Led by an escort from the Michigan City police department, three buses carrying USC’s football team pulled up to the north end of Notre Dame Stadium just after 4 p.m. Friday, where a crowd of a couple hundred fans was waiting — mostly to boo and chant “We are ND,” though there were several Trojan fans cheering on their team, too. One person held up a giant mugshot of O.J. Simpson, who I don’t believe made the trip for the game.
Before the Trojans got off their buses, they rocked them back and forth to get fired up, leading to this...
It's safe to say that this ...
... wasn't how Scott Martin wanted to conduct interviews on Notre Dame basketball media day this season. (Check out that left leg.)
But after suffering an ACL injury during practice earlier this month, Martin, who sat out last season after transferring from Purdue, will have to wait another year to play basketball for the Irish.
After Notre Dame took its team picture on Thursday, Martin grabbed a chair to talk to the media and set it down just a few steps from where the injury occurred.
"I was right there," Martin said, pointing to a spot on...
Funny what a goal-line stand — or three — can do for a defense’s confidence.
And in Notre Dame’s case, that shot of confidence couldn’t have come at a better time. The Irish are up against a huge challenge this week in USC, which ranks 17th in the nation in rushing, 57th in passing, 53rd in scoring and 22nd in total offense.
“Their belief factor is growing,” co-defensive coordinator Corwin Brown said of his players after Wednesday’s practice. “Anytime you go out and you have experience and success, it helps you, it helps our team. Every time we go out — and...
Irish captains Eric Olsen, Kyle McCarthy, Scott Smith and Jimmy Clausen will speak at Friday's pep rally at Irish Green, as will coach Charlie Weis and former Irish All-Americans Joe Theismann and Raghib "Rocket" Ismail.
Here are all the relevant times for events on Friday:
• 10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Gate D of Notre Dame Stadium open for fans to view and photograph statues of Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz.
• 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.: North tunnel of stadium open for fans to walk down to field.
• 3 p.m.: Irish Green opens to fans.
• 3-5:45 p.m.: The band Whistle Pigs will play on the green.
•...
Notre Dame fullback James Aldridge pronounced himself 100 percent and “happy to be back” Tuesday night after missing the last four games with a sprained AC joint — or what he called the “Bradford injury,” referring to Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford.
Aldridge wasn’t expecting to miss so much time when he was hurt in the season-opener against Nevada.
“I had no clue,” Aldridge said. “You just go based on how your body’s feeling. I started getting healthier and healthier, and I knew it was just kind of going to be a long, slow process, and I accepted that, so it’s all good.”
Aldridge...
You can definitely tell when it’s USC week on the Notre Dame campus. Signs are on lampposts …
And scribbled on the sidewalk in chalk …
The above bit of writing (If you can’t read it — and FYI, sign-makers, yellow chalk wasn’t the best choice — it says, “Kill So Cal like a champion today”) was located outside the LaBar Practice Complex, where the Irish worked out in full pads on Tuesday in 47-degree weather in front of more media observers than usual and scouts from the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers. Here’s what it sounded like during stretching:
At...
Notre Dame receiver Golden Tate has been named the winner of the AT&T All-America Player of the Week award, AT&T announced Thursday.
Tate won more than 50 percent of the vote, beating UTEP running back Donald Buckram, Maryland linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield and Toledo quarterback Aaron Opelt.
The Notre Dame athletic department will be holding an open call for public address announcers on Monday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at Purcell Pavilion. Announcers chosen will be used at numerous athletic events, including women's basketball games.
Prior experience as a public address announcer is preferred but not required. Interested parties must contact Stephanie Menio, Notre Dame’s coordinator of women’s basketball operations, in advance and e-mail her a résumé (smenio@nd.edu) in order to be considered.
For more information, contact Menio either via e-mail or by phone (574-631-3589).
A limited number of tickets will go on sale at 8:30 a.m. EDT Thursday for Notre Dame's home game against Navy on Nov. 7.
Tickets are already available for the Nov. 21 game against Connecticut.
The visiting school returned a portion of its ticket allotment in both cases.
Tickets are $68 each and can be purchased in person at the Gate 1 ticket window on the second floor of the Joyce Center, by calling (574) 631-7356 or by visiting und.com/tickets.
A light but steady rain forced Notre Dame’s open practice for the bye week into the Loftus Center. There were scouts from the St. Louis Rams and Denver Broncos on hand.
A number of players were held out of practice to rest, including quarterback Jimmy Clausen; halfback Armando Allen; receivers Golden Tate and Duval Kamara; linebackers Darius Fleming, Anthony McDonald and Paul Posluszny; safety Kyle McCarthy; and kicker Brandon Walker.
In addition, there were a bunch of players who wore shoulder pads and shorts, while everyone else was in full pads. That list included Harrison Smith, Sergio Brown, Mike Anello, Darrin Walls,...
This found its way into my e-mail box today. I'm just passing it on:
GREEN OUT for ND VS USC!!!!
ND fans are trying to arrange for all fans to show up to the ND vs USC game wearing green. We are asking the local news media to pass the word on. If you could help us pass the word on to wear Green to the ND vs USC game on October 17 that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
((Name withheld))
GO IRISH!!!!!!!!!!
Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen was named the Davey O'Brien Foundation quarterback of the week after his 422-yard effort against Washington last Saturday.
Clausen beat out Miami's Jacory Harris, Houston's Case Keenum, Georgia Tech's Josh Nesbitt, Toledo's Aaron Opelt, Cincinnati's Tony Pike and Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor.
Irish wide receiver Golden Tate — who made Clausen look pretty good against the Huskies, not that Clausen needs a lot of help in that department — is up for the AT&T All-America player of the week award. He's up against Opelt, UTEP running back Donald Buckram and Maryland linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield.
Text message ** VOTE...
I think we've finally found the foolproof way to pick Irish games: Instead of thinking of the game as a whole, just concentrate on Notre Dame's run game. Since Charlie Weis' arrival on campus, the Irish are 18-0 when outrushing their opponent. With Washington ranked 94th in rushing offense this season and 106th (out of 120 teams) against the run, I feel pretty confident in predicting Notre Dame will end up with more rushing yards. Plus, Washington's shaky run D gives the Irish a chance to control the ball, which they've done a great job of doing this season, and...
The season hasn't started, and Notre Dame's basketball team has already suffered a crushing loss.
Junior guard Scott Martin suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during a preseason workout on Thursday and will miss the entire 2009-10 season. Martin, a transfer from Purdue who sat out last season, is expected to have surgery the week of Oct. 19 and a full recovery is expected.
Martin was expected to be a key contributor — possibly even start — for the Irish.
“I am very disappointed for Scott,” Irish head coach Mike Brey said. “He had worked so hard last season in practices...
Taylor Knaack's goal 41 seconds into overtime Friday night gave the Notre Dame women's soccer team a 3-2 win at West Virginia — and also gave the Irish an NCAA record.
Notre Dame has now gone 56 conference matches without a loss, breaking the NCAA record set by North Carolina from 1994-2000.
Melissa Henderson and Haley Ford also scored for the eighth-ranked Irish, who improved to 8-3 overall and 4-0 in the Big East
After Saturday's win at Purdue, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said it was he hardest he'd seen halfback Robert Hughes run in some time. Hughes, speaking Thursday after practice, didn't seem to agree with Weis' assessment.
"That's his opinion," Hughes said. "He's entitled to it."
When asked if he had ever run harder, Hughes said, "I have. I think there's more to come."
Hughes said the difference in the Purdue game was not that he ran harder, but that he was able to find a rhythm carrying the ball and had more opportunities than he's been given in a while.
"I definitely felt comfortable,"...