It's Time to Expect to Beat Southern Cal
posted by Scott Engler
(The Rock Report) - There has been an ideological debate on NDNation over whether coaching or talent was responsible for Notre Dame's two year plunge. The answer is both and when you have two factors with that much impact, it's hard, if not impossible, to determine ultimate causation.As we've covered before (ad nauseam) Weis is learning on the job and the weighted talent level fell off the table the last two years. That combination led to the worst year most of us can remember in 2007 and an embarrassing collapse in 2008.
Unfortunately that has many fans "lowering the bar" heading into 2009. Most have already chalked up a loss to Southern Cal and would consider making the BCS a turnaround for the program.
I suggest that bar is too low.
It's now year five of the Weis era, Notre Dame is elite in terms of upper tier talent (our talent level in 09 will be higher than Florida's last year) and Weis is dealing with a full allotment of coaches chosen by him after careful selection. Notre Dame has as veteran an offensive line as there is in the
country, a full array of weapons and a five-star junior quarterback who's now been been on campus for three springs that was coveted by everyone in the country including USC.There's no reason to assume a loss to Southern Cal is a fait accompli; in fact, there's reason to believe Notre Dame should beat the Trojans this year.
USC loses its entire starting linebacking corps, all but one of its starting defensive linemen, two star defensive backs and likely first round pick Mark Sanchez at quarterback. To be sure they're filling in the holes with five-star spackle like Everson Griffen who started as a freshman, but Notre Dame will be playing USC relatively straight-up from a mature talent standpoint. (ND-USC Steele Rankings )
The big worry is USC's offensive line matched against Notre Dame's very green defensive line, but every other match-up is close enough, assuming coaching and player development, for Notre Dame to win. If Notre Dame's defensive line isn't blown off the ball by USC, Jimmy Clausen's experience and home field advantage should be the difference.
If Notre Dame is going to return to the elite of college football, 2009 is the year. A top ten finish with top ten talent after three years of coaching under-performance should be a minimum goal. At some point, you have to prove you can get the Ws and this is that year for Weis.
Whether or not Weis deserved another year is now a moot point. If Weis is a truly a championship coach, we should expect to beat USC or come so close (as in 2005) that there's no doubt the rising Irish talent is being coached by a staff can lift them to excellence.
It's time to ditch the "Hold Me I'm Irish" mindset that has perpetuated mediocrity in South Bend and expect and demand excellence on the field.
It's time to beat SC.
Labels: charlie weis, notre dame football, USC
11 Comments:
Amen to that, Rock. Is it possible that CW's "We need to be in the BCS conversation this year" declaration may not be enough to save his job, particularly if the team limps in and gets their doors blown off (a la 2006 in NOLA)?
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so amazing how so many are on this IRISH site... i wouldnt let most handle hiring a dog catcher... CW basically started from scratch, last 2 years' team was that of an expansion team. UM saw it and escaped to fla. PC said he knew we were in trouble. CW and ND will be fine. spend more of your idle team doing helpful things.
Is Charlie Weiss any relation to Bob Davies?
Agreed. I have been telling everyone that we will beat USC this year. I have been an apologist for Weis so far but no longer. There will be no excuses this year. The talent is there. Go Irish!!!
As Rock stated, the last two years were a perfect storm of recruiting black holes and sub par coaching. This year ND has veteran talent at virtually every position save along the defensive line. There are absolutely no excuses in 2009.
Even though I've been a huge critic of Weis since the 2006 season I would like to see him succeed for the sake of the team and university. Weis has his character flaws but he has worked extremely hard and has the best interest of the school at heart.
I believe this year is the first year ND matches up with SC in terms of raw talent probably since ND's last victory in 2001. For ND to show definite improvement they must accomplish three things:
1) Dominate the weaker opponents on their schedule. The 2008 Irish struggled mightily against doormat San Diego State and narrowly survived a comeback by Navy. Stanford and Pitt were allowed to hang around. Stanford miscues preserved the Irish lead but Pitt defeated ND in triple overtime.
2) Beat USC. ND must win or if they lose it should be within 3 points in the waning moments of the game. No more 35+ point blowout losses. If ND gets creamed then Weis must go regardless of their won-loss record. Four straight blowout losses would simply be inexcusable for an ND coach.
3) Make it to a BCS game and play competitively against a top 10 team. ND needs to at least play like they belong in the big leagues in lieu of a win.
A successful 2009 would lead to a bonanza on the recruiting trail and set ND up for a run of success over the next several years. Let's hope.
If CW doesn't add deception to the offensive formations and play calling, and if ND continues to use officials from the conference of the team they are playing, ND's record in 09 will not be much better than last year.
to "thedorekazmer": that is getting old. Go read bluegraysky.com and you would help educate yourself. NDNATION.com is the most accurate Irish web-site that is out there. They have it dead-on that ND should play USC tough and win at least 10-11 games in 2009. They got it right on what happened in 2007 & 2008. To those that think the offense is too vanilla, we only had 1 TIGHT END last year! Not a lot you can do about that.
I finally realize why people hate us. We are arrogant, stupid and oh yea, managed to snub the President (way to stay hip and with it ND). Rock, to pay any credence to the idea of Charlie deserving another year, dumbfounds me. I know you love ND football and have probably been hurt by them so many times, like myself, that it has impaired yours and lot of the fans reasoning. LISTEN! CW is the best thing to happen to this program since Miami 88' and this year you all will see! ND has always been in the wrong decade(back to Obama) and her tradition, while the greatest, needs to be once again embraced and not used to cut corners. When Lou left it was already too late. ND could no longer bring the talent and passion to the field while honoring what set her apart from the others. Many thought this was the way it would stay. Enter CW, who started by managing a respectable recruiting class while winning a third super bowl, then inhumanly going to work on rebuilding the program with stocks of 4 and 5 star talent. He came out the gate looking towards the future and relentlessly worked with what he already had and oh yea, managed two BCS trips out of it. 07' hurt and CW showed his lack of experience however, lessons always need learning. Better to do it 07'. 08' should've of been better. The lions were still cubs but showed a glimpse at the end. The one time genius coach and former high school super stars experienced some well needed humility and were now ready to show why they came to ND. 09' well, we now have young lions at all positions and on the bench, we have a schedule that will let them loose on other programs trying to raise their cubs. For the first time in a long time we can reload our players with real talent and not stories of Rockne and Rudy. Yes, my wounded ND fans, I know your afraid to love again but that’s all going to change in September. And we almost got rid of the guy.
The BCS championship game last year was one where deception won the game. Oklahoma ran plays the Florida defense could see coming, leading to few red zone scores for Oklahoma. Florida used deception and scored in the red zone. My favorite play was the fake QB sneak where the Florida QB even took one step forward before taking two steps back to lob the ball to the running back alone just over the line in the end zone for a TD. 20 players playing the QB sneak, 2 players playing the pass, deception won the game.
I think tiggs makes and interesting point, the Irish won in their bowl game against Hawaii, and yes they were not the best team they could have faced, but they did not just squeak by with a victory like sandiego state they dismantled them in every facet of the game. There are not many teams out there returning talent like we are, and if the Hawaii bowl is a small indication the 09
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