Highs? There are no highs in a 2-9 season at NOTRE DAME!!! There are only "not-so-lows"....
Not-so-low #1 = QB 'controversey' is dead and ND has its man for the next 2-3 years barring injury.
There will always be a vocal minority who will NEVER forgive Jimmy clausen for being a highly hyped player who did not immediately have a Herchel Walker-type impact on teh college game. This same crowd is quick to point to Clausen has a prima donna or cocky and cite the HOF announcement as the source. Jeff Carroll of the SBT will spend the next 3 years attempting to trash Clausen at every turn out of pure spite, and he will have no shortage of sycophants willign to help either....BUT, Clausen has simply been better on the field than Sharpley and the coaches have said all along that Clausen was also better in practice. I think the last 2 games have started to show this to everyone, well, except those who are pre-disposed to hate everything Clausen anyway....for THAT crowd, even if somehow Jimmy goes for 3,500 yards and 35 TDs next year it won't be good enough because he will have bad hair or something else...comes with the territory of fame I guess...
At any rate, Clausen has started to look more healthy of late, and if he can bulk up to 210-215 and regain arm strength in the off-season, then I believe he will be one of those players next year that has the media troglodytes falling all over themselves to do "comeback" stories...I have speculated all season that something about Jimmy was not right from the GT game through BC. It was not mechanics or technique really, he just looked "off". Not like "I-am-a-total-bust-waiting-to-happen" off, but more like "theres-something-wrong-with-my-arm" off. The last 2 weeks have seen a marked difference in the velocity of his passes. Where 4 weeks ago I was wondering if Clausen wouldn't need more major surgery in this coming off-season, I now think I have seen enough signs of improvement to feel better about him just spending the next 9 months working out and bulking up to handle the college game bettetr.
Bottom line? Clausen has more accuracy, better decision making and a higher ceiling than any other QB currently at ND and when Crist arrives on campus, Clausen will also have 2 Spring practices, 1 Fall camp and 1 Full season of experience on him as well. Crist may eventually be great for ND (who really knows though), but at least Clausen has shown signs of life and potential to live up to some of his prodigious hype...
Not-so-low #2 = Seeing signs of life from both the RB trio (JA/AA/RH)
Robert Hughes and James Aldridge have both shown signs of life this year...James appears to be doomed to forever wonder "what-if" because I think the constant knee problems over the last 3 years (going back to HS) have taken a major toll on his speed. He runs with grit and heart now and I think he was a 5-star RB because at one time it was believed he would be able to match that heart and grit with an exciting second gear speed that is clearly no longer the case. I believe he will have a very good ND career, but not as great as it might have been without knee injuries....on the very bright side for James - he will get an ND degree and will also be a key contributor for another 2 years.
Hughes showed more as the season wore on, and in the face of personal tragedy he has excelled on the field. I worry about Robert in the off-season because he will be forced to confront the horror of his brother's murder without the distraction of football to keep his mind off it, if only in a small way. He has shown great character in this ordeal, and his teammates clearly love the guy and support him to the nth degree (IF there was an actual "high" point for me it would have to be the response Robert got from his teammates when he scored TDs against Navy and Duke...). Its hard for me to imagine just how difficult this season has been for Robert....coming in from HS and adjusting to college life is hard enough for most kids, then throw in football and its an even bigger challenge - he gets that and so much more: being somewhat of a forgotten man on the depth charts and in the line to get carries for much of a floundering season, struggling to show that he can handle blitz pick-ups and see the field more, then having his brother killed. He has handled it all with grace and dignity and is an inspirational player for ND in the process - simply amazing for anyone, incredible for an 18-year old! He has a bright future, maybe more so than James at HB...
Armando Allen has shown tantalizing flashes - really hard runs that were all one downfield block away from big plays or touchdowns. But until the Duke game he was one of the worst RB in the country at picking up a blitz (of course the rest of the list of worst were his freaking teammates, but I digress...). He needs to work very hard on setting up his blocks better. He seems to out run the blockign on screens with alarming regularity still - yes, some of the blocking on those screens has been attrocious, but AA has shown a tendancy to get too far ahead of the blocking, giving the defenders better angles and making the blocks much harder for an alraedy challenged O-line. Not a good combination....the good news is that he has been getting slowly better over the season and come next year the screen to Allen should be as effective or more effective as it was with Darius Walker.
Not-so-low #3 = Seeing signs of life and the continued (if too slow) improvement of the O-line.
The most encouraging thing on the O-line is seeing Chris Stewart starting to get playing time and mauling people on run blocks in the process. I can't help but think if Stewart had been on the field for the ill-fated 2-pt attempt against Navy that there maybe (just maybe) would have been a bit more of a chance to convert that play.... Sometimes the best leaders are those who have gone through the most adversity and come out the other side better for it. Stewart's leaving the team and contemplating a transfer and then subsequent return and steady rise on the depth chart and in performance speaks well of the chances for him to become a true leader on the O-line in the coming years...I would be surprised if he does not step up and take over one of the guard spots heading into next season. He has much work to do on pass protection...but given the stats on the sacks allowed this year, he is no where near alone in that need...
Second was the play of Dan Wenger at his natural center position...I was underwhelmed to say the least of Wenger at guard, but I liked what I saw from him at center - not necessarliy all the blocks but he showed more fire and enthusiasm than before and I definitely noticed a chemistry forming between he and Clausen (a very good thing for the future). Wenger looked like a really fired up dude on the field at center and I hope that being in his more natural position translates into much great success for him and for the offense.
This would actually be a "Really Bad" -No offfense to John Sullivan as a student or as a man, but he failed miserably as a leader this season; and his on-field play was a direct reflection of that lack of leadership.
Aaron Taylor has a wonderful blog about the O-line over at Legends of South Bend - but one of the most important things I read in Aaron's article on thje line was just how important the experienced guys are to young players....Sullivan had new guys all around him and as the returning leader, it fell to him to get them to work as a unit. He couldn't (or wouldn't if you believe some of the rumors and whispers heard this season) get that done. Maybe its unfair, maybe there was simply no way ANYONE could have molded a group that green in college experience into a passable unit....but if it COULD be done, you would expect a pre-season All-American 5th year guy to be able to at least make them competent... He was more of the problem and less of the solution than a 5th year senior should ever be.
Add to that the much bally-hooed Sam Young seeking Charlie for leadership advice story and you can honestly see something building on the O-line - passion and heart are nearly as important as technique and talent in the trenches. Those are the kind of guys ND NEEDS to step up for 2008 - Clausen, Allen, Hughes, and Kamara as Sophomores and Young, Wenger, Stewart and Olsen as Juniors. If there is anything to really take away for the future from this season, it would be that at least as the year has gone on there have been signs (not enough to call it 'progress' yet, but signs) of improvement and hope for a better tomorrow...
Not-so-bad #4 - The defensive play of Darrin Walls, Brian Smith, Kerry Neal and Ian Williams.
Those 4 guys all have NFL potential and have been playing at the highest levels on the defense. With the exception of Williams, they all have made quick-change plays to generate turnovers for ND this year (and Walls return against PSU was a thing of beauty...I hope to see him get more consideration for PR and KR duties next season...). They are all capable of becoming huge players for Notre Dame in the next 2-3 years and if ND is actually going to make a MNC-run in 2009, they will all be absolutely essential reasons why. I know that there are a bunch of talented freshmen recruits committed for next year, but in 2008 the guys who have the most potential to make game-changing plays for ND have already shown flashes of it THIS year. With another year of maturity and growth and with better talent around them to augment the defense in general, I believe that these 4 guys can start to become the leaders of a defense unlike anything we have seen at ND since the 1988-1989 teams.
Not-so-bad #5 - Charlie Weis continues to seek answers and solutions instead of assigning blame or deflecting responsibility.
Of course that does NOT mean that he WILL succeed at turning things around...let's face it, no one ever dreamed the hole would get THIS big THIS fast...but Weis remains steadfast in his work ethic and his contention that the solution to the problem is within himself and the team and not some sort of external limitation (Davie's oft cited tendancy to blame the "academic standards and recruiting limitations of ND") or found on a fairway instead of in some recruit's family room.
Is it possible that ND has STILL not learned the lesson that its top job in football is no place for first time head coaches? Faust (from HS) and Davie (from college coordinator) did not exactly pan out as head coaches at ND...is Wies (NFL coordinator and long ago HS head coach for 1 year) doomed to be the latest failed experiemnt in bringing in a neophyte college head coach to lead ND's program? The answers to those questions will be readily apparent next season...either ND does a complete 180 and starts winning a lot of the games they "should" and remains competitive and competent in ALL, or they do not. If the 2008 campaign is the latter, then the coaching search for a new leader had better be underway. If it is the former though....well then maybe something good will eventually come from this season, maybe a highpoint from THIS year won't be fully realized until the young guys having their teeth kicked in now get to turn that around in the secodn half of their collgee careers...
Eplilogue (Not-so-bad #6) - Recruiting is off the charts under Charlie Weis....
If Charlie Weis accomplishes NOTHING else in his time at ND, if there comes a time when it is clear and beyond reproach that the program must have a different leader to have any chance of advancing to a higher competitive level, then at a minimum Notre Dame fans will be able to THANK him for two things (things that could NEVER have been said about his immediate predecessors):
1) Leaving the cupboard much better stocked if and when he departs than when he got here...there is absolutely no doubt that the talent levels being brought in and the sheer numbers and the strategic numbers (like the # of linemen each year for instance) is moving in a positive direction...
AND
2) Weis has completely dispelled the myth that it is too hard to consistently recruit top-talent to ND. Whether or not he is able to shape that talent and develop it into what it "should" be on paper - a MNC contender - remains to be seen. Sure, it is hard to believe that he might do that (win the MNC) at times in this season, but there can be no doubt that when it comes down to the inexact science of recruiting, Weis is an expert and could sell ice to Eskimos in January! Of course star-ratings and rankings don't mean squat if the players are busts or the coaches fail to develop the talent...but for YEARS we had to hear about how impossible it was for ND to compete ever again because of recruiting...well, Weis is going head-up with Michigan, Ohio State, USC and Florida for the same kids now and he is winning more than a few of those fights.
