Schoettle's Take: A Notre Dame Fighting Irish Preview

Dan Schoettle, a Notre Dame fan who has written on the Irish for this blog before, is at it again. Below he does a great job breaking down the Irish and their upcoming season. One more note for collegefootball fans: Stephen Moss has a new blog up that is a must read for college football bettors. He gives free picks and so far he is 5-0, documented (as you would say on a (900) number). Steve's blog can be found at www.mossreport.blogspot.com. Enjoy.
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The weather is starting to cool and the color of the leaves in the Midwest are about to change. The smell of football is in the air. Fans throughout the country are dreaming of their season ending in Glendale, AZ in a National Championship. One of these teams is the University of Notre Dame. There has been more hype in South Bend regarding the upcoming season since at least the mid 90’s.

The Irish open the preseason polls as #2 in the nation. Several preseason publications have them as the #1 team in the country. The big question is whether this lofty preseason ranking is justified or if it is simply a case of trying to use the nationwide fan base to sell magazines. There a lot of doubters, including the proprietor of this blog (Editor's note: for my commentary on Irish football and what I call unrealistic expectations, scroll down to my August 18th entry). I will breakdown the upcoming season and give my prediction at the end.

Offense

Everyone knows about Brady Quinn. He is the Heisman frontrunner and Mel Kiper’s projected 2007 NFL #1 draft pick. He threw for over 3,000 yards and 30 plus TD passes in 2005. He is the prototypical pocket passer. Darius Walker is the returning Junior running back who started each of his first two years. Freshman Munir Prince could see meaningful minutes as his backup. Prince has been issued Rocket’s old #25 and has impressed Coach Charlie Weis with his speed. Jeff Samardzija is back for another year at one receiver spot. He had a monster year last year with 15 TD catches and over 1,000 yards. He spent his summer playing minor league baseball in the Cubs organization. Rhema McKnight is healthy and back in the mix at the other receiver. He was supposed to start over Samardzija last year, but hurt his knee against Michigan and was lost for the season. I look for McKnight to put up similar numbers as Maurice Stovall did last year. Tight end will be anchored by Marcus Freeman and John Carlson. I do not expect any drop off from the solid year that Anthony Fasano had last year (sans the fumbles). The line is returning four players who either started or played extensively last year. The right tackle will be manned by freshman phenom Sam Young of Florida. I believe that he is the first freshman offensive lineman to start his first game at ND in the modern era. Normally, this would be cause for concern. However, I believe that Young is a future 1st rounder who will only need a few games to get used to the speed of the college game. He could be moved to left tackle next year as ND brings in a great group of freshman offensive linemen.

Grade: A

Defense

All of the pundits think that this is the weakness of the Irish team and who could blame them. When last seen, this was the defense that gave up a school record 600 yards to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. The conventional wisdom is that the defense is “too slow”. I think the media repeats this enough that they just start to believe it. The secondary at ND is NOT slow. Safety and boxer (he fought at Madison Square Garden this summer) Tom Zbikowski is not slow, nor are the corners, Ambrose Wooden or Mike Richardson. The other safety, Ndukwe, has lost 20 pounds this offseason and will not be slow. Weis mentioned that you may appear slow when the communication is lacking in the secondary. If you watch the Ohio State replay, the receivers are wide open not from running past the secondary but from either blown assignments or paying too much attention to the play action. LAST YEAR, the Irish may have been slow at the linebacker position. They will be more inexperienced at LB (only Maurice Crum, Jr. will return-yes his dad played for the convicts at Miami), but more athletic. Weis even moved Travis Thomas over from running back to get his athleticism on the field. Freshman Toryan Smith may see a lot of action as well. The defensive line returns all of the starters including Victor Abiamiri. Abiamiri has underachieved so far. For the Irish defense to improve, he needs to improve his consistency. I have to give mention to one of the second team defensive linemen, Pat Kuntz (from my high school alma mater of Roncalli) who will see a lot of action as a defensive tackle.

Grade: B

Special Teams

This is one are that has me concerned. In big games, which are usually close, the kicking game is the difference between winning and losing. The Irish kickoff duty will fall to David Grimes and Freshman George West. This area of special teams was not very potent last year. The key this year is ball security. The punt return game is in the hands of Zbikowski whose return against USC as a human pinball was one of the highlights of the year. The kickoff duties will fall to Bobby Renkes, field goals to Carl Gioia and the punting to Geoff Price. Renkes, Gioia and Price all have the necessary skills to get the job done, but it remains to be seen what happens when the lights come on and 80,000 fans are screaming at you.

Grade: Incomplete

Coaching

The hiring of Weis was seen as a wait and see by most members of the media. Well, after one year he has energized the fans, alumni, players and administration. His innovative game plans have allowed for winning football and an exciting brand of football. He has raised expectations to where they should be: to compete for National Championships year after year. With his four Super Bowl rings and reputation as a great playcaller Weis has generated a buzz among recruits. The Freshman class of this year and the incoming class of next year should help build the depth that was depleted by the lazy recruiting days of Ty Willingham.

Some haters will say that Willingham went 10-3 his first year (2002) and Weis went only 9-3. That is absurd if you watched the games! The 02 team did not score an offensive touchdown until its third game, lost to USC by 31 points, and lost 3 of its last 5 games. The only outscored their opponents on the season by less than 7 points/game while the 05 team lost 3 close games and outscored their opponents by about 14-17 points/game. Rumors will come every year about Weis to the NFL, but I believe he will be a mainstay in South Bend for 10-15 years and will win MULTIPLE National Championships.

Grade: A

Schedule Strength

As always the Irish open with a brutal September. However, it never looks as hard when you have a good team. Also, you never know how hard the schedule is until the season is over. The Irish beat several ranked teams at the time that they played them last year (Pitt, Michigan). However, these teams fell off after their games with ND. Tennessee looked like a tough game last year. Who knew at the beginning of the season they would end up 5-6 and out of a bowl game. The schedule that, at the beginning of the season, said ND would go 0-6 or 1-5 became at the end of the season, “They didn’t beat anyone”.

Most of the tough games will be at home. Penn State will NOT be as good as last year. Michigan is being overlooked, but they have the talent to beat anyone. They will have to overcome their conservative/bad coaching of Lloyd Carr. The other home games look manageable. The tough road games include at USC in the last regular season game. The game tonight at Georgia Tech may be close for a half, but I think ND pulls away for a 14-17 point win.

Grade: B

Fearless Prediction

Anything less than a National Championship would be a disappointment for most fans (Editor's note: This was my point; less than a title should not necessarily be a disappointment to most fans!). The Irish are set up with a Heisman candidate, the toughest games at home, and the coaching of Weis. Bob Stoops won a National Championship in his second year at Oklahoma. So it can be done. ND will be favored in every game except maybe the USC game, depending on how each is playing. I get a little uncomfortable when everyone is predicting a championship for your team (see the Colts). It is difficult for me to predict an undefeated season. ND will lose one regular season (Michigan or Michigan State probably) and finish at 11-1. With no dominant team in college football this year, an early loss may allow ND to play for all the marbles in Arizona. If not a BCS Bowl win will eliminate 13 years of Bowl futility.

Prediction: 12-1; National Champion/BCS Bowl winner

Future Scheduling Note

ND Stadium is the most storied stadium in all of college football. Built in 1930 (Knute Rockne coached his last season there before his untimely death) and expanded in 1997 it is a must see for any sports fan. ND Stadium has no advertising, no Jumbotron, no luxury suites and no techno music during TV timeouts-just the marching bands. Any game day trip to ND must include going to the Golden Dome, Sacred Heart Basilica, lighting a candle at the Grotto and watching the Band march from the Dome into the Stadium.

In the upcoming three years, ND is hosting two schools that have never played at the Stadium: San Diego State (2008) and Nevada (2009). In 2007, they are hosting Duke, who has not played in South Bend since 1966. I know that there are readers of this blog that attended those schools and I would highly encourage them to try to go to these games and experience what ND and college football is all about.