As a lifelong Subway Alumnus (I didn’t go to Notre Dame, never knew anyone who did until I was nearly 30, but grew up in an Irish Catholic family and just ASSUMED Notre Dame was “my” school, somehow) who thought Tyrone Willingham got a raw deal but am intrigued by Charlie Weis…
I’m still baffled by the Irish. They looked very good at Pitt, okay at Michigan (occasionally VERY okay on defense). If they didn’t have such a brutal schedule ahead of them I’d say they were major (but not BCS bowl bound.
If Notre Dame gets just 6 wins, some bowl will take them (probably a better bowl than they deserve- that’s just a fact of life). On the other hand, looking at their schedule, I don’t see 4 sure wins. Navy SHOULD be a gimme (but they haven’t been, the last few years). Washington SHOULD be a gimme, but you think Ty Willingham won’t have his team fired up to beat the team he thinks (with some justice) screwed him over?
Beyond that, there are just too many good (Tennessee, Purdue) and VERY good (USC) teams on the schedule.
Only a few insane, cockeyed optimists are talking national championship. I’m not among them. But I’d like some opinions. Is Notre Dame looking at:
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A 9-2 season, followed by an undeserved invitation to one of the lesser BCS bowl games?
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A 7-4 or 8-3 record, followed by a trip to the Cotton or Outback Bowl?
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A 6-5 record, followed by a trip to a third tier bowl?
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A meltdown, with no bowl invitations at all?
The odd thing is, I can pretty easily picture ANY of these scenarios!
I’m pretty sure USC beats Notre Dame easily (but doesn’t humiliate them, as they have the last two years). But other than that, I don’t feel confident predict the outcome of any of their games.
What say you?
I’m currently a grad student at ND. I think it’s a damn shame we got rid of Willingham when and the way we did. I think he deserved another year or two; if the team still wasn’t performing that well, then it could be pinned on him. Oh, well…alumni pressure and all that.
At any rate, I think the team has gotten better (perhaps a biased view, influenced by being here). I’m hoping for option #2, but man – what a schedule we have. I’d like to think only USC will give us problems; we’ll see. Most likely, that’s being overly optimistic.
I was talking to someone on campus last year when they Ty go whose problem with the coaching at that time was that Ty seemed to try to fit the players into his “West-coast offense”, rather than tailor the strategy to the players he had. Maybe that’s legitimate, maybe not. All I can say is that Walker has really impressed me thus far this season, as has the offensive line (Quinn has so much time in the pocket!) and, of course, the defense remains a strong point. However, the Davies’ years, the train-wreck last four or five games of Ty’s first season, and the inconsistency of the the last two seasons has made me awfully gun-shy about getting my hopes up. Not to mention the spotty play in the second half of the Michigan game.
But hope I will. Go Irish!
Well, we got a better indication of how things may go, in today’s game with Michigan State.
If any insane Irish fans thought ND was going all the way this year, well, they’ve been disabused of that notion. This is still just a fair-to-middling team in terms of talent. So, even the best X’s and O’s man in the business (Charlie Weis is up there with the best) isn’t going to get them to the top this year or next.
But…
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I was impressed at how the team has bought into Weis’ strategy. It’s not easy to get kids to do things your way- ask Bill Callahan, who’s already on borrowed time at Nebraska. No, the offense wasn’t clicking on all cylinders, but it did some very imp[ressive things. By the end of this year, I think they’ll have a very potent offense.
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Nore Dame’s national television exposure only helps them if they’re doing exciting things. When they get their butts kicked, potential recruits see that on TV and think, “Forget it- I ain’t going there!” But if they see a successful, wide-open, high-scoring pro-style offense run by a coach with 3 Super Bowl rings… well, Notre Dame might actually be able to recruit nationwide again.
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As much as I respected Ty Willingham, the most bothersome aspect of his time at Notre Dame was how BADLY the Irish were beaten in a number of games. TO be sure, when the Irish lost under Willingham, it was almost always to more talented teams… but that’s no excuse for rolling over and letting scores get UGLY. Today, even though Michigan State ultimately won, I was happy to see the Irish hang in there and keepi making plays up the end. I don’t believe in “moral victories” (and I’m sure Charlie Weis doesn’t, either), but I was happy to see the Irish fight back from a big deficit for a change, instead of letting the SPartans run away from them.
So, for this year? I guess I’m leaning toward 7-4 and a trip to a good-but-not-BCS bowl.
The Mich. State game did not work out so well for the Irish.
As a Spartan alum, yesterday’s game was one of the most enjoyable games in my memory. But I was impressed with the heart that the Irish showed. Their schedule is indeed brutal, too bad some of the other perennial powers get to feast for much of the year on creampuffs.
My prediction for the Irish would be either 8-3 or 7-4. That will get them a solid second-tier bowl. I thought Willingham should have been given another year, I still think he could be a super coach somewhere. Weis will do fine, but I do wonder how long it takes for him to wash off the lipstick planted on his buttocks by the NBC commentators. Good Lord, I have never heard such fawning!
Actually, though they didn’t win, I’d say it worked out surprisingly well. While they pretty much fell apart in the third quarter, they played three quarters of competitive, fairly balanced football. Different from the Davies’ years when the defense would score more than the offense, and better than Ty’s leadership (and the first two games this season) in that they didn’t fall apart after the first half.
At this point, I just hope they gain some more consistency; Quinn was off the mark too often and the offensive line let too many people through too often. And I still have to reserve judgment on Walker. We’ll see…perhaps Weis will indeed bring the team back in a year or two.