Sports: Notre Dame 2005

Despite my previous post on the concept of victory, I was far from thrilled concerning the results of Fiesta Bowl; however, since I never really felt would this game, it doesn't carry the punch that the USC game did and still does.

Here are some thoughts of mine on the game and the season:

1. Darius Walker is a very good back and was obviously hurt for most of the year. Last night he returned to the form he showed against Pittsburgh and Michigan. He'll never be a "homerun hitter," but he did damn well against the best run defense in the country. Our running back situation is really looking good for next year. Darius should only get better, and Travis Thomas has proved to be a more than worthy backup. The additions of James Aldridge, Munir Prince, and Luke Schmidt will only make things better. I'm really hoping that Aldridge can challenge Thomas for the backup spot. If he can do this as a freshman, the future is very bright. Schmidt probably won't have to challenge anyone, since he's the perfect body type to fill in for the departed Rahson Powers-Neal.

2. Samardizja is a possession receiver. He's the best possession receiver in the country, but he's still a possession receiver. Even though he is 6' 5", he's going to have a tough time against corners like OSU has. Rhema McKnight really could have helped out last night. The situation at receiver is at worst an even trade off with this year--not a bad deal. Rhema McKnight appears to have already recovered from his injury suffered against Michigan. Seeing as he was Notre Dame's best receiver at the beginning of this year, I should hope he can at least replicate Stovall's production. With opposing defenses keying on Samardizja, Rhema should be open quite a lot. I also don't think it's asking for much for David Grimes or DJ Hord to match the injured Matt Shelton's production. As with Rhema, because of the production of 1 and 2, the third receiver should be open quite a lot. Think Anthony Gonsalez to Ted Ginn and Santonio Holmes.

3. Brady Quinn is still not quite yet ready for primtime. Yes he had OSU players in his face all game and ND receiver dropped some balls, but last night's performance was not exactly a Heisman statement. I've noticed that most of Quinn's long passes throughout the year have been jump balls (the pass to Stovall in the BYU game and the one to Shark in the Washington game being the two exception I can think of). OSU didn't give Quinn enough time to pull this off. I think the jump ball is also a testament to Quinn's need to work on accuracy. If he had hit Shark in stride on that first pass of the game, it was a touchdown (not that Shark shouldn't have caught that ball anyway).

4. There was absolutenly no pass rush. Now, I think over all (big plays nonwithstanding) the secondary played a pretty good game, although I do think Chinedum Ndukwe looked a bit lost out there sometimes. Smith took all day to throw and usually didn't hit his primary receiver. This means two things: no pass rush and the secondary forced him to go through his progressions. Sadly, I don't see the pass rush situation being rectified anytime soon. We may very well have to wait until Kellen Wade and John Ryan are juniors before our line can attack the QB without any help from the blitz.

5. Notre Dame's team speed is not where it needs to be. Except for the D-Line (see above) I think this could very easily be rectified next year. This is based on the assumption that Maurice Crum did not beat out Ndukwe for the apache position last spring, but that the combination of apache Crum and safety Ndukwe beat out apache Ndukwe and whatever other safety youre willing to stick in there. Thus, if David Bruton is ready for primetime, which he appears to be, then Zibby can move down to strong safety, Ndukwe to apache, and Crum can slide over to outside linebacker. Suddenly our defense just got a lot faster. Even without a nickel package we'd match up pretty well against three wides. If Bruton isn't ready, ND may be in for a bit of a mess.

6. Minter should not be fired at this point. We had two returning starters at defense, and, as someone at IrishEyes pointed out, Wooden and Ndukwe weren't even recruited at their current positions, while Zibby and Richardson mainly played offense in high school.

7. We really need Gerald McCoy. Notre Dame desperately needs a DT who would force a double team, freeing the ends. Unfortunately, despite his prowess in high school, I can't really expect him to start over Landri or Laws next year.

8. Weis is scary good. He took a bunch of players who expected to lose and turned them into the one of the best offenses in the country. I really can't wait until he has his own players in.