Third
Down: Defense
This defense
was handed awful field position all year, and was probably on the field an extra
possession or two per game. Yet it put up solid numbers, and with most of its
key starters returning, this could be a top-ten defense
nationally.
Seven starters
return in all, with the biggest losses MVP lineman Trevor Laws (112 tackles as a
lineman!) and safety Tom Zbikowski, second and third-round draft picks
respectively. But everyone else gains another year of experience, and All-World
true frosh linebacker (and one-time Stanford recruit) Steve Filer could create
the havoc in the middle the Irish have been lacking.
Between new
linebacker coach Jon Tenuta. formerly of Georgia Tech (qualified enough to be a
head coach) and defensive coordinator Corwin Brown, formerly of the Jets, the
staff is one of the best in the nation. Plus, this year’s offense will muster
more than 242 yards per game. All told, this D will undoubtedly put up better
numbers than last year.
Laws was the
most underrated player on the D, hands down. (Zbikowski was the most overrated.
The next time NBC tells me he boxes, the television goes through the window.)
But the Irish will put senior Justin Brown into Laws’ end spot in their 3-4
scheme, and he held up fine (30 tackles in five starts) last season. Add in nose
guard Pat Kuntz and end John Ryan (a linebacker in ’07), and the three-man Irish
line started 25 games in 2007. They should be as good as last year, despite
Laws’ departure.
The linebackers
were the weakest defensive unit last year. How else does Laws post an incredible
112 tackles (most for an Irish lineman since 1975), yet the team still allows
4.3 yards per carry? Back is Maurice Crum, the best of the bunch to my eyes (84
tackles in 2007).Replacing No.
2 tackler Joe Brockington, who racked up stats but never seemed to make the big
play, with Flier might be addition by subtraction.
However, two
sophomores, Brian Smith and Kerry Neal, should start as the outside backers.
While both started a few games as frosh, this unit figures to be the weakest on
Notre Dame’s defense. Corwin Brown swears by the 3-4 and Tenuta coaches the
linebackers, but the Irish might have the personnel better suited for a 4-3
scheme.
Teams were so
far ahead on the Irish they rarely passed, running 548 times and passing just
344, which partially explains the D allowing 195 rush yards to only 162 pass
yards per game. Still, the secondary was exemplary last year, and with six
returners with starting experience, teams would do well not to fall behind the
Irish.
Corner Terrail Lambert had a rough 2006, getting beat for multiple touchdowns by USC and
Michigan receivers as the Irish’s biggest games of the year turned into blowout
losses (and snarky football writers, including yours truly, started calling him
"Toast" for his propensity to get burnt). Lambert posted a respectable 2007,
however, and now enters this season as the unit’s strength, a three-year starter
and the heart of the secondary. Opposite Lambert at corner is another returning
starter, Darrin Walls, a five-star out of high school who broke up a team-high
nine passes last season. The only better pair of corners Stanford will battle
this year will be the Oregon schools’.
David Bruton,
of a 41” vertical and 4.39 speed, holds down free safety, leaving the starting
strong safety (likely Kyle McCarthy) the only uncertainty in the secondary.
Compounded with the problems the Irish are likely to have at linebacker, the
likely struggles at strong safety could well make Notre Dame vulnerable against
short, West-Coast style passes in the middle of the field. But anything deep,
anything testing the corners, should be shut down, meaning teams will have to
try to nickel-and-dime this defense. Good luck.
Fourth
Down: Extra Points
The schedule is
a joke – USC is the only preseason top-20 team on the schedule and Boston College the only other lock to make a bowl. Notre Dame should be favored in its
other 10 games. By means of comparison, Stanford plays three preseason top-20
teams and Washington, the Card’s opponent the week previous, faces five! A
good-but-not-great Pac-10 team, like an Oregon or a Cal, could win 10 or 11 with
Notre Dame’s schedule.
Speaking of
which, my best guess for why Notre Dame is 0-9 in bowls since 1995: the emperor
has no clothes! The Irish simply aren’t as good as their record would indicate
most years, because of their easier schedule. Similar logic also explains Notre
Dame’s 4-8 record against ranked opponents in the Weis era.
Plus, Notre
Dame’s national draw gets them into big games in borderline cases, and so you
have the Irish regularly overmatched in January (they’ve been underdogs their
last five bowl games), which goes a long way toward explaining their bowl
futility.
Notre Dame’s
recruiting ranked second only to Alabama’s 33-man class last season. Considering
you can only sign 25 (and Alabama’s pulling every trick it can to whittle down
its class), Notre Dame probably signed the best recruiting class of 2008. The
Irish are well on their way to a top-five class in 2009 as well, having already
inked 12 recruits, all three-star or better, plus a kicker and a punter.
Stanford is turning heads nationally for this type of a recruiting effort after
a 4-8 season. How the heck is Charlie Weis doing it after 3-9?
Then again,
Notre Dame’s 2006 class is the ultimate cautionary tale into putting too much
stock into recruiting rankings. At the time, the class ranked fifth in the
nation, with 15 of the 28 commits four- or five-star players. Two years later,
eight members of that class are no longer on the team.
Six have
transferred to other schools, including Konrad Reuland, now a Stanford tight
end. The Notre Dame Scout site claims the transfers had all been beaten out by
younger players for playing time. But seeing as those transfers are all at least
three-star guys (and Reuland the No. 2 tight end recruit nationally), how is
that possible? And if all those guys were beaten out by younger players, then
guess the recruiting rankings weren’t all that accurate to begin with.
Add in
two players no longer with the team due to “personal issues,” and Notre Dame’s
top-five 28-member class is now outside the top 25.
I love tracking recruiting as much as the next guy, but, with oversigning more endemic and transferring more frequent than ever, Notre Dame's '06 class is a good reminder that whoever wins the recruiting national title isn't always winning the actual national titles -- and vice versa. Otherwise, the Irish wouldn't have been returning to glory since 1993.
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