Lineman Defects from Notre Dame

Offensive lineman Matt Carufel is the latest in a string of defectors from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Carufel informed Coach Charlie Weis that he was leaving the team on the Sunday after the Boston College game. The sophomore, a 6-5, 295-lbs right guard, has played for a while as a starter in the absence of injured Dan Wenger. However, Carufel later lost his starting job to Eric Olsen and did not play in the past few games. It has been suggested that Carufel might attempt to transfer to Iowa or Minnesota.

Matt Carufel joins a list of more famous “cut-and-runners” that includes quarterbacks Demetrious Jones and Evan Sharpley. A third-string tight end, Konrad Reuland, also quit the team this season. Would these players be defecting so quickly if the Irish were winning? Does this reflect badly on the character of the players, or on the management style of Coach Weis? With as big of a roster as what Notre Dame is dealing with, you have to consider that some players are eventually going to quit at one point or another. Many of these guys are in their late teens and early twenties, and moving from being the star at their high school, where they stood out as the guy who got a scholarship to Notre Dame, to getting beaten regularly and not even getting to play, has to leave a few wanting to opt out. However, as Evan Sharpley has proven, if you stick with it, wait for chance and keep positive, you’ll get your shot.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 17, 2007 - Post a comment

Lineman Leaves, Sharpley Starts

Evan Sharpley will be the starting quarterback when the Irish face the USC Trojans this Saturday. There are those who will be pleased to hear this news, but probably no Trojan fans will be among them. Jimmy Clausen, the freshman QB for the Irish, has been struggling this season, and is feeling the pressure after making five starts for Notre Dame this year. He began the season as a backup because his elbow was still recovering from an offseason surgery, and now he is, as Charlie Weis described, “banged up” enough that his slight edge over Sharpley (in the mind of Weis) no longer exists.

There are plenty of statistical data to prove that Sharpley has been the superior quarterback this season. In the few, short times that Sharpley has played in place of Clausen (most recently in the second half of the Boston College game) Sharpley has done more with less time. He has a higher completion percentage, better QB rating score, fewer interceptions and more touchdowns despite a vast disparity in playing time. To Clausen’s credit, he is a frosh, he gets the bulk of the hits with a weak line, and he does have the advantage of having played the full game in Notre Dame’s only win this season. But probably the most telling reason for why the Irish will do better under senior Evan Sharpley is the general change of mood that Sharpley brings into the game whenever he is the quarterback. There aren’t any stats to back up this claim, but you can sense that the other guys on offense respond better to the senior leadership of Evan Sharpley. Clausen is the future of the Notre Dame offense, but a rest at this point might just turn out to be beneficial both for the team, and Jimmy as a player. Weis sometimes does some strange things, but I like this move.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 16, 2007 - Post a comment

BC Beats Notre Dame in Catholic School Battle

Notre Dame and Boston College, the only two Division-I NCAA football programs in the nation, played this past weekend in South Bend, Indiana. The game ended with a 27-14 Boston College victory, the sixth Eagles victory over the Irish in their last seven games against one another. BC improved to 7-0 and moved up the rankings to become the number three team in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been reduced to a record of 6-1.

While a loss is always a bummer, you have to admit that the Irish were competitive against a very good team. If you think back to the first few weekends of the season, you probably will notice a lot of improvement in the Notre Dame offense and defense. Considering the quality of their opponent, many people were expecting the Irish to get blown out. However, in the middle of the third quarter fans at Notre Dame Stadium found their team trailing by less than a touchdown after an interception return for a touchdown. Of course, Matt Ryan and the BC offense quickly separated themselves from the Irish, and did not allow Notre Dame back in it. Still, Evan Sharpley played well, the defense had its good moments, and everyone in Notre Dame Football Land is optimistic about improving on the progress made over the weekend.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 15, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame’s Crum and Zibikowski talk UCLA, BC

If you check out the headlines at UND.com you can read the transcript of an interview conducted yesterday with two of Notre Dame’s best defensive players, Maurice Crum, Jr. and Tom Zibikowski. The two Fighting Irish defensive captains talked about UCLA, Boston College and several other things relating to football at Notre Dame. Crum is a senior inside linebacker for the Irish, and he had one of the best games of his college career versus the UCLA Bruins last weekend. In fact, he won the National Defensive Player of the Week with his performance, complete with (as stated in the article) “two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, one for a touchdown, two interceptions, seven tackles, one sack, one tackle for a loss and one pass breakup.”

If you read the transcript you get the feeling that these athletes are happy with what they were able to accomplish vs. UCLA, but that this week was all spent on preparation. They are not about to rest on their laurels, because they know that they face a very tough opponent in Boston College. For the past few days Crum, Zib and the rest of the Notre Dame defensive unit have been watching game film about BC quarterback Matt Ryan. Hopefully they found a weakness in his game, because I sure haven’t seen any.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 12, 2007 - Post a comment

Gipper’s Body Exhumed

With only a few days to go before Notre Dame’s next football game vs. Boston College, a story has been unearthed, so to speak, that has to do with a legend of the Fighting Irish. Apparently, the body of the late George Gipp has been exhumed for the purpose of a DNA test. This happened about a week ago, in October 4, and has been the source of much controversy. A request was filed with the proper authorities by a relative of Gipp so that a sample of Gipp’s DNA could be taken. Some family members were appalled by the grave tampering, but it seems that this incident was not without at least one vehement proponent. The story got picked up yesterday by SportsIllustrated.com, among many others. ESPN cameras were there to catch all the action, though they have stated that they had no part in the incident beyond the purely journalistic.

I’m sure by now you are wondering the exact reasons behind the request for a DNA sample from The Gipper. However, no news sources have yet to give one, and the family member who requested the body to be exhumed was said that he will give an official comment at some later time.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 11, 2007 - Post a comment

Taking a Look at Boston College

By now you are through partying because of the latest Notre Dame Fighting Irish victory over UCLA. You are probably starting to get worried about Boston College. The numbers will tell you why you should be scared of BC coming into Notre Dame’s house this weekend: Record: 6-0, AP Poll: No. 4, Coaches Poll: No. 4, ACC Standings: No. 1, total offense: 21st, points allowed: 21st. This is a very sound football team, and many of the experts agree that Boston College is one of the best teams in the nation. But let’s try to nit-pick these Golden Eagles, shall we?

First of all, you can look at the quality of Boston College’s opponents and see a real disparity between what the Irish have gone up against, and the pansies on the BC schedule. A quick little look at the games played so far will reveal that the combined record of Notre Dame’s opponents thus far is 24-12, whereas BC’s opponents have a record of 17-16. Versus a common opponent, Georgia Tech, BC won 24-10, but Notre Dame lost 33-3. Of course, BC had the added hype of beating the Yellow Jackets while they were ranked #15 in the nation. Notre Dame lost to Georgia Tech when the Rambling Wreck were unranked, thus making the loss appear worse and BC’s subsequent win seem better than the reality of the situations. Notre Dame has also come a long way from week one.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 10, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Reaping Benefits of Win

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is reaping the benefits of having won their latest football game versus UCLA. This blogger noticed that the Irish have been pulled from the ESPN list titled “The Bottom Ten.” That’s just one of the many things you will be enjoying as a fan of the Golden Domers this week. Last week Notre Dame was ranked No. 9 in the Bottom 10 rankings, so they were due to get bumped out. Their solid win this past weekend sealed the deal though, so no longer will the Irish have this particular humiliation hanging over their heads. There are worse teams out there, and if the Irish can keep up the good playing, they won’t have to get ranked in this anti-poll again.

Other than the media tone, people who have been rooting for the Irish and hoping that they do good things to blog about have a lot of great things to be happy for right now. Everywhere you look there are signs of spring, as pertaining to Notre Dame football. By this time in most weeks, bloggers like Yours Truly would have already moved onto the next game, looking for something positive to write about in the future, because the past is too bleak. However, this week the Notre Dame blog has barely given Boston College a second thought. Just like you, this blog can’t get over all of the sacks, the fumble recoveries, the interceptions. It’s a lot easer to be Irish these days.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 9, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Beats UCLA!!!

The first win of the season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish came when they defeated the UCLA Bruins 20-6 this past Saturday night. The Irish, who had struggled in their first five games, and had been the laughing stock of the college football world, finally have a number in the win column. Not only did the Irish win, but they won convincingly against an opponent that was just a game away from getting into the AP Top 25. There are still plenty of issues for the Irish, but so many things went right this past Saturday it is hard to contain it all into one blog.

This is truly a great time for the Notre Dame football bloggers of this world. All season long the Irish have given us nothing but disappointment, challenging our resolve every step of the way. But the second half of the Perdue game, and the whole game versus UCLA this past weekend have pretty much made the wait and suffering seem worth it. Will this win signal a turnaround for the rest of the season? Are we now looking at that USC game in a different light, given the fact that Stanford can beat them as well?

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 8, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Faces UCLA Tomorrow

The University of Notre Dame football players are en route to Pasadena tonight. The Rose Bowl will be the site of the Notre Dame-UCLA game tomorrow, and we hope you have your tickets already. If you don’t then you should make sure to watch this prime-time match up on television. In preparation for the game you should go to UND.com to see their daily news video. Today’ s segment shows some clips of a couple pretty successful Notre Dame games. The first one is from the 1924 Rose Bowl, when the Irish played Stanford for their first national championship. The coach was Knute Rockne, and the players leading the offense were the fabled Four Horsemen. Oh, how times have changed…

Just last year the Irish had a wonderful game at Notre Dame Stadium against the UCLA Bruins. They won in the closing seconds after Brady Quinn led a drive down the field to score the winning touchdown. When you look at the clips you will barely recognize the team. We can only hope that the Irish continue to have good luck, both in the Rose Bowl and against the UCLA Bruins.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 5, 2007 - Post a comment

Joyce Center News for ND Fans

Since it is quite clear that the Notre Dam Fighting Irish are having a tough football season so far, we though we might try to help cheer up the South Bend sports fans a little with a piece of news that, although not directly related to the football team, is very positive for the athletics program at Notre Dame, especially for the basketball teams. It as been announced that the Joyce Center, which we all know is where the Golden Domers basketball teams play, is going to be redone. With millions of dollars pouring in from contributors, ND is only a few million away from reaching the necessary amount to construct a new facility. If all goes according to plan, the new arena will be constructed before the 2009 basketball season. We have all come to know and love the old Joyce Center, but from what it sounds like, the new one will be even better for fans of the basketball team.

Now back to the task at hand: figuring out how to beat UCLA. The match up with the Bruins is only a few days away. Hopefully you already have your plane tickets to L.A., because this one should be a great game to see live, win or lose.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 4, 2007 - Post a comment


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