Looking Ahead at Stanford
After beating the Purdue Boilermakers the Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans can sit back and marvel at a nice accomplishment. However, the players and coaches have to get ready for the next battle- one against the Stanford Cardinal in South Bend on October 4. Here are a few facts on the Stanford football team.
Stanford is 3-2, which is slightly better than a lot of people thought they would be right now. CBS Sports has them ranked as the No. 59 team in the nation, and they are unranked in the major polls. They opened the season with a home win over Oregon St. (who beat USC last week ) but then fell in consecutive road games to Arizona St. and TCU, both good teams. The Cardinal then beat San Jose St. and Washington.
While the Cardinal have been effective at times through the air (usually QB Tavita Pritchard and receivers Doug Baldwin and Ryan Whalen), the Irish will face yet another team that can run the ball well. Toby Gerhart is their main tailback, and he’s been averaging 5.7 yards per carry, although against Washington he only rushed twice for 14 yards. Stanford ended the Washington game with 244 total rushing yards.
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Notre Dame Beats Purdue at Home, Now 3-1
Notre Dame beat Purdue this past Saturday by a score of 38-21, improving the Irish’s record to 3-1. The later half of that opening sentence is important to note because Notre Dame only achieved three wins last season total. After just four games, they already have that number this season. Needless to say: what a difference a year makes.
Player of the game, for most fans, goes to Jimmy Clausen. He had a monster game, and was especially dominant in the second half. When the Irish came out of the halftime break tied 14-14, Clausen orchestrated three drives to give the Domers a lead that would not be overcome. He ended the day with impressive numbers: 20-35, 275 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.
However, what might have led to Jimmy’s efficiently at QB was the fact that the Irish finally go their ground game going. Jimmy handed off to Armando Allen 17 times, and he picked up 134 rushing yards on the day. It’s much easier to get an air attack going when you also have a reliable ground game. Overall, a very exciting win for the Irish. Let’s keep it going.
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Know Your Notre Dame-Purdue Facts
The Irish will play the Boilermakers this Saturday, and you’d better be on hand to see it go down live. Although the game is sold out (marking the 202nd time in a row that a home Notre Dame game has sold out), you’ll be glad to know that there are ways to get tickets. We know one in particular. But back to the game. There are some very, very historically-interested writers at UND.com, the official athletics page for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, because they have an incredible article about the upcoming game. While other writers will give you a few key players, drop the names of the coaches and make a less than bold prediction, this article gives you the War and Peace version of the fact. Here are a few facts about the upcoming game.
- Notre Dame has has played only Navy more often than they have played Purdue.
- Notre Dame lost badly to the Boilermakers last season, but they own the overall series against Purdue by a record of 51-26-2.
- The last time the Irish were shutout by the Boilermakers was in 1993.
- When the Irish play Purdue after playing Michigan State, they are 15-3.
- Since 1982 the winning team in this matchup has not scores less than 22 points.
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Taking a Look at Perdue
As you know the Irish are set to play the Perdue Boilermakers in South Bend this Saturday. Hope you have your tickets, because it ought to be a great game. The Irish enter with a 2-1 record, and the Boilermakers are also 2-1, having dismantled Northern Colorado in a 42-10 blowout, losing to Oregon at home 26-31, and beating Central Michigan 32-25. The loss to Oregon shows that it’s possible for a good team to beat Perdue, and that they might not be as scary as they have been previously.
The stats seem to show that the Boilermakers and the Irish will get into a high scoring contest, as both teams have displayed an ability to put up some good offensive numbers, but both lack adequate defense. Perdue is averaging 33.3 points per game in offense, ranking them 5th in the Big Ten, whereas on defense they are averaging giving up 22.3 points, ranking them 10th in the conference. The Irish are averaging about 21 points on offense and 18 points on defense.
Boilermaker quarterback Curtis Painter, while showing flashes of brilliance, is not the concern here. Kory Sheets, their star tailback, has been the main drive behind the Perdue offense, having racked up 352 yards in three games (117.3 yards per game and 5.7 yards per carry). The Irish will have to contain Sheets if they expect to win.
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Yeatman Won’t Play vs. Perdue
The big story coming out of the Notre Dame camp this morning is the news that Fighting Irish tight end Will Yeatman will not play this weekend versus Perdue. As you’re probably painfully aware, Will Yeatman and Mike Golic, Jr. were arrested at a party for underage drinking, along with about 40 other individuals, including members of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team and lacrosse team. While college kids drinking at parties is generally not newsworthy, when it comes to the Irish’s starting tight end, this arrest has some real consequences for not only the young man, but also for college football fans.
Charlie Weis made the decision to suspend Yeatman indefinitely until the matter is fully resolved legally. Without knowing all the details, we’re leaning towards approving of Charlie Weis assessment of the situation. Yeatman has been in trouble for drinking before (a drunk driving charge) so it seems to fit that the team should take action. Missing one game, in the long run, is not going to be that big of a deal, and hopefully it will be adequate to keep Yeatman and others on the team out of trouble. Remember- we’re talking about a college student here. Did anybody out there ever make a few mistakes in college?
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Domer Drinking Drama
The Notre Dame Blog covered the Jimmy Clausen drinking stories, and things seemed to calm down a bit after the football season started, but now there’s even more dinking drama for Domer fans. Take a look at this article, available at CBSsports.com. Apparently there was a wild party after the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game, and dozens of people were arrested, including a couple of underage Fighting Irish football players.
Among those arrested include Mike Golic, Jr. (son of famous Notre Dame football alumni and ESPN radio personality Mike Golic) and Will Yeatman, who has played sparingly for the Irish this season. There’s really not that much to go on, except for the fact that the players were arrested for underage drinking, and that there might be additional chargers- of resisting arrest and giving false information- for Yeatman. The Notre Dame Blog will consider these young men innocent until proven guilty. And even if it turns out they were drinking at a party, college students drinking at a party should not be something to get all in a tizzy about.
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Notre Dame Put through the Ringer vs. Michigan State
Javon Ringer, tailback for the Michigan State Spartans, ran for 201 yards and two touchdowns versus the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who lost their game against the Spartans this past Saturday 23-7. Although Jimmy Clausen aired it out and got some damage done during the game, played at Notre Dame Stadium, the Irish cold not find a way to stop the Spartans offense, which was able to move the ball very well when they gave it to Ringer. Notre Dame is now 2-1.
Although you would have expected the Irish to drop a game in their first three, we were hoping that it would at least be pretty close. However, the Spartans were in control for most of the game, and it was hard to get past some of the mistakes that Notre Dame made. Still, 2-1 is not bad, and there were some positive developments during the game. Hopefully the Irish use the lesson to get better on defense at stopping the run. There are also a bunch of stories out there about laptops and drinking parties, but we’ll have to get to those reports later in the week.
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Notre Dame-Michigan State Preview
Without a doubt the best game in the Big Ten to watch this next weekend is Notre Dame-Michigan State. Hopefully you already have your tickets to see it go down first-hand. The Spartans have owned the Irish in recent years, having beaten them in eight of the past 11 meetings between the two teams. However, last season the Irish finished with only three wins. This year, they already have two. Michigan State also isn’t the same team, either, and Notre Dame has won three straight games at Spartan Stadium. Sounds like it could be a good one. Also- you have two polar opposite offenses out there. The Spartans like to pound the ball on the ground with Javon Ringer, and the Irish will air it out with Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate. Get your tickets now!
According to the Sports Xchange, Charlie Wies had this to say: “What’s happened now, the confidence level of the team has gone up. After this last game, it’s gone up a whole bunch. But now they’re going on the road for the first time against a smashmouth team that likes to play physical football. It will be interesting to see how we respond.”
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Recruiting Classes Re-Evaluated: Notre Dame No. 1
When Scout.com ranked the college football programs by recruiting class back about the time of signing day, the Irish were ranked No. 2 in the nation. They landed one of the top quarterbacks in the country in Dayne Crist, and were almost equally successful (although less was reported about it) with signing high school players on defense and the offensive line). Needless to say, if Scout.com, one of the premier prep and college sports websites in the nation, thinks that highly of your recruiting job, you’ve done a good thing.
Well, after the first three weeks of college football, the guys at FOXsports.com have re-evaluated the recruiting classes. Who actually made the team? Who was a bust (so far) and which teams lost many player to attrition, the process by which players either decline to go to the school, drop out, or drop out of the sport? The Irish, as it turns out, beat Alabama (the previous No. 1) in the verdict. As noted by the guys at FOX, despite the fact that Notre Dame had one of the worst seasons on record at 3-9 Charlie Weis was able to convince the best class in the nation to play football for the Irish. That speaks volumes about his motivational ability, salesmanship and overall contribution to the team, regardless of how you think he does with on-field play calling.
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Mike Anello: The Modern Day Rudy
How did this story slip past the Notre Dame Blog for so long? It seems as though we’ve been giving you season previews, game previews, game highlights and updates on Coach Charlie Weis’ four legged can and were too busy to relay this valuable piece of Notre Dame football information so suitable for a blog post that we’re surprised there wasn’t a whole niche blog community about it already. Get ready.
Actually, his name is Mike Anello, and if you saw the Michigan game last Saturday, you might have witnessed the 5-8, 175 Anello force one fumble and recover another on special teams. Like the real Rudy, this guy plays special teams mostly and was a walk on for three seasons before he was finally given a scholarship this year. IF you were at the game, you might have heard fans chanting his name, as they did for Rudy in the famous Disney movie. He’s a sort of cult following phenomena in South Bend, and if you can catch the Michigan State game this Saturday, you’re probably going to see him make a few plays on special teams again.
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