October Frenzy and ND Reflections after 6 weeks

October always seems to be such a crazy month for us. There always seems to be a trip or two, along with SleepyMama's birthday, Halloween.. it just gets crammed.. and this year's edition is no different.
We led off the month last weekend with a trip to Louisville-- second time back there in three weeks-- for an old college friend's wedding-- a costume wedding. Okay, so it was a costume reception-- we didn't actually get to attend the wedding, itself.. but that may have been a good thing.
As it is, the boys are now spoiled on weddings. The first time we have to dress them up for a formal occasion, they're going to ask why they couldn't wear their knight and pirate costumes again.
It was a great time, though-- I've posted a bunch of pictures here and we're really grateful to all our friends up in L'ville once again for a good time visiting and letting our kids barge in on their weekend plans.

This was, of course, the first ND game of the season I didn't get to see. Not because of the wedding.. we were finished and back at the hotel by halftime.. but ABC aired the Ohio State game instead-- wisely, I'm sorry to say.
And this would be the week that the Irish pull one out.
By all accounts (and according to the stats), the didn't move the ball very well on offense. But the defense was apparently tenacious and ferocious about getting to the ball and ripping it out.



Go D!

So the Irish have avoided all the most worst case scenarios people in the press were starting to throw around-- worst losing streak in school history (it was bad enough, anyway), could go 0-8, or worse yet, winless for the season.... so all that chatter can quiet down now and the team can get on with the business of putting things in place, building a team, growing and strengthening with experience.

Well, I'm likely to miss this weekend's game as well.
I'm heading up into the Smokies in southern Virginia for a weekend at a cabin up there to hang out with some of those same college friends from Louisville.. We'll have the modern conveniences, I believe.. but no internet or cell service.. so possibly no cable or satellite. We'll see. I'm packing some layerable clothes and a few six packs of beer and hitting the road on Friday.

Week 3 Reflection

There's not much to say. No point in talking about the Michigan game. No sense in going over the tape. There's not one thing to be learned from it.
Coach, I think it's time for some Batting Practice

Inevitability

I guess this was inevitable-- Demetrius Jones enrolls at Northern Illinois
I truly do feel badly for this kid. With the state of our offensive line in the early going this season, he really never had a shot.
And now with Clausen seemingly entrenched in the QB spot (and with Dayne Crist on the way next year), it's just not a good time to be a third string QB at ND...

Can you even call it a mixed metaphor?

Charles Woodson says "When the ship is sinking, you've just got to keep playing."

My, they do mint them some scholars at Michigan..

Week 2: Penn State

Just back from a brief weekend trip to Louisville to visit some old friends from college. Pretty wiped out tonight-- don't really have it in me to stay out of bed much longer, but just had to bring myself to review some of the Tivo 'film' of the ND-PSU game from yesterday.
Sometime during the first half of the game, while we were all at dinner at our friends house up inKentucky and I'd lost all track of what time it was-- I wasn't planning on tracking the game at all during the day yesterday and just enjoy the visit-- I got a text message from a guy I work with. It just said "Go Irish! I can't believe I just said that."
Now that I'm watching the game, I can see what he was talking about. Through much of the first half, the Irish look.. well.. they look okay. Not great. Not particularly powerful. The offense is clearly waaay behind the defense. But they look okay. Clausen is throwing and running with some confidence. Armando Allen is still fast-- though he's having some trouble with his footing. And the defense is playing with some intensity.
Of course, I know what happens. Promising as the offense may look, they still can't put together an extended drive. They go three-and-out ALL THE TIME... and that saps the intensity from the defense.. and pretty soon they can't staunch the onslaught any longer.

But hey.. the Walls interception looked good. The forced fumble on the ensuing PSU possession was a good sign as well.

O-line needs to get straightened out and fast. So many false starts. Discipline. Chemistry.

Okay.. I can't take any more. I'm going to bed.

Georgia Tech Reflections

Week 1 of the new Irish footbal season didn't go so well.
And yet, I don't feel so badly about the loss.

Going down 33-3 to Georgia Tech should sting... not that it doesn't. It'll sting more on Tuesday when I go into the office and face my Ga. Tech Alum boss.

But here are a few observations on the game.
1) Offensive line looks pretty bad. From my admittedly uneducated perspective, the Tech D-line looked at times like it was just pouring into the pocket.
2) Demetrius Jones didn't have a chance. As the running QB, he seemed like the logical choice, given the expected weakness of the o-line. But he just couldn't get settled back there. He put the ball on the ground a few times, got flushed and out of control repeatedly and didn't seem to be able to put anything together. At first he was able to get to he corner pretty quickly and make some yards.. but once Tech adjusted, it was all over for him.
3) Evan Sharpley looked pretty good at first. Pretty good zip on the ball in the first few series, and he was getting rid of the ball quickly-- at first. But again, once Tech adjusted, he got into trouble and started getting sacked.
4) Travis Thomas just looked slow. Period.
5) Armando Allen needs to start. He's F-A-S-T.
6) Jimmy Clausen didn't look like a freshman. He may not have been playing against the 1st-line Tech D. I don't care. He looked poised. And his arm appeared to be just fine.

With Armando Allen, John Carlson, and Jimmy Clausen, if they can put it all together this season, we could have some interesting games. But it's going to be tough to be an Irish fan this season. It's going to be some hard going. But the future certainly looks bright!

CupCake Watch, Week 1:
USC takes on Idaho.
Ohio State beats up on Youngstown State.
Penn State tunes it up against Florida International.
Michigan takes on Appalachian State... and loses. Oops!

Here come the Irish!

Oh boy.. I get chills listening to this (clipped from an event ND held as part of its latest capital campaign)

"The guy behind the guy"

Nice line from "The Rock" yesterday:

Having top front line players can make you good, but you don't get great
until the the guy behind the guy could be better than the guy.

Isn't Vince Vaughn an Irish fan?

Dog Days of Summer-- time to start buying ND Gear...

My neighbors are probably sick of seeing me in my endless series of ND t-shirts...
Hey, it's not my fault they're just the best, most comfortable casual shirts I own!

Anyway, the guys at HerLoyalSons.com have a pretty hilarious 'book review' of the new ND Bookstore catalog that arrived a week or so ago.

Money quote:

The reader turns over the cover of Sideline, and, ah, yes, there he is. The
man of the hour. The hero of our story, who will guide us through the twists and
turns of the pages ahead: Charlie Weis, looking so fashionable in a navy
colored, 97/3 poly/spandex blend golf shirt with white sleeve trimmings. It’s a
shirt that says it’s wearer can have fun, but kick ass while doing so.

"Humbled and grateful..."

This is a really nice reflection on Chris Zorich from Blue and Gold.

Congrats, Chris Zorich

Chris Zorich was the first football lineman I knew by name, coming up as a kid, watching those Irish teams of the late 80's. And he was such a MAN. Embodied all the traits of toughness and work ethic, combined with a human integrity that, I believe, set ND apart.
To say nothing of the pathos NDNation felt when news came out of how he returned home to his Chicago home following the bowl game (Orange?) to find his mother had passed away in her chair while watching her son on TV.

Zorich was the prototype.

We need more guys like him now.

And now he's in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Here's the press release from UND.com

Draft Afterwash

So Brady goes at #22 to the Browns. A great story, in the end, but excruciating to watch, even worse to live through, I'm sure.

Must Read story here by Peter King at Sports Illustrated about the whole sequence of events, through the eyes of Phil Savage, the Browns GM.




Money quote:

Savage showed some decency on draft weekend, when lying and deception is
often the norm. That's why I admire him more today than I did Friday; and I had a world of admiration for him before the draft, believe me.
"On Friday,'' he said, "I called [Quinn's agent] Tom Condon. I'd heard some stuff in the press that he might be negotiating with the Raiders for Brady to be picked at number one. And I had so much respect for Brady through this process. He's a great kid, and he's worked so hard, and he's done everything through the draft process
exactly the right way. I told Tom I didn't know if the Raiders were going to
take Brady or not, but I wanted to let him know that we'd decided not to take
him at number three; so if he was talking to the Raiders, he'd know he didn't
have us to fall back on.
"I'd heard Brady talk about having two dreams -- being the No. 1 pick, or playing for the Browns," Savage said. "And I didn't want to see his heart broken twice. We weren't going to take him, so I wanted Tom to be able to do whatever he could to get a deal done with Oakland, if that's what was happening.''
That's class right there.

Corwin Brown: A teacher and a student..

A nice piece here posted on Blue Gray Sky from a guy who attended the recent ND Coaches Clinic about Corwin Brown.

"Who you say you are: that's your philosophy; who we see on film: that's your identity."

The power of Weis

Behold, the power of Weis-- talking about the passing drills he ran for Quinn during yesterday's pro-day 'with representatives from every NFL team in attendance':

''We put him through every throw that any NFL organization would want to see,'' Irish coach Charlie Weis said. ''Now they have enough information to make a critical evaluation, if they didn't have enough on tape already.''

When the man talks about what 'any NFL organization would want to see', does it not just carry such weight? Who wouldn't want to play for a guy who can give you that at the end of your college career?

Quinn is STRONG.

Wrapping up the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, and all the buzz around Brady Quinn has been negative. How the media does lash back. And so Quinn, to hear the pundits tell it, is dropping in the draft.. Kiper thinks he should be happy if he goes at 9.

If anyone doubts his competitiveness or just raw strength, though, they should pay heed to his performance on the bench-press on Sunday (from Eric Hansen's article in today's SBT):

He vowed he would leave the physical testing for later, but then Brady Quinn's
competitive juices got the best of him Sunday.

The former Notre Dame quarterback, who has yet to throw for pro scouts, gave them a little bit to chew on at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, ripping off 24 reps at 225 pounds in the bench press.

That's better than more than half the linebackers at the combine,
better than nine of the defensive linemen who lifted, better than top tight end
prospect Greg Olsen of Miami (originally in Quinn's recruiting class at ND),
better than offensive line teammates Ryan Harris (22) and Dan Santucci (23) and
just four fewer than Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Thomas, the workout darling
of the combine to date.

Updates, Updates, Updates!

A few Sleepydad updates, since I haven't done any in a while, and some random notes:

First-- Snow Day! We got about an inch and a half of snow here at the house on Friday and both boys' schools were called off for the day, so we all stayed home and made a snowman out in the front yard. Here's a link to a slideshow of some pictures we took during the day.

Second, mine is the house of Pestilence! My wife and the boys have all been fighting one kind of bug or another for a week now. Aidan spiked a 103 degree fever on Sunday night, stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday, then Bryce started coming down with symptoms. Took them both to the doctor on Monday and they've both got raging ear infections... so it's a round of Amoxicillin for everyone! Now today, Aidan was sent home early from school-- the fever has returned. So it'll be back on the phone with the Ped tomorrow to see what they think the next step should be-- "Boys, remember not to leave the house without your surgical masks!"

Next, the Cold! It's been FREAKIN' cold here the last week or so. And given that I grew up far north of here, that's going some for me to say that. The thermometer may read 25 degrees, but I'm not always sure it's even that warm!

Yesterday was National Signing Day for College Football programs. The Irish got 18 signed commitments-- a great class, by any measure. But as always, it's always about the ones that got away: Aurelious Benn, Chris Little (the guy who's Mama told him to commit to ND after he verballed to FSU a few weeks ago-- the had a "conversion by the fax machine light" yesterday morning and decided to send his letter to Georgia), Greg Little... 11th hour de-commits. So Charlie's points of emphasis for next year's recruiting effort (which began this morning at 6am)-- focus on the meaning of the word 'Commitment'. In his press conference yesterday, he said "If they're looking, we're looking."

For any parents of young kids out there who might be reading this (heellllloooo?)-- found a pretty cool little website a week or so ago called Parentography.com. It only launched a couple of weeks ago, so it's low on content at the moment-- but the idea driving the site is one of those excellent "why the hell didn't I think of that" kind of ideas-- an online community/social networking site for parents to write reviews of local places that are good for their kids-- caregivers, schools, playgrounds, restaurants, the works. Users can also wrap those places up into 'excursions'-- linking different places into little sequences, as suggestions to other users for things like day-trips, etc. And they've got (right now) Yahoo maps running through an API displaying the lay of the land for all of the places on a map. I just think it's a great idea. But it's just in the offing now-- definitely at the 'get out of it only what you put into it' stage... but as more users sign on and start contributing content (hello-- I'm talking to you again, you parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, etc etc), I think it could become a really useful online tool for parents... plus it's just kind of fun to blog, in a way, through reviews about places to take the kiddos.

Next: TV. Ah yes, the guilty pleasure. It's the dead of winter, so it's a good time for TV.. and I'm definitely keeping my TIVO warmed up. Guilty pleasures of the moment include
24-- but of course! A few weeks ago, Islamic groups were protesting the content of the recently started season, arguing that the show was confirming all kinds of negative stereotypes about Muslims-- your basic Italian-American argument against the Sopranos. Haha, well, I wonder if we'll be hearing from those folks anymore now that the last two weeks' episodes have revealed (yet again!) that the real villains of the story are just rich white guys from Orange County-- members of Jack Bauer's family, in fact! As Fox rebutted in a statement a few weeks ago, we should not forget that

Over the past several seasons, the villains have included shadowy Anglo businessmen, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists, and even the (Anglo-American) president of the United States...

to say nothing of "Day 2" when the blonde cutie from SoCal turned out to be the bad guy.

Other guilty TV pleasures include Battlestar Galactica (a decent 3rd season so far, but a bit plodding and ponderous), Boston Legal (also a bit of a meandering season, but still appointment television) and a new one-- The Unit. I've been lacking, it turns out, my quotient of spy-thriller recently and so far, of the two episodes I've seen so far, The Unit just might fit the bill for that. I'm going to slowly start working my way through Season One, hopefully this weekend.

And lastly-- Pooh! we have a reluctant guest in our midst-- a little kitty named Pooh. Brought here by my brother-in-law, Ross, Pooh's staying with us temporarily while Ross relocates to Austin. So far, Pooh and our 13-year old cranky tabby, Sylvie have NOT been getting along.. but in recent days, the war seems to have gone from hot to Cold... as in, cats issuing long, declaritive stares across great expanses of the house, with the occasional hissing and spitting... but no hairy furball fights of late. So we're taking it one day at a time.

Best of luck, Jeff

Best wishes to Jeff Samardzija in the Big Leagues next year-- he announced earlier this week that he'll play pro baseball exclusively from here on out, forsaking any chance of riding that projected first-round draft status into the NFL..

Well, remember this?

As expected..

So the press conference yesterday had one big unexpected announcement-- Darius is gone.

The announcement that was never made-- the one everyone was expecting, however-- was that Rick Minter, the Defensive Coordinator, is gone.

No word, no announcement about changes in the staff, nothing. Lots of rumors flying, lots of conjecture. But nothing concrete.

And then, all of a sudden, up pops the rumor-- supported by a published article in the South Bend Tribune, citing reliable sources, late this afternoon-- that Corwin Brown, secondary coach of the New York Jets, is about to be hired as the DC.

Wait a minute.. has Minter been fired yet?

Then I read this in the Daily News tonight--

Eric Mangini suffered six losses during the regular season, one in the playoffs and now he appears to be on the verge of suffering his first loss of the offseason.

Highly respected secondary coach Corwin Brown has interviewed for the defensive-coordinator vacancy at Notre Dame, the Daily News has learned. Nothing is official, but Brown is in South Bend, Ind., today - a strong indication that his hiring is imminent.

Brown, 36, who joined the Jets in 2004 as a member of Herm Edwards’ staff, did a terrific job with the Jets’ defensive backs, especially Kerry Rhodes. This had to be a tough decision for Brown, who is close to Mangini.

But Brown also has a relationship with Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. Brown played for the Patriots and Jets from 1993 to 1998, when Weis was an assistant in those places.

Obviously, Weis is looking for a bright, young coach who can rebuild the Notre Dame defense, which allowed 41 points to Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl.

the Defensive Coordinator spot is vacant?
Have I missed something here?

That said, from everything I've read, if this hire happens, it's a good and exciting choice by coach Weis. Bright, young, aggressive coaches.

Rumor also has it that Ron Powlus will be promoted to Quarterbacks coach. Word is that young Powlus is a masterful recruiter.

With Darius departing and prospects for a down year next year, I guess we need a few developments like this to look forward to.

Done deal...

It's official.. Walker is gone...
But this line at the tail-end of the story on WNDU should have some ominous soundtrack playing behind it..

An NFL executive expressed surprise at Walker's decision saying that few,
if any, teams in the league had any idea that Walker was contemplating such a
move.

Is now the right time for Walker to be heading to the NFL?
Was last season really the best showcase of his talents??
Seems to me-- not like I'm an NFL scout or anything-- that Walker still has some learning and developing to do.
This all just seems a shade premature.
Is there something else going on here?

Walker to the NFL?

Well, now this was unexpected...

According to Jeff Jeffers, our old buddy (well, Galindo used to shout at him from the Student Section) at WNDU: NewsCenter 16’s Jeff Jeffers spoke to a source very close to Darius Walker.

“That source told me Darius will very likely test the NFL waters, and enter
April's draft,” Jeff Jeffers explains.

When news of a press conference being scheduled came out earlier this week, everyone in the ND Blogosphere naturally presumed (esp. since the Giants coaching deal appears to have sealed up) this would be the announcement of some coaching changes..
And those announcements may well be coming as well-- Jeffers makes reference to other items about the future of ND Football being on the agenda-- but now it appears the lead story may something different and considerably more surprising...

Press conference is at 4:00 ET...