Back Where The Irish Belong…Top 2

I tried to tell everyone not to panic after Notre Dame’s close win at Georgia Tech in week one. But of course, they got knocked down a couple of spots in the Polls even though none of the teams that were voted up had played a team that was worth a darn.

What possessed the voters to put Texas at number 2 is beyond me. The fact that they had lost so many key people in key places from last years team, including Vince Young, made it very obvious that they were over-rated. You cannot replace a Heisman caliber quarterback with a freshman and expect the same results. I don’t think this is the last time we will be seeing Texas lose a game this year. I also noticed that the brave anonymous person from Austin, Texas who left a mindless comment last week is no where to be found this week.

And could someone please explain to me how Florida State plays Troy AT HOME this week and barely escapes with a win but holds their spot at 9 in the polls while Notre Dame went on the road last week and dropped? Oh well, its over and they are back up to number 2 so I guess I’ll let it go.

Brady Quinn Heisman Campaign Week 1 Update

Brady Quinn didn’t look like his inhuman self against a quick and talented Georgia Tech defense. At the end of the day, though, he found a way to win and kept himself in the race.

Last performance:

Quinn completed 23 of 39 passes for 256 yards. His most important stat line came on the ground: seven carries, 22 yards, one touchdown.

2006 Season Stats:

Passing: 256 YDS | 0 TD
Rushing: 22 YDS | 1 TD
114.11 RAT | 0 INT | 59 CMP%

This is a great point of view from Jim Donan on how he votes based on how the season is progressing, not just a single week.

“Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn dropped in the Heisman Watch poll, but I still voted the senior quarterback No. 1 on my Heisman Watch ballot this week. The Irish didn’t play their A-game offensively this week, but Quinn found a way to win, rushing for 4 yards for Notre Dame’s first touchdown (and lead) of the 2006 season. Everything is in place for Quinn to have a Heisman-worthy senior campaign.

I vote based on how I project the season to turn out and not what happens from week-to-week, unless someone really falls on his face. Against Georgia Tech, Quinn really got pushed around and showed some toughness. He’s going to put up big numbers again this season, and with the kind of publicity Notre Dame gets, he’s the odds-on favorite to win. In this race, he’s Secretariat.”

My Take:

In my opinion, Brady Quinn showed the leadership ability that a Heisman winner should have. He didn’t put up huge number in the first week but he was also one of the few guys on the list who opened the season on the road and against a legitimate opponent.

Here Come The Haters - Notre Dame Over-rated?

Notre Dame comes out in the first week of the college football season, actually plays a real opponent, on the road, and comes through with a defensive victory but all you can hear now is the Haters complaining about them being overrated.

Lets take a look at who the rest of the top 5 played:

Northern Illinois (@ Ohio State)
North Texas (@ Texas)
Washington State (@ Auburn)
Marshall (@ West Virginia)

Not even one of those teams bothered going on the road for their opener like the Irish did. Maybe instead of talking about how close Notre Dame’s game was, all the Hater’s should be focusing on who everyone else played this week.

Maybe people should take a look back to Ohio State’s 2002 National Championship run and look at how close the majority of their games were throughout the season. One I specifically remember was them coming from behind on their last drive in the fourth quarter to beat the University of Cincinnati on the road. The reason I remember this game so well is because I was a UC student there at the game and was very disappointed when they pulled off the close win.

I made a bunch of comments myself after that game that Ohio State wouldn’t be able to go all of the way through the Big Ten without dropping at least one. I learned something that year about margin of victory… it doesn’t matter! It can be very deceiving and that probably has something to do with it being eliminated from the BCS ranking algorithm a few years ago.

Why give teams credit for beating up on the small schools and penalize teams for winning the close games against good opponents? Well that is basically what all of the Haters out there are and will be doing this week. But I don’t worry about what they are saying too much because all Notre Dame has to do is keep on winning and the Haters will go back into hiding.

This great article my point in more depth and is from someone who doesn’t typically have something good to say about Notre Dame.

Week 1: Notre Dame Defense Gets It Done Against Georgia Tech

Although it wasn’t exactly how I had hoped the first game of the season would go, it didn’t actually surprise me.

All of the hyper surrounding Notre Dame Football this year was focused on Brady Quinn and their explosive offense. However, when the game was on the line tonight, it was the defense who came up big. They answered the big question mark that carried over from last year by coming up big in this first game on the road.
Brady Quinn’s Heisman Trophy case was definitely not hurt tonight as he showed a lot of poise and control and came up with some very key plays when the Irish needed it the most.

Georgia Tech impressed me early in the game, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They were able to throw a lot of blitzes at the Notre Dame offensive line to confuse them and get to Quinn. It definitely disrupted the flow of the offense but that was temporary as the bigger and strong Notre Dame line eventually wore down Georgia Tech.

In the end, that was the key as Brady Quinn was able to push forward for the first down on 4th and 1 with just over 1 minute to play. Tech had no more timeouts so with that first down came the end of the game.
Here is a recap of Week One in Atlanta…

Notre Dame actually won a defensive struggle, scoring just enough points to avoid a major upset at the start of its most anticipated season in years.

Brady Quinn and hometown favorite Darius Walker each ran for a touchdown Saturday night as the No. 2 Fighting Irish, with their highest preseason ranking since 1994, rallied for a 14-10 victory over Georgia Tech.

Notre Dame fell behind 10-0 and was on the verge of going scoreless in the opening half for the first time in nearly two years. But Quinn ran it in from the 5 on a gutsy call by coach Charlie Weis with just 11 seconds remaining.

Then, taking advantage of a personal foul against the Yellow Jackets, Walker raced to the corner for a 13-yard touchdown with 6½ minutes to go in the third period. There were a smattering of cheers in the crowd for the former high school star from suburban Atlanta, who finished with 99 yards rushing and caught four passes.

Quinn, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting while breaking nearly every Notre Dame passing record last season, completed 23-of-38 for 246 yards and converted a fourth-and-1 sneak near midfield with 1:07 remaining that sealed the victory.

About Charlie Weis

Charlie Weis, a 1978 University of Notre Dame graduate and owner of four Super Bowl-champion rings as products of a stellar 15-season career as a National Football League assistant coach, wasted no time putting his stamp on his alma mater’s program in his first year as Notre Dame head football coach in 2005.

Weis quickly transformed the Irish offense into one of the most prolific in the country, as Notre Dame scored more points (440) than in any previous season in school history - and also qualified as the most improved offensive attack in the nation, jumping its total offense production (477.33 yards per game) a national best 131.8 yards per game better than in ‘04.

That offensive productivity, coupled with an opportunistic, physical defense that forced eight red-zone turnovers, and vastly-improved special teams, equated to a 9-3 mark in ‘05 that was good for a number-six ranking in the Bowl Championship Series final regular-season standings and a guaranteed at-large BCS berth in the 2006 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl opposite Big Ten co-champion Ohio State. Notre Dame’s only losses in ‘05 came by three points in overtime to then-unbeaten Michigan State, by three points to top-ranked and unbeaten USC on a last-second Trojan touchdown, then to fourth-rated Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

To read more about Charlie Weis, see this original biography from the official Notre Dame athletic site.

Look For More Speed From Notre Dame’s Defense This Year

This is a very encouraging article about the team speed of Notre Dame’s defense. After seeing this weakness exploited to its fullest in the Fiesta Bowl last year, Notre Dame’s defense knew something needed to change in order for this team to compete for the National Championship.

“It made their next step an obvious one. If defenders didn’t get faster, nothing else would matter. Without improvement, the defense would put the brakes on Notre Dame’s national championship run and satisfy critics who point to the unit as deadweight. Consequently, Notre Dame embarked on its summer of speed.”

After reading this article about the defense focusing on improving the team speed, I am very anxious to see this in the home opener on September 2nd. Only 12 more days to go…

Quinn & Weis Featured in ESPN’s College Football 2006 X&O Men

This is something you have got to check out…

I thought these comic representations of the big names in college football were pretty funny and very creative.

A couple of the people featured in the 2006 X&O Men are Charlie Weis (”The Mastermind”) and Brady Quinn (”The Rifleman”).

Quinn On Top Of Early Heisman Predictions

Not that his is any absolute, in fact, it may be more of a curse but quarterback Brady Quinn is everyone’s early pick for the Heisman Trophy.

Last season the 6-foot-4, 227-pounder with a rifle arm completed 64.9 percent of his passes for 3,919 yards and 32 touchdowns.

If the recent trend of quarterbacks winning the Heisman(five of the last six were quarterbacks) is going to continue this year, it is most likely going to come from Quinn. Troy Smith?… I thought we were talking about quarterbacks. The bulk of the other Heisman favorites are running backs including Adrian Peterson (Oklahoma), Kenny Irons (Auburn), and Marshawn Lynch (Cal).

Vince “Rose Bowl” Young

The National Championship Rose Bowl game last night was actually able to live up to some of the hype that people have been giving it. It was, however disappointing to see a team as good as USC fold in the last minutes like they did. As many games as they have won in the last quarter during their remarkable streak, they looked like they were on their heels in the last 5 minutes of the game.

Fiesta Bowl Countdown

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