By Sir John
Ahh, to be a Notre Dame fan in 2007.
Practically every fan has an opinion as to who will be our starting quarterback this year. The votes have been counted from many websites and the results are in.
#1 Jimmy Clausen. #2 Demetrius Jones. #3 Zach Frazer. #4 Evan Sharpley. I have been a Zach Frazer guy since he verballed to Notre Dame and those arguments started before Jimmy Clausen climbed aboard. Yes indeed I have heard all the arguments. Sharpley had the actual game time but did he really? Handing off is a chore almost anyone can do.
The 2006 team never lived up to anyones expectations. I said early on that the team seemed to lack that burning desire to win. It was as if they believed in 2005 and grew doubtful in 2006 or got the 'big head' as they say. While all are grateful for what the seniors did in amassing the wins we had I have to fault the senior leadership. When you get behind a coach can do only so much and it is up to the leaders to pull the team out of a defeated mode or that losing body language I saw so often. Collectively, as a group the repeatedly had a breakdown and never came together, twice Weis had to simplify his playbook for them.
Many fans were disgruntled that Brady came in so low on the Heisman. To be honest there were games last year that I would have benched Brady if we had another QB. For some reason Coach Weis never jerked Brady. Now that is history and we move on to four quarterbacks. Take your pick from above one to four I feel it doesn't matter who starts as most likely Weis will pull him if things are going slow. Nine 5th year return, 5 & 4 on each side of the ball but otherwise we are young, green and immature. An untried quarterback is going to make mistakes and he's behind or grouped with other unknowns.
If there is a bright spot in all this it means for at least the first few games not one opponent will know what we are going to do. On both sides of the ball anything we ran last year on film is worthless. There will be some old pet plays but Charlie can experiment now a luxury we never had. As well face it expectations with a young new group will be low but exciting to see develop and very important I hope these younger bring fire and enthusiasm back.
On the D side the new Coach says "And if the offense calls for you to put more pressure on them, then maybe you should put more pressure on them. If it calls for you to play more coverage and then you gotta play more coverage. If they're an offense that says that maybe you should gear up on the run, then you gotta gear up on the run." But that is almost Rick Minter's talk of fly to the ball.
The 6'3" 220 pound inside linebacker from Sherman Oaks, California committed to Notre Dame on Wednesday this week as the second linebacker in the Class of '08. Anthony McDonald's father Mike played football at USC and in the NFL, yet Anthony got rid of his USC blood and said, "I have Notre Dame blood in me now."
