Notre Dame Football 2008: An Early Look at the Players to Watch

Notre Dame's football team may be a year older and (hopefully) a year wiser, but many of the players are still relative unknowns.

Who are these guys?

The following is a quick position-by-position breakdown of Irish players to watch in 2008.

Quarterback

No surprise here, Jimmy Clausen is the man.

A year of experience and a better line should do wonders for Clausen. However, it was hard to gauge Clausen's performance in the spring game due to the two-hand touch rule for quarterbacks. Also, there were many, many drops by the receivers.

Running Back

Entering his junior year, James Aldridge is now a veteran and will once again begin the season as Notre Dame's starting tailback.

However, Robert Hughes earned playing time last year through his solid performance. His 100+ yards in the spring game prove that he's hungry for even more carries this season.

Armando Allen rounds out Notre Dame's talented backfield trio. Allen is the lightning to Hughes' thunder. But word from the spring game was that Armando was too eager to run into contact, instead of breaking the play to the outside.

Also of note is that junior wide out Barry Gallup will be switching to running back for the coming year.

Fullback

Asaph Schwapp is an intimidating individual, but his blocking technique has been a source of criticism from the Irish faithful. Add to that the fact that Schwapp isn't a factor as a ball carrier and a receiver, and you don't have much of a fullback there.

Perhaps that is why sophomore linebacker Steve Paskorz has been taking reps at fullback, a position he played in high school.

Wide Reciever

There's a lot of talent—and depth—in the Irish receiving corps, but the trick is using it correctly.

David Grimes thrived as a slot receiver in 2006, but struggled as a primary target in 2007. Grimes is all of 5'10", so the slot may be the best place for him.

That would likely put Duval Kamara and Robby Parris on the outside. Both Kamara and Parris are athletic and tall (the former 6'5", the latter 6'4"), but are prone to dropping passes.

Parris had his share of drops late last season, and Kamara caught bad hands disease in the spring game.

Recruiting fans will be eager to see freshman Michael Floyd join the mix, and with Floyd's talent it's only a matter of time before he's out on the field.

That leaves veterans D.J. Hord and George West struggling to get their reps in.

Of course, there's also the speedy Golden Tate. As soon as he learns to run anything other than the "go" pattern, he'll be a very dangerous threat.

Tight End

Tight end was once a position of strength for Notre Dame, but graduation and transfers have left the Irish very thin there.

Mike Ragone will step into the starting lineup, looking to repeat Anthony Fasano and John Carlson's NFL-calibre success.

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