A Dozen Reasons Why Notre Dame Will Improve in 2008

(www.ndnation.com) - Unlike Darth Vannie's take in yesterday's lead article, I think Notre Dame has a chance to bounce back strong and into the top 20. Notre Dame is ranked lower than it should be because critics tend to put too much emphasis on last year's performance (see The Inflation Equation.)

The Irish are probably still too young across the board to expect much better than that, but the potential is there for dramatic improvements at many positions. And, as covered before, improvements in one position usually create improvements in others.

If your line’s blocking better, your running backs and quarterbacks will look much better. If they’re playing better, the receivers don’t have to be perfect to get open. If the whole offense is playing better, the defense gets to rest.

Given how many things went wrong last season, it only takes a few of these moving in the right direction to create some forward momentum and that momentum began with Coach Weis and some big changes.

1. Weis is Wiser

Weis looked in the mirror last year and saw much of the blame for last season’s debacle. He knew he could have and should have coached better.

But the changes needed were about more than just coaching, Weis needed to adjust his leadership style. That's something most leaders find very hard to do.

Give him credit, Weis sought the counsel of those close to the program who point-blank told him his Patton routine wasn't working (with the team or alumni) and in response, he reportedly received leadership coaching (an area I work in).

The result was a 180 in the way Weis works with players. If you read his quotes, it's like the light bulb went on. Somewhere in that self-reflection he decided he had to treat college kids differently than pro players and change his coaching style.

Some might wonder why a coach who makes $_,_ _,__.__ (does anyone really know what he makes?) has to learn on the job. Well, simple. We hired a coach with no head coaching experience and no recent college experience, so Weis HAS to learn on the job.

Weis has changed his attitude this year, but he’s also changed his role. Weis admitted to spending far too much time with quarterbacks last year and his preoccupation with playcalling and quarterbacks hindered his ability to make decisions for the wider team good.

He’s removed himself from that role and I think he'll have a better grasp of the overall needs of the team. Now that White is gone (who was reportedly afraid of Weis) Charlie has to know that he’s not going to be able to run roughshod over Swarbrick, so he'll be receiving leadership from above.

This starts immediately once someone has respect for his superior. Weis also looks like he's dropped 40.

2. Emotion

This is a direct result in the change of Weis's leadership style with the players and coaches. Weis admitted that players were often scared to make mistakes which made the team uptight and drained all the emotion from their play.

The payoff of Weis’s decision to step back and encourage his team to show emotion was evident in the Blue Gold Game, where it actually looked like the kids were having fun and playing harder because of it.

Notre Dame now looks like a team that wants to kick your ass and is going to talk it up and have fun doing it. You've got to think that it's going to make recruiting easier for Weis as well.

3. Practice

Closely related still, the Irish are having more intense and hard hitting practices, which, as El Kabong advised last year, was one of the reasons Pete Carroll cited for success in college.

The pro model just doesn't work in college where you have so little time to prepare. In the pros, you want to preserve your player's health. In college you want kids to play with emotion and stick it to each other. Turns out, kids like to hit, who’d a thunk it?

4. Depth

Nothing makes a man player harder than someone younger right behind him ready to take his job. One insidious downside of the lack of depth at Notre Dame is that there was no one to push the first stringers.

That’s not the case anymore, as there’s competition at almost every position on the team. Also, it’s tough to have full-on hitting practices when you had the paper-thin depth we had last year. Notice how all of these are interrelated?

5. Change in Play-calling

My frustration with Weis’s propensity to abandon the run (especially acute against Michigan State and Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl two years ago) is apparently a thing of the past.

Not only has Weis given the play-calling reigns to OC and running backs coach Mike Haywood, but he’s also talking a big game about running the ball down the opponents' throat. Given our 58 sacks last year, maybe, possibly, Charlie’s starting to believe that a running game is vital to a good offense?

6. Bigger "Big Uglies"

That of course isn’t possible unless you have offensive linemen opening holes and the Irish have put on bulk across the offensive line, except for Chris Stewart who’s down to 329.

He’s the kind of the home-grown road grader that Notre Dame hasn’t had in recent memory. You can’t coach what I call "farm boy big" and Stewart, Young and Robinson all have it.

I expect dramatic improvement in the run game this year because of an emphasis on the run, offensive linemen who aren’t all sophomores, finally some depth and offensive linemen who's first step isn't backward on every play.

7. Latina and Weis Make Up

Not that they were fighting, but the two acknowledged philosophical differences last year which probably contributed to the nuclear meltdown across the offensive line. Latina has said the two are absolutely on the same page this year. Hopefully, that means more simplified blocking schemes that allow kids to just play.

8. Say Hello to The Real Jim Clausen

Last year an underweight Clausen came off surgery with a sore arm, wasn't allowed to lift weights and proceeded to get hurt again while playing behind the worst line in the NCAA and the worst line in Notre Dame history. Some actually labeled Clausen a bust (read Group Stupid Mindthink.)

This year, Clausen us up 20 pounds in weight, has another year of experience and will likely have a running game so that he’s not running for his life on every play. All reports have Clausen playing at an exceptional level for a sophomore.

9. Wide Receivers

Our Wide Receiver situation is shifting from dire to young, but very talented. Kamara and Tate showed flashes of great ability last year and this year’s freshmen, Walker, Floyd and Goodman will press for playing time.

Floyd’s been consistently good early in practice (7 on 7 included) and has an NFL body. Walker is flashing speed that Notre Dame just hasn’t had (except in spurts with Tate) and Goodman has been described as a faster Parris. Clausen figures to have a very good wide receiver corps by mid year.

10. Running Backs

In my opinion (surprise) Weis could have ridden Hughes to a couple of more wins last year, but he obviously wasn’t listening to my voice mails. This year, Hughes and Allen are no longer freshmen and Allen is starting to fill out nicely.

Our running back situation looks, at the very least, solid this year with the possibility of being very good.

11. Tuh-noo-tah

On defense the upgrade in linebacker coaching will be dramatic. The Irish trade out Polian, a great recruiter who doesn’t have any real coaching experience there, for Tenuta who brings a wealth of knowledge and foul language to a fairly talented group of linebackers.

I love Brian Smith. He's a kid who grew up before his time and is already a leader. Crum has all of the experience in the world and Harrison Smith has all of the athletic ability in the world.

You have to figure we’re going to get exponentially better play out of our linebackers with Tenuta coaching back there (anyone remember Phillip Wheeler?)

12. Defensive Backs and Brown

Everyone loves Bill Lewis, but Brown coaching the defensive backs (the position he plays) just seems like a natural fit. Brown is the consummate motivator and the Irish seem to have their strongest combination of defensive backs in years.

Everyone is expecting big things out of the secondary. Combine a good secondary with a blitzing front seven and ND could create the same type of havoc it received last year.

With those dozen improvements and the fact that we’ll simply have an older team along with an influx of very talented freshmen, it’s hard not to see the Irish make dramatic improvements in 2008.

I want to mention the schedule as well, but history has taught us that easy "looking" schedules often look hard by the end of the year. If everything breaks right, a BCS berth may be a remote possibility, but Irish fans can realistically expect a good bowl in 2009. This is, after all, a team dominated by youth.

BTW, Vannie and I discussed both the positives and the negatives, but talking about them together became so muddled that we thought it was clearer to write two different articles.

That said, Vannie and Cash should be banned from games, those two are the grim reapers of ND football. If you see them at a game, bet the other team...quickly.

Go Irish!!!!