Notre Dame Must Become a Four Quarter Football Team in 2009

If Notre Dame wants to be as good as Phil Steele expects and as good as their fans are hoping, they must become a four quarter football team in 2009.

There are a lot of returning players from last year's 7-6 squad that finished on a high note with a 49-21 thrashing of the University of Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.

Jimmy "Santa" Clausen, the Irish's quarterback, enters his junior year with two starting years under his belt. 

Heralded Golden Tate heads up an experienced receiving corp, Armando Allen and Robert Hughes lead a seasoned four-deep running attack and the offensive line is loaded with veterans.

Defensive coordinator John Tenuta plans on going to a "4-3" in 2009 so the blitzing game will be more effective and he feels that he has the young players who can step right in.

Fifteen of 16 starters return from last year's team.  The experience is there and it looks like the talent is as well.

Irish fans are excited and hopes of winning 10 or more games are a common thread they share.  They also point to what they feel is a "manageable" schedule.

As ESPN's Lee Corso says, "Not so fast!"  While talent, experience and schedules are important, it's not what this game, that we've become so passionate over, is all about.

College football, the last time I checked, is still about playing all four quarters-not three.

Playing four quarters, finishing games, is something Notre Dame could not do in 2008.  Was it conditioning? Depth? The game plan? Desire?  I'll let Charlie Weis figure it out but the Irish clearly faded in almost every game last season.

Last year, the Irish were outscored 90-54 in the fourth quarter but if you look at the six games they lost, they were outscored 52-14.

In loses to Syracuse, Boston College and USC Notre Dame failed to score in the fourth quarter.

In a close win against Navy, the Midshipmen outscored the Irish 14-3 in the fourth quarter and in a close win against Stanford, they got outscored 14-0.

It was pretty much the same in 2007.  Opponents outscored the Irish 60-48 in the fourth quarter and 145-98 in the second half.

Navy didn't win a dramatic 46-44 game against the Irish in 2007 with the talent they had.  They won the fourth quarter 18-7.

So what has to change in 2009?  Talent is great to have and experience is a plus but a team needs stamina and endurance.  A team needs to finish games!

If the depth is there-the conditioning has to get better.  Players have to become athletes.  If the conditioning is there-the depth must get deeper.

Maybe it was the game plan.  Maybe more players have to get playing time so the starters won't get tired at the end of the game.

Winning football teams play four quarters.  Losing football teams play three and look for answers.