Notre Dame May Need Clausen to Run the Football in '09'

College football fans know about Golden Tate and Michael Floyd, Notre Dame's highly regarded wide out tandem and they know about Jimmy Clausen, the gunslinger who can deliver the pigskin to them. 

If the Fighting Irish are going to win those 10 games and make it to a BCS bowl in 2009, they'll need something that hasn't been seen in South Bend for a good while—a running game.

Jimmy Clausen has the arm.  The seasoned junior, from Westlake Village, California, connected for 25 touchdowns last season but if he doesn't want to spend as much time in the backfield scrambling for his life, as he did his first two years -  he'll need a running game to keep the defense honest.

Not only will the Irish need production from the running backs, but Clausen might have to tuck the ball under his arm and move it forward also. 

The Irish need more weapons.  They can't be a one dimentional team in '09' or the defenses are going to double up on receivers or blitz as much as they can.

No one's asking Clausen to be another Vince Young or Pat White, that's ridiculous, but he's going to have to show enough mobility to put the ball in the end zone when he has the opening.

Last year, the 44th rated quarterback (ESPN QB RATING), didn't score one rushing touchdown.

When a team knows that your quarterback isn't going to run the quarterback option, playing defense inside the red zone becomes that much easier.

There's nothing wrong with NFL type quarterbacks, pocket passers, but even the man whose reputation hangs over Clausen like a blanket, Brady Quinn, ran the ball into the end zone a couple of times in 2006.

Clausen has never scored a touchdown for Notre Dame. The other Brady that's always linked to Charlie Weis, Tom Brady of the  New England  Patriots,  ran it in twice in  2007,  the last season he played.

There are single threat quarterbacks that do very well in college.  Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez, the first two to be drafted in 2009, were both pro-style quarterbacks and never ran.  Stafford had the luxury of Knowshon Moreno in the backfield and USC didn't need Sanchez to run the ball.

Very simply, when a defense knows that the quarterback will not run at all, they bring up an extra blitzer and make their afternoons three hours of misery.

This happened a lot to Clausen in 2008 and he was forced to throw too many interceptions.  His 17 picks last season was second most of the top 60 rated quarterbacks.  Tulsa's Dave Johnson threw 18 picks but he also threw 21 more touchdowns than Clausen.

Last year there were three quarterbacks mentioned all season as Heisman Trophy Candidates.  All three ran the ball and gave the defense the illusion that they were playing against 12 men instead of 11.

Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, who won the Heisman Trophy ran for five touchdowns, Colt McCoy of Texas ran for 11 and Tim Tebow, of Florida, ran for 12.

There are going to be times when Clausen is just going to have to head up field with the ball under his arm.  Charlie Weis, the former NFL offensive coordinator, might have to change his thinking as it relates to the quarterback running the ball.

Clausen doesn't have to become a runner, don't misunderstand the point, he just has  to run enough times for the defense to respect him and give the Irish another option.

But Notre Dame clearly needs to improve an all-around running game.  Last season they averaged 3.3 yards a carry and their leading runner, Armando Allen, only had 585 yards on the season.

They need a running game to control the ball and run the clock out.  Last year they lost too many games in the fourth quarter because they couldn't control the ball.

A good running game is not just going to appear at the stadium one day and announce its arrival.  It's going to take work and the offensive line has to step up and they have to replace an offensive tackle in the process.

I believe the line is improving and although Clausen got sacked 21 times in 2008, that was much better than the 37 sacks they gave up in 2007.

Armando Allen, Robert Hughes and James Aldridge are all returning in 2009.  The ground game should be better.

And, of course the symbiotic relationship that exists between the passing and running games is so important.  A good passing game will free up the running game and make things that much easier.  Charlie Weis is hoping for this to materialize.

So the Irish, trying to make it back to a BCS bowl in 2009, are going to need a passing game, a running game and they are going to need to know that they have a quarterback that can run on occasion.

Yes, they are going to need a defense that can stop the run.