Notre Dame Football: A Week In Review

It has been a very popular week for college football, although not necessarily for great reasons. 

The recent rise of the SEC seems like the conference version of what happened at USC, and now anybody and everybody is getting investigated.

All of this talk just results in more anticipation for the upcoming 2010 season, which by all measure so far, is a complete mystery when trying to predict what will happen.

Perhaps even more importantly, it may remain a complete mystery until half way through the season.

For Notre Dame at least, success will not be gauged by the results of week one, or week two, but rather the entire picture added together by week seven.

Anyway, here is your Notre Dame football week in review.

Blame It On The A-a-a-a-lcohol

In case you haven’t heard, last weekend eight Irish football players were arrested at a house party in South Bend. Included in that bunch was Nate Montana, Steve Filer, T.J Jones, and Tate Nichols.

Those eight made up a total of 43 people arrested at the party, which begs the question—what’s the bigger deal, that eight football players were arrested, or that a house at Notre Dame actually threw what sounds like a decent party?

The general consensus in this whole matter seems to be that it’s no biggie these players were drinking underage.

In reality, for those who were caught, it really depends how long they will be in trouble with their parents when they get home.

Nonetheless, what may be the most important and overlooked issue in this whole matter is that this incident marks one of those very rare times where college football players are equally treated like the general student body.

That may not be such a bad thing in an age where many feel entitled or above the law.

Catholics versus Convicts Part Deux

According to the South Bend Tribune, it is finally confirmed that the Irish and the University of Miami will renew their rivalry beginning in 2012.

There are both good and bad sides to this issue.

If Notre Dame plans on keeping the majority of its regularly scheduled opponents in place, then their season just became much more difficult.

With annual historic rivals such as Michigan, USC, and now Miami, the Irish must either start scheduling some blatant cupcakes or schedule themselves into a corner. The other side of the coin is that this couldn’t have come at a better time.

If the two had been playing over the past 10 years it would have had no significance. Recently though, Miami has been on the up and up in the world of college football.

They continue to hold that swagger that all players from “The U” do, and are beginning to gain back some of the athletic prowess they once held as well.

On top of that, Notre Dame just locked up one of the more proven coaches in all of college football.

If the future of Notre Dame football goes where fans expect it to, which seems to be an expectation of at least 10 wins (what I like to refer to as the Notre Dame TENtative expectation), this rivalry will gain the spotlight it once held sooner rather than later.

Clausen In Limbo:

Former Irish QB Jimmy Clausen remains the only unsigned draft pick for the North Carolina Panthers.

If only he didn’t hire an agent, he might be able to get his starting spot back (sarcasm). 

As of now, the Charlotte Observer is saying a deal in the near future isn’t the likely scenario.

Therefore Clausen could end up holding out on the NFL the same way they did with him in the draft.

The Observer is also reporting that it could be vital to Clausen to get a deal done before camp if he wants the starting position.

With the stigma about Clausen coming out of college, as time goes on, it will be interesting to monitor this situation and see if it’s the usual negotiations holding up his arrival at training camp, or if this is a Crabtree-like issue.

That is your Notre Dame football week in review.