Notre Dame Football: Reason For Faith

It is Kool-Aid drinking day for Irish fans as it now appears that Charlie Weis will be retained as head coach. Right or wrong, for better or worse, the Notre Dame ship will continue to sail its current course. ESPN can pause their hourly "Weis Watch" segments and constant "what is wrong in South Bend" stories.

They can now sit back and watch with the rest of us. For one more season at least.

But there is a silver lining to the dark clouds hanging over the golden dome. A reality behind the scenes that not only may give weight to Weis's assertions that better days are ahead. There is a glimmer of hope to Irish fans everywhere that maybe, just maybe there is a plan behind the madness.

Youth.

The "youth" excuse is wearing quite thin after two disastrous campaigns. But what if its not an excuse? What if Notre Dame actually suffers from a lack of experience? Coaching needs to be better for sure, but what if there is a message there, and the players haven't gotten it yet? Is it really possible?

For the sake of argument, and the hope that I haven't wasted a morning of thought on nothing... let's say it is possible. Does the Irish roster support the theory?

Well... it may.

The roster contains 24 seniors, almost a quarter of the squad. About what you'd expect. But of those seniors, only 12 saw meaningful playing time. Only six were starters. None were at skilled offensive positions. The two seniors who made an impact on offense and will be leaving the Irish are Asap Schwap and Mike Turkovich.

The defense will miss Pat Kuntz, Maurice Crumm, David Burton, Kyle McCarthy, and Tarrail Lambert. It is a bit startling to see that so few of the impactful Irish players are upper classmen.

Of Notre Dame's 54 freshmen and sophomores, only half saw serious playing time. Many were starters. The quarterback, two of the top three running backs, three of the top four receivers, the tight end, three of the top eight offensive linemen, as well as starters on the defensive line, in the linebacking core, and in the secondary, are all under classmen.

The offensive line is the only spot on the team with an abundance of juniors counting Young, Olsen, and Wenger.

What this says about the Irish is that of 22 starters, 16 will return. Of those returning starters, half will be juniors or younger. They ARE young. It's really not an excuse, but a fact.

It is very plausible that Notre Dame is in a recovery from Ty's cupboard cleaning the last two recruiting years in South Bend. Weis's first incoming class will be seniors in 2009, and the stat sheets and depth charts show that few of the players recruited before him are making an impact. Like Weis or hate him, there is a point to be pondered here.

There have been successful "youthful" teams in college football before. There will again. Young running backs can have standout years. Young quarterbacks can flourish. Like Sam Bradford... or Tim Tebow... but if you look at what surrounded them, versus what fills out the roster in South Bend, there is a stark difference.

Those Sooners and Gators squads were never as under- classmen heavy as the Irish are. They've never had an entirely sophomore-or-younger set of talented players. The team has true freshmen starting at wide receiver, tight end, and guard and sophomores at quarterback and running back.

Given that argument, Weis needs one more year. He's building another strong recruiting class that will add an element that may have also been missing this year- depth.

Fourth quarter disasters were somewhat of a norm for the Irish this year, and a possible explanation (along with dumb decisions) could be the lack of depth. Without a wealth of talent to spell your starters, by the fourth quarter your play makers are gassed.

Blocking and tackling go out the window, you get blown off the ball, and Syracuse defeats you. Or you turn to the second team with a 21 point lead and under six minutes on the clock, and end up hanging on to beat Navy.  

So why be optimistic?

All of their youth will be more experienced next year. The offensive line will not be so offensive. They are building depth, and gaining experience. Run blocking is based largely off technique, and the more experienced your linemen are the more pulls, traps, and zone blocks you can run.

The backs and receivers aren't the problem, and will be more experienced and deeper next year (if the recruiting class holds). The kicker will be able to make a 45 yard field goal (ND finally recruiting a kicker). The defense which improved this year will have the majority of it's players returning, especially if a couple of fifth year petitions are accepted.

Add all that to a cushy schedule that includes Washington, Washington State, Stanford, Nevada, Purdue, Navy, UConn, and a terrible Michigan team, and you've got a realistic chance at a 10 win season and a top 15 finish. A season that Notre Dame fans will smile about, and Weis can point to as an accomplishment.

What you really have here is clear accountability. There are no more excuses. No more blaming "youth" or "Willingham". No more B.S. Just plain and simple results. If Weis says that the rebuilding process was a 2-3 year project, and that after the Sugar Bowl in 2006 he knew that there were two dismal years ahead... I guess I have to buy it.

I don't like what I'm typing here. I am as mad and as done with Charlie Weis as anyone here. But numbers don't lie, and facts are hard to get around. Something terrible has happened at Notre Dame.

The last two seasons are more proof of that than you'll ever need. But you have to wait one more year before you officially label Weis as destroyer or savior, as problem or solution.

2009 will tell much. It will tell if it is time to wake up the echoes, or tear it all down and start again. We can't know which way it will all go. But we can hope.

Now where is my Kool-Aid...