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Notre Dame vs. Washington State: Fighting Irish continue drive towards BCS bowl
Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Washington State Cougars
Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas,
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, 7:30 PM ET on NBC
Heading to the Lone Star State to take on some Cougars, the Fighting Irish continue their drive towards a "BCS" bowl, going up against Washington State of the the Pac-10. Notre Dame, 5-2 and #23 in the BCS tabulations, is inaugurating its first latter-day neutral-site game at the Alamodome in beautiful San Antonio.
Flow of the Notre Dame Season
Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis has been one of football's greatest offensive coordinators with respect to managing the flow of a drive and managing the flow of a game. What is interesting now is to see how Weis, as a head coach, manages the flow of a season.
Washington State is a respected opponent, and the game is important unto itself. At the same time, Notre Dame finds itself in a position of playing through a string of unbelievably hard-fought contests, coming off a last-second loss to Southern Cal and a tight win over former nemesis Boston College. And now Notre Dame has to pioneer its first Notre Dame-hosted neutral site game in decades, somewhat banged up, before taking on a tough Navy team at home and a top-15 Pitt on the road.
If Notre Dame does pull out a win, how they play can impact not just how Notre Dame does against Washington State, but how well they do against Navy and Pitt and in the flow of the season as a whole. If Notre Dame plays top-10-quality football early in the game, which might be necessary to build any kind of decisive lead, that could determine if and how much Notre Dame moves in the BCS tabulations, as well as how well-rested the battle-tested Irish are coming back for Navy and then going on the road against Pitt.
(With regard to BCS standings, heading into the night game in San Antonio, #23 Notre Dame naturally will be aware that #21 West Virginia already lost to unranked South Florida on Friday, and #13 Virginia Tech lost to unranked North Carolina on Thursday. During the week Weis had expressed the need to move up at least a few places each week.)
In addition to the question of resting banged-up starters, there also is the matter of getting game experience for other players. For Notre Dame, which has developed a habit of finding ways to use young players, it is not just an abstract question of players getting experience for future years. Notre Dame is building quality depth and experience in order to use players immediately, such as in the wide receiver corps.
If Notre Dame does manage to break 40 points, and has a sizable lead, expect the Irish to call off the dogs fairly early. Weis comes out of the NFL, where overly blown-out scores are regarded as somewhat useless. But rotating a lot of players in also helps rest the starters and build seasoning and quality depth.
Washington State overall
Weis has taken note of Washington State's powerful, in the aggregate, performance in the third quarter, as well as their strong passing game against Cal.
Rebuilding under second-year Coach Paul Wulff, Washington State is 1-6 on the year, with their sole win over a team from Texas, a 30-27 overtime victory over a solid SMU team that itself is rebuilding under coach June Jones. The Cougars' record is somewhat misleading. Washington State is a respected major program facing a strong slate of opponents, playing in one of college football's toughest conferences, the Pac-10.
After playing against that schedule, the Cougars are ranked near the bottom of the 120-team FBS/Div. I-A in most major statistical categories. Washington State is #116 in rushing offense, #110 in total offense, #114 in rushing defense, #118 in passing defense, and #119 in total defense. Only Western Kentucky has given up more yards on defense than Washington State, who has given up an average of 500 yards per game.
The one area in which Washington State is stronger is passing, where they are ranked #55 in the FBS/Div. I-A. Washington State quarterback Jeff Tuell threw for 354 yards last week against Cal, completing 28 of 42 (67%) with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.
It so happens that pass defense is the one area Notre Dame would like to improve upon the most. Notre Dame itself is ranked #117 in pass defense. At the same time, the Irish defense is big in the clutch, and is even tied for #30 in interceptions.
Notre Dame Strong Turnover Margin
After securing 5 turnovers and committing none against Boston College, Notre Dame is tied for #4 in the FBS/Div. I-A in turnover margin. On the year, Notre Dame has gained 15 turnovers and committed only 5, across 7 games.
Notre Dame on Offense
Jimmy Clausen, the rightful Heisman front-runner, is #2 in the nation in passing efficiency, throwing 15 touchdown passes to 2 interceptions, averaging 293 yards per game, and completing 65% of his passes, while playing injured much of the year.
Playing against one of the ten toughest schedules among ranked teams, Notre Dame is in the top-15 in the nation right now in total offense, averaging 439 yards per game.
The Irish passing game is stellar, despite missing All-America-caliber sophomore wide receiver Michael Floyd much of the year thus far due to his broken collar boan. Junior wide receiver Golden Tate, himself an All-America candidate at this point and semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, has stepped into the top-4 among receivers, averaging 121 yards per game receiving.
Floyd might be back for Navy or Pitt, but not for Washington State.
Robby Parris, who has proven himself a big-time receiver, got injured at least three different ways during a big game against Southern Cal. Parris saw limited action against Boston College before spending the second half in street clothes, Weis has indicated that Parris is doubtful for Washington State, and that for this game he leans towards doubtful meaning Parris does not play.
Veteran Duval Kamara also has been coming on strong. Roby Toma, a freshman who was high school offensive player of the year in Hawai'i last year, already had been earning praise from Weis earlier in the year for how he looked during practice, and Toma saw some good production against Boston College.
Notre Dame had started working freshman speedster Shaquelle Evans into the mix at wide receiver, only for Evans to apparently go into the infirmary and then get out just before the Southern Cal game, not in time to be up to speed on the game plan. Evans is on the two-deep for Washington State.
John Goodman saw some production against Boston College, and also is in the two-deep depth chart for San Antonio.
One curious twist in recent games has been the lack of production from tight-end Kyle Rudolph, who formerly had been not just a great receiving tight end, but one of the better Irish receivers overall. Rudolph is actually still Notre Dame's second-leading receiver on the year, with 25 catches for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns. But against Southern Cal, Rudolph had less than 10 yards' receiving, and against Boston College, Rudolph had just one catch for 11 yards.
Weis indicated that, against Southern Cal, Rudolph was used more for pass protection, which might not necessarily explain the matter fully. Against Boston College, who was dropping a lot of defenders into coverage but leaving shorter yardage more open, one might have expected the towering Rudolph to be much more of a factor. Time will tell whether Rudolph actually had an injured finger or the like, perhaps impacting his pass-catching more than his blocking.
Weis reportedly showed a lot of interest in the tight ends in practice this past week, so perhaps Weis will be re-emphasizing that part of the offense, and perhaps that means Rudolph will be healthy going forward.
The offensive line has proven solid, and despite injuries at times to halfback Armando Allen and fullback James Aldridge, the Irish running game has been much stronger than last year. Against Boston College, Allen was two yards shy of a 100-yard rushing game, average 4.7 yards per carry. Allen seems stronger and harder-running than last year, including picking extra yards after the initial hit.
Notre Dame on Defense
The Irish defense has become very tough against the run, limiting Southern Cal on the ground and effectively shutting down a previously high-powered Boston College rushing attack.
And, in addition to being strong in the clutch, the Irish defense has contributed to Notre Dame being in the top-4 nationally in turnover margin, including securing five turnovers against Boston College. They included two fumbles and three interceptions, the third sealing the win in the final two minutes.
The defensive-line and linebacker corps have been stepping up tackle-production significantly, with linebackers Manti Te'o and Brian Smith leading tacklers against Boston College.
Safety Kyle McCarthy is tied for #3 in the country for interceptions and continues to be a leading tackler.
Notre Dame has been tweaking its defense, moving safety Harrison Smith back to linebacker, and apparently rotating linebacker Darius Fleming, among the national leaders in tackles-for-loss, in at defensive end.
Weis apparently had been waiting for Te'o to get more seasoning before settling in Brian Smith at middle linebacker, the preferred location for Brian Smith, with Te'o at outside linebacker. Previously, Brian Smith had been playing on the outside, with Toryan Smith on the inside, with Brian Smith shifting over when Te'o came in. But now Te'o is an ongoing starter, Brian Smith is in the middle, and the duo are proving potent.
Weis has highlighted the defense as a work in progress with its best football still ahead of it, and sounds satisfied with the run defense and the front seven settling into place. The pass defense has been strong in the clutch, and opportunistic, and has some great players. Sergio Brown, who forced a fumble on the goal-line against Boston College, in what Weis considered the pivotal play of the game, is working in more at safety, and Gary Gray, who had a timely interception against Southern Cal, has been getting more time at defensive back as well.
Washington State, regardless of its overall record, could provide a good test for the Notre Dame secondary, especially with a game against Pitt and another great passer in just a few weeks.
Notre Dame Special Teams
Texas native, Notre Dame freshman place-kicker Nick Tausch has proven a main-stay on field goals, completing more than 92%, 12 of 13 with a long of
Freshman punter Ben Turk apparently has retained his starting position after Weis opened up competition again at practice during the week.
Tate is a decent punt returner, but has yet to turn into the game-breaker as a punt returner that Rocket Ismail was. Tate is not getting a lot of opportunities to return kick-offs, but freshman speedster Theo Riddick, according to Weis the fastest player on the team, is ripping off strong returns even if not game-breakers.
Freshman David Ruffer is appearing reasonably strong and improving on kick-offs.
Notre Dame and Texas
Notre Dame's last Heisman winner, Tim Brown, is originally from Texas. Presently mammoth Notre Dame left guard Chris Stewart, kicker Nick Tausch, and defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore are all big contributors from Texas. Wide receiver Derry Herlihy also hails from the Lone Star State.
Stewart has mentioned how, growing up, he would hear how Notre Dame used to come to Texas.
Notre Dame went 2-0 against Texas in a home-and-away series during the Lou Holtz era, but also has made a number of appearances at the Cotton Bowl, when the Cotton Bowl was a major bowl the equivalent of today's BCS bowls. In fact, after Notre Dame ended a 45-year abstinence of bowl games, Cotton Bowls featuring Notre Dame decided the national championship three times in the 1970's.
In 1970, Notre Dame lost a #1 vs. #2 match-up in the Cotton Bowl to Texas, only to come back and blow out a #1-ranked Texas the following year. After the 1977 season, a #5-ranked Notre Dame blew out another #1-ranked Texas team, leaping from #5 to #1 to win the national championship. (As an aside, 1977 demonstrated how the current BCS set-up is flawed. Both the #1 and #2 teams lost their bowl games that year, and it turned out the true national champion, Notre Dame, had only been ranked #5 heading into the bowls. Today's BCS would have matched up the two losing "top" teams, awarded one of them the national title wrongly, and kept the true national champion out of the loop.)
Notre Dame also made multiple trips to the Cotton Bowl under Lou Holtz, including a Cotton Bowl win at the end of the 1993 season, arguably Notre Dame's last de facto national championship. That year, Notre Dame went 11-1 and beat 11-1 Florida State late in the season. The Seminoles were ranked #1 in opinion polls, but Notre Dame got nearly half the final #1 votes in at least one of the polls.
The current Big-12 was the result of a merger between the old Southwest Conference, featuring teams like Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor, with the old Big-8. The Southwest Conference champion went to the Cotton Bowl, and the Big-8 champion, at least in later years, went to the Orange Bowl. Prior to the Big-12 merger, the Cotton Bowl was the equivalent of one of today's BCS bowls. (Ironically, the Fiesta Bowl did not turn into a major bowl until the 1980's, and mainly because it was needed to serve as a venue for top then-independents like Notre Dame, Miami of Florida, Penn State, and West Virginia.)
Texas is a hotbed of high school football, and the Irish are inviting a number of recruiting prospects to the game in San Antonio, although they are not allowed to talk to the recruits, as they would at Notre Dame's home campus. (Perhaps Notre Dame should establish a branch campus in Texas!)
Notre Dame realizes it might not land as many recruits from Texas as some of the major programs in Texas itself, but is pleased to have landed the great Texas players it has, including Heisman-winner Tim Brown.
Notre Dame Neutral-Site Barnstorming
The Irish will be wearing home jerseys, bringing their band, and having the game seen in a true national television broadcast by NBC. (Given that ABC apparently will be splitting mirrored regional broadcasts between ABC and ESPN, meaning a black-out for the roughly half the homes in America who elect not to get cable, it sounds as if the Notre Dame-Washington State game will be the only game on actual national television Saturday night.)
Inspired by Notre Dame's national barnstorming of the Knute Rockne era, former Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White reportedly originated a vision for Notre Dame to go with a 7-1-4 model, with seven home games, one neutral-site game, and four away games. The idea was that Notre Dame would host one neutral-site game per year at a major venue in another region, including NBC having the television rights. One hope was to provide Notre Dame alumni and fans in regions that do not often get the chance to see a Notre Dame an easier way to watch the Irish in person.
While the Notre Dame games have stable mid-afternoon start-times at Notre Dame, the neutral-site games are featuring prime-time broadcasts on NBC. For college football fans, in some cases this might mean the Notre Dame game is the only primetime game on actual national television, and not relegated to cable, which only roughly half of American homes get.
Reportedly one glitch encountered thus far with scheduling has been rival television networks trying to get one or more conferences to object to Notre Dame hosting a game against a conference team within that conferences geographic footprint. For example, the Big-12 balked at Notre Dame hosting Baylor at a neutral site in Texas. The game was moving to the Superdome in New Orleans before it fell through. Notre Dame apparently is hoping that relevant conferences will take a look at the opportunities involved and take advantage of them for the benefit of the conference, even if that means explaining this to their own television partner.
In 2010 Notre Dame revives an historic match-up playing Army at the new Yankee Stadium, and in 2011, Notre Dame returns to Texas to play Arizona State at the next generation Dallas Cowboys stadium.
Notre Dame probably needs to add yet an additional neutral site game that would be a true mid-season bowl game, splitting seating down the middle and hosting a top-10 opponent.
At the same time, for Notre Dame and Washington State, the game in San Antonio is like a bowl game in many respects, complete with a reported $1.5 million payout to the Cougars.
Notre Dame vs. Washington State Links:
:: #25 Irish To Face Washington State In San Antonio Showdown: Notre Dame will tangle with the Cougars Saturday night at the Alamodome (7:42 p.m. ET, NBC), Notre Dame Football news release with resource links, Oct. 26, 2009
:: VIDEO: Charlie Weis Washington State preview news conference, Oct. 27, 2009
:: TRANSCRIPT: Charlie Weis Washington State preview news conference, Oct. 27, 2009
:: Notre Dame vs. Washington State extended game notes (PDF)
:: Notre Dame statistical rankings, NCAA database
:: Notre Dame depth chart
:: Notre Dame Football official site
:: Washington State statistical rankings, NCAA database
:: Washington State depth chart
:: Washington State Football official site
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Fighting Irish, Washington State Football, Washington State Cougars Football, Charlie Weis, Jimmy Clausen, Heisman, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, Robby Parris, Duval Kumara, Manti Te'o, Brian Smith, Kyle McCarthy
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