It's Finally Over It seems appropriate that Notre Dame's final game Saturday was as ugly as the rest of the 2007 season.
The Irish committed far too many penalties, made costly turnovers, failed to capitalize on its opponent's mistakes, didn't execute well on offense, struggled on special teams, couldn't tackle and didn't catch any breaks. Somehow, Notre Dame still pulled out a 21-14 victory over a very poor Stanford squad, giving the Irish consecutive wins to end a season for the first time since 1992.
There aren't many positives to take away from the victory other than it wasn't a loss.
If Notre Dame and head coach Charlies Weis are going to bounce back next season, a litany of problems must be corrected during the offseason. No doubt, Weis will hit the recruiting trail for the next few weeks before doing his own autopsy on the 2007 season. Once the NFL season concludes, Weis says he'll have his old pals in New England audit the Irish and help pinpoint where the third year coach failed so miserably.
Once Weis finishes his post-mortem analysis, he'll begin figuring out ways to correct his mistakes. There are several obvious places to start.
You can be sure the Irish will do a lot of hitting in spring practices, unlike this year when the team rarely went full contact against each other. Notre Dame will also focus on one offensive playbook and won't be attempting to implement three or four radically different schemes. And the team will certainly practice the basics -- blocking, tackling, kicking -- since they didn't execute any of these phases for much of the season.
Perhaps the best byproduct of a 3-9 season is that Weis learned much from his impressive failure. He's been knocked down a peg or two. He now knows that having a "schematic advantage in every game" doesn't get you very far when your players don't execute. Calling an offensive play with Brady Quinn under center, Jeff Samardjiza and Rhema McKnight at wideouts and Darius Walker in the backfield is vastly different than calling the same play with fresh-faced Jimmy Clausen and a bunch of freshman at the skill positions.
Weis also needs to refine the way he motivates his team. Numerous times this season the Irish simply lacked passion. They weren't physically tough and they didn't match their opponent's energy. Teams get extra excited to play Notre Dame and the team needs to meet that intensity. Too often Notre Dame simply looked unmotivated.
Finally, Weis needs to teach his players discipline. In 20 years of watching Notre Dame football, I've never seen an Irish squad commit so many stupid penalties. There were several games when Notre Dame easily reached double digits in penalties. This should never, ever happen. Part of the problem is playing so many young players, but that still doesn't excuse Weis's team from being this reckless. Notre Dame wasn't good enough to overcome so many self-inflicted wounds. Few teams are.
Weis built up a reserve of good feelings by leading Notre Dame to back-to-back Bowl Championship Series Games in 2005 and 2006. He used up most of those reserves in 2007. Heading into the 2008 season Weis knows he's facing his greatest challenge. If the Irish endure another disappointing season with little obvious improvement, the fourth year coach will be on a very hot seat. But if Notre Dame can bounce back with a solid eight or nine win season, Weis can carry that momentum into a potential national title run in 2009.
Next year Weis will coach three recruiting classes that he put together. The first two were ranked in the top-10 and the latest has a very real chance to be No. 1. We will have a much better idea of Weis's coaching ability by watching the team next season. They also have the benefit of a very manageable schedule and the talent to make a significant jump in improvement next season.
Whether Notre Dame actually makes that jump will depend on how well Weis adjusts from the mistakes he made in 2007.
The Irish committed far too many penalties, made costly turnovers, failed to capitalize on its opponent's mistakes, didn't execute well on offense, struggled on special teams, couldn't tackle and didn't catch any breaks. Somehow, Notre Dame still pulled out a 21-14 victory over a very poor Stanford squad, giving the Irish consecutive wins to end a season for the first time since 1992.
There aren't many positives to take away from the victory other than it wasn't a loss.
If Notre Dame and head coach Charlies Weis are going to bounce back next season, a litany of problems must be corrected during the offseason. No doubt, Weis will hit the recruiting trail for the next few weeks before doing his own autopsy on the 2007 season. Once the NFL season concludes, Weis says he'll have his old pals in New England audit the Irish and help pinpoint where the third year coach failed so miserably.
Once Weis finishes his post-mortem analysis, he'll begin figuring out ways to correct his mistakes. There are several obvious places to start.
You can be sure the Irish will do a lot of hitting in spring practices, unlike this year when the team rarely went full contact against each other. Notre Dame will also focus on one offensive playbook and won't be attempting to implement three or four radically different schemes. And the team will certainly practice the basics -- blocking, tackling, kicking -- since they didn't execute any of these phases for much of the season.
Perhaps the best byproduct of a 3-9 season is that Weis learned much from his impressive failure. He's been knocked down a peg or two. He now knows that having a "schematic advantage in every game" doesn't get you very far when your players don't execute. Calling an offensive play with Brady Quinn under center, Jeff Samardjiza and Rhema McKnight at wideouts and Darius Walker in the backfield is vastly different than calling the same play with fresh-faced Jimmy Clausen and a bunch of freshman at the skill positions.
Weis also needs to refine the way he motivates his team. Numerous times this season the Irish simply lacked passion. They weren't physically tough and they didn't match their opponent's energy. Teams get extra excited to play Notre Dame and the team needs to meet that intensity. Too often Notre Dame simply looked unmotivated.
Finally, Weis needs to teach his players discipline. In 20 years of watching Notre Dame football, I've never seen an Irish squad commit so many stupid penalties. There were several games when Notre Dame easily reached double digits in penalties. This should never, ever happen. Part of the problem is playing so many young players, but that still doesn't excuse Weis's team from being this reckless. Notre Dame wasn't good enough to overcome so many self-inflicted wounds. Few teams are.
Weis built up a reserve of good feelings by leading Notre Dame to back-to-back Bowl Championship Series Games in 2005 and 2006. He used up most of those reserves in 2007. Heading into the 2008 season Weis knows he's facing his greatest challenge. If the Irish endure another disappointing season with little obvious improvement, the fourth year coach will be on a very hot seat. But if Notre Dame can bounce back with a solid eight or nine win season, Weis can carry that momentum into a potential national title run in 2009.
Next year Weis will coach three recruiting classes that he put together. The first two were ranked in the top-10 and the latest has a very real chance to be No. 1. We will have a much better idea of Weis's coaching ability by watching the team next season. They also have the benefit of a very manageable schedule and the talent to make a significant jump in improvement next season.
Whether Notre Dame actually makes that jump will depend on how well Weis adjusts from the mistakes he made in 2007.
1 comment:
Nice article. I like your inclusion of Weis' comment that his teams would have a 'schematic advantage' in every game, a comment which looks completely ridiculous given our offense's futility this year. Our offense was ranked 117th out of 120 in yards per game in 2007; if Notre Dame's offensive talent was in the bottom 3 in the NCAA then I'd say that Weis did, indeed, provide a strategic advantage that allowed our players to outperform their potential. If our talent is better than 117th in the country we have to admit that we were bad this year because of Weis' ineffective coaching, and not because Willingham left the cupboard bare.
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