Gunner | by Jay

Inspired during the cutting of the clips below, I went ahead and threw together a little Mike Anello highlight reel.



From the Observer last November:

The 5-foot-10, 170-pound former walk-on plays gunner on the Irish punt team and is also on the kickoff team. Anello made his debut on the field last year in Notre Dame's 38-0 loss to Michigan in the Big House.

"I remember I had a good week on the scout team the week before," he said. "During practice, Coach [Charlie] Weis started yelling 'Where's Anello?' I thought I had done something wrong."

Weis told him that he had cracked the depth chart and would be going to Ann Arbor that weekend. Anello waited all week for the coaches to pull him out of the spot, but it never happened. On his second trip down the field he got to the ball and recorded his first collegiate tackle.

"It was kind of a surreal experience, if you had told me a few years ago that I would even be on the Notre Dame team I would've probably laughed at you," Anello said.

Clip Show '08 | by Jay

What better way to celebrate the holiday than some football fireworks? Herewith, the Top 10 plays for the 2008 Notre Dame football season, compiled and annotated, as always, by Paul of Classic Ground.

It should come as no surprise that most of the top plays from 2008 are of the "passing and catching" variety. Also of note: 8 of the 10 top plays featured a freshman or a sophomore. Here we go.

10. Christmas Present. In the play that put the final nail in the coffin of Notre Dame’s ugly bowl losing streak, Armando Allen returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown against Hawaii in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. If it seemed like a very long time since an Irish player had accomplished the feat, it was: Allen’s effort was the first kickoff return for touchdown by Notre Dame since Vontez Duff went 92 yards in the third quarter against Navy on November 9, 2002. The 96-yard return was also a new bowl record for the Irish, as Allen topped the legendary 93-yard return by Al Hunter in the 1973 Sugar Bowl against Alabama.



9. Golden Acrobat. Although the play occurred during the Irish loss to Pitt, Notre Dame would not have made it to overtime against the Panthers without big plays for its two wideouts, Michael Floyd and Golden Tate. This play is emblematic of the highlight reel plays both wide receivers made all season for the Irish. On a third and 12 with the score tied at 3-3 in the middle of the second quarter, Golden Tate made an acrobatic catch for 47 yards. Talking about the catch, Tate said, “I honestly just played it wrong. I should have caught it the first time. For some reason it bounced off the guy's head, and I saw another guy about it catch it, so I just went to make sure he couldn't catch it. I caught it and got a few yards. I was just trying to break it up so that he wouldn't get it.”



8. Fabulous Frosh. Arguably no player was more important to the Irish offense than first-year wide receiver Floyd. Without Floyd in the lineup, Notre Dame lost to lowly Syracuse and could muster no offense against Southern California. Versus Stanford, Jimmy Clausen threw for a then-career-high 347 yards and three touchdown passes as Notre Dame held on for a 28-21 victory. Floyd played a large role in the victory taking in five passes for 115 of Clausen’s 347 yards. Floyd’s 48-yard snag late in the second quarter against Stanford, as he beat Wopamo Osaisai (the PAC 10 champion in the 100 meters) on 3rd and 10, put Notre Dame up 21-7 going into halftime against the Cardinal.



7a and 7b. “He’s a Playmaker.” Notre Dame won a statistical national championship this year: the Irish led the nation in fewest average yards allowed per kickoff return. A very large reason for that fact was the special teams play of safeties David Bruton and Sergio Brown, and former walk-on Mike Anello. Two specific plays, among many, represent the major impact Anello had on the Irish season. Against Michigan, Anello had three tackles, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. With the Irish already up 7-0 on the Wolverines, he pounced on a bumbled kickoff return by Michigan’s Michael Shaw, setting Clausen and the offense up at the Wolverine 14-yard line.

Against Navy, Anello blocked a punt that Toryan Smith caught on a bounce at the Navy 14 that put the Irish up 7-0 in the first quarter.



Coach Weis, on Anello: “Give me a bunch of Mike Anellos on special teams that run like that and show heart, and he doesn't just show heart, he's a playmaker. I'll take a bunch of guys like him.”

6. Impact. A trip to Seattle to face former Notre Dame head coach Ty Willingham and his 0-8 Washington Huskies offered very little advantage to the Fighting Irish. Michael Floyd, Jimmy Clausen, and the Irish defense overmatched the Huskies in a 33-7 win. After holding the Huskies to a 3-and-out on their opening series, Notre Dame took the ball at its own 37-yard line. Three plays later, including Floyd's 51-yard catch and run (sprung by good blocks from TE Kyle Rudolph and RT Sam Young), the Irish had opened the scoring against awful Washington (Willingham would be fired the following Monday).



5. Aztec Fumble. With Notre Dame trailing 13-7 in the fourth quarter, San Diego State had the ball 1st and Goal from the Irish 4-yard line and was threatening to widen its lead. Instead, Irish safeties David Bruton and Kyle McCarthy force a fumble near the goal line, Bruton recovers, and Jimmy Clausen, Golden Tate, and the Irish take the lead for good a few plays later. Bruton, on the play: "Nobody panicked. There was no wavering in anybody's attitude. Our defense was like, `We got you, offense,'..."



4. "In the Bucket." As time ticked away at the end of the first half on Christmas Eve, Clausen found Tate in the corner of the endzone with a perfect pass. The touchdown capped an 8-play, 67-yard drive that resembled many of Brady Quinn's end-of-half/end-of-game drives in 2005 and 2006. Notre Dame led Hawaii 28-7.



3. Solo. After the Irish got a 4th-down stop against Michigan at the ND 37-yard line, offensive coordinator Mike Haywood had Clausen "go long" on back-to-back plays. On the first one, Donovan Warren grabbed Michael Floyd's arm and got called for pass interference. On the next play, the Irish left 9 guys in to block, and only Tate went long, burned the Wolverine secondary, and opened a 21-0 first quarter Irish lead.



2. Blanton Bests Boilers. Freshmen (again) made a large impact for the (improving) Irish in 2008. Floyd's contribution, as mentioned in the above plays, was obvious and immediate; players like Ethan Johnson and Darius Fleming made some big plays on defense and special teams; and TE Kyle Rudolph held down the position after injuries and attrition forced him into action and earned some freshman All-America honors. Meanwhile, the defensive freshman play of the year was cornerback Robert Blanton's very important "Pick 6" for 47 yards to tie the game at 7-7 against Purdue. Coach Weis on the play: "Defensively, obviously one of the biggest, if not the biggest play in the game, is R.J.'s (Robert Blanton) interception for a touchdown, which is the only turnover in the game."

(Sorry about the audio in this one; it drops in and out.)



1. When it Rains, it Pours. And it rained, and rained, and rained on Michigan at Notre Dame in September. Trailing 28-17 at the start of the fourth quarter, Steven Threet fumbled the shotgun snap in the driving rainstorm, Irish linebacker Brian Smith picked up the loose ball, and returned it for the Notre Dame touchdown. The Irish avenged two years of futility against the hated Wolverines. Smith, on his play: “I was just thinking about jumping on it [the football] and recovering it. When I looked, there was no one near the ball. People said it was a good scoop since it was so wet outside, but we run that drill every week, so there was a lot of practice there.”



For previous clip shows, click here for 2005 and here and here for 2006.

Sudden Switch | by Pat

After a long dry spell, ND has nearly doubled the current recruiting class size in the past week. The latest newcomer is Utah safety Chris Badger. Visiting campus for an unofficial visit, Badger decided to switch his commitment from Stanford, where his father and brother went, to Notre Dame and become the 9th member of the recruiting class of 2010

"I've always had a thing for Notre Dame and heard so much about their tradition and history. When I got there, I just can't describe the feeling. You can just feel the prestige of the school and football is such a huge deal there. If you make it big at Notre Dame in football, you become a legend and everything just felt right so I decided to change my commitment.

If you're thinking it is rare for someone from Utah to come to ND to play football, you are right. According to the all-time roster, Badger will be only the fourth player from the State to suit up for ND, with the last one being Pete Rokich in the mid-80's.

The 6'0" 190 pound Badger is a 3-star recruit to both Rivals and Scout. Rivals has him as the #24 safety while Scout has him a spot lower at #25. ESPN is a bit more optimistic, putting Badger on their Top 150 Watch List. Like some of the other 3-star recruits in this class, Badger does have a very solid offer list. In addition to the Stanford offer, Florida State, LSU, Cal, Oregon, Missouri, and others all offered him. I think it's safe to say that it is rare for FSU and LSU to look to Utah for their safeties.

What has certainly helped Badger pick up offers is his willingness to attend camps and combines in order to perform for coaches and scouts. He was the WR MVP of BYU's football camp in '07, was the DB MVP of the Boise National Underclassmen Combine in '08, was named to the All-Camp team (along with Chris Martin) at the aptly named BadgerSport 7 on 7 tournament in Vegas earlier this spring, and had a very good showing at this spring's L.A. Under Armour combine.

Badger is a blue-collar type safety who excels more as a true hash, Cover 2 defender getting over the top of the football and breaking on the ball in front of him with excellent instincts and plant-and-drive burst. Matchup-wise, Badger could struggle playing down over quicker slots in space.

The well-built safety showed better range than testing speed (4.75 40) and impressed us with his 4.35 shuttle and solid footwork for a high-point safety during DB drills. The Stanford pledge benched 185 pounds 18 times and showed some of that upper-body strength getting physical with slots running up the seam and battling for position against outside receivers on deep routes. On film, you might not find a bigger hitter than Badger, which he couldn't show in this setting. Still, we did see some great intangibles and athleticism.

ESPN has started to add video from these combines, so if you're interested to see what goes on, here's Badger's work at that L.A. UA Combine. If the part about not finding a bigger hitter caught your eye, then enjoy these 5 minutes of football violence that make up Badger's highlight clips. Fun stuff.

At the very least Badger is going to be a force on special teams. Maybe he'll even grow into a linebacker, which would help negate the critiques of him being a step slow to keep up with premier wideouts. But for now he's a safety, so let's take a look at the current safety depth chart for 2010. I hope you're ready for this.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
Leonard Gordon	Harrison Smith*	Dan McCarthy*		Chris Badger

Ouch. Any freshman who commits to ND will more or less automatically be in the two-deep as soon as he is assigned a number. It's possible and maybe even likely that someone like Jamoris Slaughter or E.J. Banks could shift to safety, but looking at the Lo Wood post right before this one, it's not like ND is overflowing with cornerbacks either. Freshman Zeke Motta practiced at linebacker this spring, but scuttlebutt has him starting fall camp at safety so he could add depth if he sticks in the defensive backfield.

Badger is the first of two or three likely safety recruits in the current recruiting cycle. It's always ideal to spread the numbers across the classes, but with only one real safety in the junior and sophomore classes currently, ND needs to load up this year. Badger is also Mormon, so there might be the possibility he will be taking a mission at some point in the future. That's another reason to take three safeties in this current class.

As for overall numbers, we'll take a closer look at the big picture numbers later on, but ND should wind up at or near 25 when all is said and done. That leaves about 14-16 more spots for recruits.

Recruiting Riding High (and Lo) | by Pat

Right on the heels of the Lueders announcement was another defensive commit in the form of Florida cornerback Lo Wood. The recruiting class of 2010 bumped up to eight when Wood flew into South Bend and announced his commitment at mini-press conference at the Varsity Club Hotel. Here is a clip of that presser where Wood did the hat and shirt announcement game as well as answered a few questions about his recruitment.

The 5'11" 167 pound Wood currently is pegged as a 3 star recruit on both Rivals and Scout. As a cornerback, Wood is Rival's 32nd ranked corner and the 42nd ranked corner on Scout. ESPN gave Wood a grade of 78. Those aren't the highest ranks for a corner, but he did have a pretty solid offer list. Runner-up Michigan joined offers from Virginia, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Stanford, NC State, and others. And while Wood's combine "measurables" didn't stand out from the pack, he performed well enough at the Jacksonsville National Underclassmen Combine a year ago to win the Defensive Back MVP award.

Winning the last positional award of the morning was DB MVP Lo Wood of Apopka High School. Wood (5 feet 10, 162 pounds) showed great explosion to the receiver, and fabulous ball skills and athleticism. During the combine events, he also had a 27-inch vertical, 9'1.5" broad, 4.30 shuttle, 4.58 40, and 10 reps on 155 pounds.

The descriptions are sort of reminiscent of Robert Blanton, who similarly didn't wow people with his 40 time or vertical leap, but kept impressing when actual football was being played. The Rivals Florida high school site just released their Top 100 Florida recruits list and put Wood at number 43 with the description "It's hard to argue that Wood isn't the most physical DB in the state". If you're looking to try to figure out just what kind of corner ND is getting, here are his highlight clips.

Another bit of good news is that Wood plans on graduating early and becoming an early enrollee at ND. It will be a tad bit of an adjustment to move from the middle of Florida to South Bend in January, but Wood says he's ready.

"A lot of schools tried to say it's going to get cold," Wood said. "But if you want to play in the NFL, you've got to go to Green Bay sometimes. And it's going to be cold there, so you better get used to it."

Getting back to his homestate, Wood's high school, Apopka High, is a strong team from Central Florida that plays in the state's largest classification. Last year the school produced incoming Michigan freshman Jeremy Gallon and is the alma mater of NFL star Warren Sapp. If Wood can be the start of a pipeline to the school, that would certainly be a good thing.

On to the cornerback depth chart.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
Darrin Walls	Gary Gray*	Robert Blanton	E.J. Banks	Lo Wood
		J. Slaughter *

There is definite talent on this table, but not all that much depth. Consider that Darrin Walls could easily declare for the NFL draft after the 2009 season with the depth becoming much thinner. Wood is the much needed first CB recruit in a class expected to land two or three. ND seems to be in a good position with a number of talented prospects, so hopefully filling up this class with freshman ready to contribute right away won't be a problem.

Blake's Got a New Place | by Pat

The past few weeks haven't felt like the off-season with a steady stream of news, both good and bad. In addition to the Montana/Sharpley/Hendrix/Fauria news, ND picked up another two commits. First up we'll take a look at Thursday's newsmaker Blake Lueders.

The defensive lineman from Zionsville, Indiana committed to Charlie and ND two days after visiting campus and became ND's seventh member of the Class of 2010.

"I knew when I was there (Tuesday) Notre Dame was the place," Lueders said. "I just wanted to sleep on it and think about it for awhile and make sure I was right. I was. I'm happy with my choice.

At 6'5" 250 pounds, Lueders plays middle linebacker for his high school, but is looking like a solid strongside defensive end candidate and possibly even a defensive tackle if he keeps growing. The recruiting sites have him pegged for defensive end with Rivals labeling him a 4-star recruit, the #14 strongside defensive end, and #198 overall recruit. Scout also give Lueders 4-stars as the #18 overall defensive end. ESPN includes him in their currently number-free top 150 watch list. ESPN also has a copy of his highlight clips for those interested.

Lueders picked ND over offers from North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest and finalists Stanford, Northwestern, and Boston College. Looking at the finalists, it shouldn't be a surprise that Lueders carries a 4.0 GPA.

Blake, a Class 4a All-State honorable mention player last season, first gained recruiting notice after his sophomore year of high school when he won the MVP at the Indianapolis segment of National Underclassmen Combine.

Lueders was the leader of the pack as he was the winner of the MVP award. The 6’5 232 lb Lueders ran an unbelievable 4.3 shuttle, had a 9’10 broad jump, and bench pressed 155 lbs 29 times. Lueders was very impressive.

Not to extrapolate too much from an underclassmen combine, but if could put up numbers like that as a high school sophomore, it sounds like Lueders will show up on campus physically ready to go from day one. And that is a good thing, because there will be possibilities for early playing time. Here's the scholarship breakdown for defensive end.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
Kallen Wade	Kerry Neal	Ethan Johnson		Chris Martin
	Emeka Nwankwo	K. Lewis-Moore *		Blake Lueders

There is no guarantee that Kallen Wade will be back for his 5th year in 2010. Ethan Johnson could be a fixture at the tackle spot by then and Nwankwo at 295 pounds is another tackle sized end. That leaves Kerry Neal, KLM, and the freshmen as prototypical defensive ends. Granted, Darius Fleming will still likely be a pseudo-defensive end despite now being listed as a strongside linebacker. Steve Filer might be tasked with rushing the passer from the outside too. But after coming up empty at end in the incoming freshmen class, there will be opportunity for Lueders and Martin to make an early impact in 2010.

Fauria Flies the Coop | by Jay

Hansen's article in the SBT this morning has some bitter quotes from tight end Joseph Fauria, who is transferring to another school in lieu of serving a one-semester suspension for an undisclosed disciplinary violation.

ND head coach Charlie Weis, hamstrung from expounding on the subject by a quagmire of privacy laws and strict university policy, signed off on the transfer Friday afternoon and wished Fauria well.

"(Weis) didn't want me to leave, and I didn't want to leave, but I felt I had to," said Fauria via cell phone from California as he was driving to the beach to ponder his future.

"I didn't want to go back there (to ND) and have to be under the microscope and not be myself. I wanted to have a fresh start.

"I can't say enough about coach Weis, tight ends coach Bernie Parmalee, the guy who recruited me — coach Brian Polian — and the players, too.

"I know coach Weis can't come out and support me publicly because of protocol, but I know how he feels, and that's all that is important. It was an honor to be coached by him. I love him. I'll miss him. I still consider him a part of my family. It's sad to leave everyone, but I feel I was mistreated by the school and that the punishment didn't fit the crime."

Fauria declined to delineate publicly just what he was punished for.

Fauria said he'll likely explore a Pac-10 option in order to stay close to home (Encino, CA).

In a (premium) interview with Pete Sampson of Irish Illustrated, Fauria had even harsher words for how he was treated, saying it was blatantly "unfair."

"They don't take character into account. It's the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. It's a Catholic environment, but there's no Catholic spirit in the process, no spirit of Notre Dame. It's all just trying to knock somebody down. It's terrible..."

"If anyone knows me, they know I'm not some malicious person, not some predator. I'm a fun-loving guy. (Residence Life) didn't see that."

Fauria also claims he was forbidden to appeal the decision. Unlike the rest of you diligent and pious alums, I cannot quote chapter and verse from DuLac, so I paged through it this morning looking for the "appeals" guidelines. I was surprised to find that ND's disciplinary process only allows for "case reviews", not appeals, and even then only in situations where procedural defect is alleged or new information has come to light. Appealing simply on the grounds of "severity of punishment" is never considered. While this may be a crummy policy, what this tells us is that Fauria's lack of access to appeal probably wasn't out of the ordinary in the draconian world of ResLife.

I have no idea what Fauria did, and you probably don't, either. Fauria claims it was something minor (you'd laugh if you knew, he said in another interview). I will say that there seems to be a lot of rumors flying around, ranging from the merely prankish to more serious allegations. Unless Fauria himself divulges the details -- the school certainly won't -- we'll likely never know the facts in the case. Given that we don't know the details, and given the fact that ResLife has no reservoir of credibility to draw from, it's hard to know if justice was served in Fauria's suspension. (The decision to permanently transfer, of course, remains his.)

Football-wise, where does that leave us with tight ends? Pat explored this below in greater detail, when the suspension of Fauria was announced. Rudolph is still the clear #1, but now even more responsibility falls on Mike Ragone and his rickety legs to hold down #2. Walk-on Bobby Burger now moves up a notch to #3, and incoming frosh Tyle Eifert and Jake Golic just went on redshirt alert. There is some depth. As my friend Brian said, the loss of Fauria is a setback, but if everyone else stays healthy (and enrolled) it doesn't have to be a crippling one.

An Idiot's Guide to Interacting With Recruits | by Kevin

This should be a tome shorter than the "Famous Jewish Sports Legends" leaflet. In a word: don't. Don't email recruits. Don't call recruits. Don't visit recruits at their homes.

All pretty obvious, right? Allow me to add a fourth: do not become Facebook "friends" with or otherwise communicate on Facebook or Myspace with recruits. In a recent interview with Irish Illustrated's Pete Sampson (exempted from this rule: it's his job to serve as a conduit between recruits, the ND staff, and fans), consensus #1 defensive end prospect and current Irish oral commit Chris Martin mentioned he received 243 messages yesterday from purported ND fans, reacting to reports Martin was considering visits to other schools. Apparently, the messages were a mix of the supportive and the angry.

Allowing that some, or even many, of these messages could have been written by fans of other programs, with the goal of undermining Martin's relationship with Notre Dame (and there is Facebook precedent for such conduct), none of this is appropriate.

First, NCAA regulations forbid written communications between alumni/financial supporters of a school and recruits. Notre Dame's Compliance Office provides simple guidelines, among them an instruction that one "MAY NOT" (in all-caps), "make any recruiting contacts with prospects or their relatives. This includes telephone calls, letters, emails, and facsimiles, along with any face-to-face contact either on or off-campus." Though "Internet social networking sites" are not among the non-exhaustive list, it's a safe bet such communications are within the intended spirit of the rule. I'd rather not find out the hard way.

Second, college recruits are, by definition, high school students. Adults should not initiate contact with high school students they do not already know. You should no sooner seek the friendship of Chris Martin or Anthony Barr than you should start emailing out of the blue a random junior at some high school in Dubuque. It's weird, to put it lightly.

Third, this brings up a broader point about recruiting. We as fans can do precious little to positively influence the recruiting process. Leaving to the side the issue of whether negative message board discussions of coaches and seasons are appropriate or detrimental, attempts to directly influence recruits will probably not achieve their desired effect. Like trying to mend fences with an ex who has obtained a restraining order, chances are the harder we try, the more likely we are to fail. And when bad news emerges -- and it will, every year for every team -- emoting, like urinating, is an act best done in private. Notre Dame is the subject of several popular message boards, but the ownership of an NDNation or Irish Illustrated "handle" does not mean one cannot instead use tried-and-true methods such as private emails, screaming in a car with the windows rolled up, or throwing a lamp into the wall when bad news hits.

Finally, for those of you worried about the future of the Chris Martin-Notre Dame relationship, relax. I think all will turn out fine in the end.

Lo Wood just wrote on my Wall and told me so.

Hendrix to ND; Sportswriters Rejoice | by Pat

Following in the footsteps of The Mighty Quinn, Santa Clausen, and Crist Almighty, Andrew Hendrix publicly committed to Notre Dame, and ensured even more punny headlines about ND's quarterbacks. (Is He Experienced?, etc.)

Back to ND for his second visit of the spring, Hendrix committed to ND and ended his recruitment.

"It was really tough," Hendrix said. "(But) Notre Dame is the right place for me in the end and it's everything I want in a school athletically, academically and religiously."

Hailing from the one-time ND pipeline Moeller High School in Ohio, Hendrix is the second GCL player to pick ND over Ohio State this year joining Elder tight end Alex Welch. In addition to the Buckeyes, Hendrix has offers from Nebraska, Miami, Michigan State, Tennessee, Boston College, and others.

The recruiting sites aren't in complete agreement over the 6'3" 220 pound Hendrix, but these rankings were made before ND and OSU stepped up with offers. It wouldn't suprise me to see Hendrix move up a bit, especially on Scout who has him as a 3-star recruit and the #27 QB in the class. Rivals is a bit more bullish, giving Hendrix a 4-star ranking and slotting him as the #200 overall recruit and #11 pro-style QB in the class. ESPN hasn't assigned a number ranking to Hendrix yet because he's one of their many Top 150 watch list players. But their writeup of him is pretty positive and echoes the underrated theme.

Hendrix could be the biggest sleeper in this class not only as a powerful pocket passer, but also as a deceptively good athlete. He possesses adequate-to-good height and a solid build. Arm strength is outstanding and he is one of the few players in this class with natural downfield power and terrific wrist snap and velocity on all throws.

Hendrix's highlights bolster the "deceptively good athlete" cliche as he's constantly scrambling for yards and throwing on the run. He sort of reminds me of Crist, in that he's mobile for a big guy and will put his shoulder down and get a few extra yards at the end of the run. Notice only two snaps in the whole 6+ minute highlight reel are taken from under center, so Hendrix will have some adjustment to a more traditional pro-style offense once he arrives in South Bend. Hendrix appears already set on not rushing things anyway.

Hendrix said he will likely redshirt the first year and be able to get ahead with classes. He is interested in the medical field.

Rivals put together an interesting additional highlight reel/analysis in that it's one of the few times I can remember them showing a QB throw incomplete passes while discussing some weaknesses. On nearly every other QB highlight reel you'll ever see, the QB tends to have a 99% completion percentage. To be honest, it makes for a better analysis in my opinion to show the bad with the good.

Like Sharpley, Hendrix might double-dip and play baseball if the stars line up right. Currently, Hendrix is a pitcher for Moeller's state championship baseball team.

Hendrix, who is also on the Moeller's baseball team, said he will also consider playing for the Notre Dame baseball team if the opportunity presents itself. He said he's already spoken with Weis regarding that possibility.

After not taking a QB last year, ND absolutely needed one in this class and may even see if there is a second interested QB recruit. In the meantime, the 2010 depth chart isn't terribly deep, but assuming Clausen returns for his senior year, there is plenty of talent. Let's just hope Hendrix works out as well as the last Ohio QB recruit.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
	Jimmy Clausen	Dayne Crist *		Andrew Hendrix
		Nate Montana *

Summer Bummer | by Pat

A relatively quiet summer was interrupted with news that sophomore tight end Joseph Fauria won't be enrolled at ND for summer school or for the fall semester. The University put out a release that Fauria won't be around for personal reasons and that Charlie hopes he will return for the spring semester. Fauria was reached and confirmed that the plan so far is for him to return.

"I'm just taking it in stride," Fauria told the Tribune on Wednesday night. "The plan is to come back."

It's rough news for the Irish offense as Fauria was one of the most improved players in the spring and would be counted on as a steadily improving blocker and 6'7' passing target for Clausen. He had pushed even to Ragone for the #2 TE job and might even have passed him with a strong fall camp. But now Ragone is the solid #2 counterpart to rising star Kyle Rudolph. It might sound like ND will be just fine with the extremely talented Rudolph/Ragone duo at TE. But, as noted in Michael's spring opus, the ND offense works much better when there are multiple legitimate pass catching tight ends on the roster. And given Ragone's two major knee injuries, the more depth the better.

So now eyes will turn to transfer-turned-walk on Bobby Burger. Ideally, ND would be able to preserve a year of eligibility for incoming freshman tight ends Tyler Eifert and Jake Golic. If Burger can continue to build on his strong spring showing, then ND will have three competent tight ends and the freshmen can benefit from a year on the sideline. At 6'3" 242 pounds, Burger has the size to contribute and received some positive press from Charlie in the spring when he was still the #4 tight end.

“Very seldom do I call a walk-on out this early,” Weis said, “but I’m not going to be afraid to play this kid now.”

Burger started his college career at the University of Dayton, where he was a defensive lineman. He sat out last season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, but he and then-freshman Jonas Gray were the consistent standouts for the ND scout team in practice against the Irish starters last season.

Meanwhile, Fauria hopefully will follow the path of Darrin Walls and Gary Gray, who both missed semesters for personal reasons, only to return back ready to play. The silver lining for Fauria is that he won't lose any eligibility since he played as a freshman in '08 and can use the 2009 as his de facto redshirt year. In the meantime, hopefully the recent ND TE hex will take a breather for awhile and ND can play the 2009 season without having to resort to plugging in reserve offensive linemen in tight end spots. Assuming everyone stays healthy, a depth chart of Rudolph, Ragone, and Burger, not to mention the two freshmen, is still better than what most teams have.

Lining Up | by Pat

Earlier in the year, the Wall Street Journal put out a great article and chart showing the varying experience level of collegiate offensive lines. Echoing the idea behind Ivan Maisel's blurb from last fall, the article mentioned the strong correlation between cumulative offensive line starts and team success. Like many ND fans, I quickly scanned the list and was happy to not only see ND ahead of all opponents, but above every single BCS conference team save Virginia Tech. Here's the the breakdown of ND career OL starts versus the 2009 opponents for those who missed it.

1. Notre Dame - 100 2. Southern Cal - 91 3. Connecticut - 91 4. Washington State - 82 5. Boston College - 80 6. Michigan - 75 7. Washington - 67

8. Nevada - 62 9. Pittsburgh - 62 10. Purdue - 56 11. Stanford - 53 12. Michigan State - 47 13. Navy - 32

But while it's nice to look at a list like this, ND's OL isn't going to face any of these other offensive lines. Knowing that ND's DL is going to be very young this year, there are still a number of veteran OLs they will have to face and attempt to out-play.

On the flip side, I was curious. What kind of experience will ND's veteran OL be facing? Will it be up against a steady stream of battle-tested defensive lines that will somewhat negate ND's cumulative playing time?

The following is the breakdown of the cumulative starts from the opponent's defensive lines heading into the 2009 season. An important caveat that needs to be mentioned is that defensive lines rotate players far more than offensive lines. So a key player could be a strong contributor, but never be a "starter". Southern Cal's Everson Griffen comes to mind. However, minutes played aren't published by every program, so we'll have to stick with the slightly less exact metric of cumulative team starts. If you notice any mistakes, feel free to chime in with a comment.

1. Stanford - 67 2. Navy - 66 3. Pittsburgh - 62 4. Washington - 60 5. Boston College - 51 6. Michigan State - 48

7. Nevada - 40 8. Purdue - 25 9. Connecticut - 23 10. Michigan - 17 11. Southern Cal - 16 12. Washington State - 6

What do you think? Surprising to see Southern Cal so far down there, but they do have a number of experienced and talented backups thanks to years of excellent recruiting. Michigan's inexperience wasn't really a surprise considering their graduation losses, but they are still pretty low. Even worse for them, Brandon Graham holds 16 of their 17 cumulative starts. Other programs where a single player includes more than 50% of a team's total include Michigan State (Trevor Anderson - 31 of 48), Washington (Daniel Teo-Nesheim - 36 of 60), and Southern Cal (Christian Tupou - 10 of 17). Washington State might have a hard time improving on last season's nation's worst rush defense with only six returning starts. On the other hand, there did appear to be a number of new junior college players making up the depth chart.

Without knowing the results from the rest of the nation's DL, it's hard to try and draw too many other hard and fast conclusions from these numbers. On the whole though, I don't see many veteran filled defensive lines on the Irish docket for 2009. What led me to this conclusion was figuring out ND's DL number. I had assumed ND would be near the bottom of the list, but after adding up Kerry Neal's 15 starts, John Ryan's 15 starts (!), Ian Williams's 8 starts, and Ethan Johnson's 4 starts, the grand total of 42 was higher than I expected. That would land ND right in the middle of the above list. In reality, ND's line that sees the field most often will be slightly younger as Ryan appears to have been passed on the depth chart. But other teams could very well have similar issues.

The main takeaway seems to be that there really are no excuses for the Notre Dame offensive line, and by extension offense, in 2009. In addition to their own seniority, there is a lack of veteran laden DL opponents if you consider that ND has more collective starts than half the opponents. Sure, there will be a few rising star types that are tough to handle from the get-go, but overall things really are lining up for a return to 2005/2006 type offensive fireworks. Anything less would be pretty disappointing.

Depth-Chartin' | by Pat

Today is the day that the whole team returns to campus for the start of summer classes. All of the freshman are in with the rest of the team showing up during the day. And with this first glimpse of the light at the end of the off-season tunnel, Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune offers up two new articles to provide some excellent "we're getting closer to football season" depth chart conversation starters.

The first concerns the surprising return of Evan Sharpley for his 5th year. Drafted by Seattle in the 50th round of the recent Major League Draft, Evan worked out a deal with the Mariners to allow him to return to ND early enough to participate in all of fall camp and prepare for the 2009 season.. A successful under-the-radar application for a 5th year option last winter kept this option open.

The move gives ND's QB depth chart an instant shot in the arm. Danye Crist is still the expected backup to Clausen, but now the Irish also have a backup who has started a number of games, knows the playbook, and can provide additional team leadership.

Some might wonder why Sharpley is coming back to essentially be a third stringer. The answer is he is working towards a goal of becoming a teacher and coach in case his baseball career doesn't take off and will spend the fall fulfilling his student teacher requirements.

"I think it's not only going to be great from a player's standpoint, but as a future coach's standpoint as well. I'm going to take advantage of being able to look at what goes into the planning and behind-the-scenes stuff. I owe a lot to coach Weis."

Sounds like a win-win situation. Sharpley gets to prepare for his future and ND gets a one-year boost to the depth chart to supplement the talented but inexperienced Crist.

The next article by Hansen is a great off-season rundown on some critical Irish players for the 2009 season. But in addition to fluffy tidbits about Brian Smith, Armando Allen, and Duval Kamara staying near campus rather than return home after finals and Floyd, Tate, and Rudolph spending a week out with Jimmy Clausen in California, Hansen offers up some possible position switches we all might see tried out early in fall camp. First, while talking about sophomore guard Trevor Robinson, Hansen notes a few possibilities. The left tackle move was discussed prior to spring ball, but the second is an interesting twist to what was assumed a set in stone starting five.

Much speculation in the spring had him [Robinson] popping up at left tackle, but fifth-year senior Paul Duncan’s renaissance spring negated that notion. The two likely scenarios: 1) Robinson nudges past senior Chris Stewart at right guard OR 2) Stewart moves to left guard and incumbent starter Eric Olsen slides over to center, with returning starting center Dan Wenger becoming a backup.

I have to admit I'm a bit intrigued by the second option of moving Olsen to center. If the idea is to get the five best offensive linemen on the field, then I can easily see Robinson swapping in for Wenger. There is no doubt the run game would benefit from an interior of Chris Stewart, Eric Olsen, and Trevor Robinson.

However, can Eric Olsen play center? It's one thing to try and find the five best overall players and stick them on the field together. It's another to take a lifelong guard and hope he can successfully execute shotgun snap after shotgun snap. If ND were to do the roster shuffle Hansen highlights, that would leave only Sam Young playing the same position he played last season. All of the line's veteran experience isn't going to mean as much if all the players are learning the nuances of their new spot on the line. In the end, it will probably come down to the play of Trevor Robinson early in fall camp. If the coaches decide he's just too good to keep off the field, look for the likely possibility of OL musical chairs.

The other depth chart scenario involves the defense and specifically the nickel defense, which will likely be ND's most frequent defense given the pass and spread-offense happy nature of ND's 2009 opponents.

Look for [Brian] Smith and Te’o to be the nickel linebackers, safety Sergio Brown the extra defensive back and a surprisingly effective pass-rushing group up front, built for speed. ... Fleming and fellow sophomore SAM linebacker Steve Filer will drop down and play ends, with end Kapron Lewis-Moore and end/tackle Ethan Johnson moving inside.

No kidding that front seven will be built for speed. Ends as tackles. Linebackers as ends. The mantra is clearly rush the passer with a lineup like that. The somewhat surprising note is Filer slotted at one of the end spots. He's one of the better athletes on the team, so this lineup is certainly exciting from a pass-rushin', all-out Tenuta blitzin' standpoint. On the other hand, it's a small line that wouldn't hold up to the run much (granted, nickel defenses aren't designed to do that anyway) and there is a whole lot of inexperience when the lineup consists of one senior, one junior, four sophomores, and one freshman. Consider Fleming, Johnson, Filer, KLM, and Te'o have a combined career playing time of 251 minutes, which is exactly what Brian Smith logged by himself last season.

And what about Kerry Neal? He played more minutes last year than any returning defensive lineman. Will he be a part of the base defense only and leave the obvious passing downs to Steve Filer? Does this mean Filer isn't expected to start at another linebacker position and will specialize as a pass rusher, ala Mo Richardson? With Te'o rumored to be up to close to 240 pounds already, could he just start at middle linebacker from the get-go in both the base and nickel defense? There will obviously be some shuffling in fall camp as the coaches mix and match their way to a base and nickel defense. The battle for starting spots probably won't be fully decided until a few games into the season either. It sure is nice to have actual competition for jobs with more than one appealing outcome, isn't it? Is it September yet?