Trojansphere | by Jay

Apparently Heisman winner Matt Leinart had been keeping a fairly detailed and regular blog for the past year. Anyway, from an ND standpoint, it's pretty funny, in a trainwreck sort of way. Matt on movies:

I also liked 'Rudy' when I was growing up. It made me want to go to Notre Dame for a while but, of course, I grew out of it.

One of Matt's fan letters:

Matt! "Cat's are useless." Say what?!? Matt you are my favorite quarterback ever at SC and I love you dearly, but cats are not useless. You don't have to like em personally, but jeez louise! My cat is very useful. She is my little buddy and keeps me company (although she isn't a huge fan of football, too much excitement for her.) She is very amusing and does funny stuff like zooming around the house with wild look in her eye and getting pissy with the outdoor cats who get too close to the window. She is also very smart and knows many verbal cues. And a huge perk: she smells a lot better than a dog. Anyhoo, I love you just a little less today after reading of your great dislike of cats. I'm even thinking of taking down the picture of you I have above my desk. Ok, I'm messin' with ya a little bit.

But I can't rip on Matt's blog too much. Even though it's clear that someone's ghostwriting it for him, it's a pretty good "inside look". I hope he keeps it up, and I'm looking forward to what he'll write about the ND game this year. Last time around...

Notre Dame
I've always had tremendous respect for Notre Dame. I think that is the centerpiece of the rivalry--the mutual respect between two great programs. Notre Dame didn't really recruit me out of high school. I think they were featured more of a running-style quarterback at the time. By their tradition alone, they attract great players. They get top players and they have great coaches. I think Coach Willingham is an excellent coach. But, it's not just the players, the coaches, the tradition--when you think of Notre Dame, you think of all that comes with it.

The Game

I was approaching the game like any other. I was trying not to listen to the talk surrounding the game. I was trying to go in with the same attitude and I did. It just so happened we made a lot of plays and guys got open and that helps. You throw a five-yard pass to Reggie and he goes for 70. That helps. It was fun to be out there. It's easy for me to keep the discussion of awards away and just play my game.

Working On The Run
We just took what they gave us. They were trying to take away the run, so we passed. We were still able to get some key yards on the ground. Obviously, we wanted a little more, but we were able to exploit them through the air. We always want to run the ball and establish the run, but we'll keep doing the same things.

Notre Dame hardly blitzed. They had a good run defense. They played stout and physical and played back and didn't want to give up anything deep. We were able to play action them and our line blocked great for that.