True Gipper : University of Notre Dame Sports Blog : Conner & Eamon O'Keefe : True Gipper

    Brian Kelly got another solid commitment today, solidifying the depth at quarterback. Andrew Hendrix recommitted to Notre Dame today, choosing the Irish over the Gators. Hendrix originally committed to Weis and his staff all the way back in june. Here's an article from back in june from Truegipper. Hendrix is now the second QB in the class high school class of 2010. Tommy Rees from Lake Forest, Illinois is the other QB who enrolled early so he can practice with the team in the spring. To add to the depth at quarterback Nate Montana transferred back from Pasedena College. Some even thought that WR John Goodman would be moved back to QB (use to play QB in high school). Now with the Irish gaining Montana and Hendrix this week, Goodman will stay at wideout.

I would like to see Kelly bring in a more mobile QB in the years to come. I liked the play of Cincy QB Zach Collaros last year, he rushed for 325 yard in 5 games when starting QB Tony Pike was hurt. It wasn't like ColIaros had blazing speed, he just had good speed for a QB. am not questioning at all what Brian Kelly is doing, I am just saying that I think a mobile QB would only be for the best. Plus it would be pretty awesome to watch.

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With Pete Carrol leaving USC; Brian Kelly should have for now SC commit Kyle Prater on speed dial. Kyle Prater was suppose to go to class at USC today but with Petey gone Kyle is at home in Hillside Illinois weighing his options with his family. Kyle has been to Notre Dame a number of times and made his official visit to Notre Dame for the UCONN game. Just because the Irish lost on senior day to a marginal opponenet doesnt mean Prater won't come to South Bend. First off different coach, second off Manti Te'o was at the Syracuse game last year and he couldnt stay outside in the cold for the whole game. Also if the Irish can get Kyle's good friend/teammate Corey Cooper then maybe that could push Kyle over the ledge to South Bend.

Seantrel Henderson spoke before the Army All-American game on Saturday and said Carrol leaving will definitely effect his decision. Henderson is down to six schools Florida, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC. Miami appears to be the long shot while at the moment with Carrol gone the front runners appear to be Florida, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.

"The coaching and football are second to the education and situation Seantrel would be in. We know he's going to play, and get opportunities, and get as close as he can to a title..." - Seantrel Henderson's father

Again we see this. This is with most recruits where their parents love the education that Notre Dame brings. This was the same story with Manti Te'o last year. Coach Brian Kelly (I love saying that) could make a huge recruiting statement for years to come if he could pick up Prater or Henderson.

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Today many media outlets are reporting that coach Brian Kelly will only retain running backs coach Tony Alford from the Weis era. This shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone. Last week I wanted our new coach to retain great receivers coach and recruiter Rob Ianello but he was chose to become the head football coach at Akron. I am happy that Kelly held onto at least one of the coaches from the Weis staff because of recruiting reasons. Tony Alford is a solid coach to bring back, in only his first recruiting season with the Irish; he has gotten verbals from top recruits Giovanni Bernard and Louis Nix.

Coach Kelly will likely bring along a handful of coaches with him from Cincy. He will almost certainly bring long time offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn. Only problem is Jeff Quinn could get coaching gig somewhere else. Yesterday Cincinnati chose Central Michigan head coach Butch Jones which eliminated a job for Quinn to take. I wouldn't be surprised though if Central Michigan takes a look at Quinn.

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Charlie Weis failed to take Notre Dame to the glory it deserves but I will always respect him. 

Weis gave us a thrilling five years of ups and down. He's one of the biggest reasons why I am such a huge Irish fan today. Three days after Weis was fired he called up Irish commit Daniel Smith and told him that he shouldn't think elsewhere just because he isn't the coach anymore (read full story here). He's the bizarro George Costanza. I couldn't respect him more, I wish him the best luck in his next job. 

I was ten years old at the end of the Ty Losingham era. I would still watch the games during the Willingham era at times but it was never quite as exciting as things were during Weis' time in South Bend. By the seventh game into the Weis era i loved Notre Dame and hated USC more than anything in the world. Charlie Weis was in the process turning the Irish into an offensive machine. Quinn to Samardzija was becoming a saturday tradition. That was the season I became a devoted Fighting Irish fan; I watched every minute of every game and checked for news on a daily basis.

People can continue to hate Weis and say we (Notre Dame and its fans)  are no better off than we were five years ago. We're a whole lot better than we were five years ago. Weis has consistently convinced great recruits to come to Notre Dame. He made Irish fans believe. He put Notre Dame back in the recruiting world. A great part about that is, he got alot of them to commit to the University not just him. For example to our knowledge only one commit from the upcoming recruiting class has decommited. That was DE Chris Martin, who was the top commit of the Irish class. Although he did decomitt today Notre Dame landed a top 100 recruit today DE Louis Nix. Weis has put the next head coach in a perfect position. The next coach will inherit at minimum a former five stat recruit Dayne Crist at QB and arguably the best reciever in the nation in Michael "The Cannon" Floyd. He will inherit a talented defense that with some coaching could reach a very high level. Stars on the defense will include sophomore Manti Te'o, junior Brian Smith, junior Ethan Johnson, junior Kapron Lewis Moore, etc. Notre Dame will probably lose only five starters from last year whom are Jimmy Clausen (NFL draft), Golden Tate (NFL draft), and seniors Eric Olson, Sam Young, and Kyle McCarthy.

While Charlie Weis has teed up this job for the next person to take over, he's also set a new precedent and a dangerous standard. He's proven that you can recruit to this frigid blue collar town, even when you're six games below .500. He's shown there's no reason Notre Dame cannot be an elite program

With a good coach next year don't be surprised to see the Irish in the middle of the BCS picture. I'm looking forward to it.

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    Looks like the Charlie Weis era will soon be in the past. The Irish have to win out for Weis to have a somewhat good chance of staying. Winning out won't easy, Weis has to beat Pitt and Stanford, two teams that will most likely finish the season ranked. Weis hasn't even beaten two teams that have finished ranked in the top 25 in his life. Even if Weis wins out and losing in a bowl game he should still be gone. There is no reason why this Irish team should have four losses. Its unacceptable. When Weis came in has head coach in his press conference he stated that being a 6 and 5 football team was not good enough for us (obviously) and that it certainly wasnt good enough for him. Well Charlie you have a pretty good chance of having five losses this year. That is simply not good enough.

    Yeah, yeah. I know we will in be in almost the same situation we were in 5 years ago. It breaks my heart to see us have to fire another coach. Especially after seeing such a successful and quick turnaround in 2005. But look on the bright side we could bring in a proven head college football coach in Brian Kelly. We will have great players for sure for about the next 3 years after the recruiting Weis did. This team would come in next year has if we have had the same great coach for years. We would immediately be a top 25 team at minimum with Brian Kelly

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Notre Dame just pulled it out yesterday against Boston College ending a six game skid against the Golden Eagles. The Irish won a close game 20-16 because of five golden eagle turnovers going to the Irish. People have been calling this years team "The Cardiac Kids" and have been praising them for playing the full 60 minutes. I'm happy they have been competing the whole game but alot of these close wins should be huge blowouts in the Irish' favor. Notre Dame should not be playing down to their opponents skill level week after week. We shouldnt be having close games against Michigan State, Purdue, Washington, and Boston College. At least 2-3 of those games should be huge blowouts. You could even say that Notre Dame played down to the skill level of Michigan but i give respect to Tate Forcier playing a great game that day. If Notre Dame doesnt stop this they will end with two more losses.

Yesterday I attended a prime example of what Notre Dame should be doing. I woke up yesterday and found out I had a ticket to the Oregon Vs. Washington game. Right when I found out, I downloaded the Notre Dame central app on my iphone allowing me to watch the Notre Dame game while being at the Washington game. So I got to see Oregon put away their opponent the Washington Huskies in the 3rd quarter. Notre Dame should be doing this. They should be coming out strong to start the 2nd half and proving that they belong in the top 25. Instead Notre Dame lets their opponent hang with them the entire game.

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The Irish fall 4 yards short of greatness. Just 4 more yards for Notre Dame and they would control their own destiny to play in a BCS bowl. Clausen came up 4 yards short of of potentially winning the Heisman Trophy. So now what happens? Clausen plays great rest of season and gets invited to New York for heisman ceremony and Notre Dame ends up playing in the Gator Bowl. Some might think that we've done well to improve over last year but that's really not important. We're Notre Dame and our expectations should always be BCS win or bust.

I dont want to keep having to say wait til next year. I want "just wait til the title game". We (Notre Dame fans) have been talking about the future for the past 5 years. In 2005 it was just wait til' next year we will have Brady and Samardzija back. I know we went to a BCS bowl in 2006 but we lost big to Michigan, USC and LSU. In 2006 we were all hype with National Title expectations; we werent looking towards future but immediatley after USC game in '06 i know at least I was saying "Oh just wait til we have Jimmy Clausen, no stopping him and all of our great recruits". My dad bought 6 tickets to that SC game in '06 so that my me and the rest of my family could go down and see a  Notre Dame win. I left Southern Cal wanting redemption. Right after I left I thought about when next our best chance to get redemption against SC would be. It was this game, Clausen as a junior, at home. And again, we fell short. I probably shouldnt even talk about 2007; that year was only for the future. Again in '08 we were waiting for our great recruits to transform into great players. Well our great recruits are all emerging (Clausen, Tate, Floyd, Rudolph, etc.) but still we are left waiting for next year. Just waiting for those players to lead the Irish to greatness. I dont know about the rest of you but I am sick and tired of waiting.

I'm not gonna say that I don't think that our future is bright but I don't think our future has us winning a title game with Weis. I will reconsider keeping weis if we go undefeated the rest of the way and a win over a decent oponent in at least the Gator Bowl. Otherwise, we should bring in Jon Gruden. He would be that hard-nosed but fun loving college football coach. Pete Carol-esque?. If we were to bring in Gruden we would keep most of our defensive and offensive recruits like Martin and potentially more recruits that we might get this week. The recruits would look at Gruden's defenses with the Bucs and would come right to Notre Dame. I know it was Monte Kiffin coaching defense with those Bucs teams but Gruden would bring in that tough defensive attitude and possible some NFL assistants with him.

If Notre Dame wins out or just loses a barn-burner in  a bowl game, Notre Dame should bring Weis back and see what he can do with Clausen. I dont think it would be a good idea to bring in a new coach and system when you have Clausen, Tate and Allen all seniors.There's a good chance it'd be Floyd's last year as well. Could be a complete waste of year for those great players.  I would like to see what this offense could do next year rather than seeing all these great athletes waste a season. Would be better to do a coaching change the following season and bring in new system with Crist , Theo Riddick and Shaq Evans all being juniors.

After this past loss to USC, Charlie's seat has gotten alot hotter. No more room for mistakes.

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This weekend I'm hoping to see Notre Dame beat USC for the first time in my life that I can remember. I don't remember any sports earlier than the year 2000. The first USC vs ND game  that I remember is the game where Carson Palmer won the Heisman. I know that some of you will think to yourself "oh this kid has barely been an Irish fan, this game doesnt mean has much to him". It means more than anything to me. A Notre Dame win would pretty much bring tears of joy to my eyes.

For the past seven years the Irish have lost to the trojans and all of them other than the "bush push" game they have been blowouts. The difference between this game and the rest of them, the irish players actually believe they are going to prevail. Do I think Notre Dame will win? I think that if the offensive line protects jimmy and if the pass coverage steps up when Tenuta tries to stop the run then I think Notre Dame will win. Yeah thats alot to ask. But I feel like no matter who we are playing, we are going to put up at least 24 points. On the weather its suppose to be about 45 degrees or colder at kickoff but will continue to get colder throughout the game. The weather will help the Irish defense the most. With tenuta selling out to stop the run, the cold weather could get to barkley causing him to make bad passes. Clausen said the weather affected him the first time he practiced in the cold in South bend, he said he was throwing ducks all over the field. So hopefully it takes Barkley sometime to get use to.

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This Saturday, Notre Dame will take on Jake Locker and his somewhat inconsistent Washington football team. The Irish are a little more healthy than last week so expect more from Jimmy Clausen and Armando Allen; though you will still probably see Dayne Crist at times because Jimmy's turf toeis still hurting him. Expect to also see that Wildcat offense; however, I'm guessing Allen will be taking the snaps when in wildcat instead of Golden Tate. But only because Allen was hurt, I would like to see Golden take some snaps after seeing how effective he was in that formation last week.

This week I am very curious to see what Tenuta does with the defense against a moblie quarterback in Jake Locker. Tenuta let up big numbers to Forcier but that was probably a byproduct of Rich Rodriguez' spread offense. Weis and Tenuta said they expect to see more of freshman Manti Te'o this week and throughout the rest of the season. Teo's speed in pursuit should  very helpful to Tenuta Jake Locker when it comes to containing locker and limiting gains when he does move outside the pocket.

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