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

The Irish received a commitment from Davaris Daniels out of Vernon Hills High School in Illinois. Davaris is 6'3 190lbs and runs a 4.45 40yd dash. A college coach couldn't ask for a better arsenal for a WR recruit. Rivals.com list Davaris has a 4 star, 154th overall in the nation, 15th best WR, and 2nd best in the state of Illinois. 

Daniel's dad is former Bears defensive end Philip Daniels and is currently playing for the Washington Redskins. Phillip announced his sons commitment on twitter earlier. 

@P_Daniels93:

"Proud to announce that my son DaVaris has committed to Notre Dame. Congrats to him on his decision. ND got one hell of an athlete"

Davaris is the same type of receiver as current Notre Dame star Michael Floyd. Floyd coming out of high school was 6'3 195lbs and ran a 4.55 40 yd dash. Davaris is slightly smaller but also faster. If he develops into something close to the player the Floyd is, the Irish will be in good shape.

Also, Daniels had a very interesting take on Kelly's recruiting ability. Above all else, everyone touted Weis' prowess on the recruiting trail. Looks like this is one recruit Weis couldn't have gotten, but Kelly did:

"I actually used to hate Notre Dame to tell you the truth," Daniels said. "I never got the whole vibe. I went to the USC game last year and didn't get a good vibe. Then Coach Kelly came in, the whole mood changed. It is great."

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Stanford

Rank: #16
Record: 3-0
Passing yards: 47th (233.0)
Rushing yards: 14th (242.3)
PPG: 3rd (51.7)
Points against: 16th (13.7)

Key Players:

QB; Andrew Luck #12. The junior with Pac-Ten player of the year is aiming higher this year. He's putting himself in legit contention for the Heisman Trophy. Luck has completed 45 of his 70 attempts for 674 yards and 10 touchdowns with zero interceptions. He will likely be without his top receiver from a year ago Ryan Whalen who has a dislocated elbow. 

WR; Doug Baldwin #89. With Ryan Whalen doubtful for this weekends game the Cardinal will look to go to Baldwin more. He has three touchdowns in as many games and 191 yards but only 10 receptions.

Last year:

Stanford won a barn burner 45-38 has Toby Gerhart rushed for his third touchdown of the game with 59 seconds left has the Irish defense purposefully let Gerhart run threw them on the TD to give the Irish offense a chance. 

Prediction:

The Cardinal hasn't won in South Bend in 18 years, but this year around its different. Stanford is 16th in the nation and his off to a quick 3-0 start has the Irish are 1-2 and on a 2 game losing streak. The Irish will have to stop Luck and Coach Kelly must get the Irish offense in a rhythm if they want to win this one. I don't expect the Irish to win this one but don't be shocked if they pull off the upset.

Stanford 35-31

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At this time it is hard to tell if Notre Dame is actually moving forward or just simply running in place. The Irish blew another 4th quarter lead to lose in OT on a fake FG. The Irish have now lost 6 out of 7 games, blowing 4th quarter leads in 4 out of the past 5.  Half of those have came this year against Michigan and Michigan State. This looks like the same team has last year only with a slightly better defense (not on paper) and a worse offense. Last year Notre Dame went 2-1 vs Michigan, MSU, and Purdue but only won by a combined 6 points. We got lucky.

Now Notre Dame is sitting at 1-2 and could very well be looking straight into the eyes of a 1-5 start with Stanford this week, at Boston College, then back at home vs Pitt. But this is not the end, this is obviously not the time to already give up on Brian Kelly. I have 

already seen numerous people on twitter and other blogs seem to give up on Coach Kelly. in 1986 in Lou Holtz started his 1st season as the Notre Dame head coach, starting off 1-4 and finishing with a 5-6 record—the same 5-6 record from the year before.

Coach Kelly was brought to Notre Dame to win championships because of his ability to develop players. It's going to take more time than just spring practice and 3 weeks into the season to be able to develop a team that has been lacking fundamentals for the past several years. Even though the stats are still not better, by just watching a Notre Dame games this year you can see an improvement in fundamentals. Aside from some very bad missed tackles this past Saturday, the tackling is much improved with alot more players wrapping up instead of just trying to hit them. The penalties are down from a year ago, again aside from the 7 penalties from this past Saturday.

The season is not completely lost, I like many Irish fans was hoping for a quick turnaround and a BCS bowl berth. We can rule that out now, but I'd still be more than happy to see the Irish land in a respectable bowl like the Champs Sports bowl. These next couple of weeks will be the make or break point in the season. The Irish can win a couple and have a realistic chance at 8 wins but they easily could easily lose a couple and wind up not going to a bowl. 

Either way i expect the Irish to be in contention for a BCS bowl next year, anything less would be a disappointment.

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Michigan State

Rank: NR
Record: 2-0
Passing yards: 94th (164.0)
Rushing yards: 11th (261.0)
PPG: 39th (34.0)
Points against: 32nd (15.5)

Key Players:

RB; Edwin Baker #4. The sophomore from Highland Park, Michigan has well played in his first two games this year rushing for 117 yards against Western Michigan and 183 yards against Florida Atlantic. He has already topped his TD total from a year ago with 3 TD's. Baker only rushed for a total of 427 yards last year on 85 carries with only 1 TD. It's hard to tell how well Baker actually is because he has yet to face a marginal run defense has FAU has let up 570 rushing yards in 2 games and Western Michigan has only played Nicholls State other than MSU. Look for MSU to give Baker his carries this weekend has he is the key for them this weekend.

LB; Greg Jones #53. He was the 2009 Big Ten defensive player of the year and by no surprise 2010 pre season Big Ten defensive player of the year. Not to mention he was also a 2009 consensus first team All-American. Jones recorded a total of 153 tackles last year, 66 solo along with 9 sacks. This year he has 20 tackles and already 2 forced fumbles.

Prediction: Irish 28-17

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Michigan
Rank: NR
Record: 1-0
Passing yards: 79th (186.0)
Rushing yards: 13th (287.0)
PPG: 59th (30.0)
Points against: 27th (10)

1st quarter and went up 14-3. Notre Dame came storming back in the 2nd quarter to take a 20-17. Michigan then went back up 31-20 in the 3rd and when everyone thought the game was over Notre Dame came back to go up 34-31 with 5 minutes left in the game. The Irish kicked the ball back off and made a huge defensive stop and got the ball back but failed to close it out giving Michigan the ball back with 2 minutes to go. Tate Forcier then made quick work of the Irish, scoring with 11 seconds left to win it. The Irish defense failed to stop Forcier as he passed for 240 yards and rushed for 70 while combining for 3 TD's.

Prediction: Last week I had Notre Dame winning this game no doubt but after seeing Denard Robinson last week I'm a little hesitant. I still think Notre Dame will pull out the win at home.

Final Score, Notre Dame 27-23 

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