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

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 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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After a disappointing loss at The Big House on Saturday many people compared this 2009 season to the 1999 season. After seeing this comparison at UHND, I think the Irish will go in a different direction than the '99 team did. I do not think Charlie Weis and the Irish team will let that happen this year. Coach Weis noted that many more players than usual were coming into his office telling him they have forgotten about Michigan and are only looking ahead to Michigan State. After last week I think Michael Floyd has certainly established himself has one of the premiere wide receivers in the country, right there with Dez Bryant. Second coming of Tim Brown? Maybe too early to say that, but the kid can ball. Who knows how that Michigan game plays out if with him on the field, even serving as a distraction and pulling one more man outside the box.

I expect Clausen to continue to impress, keeping the offense in rhythm with the aid of the best wideout duo in the nation. This week's offensive attack will be centered around Clausen and those receivers after MSU let up 328 yards passing to Central Michigan QB Dan Lefevour. He may be the working man's Tim Tebow, but it's still Central Michigan and they're still from the MAC. I'm expecting a big day for Tate and Floyd who will do more than mirror Central Michigan's top receivers who combined for 191 yards and 16 receptions. The losing streak—both this one-gamer and the lengthy one to MSU at home—will end. Irish win, 35-14.

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The wait for Notre Dame to win a bowl game has ended. Notre Dame defeated the Hawai'i Warriors last night 49-21. The Irish were led by the highly touted sophomore Jimmy Clausen. Clausen threw for 401 yards, 5 touchdowns, and completed 22 of 26 passes. After getting kicked out of the Metropolitan Grill bar area and forced to watch the game in the cold outside looking through a window inside the bar. I think Jimmy Clausen found his go to receiver for the last two years of his Irish career and that man is named Golden Tate. Jimmy and Golden hooked up for not two but three touchdowns. Golden caught two long bombs for 40 yards and 69 yards.

By watching the game last night and seeing all of the Irish underclassmen step up I can promise you irish fans that we will not be in the waiting room to win another bowl game for long.

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