Irish Musings
#4
(post victory over
Sunday, September 26, 2004
There are five tickets available for the
Stanford game. Please e mail me at Charlie@rightbrainpeople.com
if you are interested.
Some of you have
asked when the next issue of Irish Musings will arrive. Well, here it is. We were hit with an Irish
Hurricane----reeling with grief after the loss to BYU, then in a state of
delirious shock upon whipping up on the Skunk Bears and now still trying to
recover from the ups and downs of the venture to the north woods of East
Lansing. Finally, the anticipation of
the Washington Huskies game was just paralyzing.
What we will do
here will be more of a status update and an anticipatory outlook for the rest
of the season.
No one, repeat no
one, expected this pattern of losing to BYU and then beating the state of
Then, once UCLA
showed that
The change started
on campus the morning of the eleventh of September. I must have talked to dozens of fans, all of
whom were ready to fire Ty and none of whom thought we had a ghost of a chance
against our afternoon opponent.
Although tempted
to pray for victory as I arrived at Communication Central (the Grotto), I
deflected that impulse to pray for the welfare of the team and our family. Some of you may think me a heretic, but I do
not believe in praying for victory.
The
Taking the four games
as a whole, what do we see and where are we?
Let us look at the
pluses first:
The play calling
on offense has improved substantially.
After the MSU game, it was clear that we still had not figured out how
to start a game on offense with any imagination. It was clear that until we do, we would not
have a chance to be a
The special teams
gave up more touchdowns in the Spartan game than in four or five years at a
time under Mad Lou!! These blunders were
banished against
We see a concerted
effort to use the speed the team has, witnessed by the introduction of a
tailback who has natural ability that we have not seen in a long long
time—Darius Walker!!!! What a delightful
gift. I analogize him and his talent to
the refreshing debut of one Tim Brown in the mid eighties.
Darius is clearly
the real deal in the extreme. Word is
that he has run with the ball since he was five years old and is a natural who
follows his eyes and runs where they ain’t!!
This wonderfully energetic positive young man who is barely 18 years old
has single handedly transformed the Notre Dame offense and team from mediocre
to good and verging on very good.
After one fabulous
game against Michigan, and one very good game against MSU, Darius’ performance
was lacking in the Washington game, a total mystery given the yardage that the Huskies
had given up to UCLA. However, a hint of
an answer showed up at the outset of the game when Ty said that the absence of
Ryan Grant would dictate more emphasis on the perimeter—then Matt Shelton
opened the game with an end around, a daring first play that Ty had not
overseen since he was eleven years old on the sandlot.
It is apparent
that Ryan does add a dimension to the team and that ND missed him and his
style.
Irish fans
breathed a sigh of relief on the last touchdown when Darius sprinted up the
middle behind a magnificent trap block by Morton. It is the considered opinion here that a lot
more trap plays are needed to balance the emphasis on the horizontal running
game that is the core of the Willingham/Diedrich version of the WCO. Therefore, this play was a real breath of
fresh air after the suffocating lackluster third quarter.
But just like the
Dodgers Hall of Fame closer, Eric Gagne, Quinn slips when he can afford
to. If his only six attempts in a row
without a completion come when ND is four TDs up, all Irish fans will be in
seventh heaven.
By the way, the
great ND icon, Ross Browner, writing in Irish Today last week, issued a
defamatory statement to the effect that Brady Quinn just is not getting the job
done and that Carlyle Holiday should be returned to the signal caller
position. I wrote to Travis Donnelly to
protest this inane remark, and was told that this is just the way he
feels. Well, now it is ok to say things
in sports journalism without any rationale.
Ironically, Brady must have heard about Ross’ comment, as he played the
best half of quarterback the Irish have seen since Ron Powlus had one of his
fine games.
The second example
of the use of speed and natural talent is the elevation of our Favorite Son,
Matt Shelton, to cogwheel in the offense.
Based on his three huge catches, two of which have gone for touchdowns,
he is projected to be a candidate for honorable mention All American. Only his lack of playing time and number of
catches will hold him back. The big
surprise here is that he not only has the raw speed, he also has the moves,
which no one had any idea that he did have.
In addition, he has the ability to keep his eyes on the ball and to go
up mano a mano and take the ball away from the defender when that defender has
the leverage although not the position on him.
This is truly a spectacular and delightful surprise—one that is making a
huge difference in the Fighting Irish season and the prospects for the
Willingham regime.
The above
paragraph was written prior to the
The defense has
the edge that the 2002 defense had, the same edge that the 2003 team
inexplicably lost. How have they gotten
it back, especially after such and inauspicious beginning against the Latter
Day Saints? There are several thoughts
here. First, the coaches changed
personnel just a bit. Carlos Campbell
started against LDS and showed himself to be the worst defender since Clifford
Jefferson and then some. Kent Baer’s
children noticed that he was beaten by three steps on at least three plays
against the Mormons and so he was banished to the nickel package. Preston Jackson of the dreadlocks replaced
him in the
The special teams
coach and Boss Ty decided to replace Rhema McKnight at punt return from the one
inch line with Carlyle Holiday of the “I can’t seem to learn how to run pass
routes” camp. Carlyle has done a
beautiful job in this position, making a huge difference in the last two games. The mystery is how he could blossom into this
role so fast when he has not been able to do anything else well in his career,
but we will take it graciously as he is a wonderful young man and a great
athlete and one that will yet break a long one.
And now against
the Huskies he shows he can run routes!!
And Jeff Smardja shows that he may be able to play on Sunday!!!
Now we shift to
Tom Zbikowski, the cornerback with the boxing gloves, whom Ty almost lost. When this guy left camp and disappeared for
two days, I said that if the coaches blow this one and lose him, it will be
worse than losing the best tight end in the country, named Olsen, and worst of
all to
No explanation has
ever or will ever be offered for this sudden switch as it is manifestly obvious
to everyone that the coaching staff never explains anything to anyone. Suffice it to say that Z’s success culminated
in two of the most exciting defensive plays for the Irish since Tony Driver
severed
It is clear that
most of us skeptics may have been wrong about this season. But the jury is not in yet!! If this team finishes the season the way it
does not know how to finish games we are all in big trouble. Also, we have a new Heisman candidate in Kyle
Orton to play against next week----and, an angry bunch of Eagles, who usually
know how to embarrass us. Then there are
the Volunteers who almost always do embarrass us and finally we have a bunch of
mixed up Trojans, whose fortress we must invade and conquer.
I hesitate to
leave out Panthers, Midshipmen and the Cardinal, all of whom have either been
embarrassed and could be high as a kite or have shown lots more mettle than we
had anticipated. Where do we go from
here?
One game at a
time. Purdue has a near fatal flaw in
that they cannot defend against the run.
If the Irish don’t find a way to exploit this weakness, the Boilermakers
may sear us. ND cannot count on numbers
from Quinn like in the first half against
What of the big
picture—what chance does Ty have to “make it?”
Notre Dame coaches must win a minimum of 75% of their games to be successful. Ty will coach 56 regular season games in his
first five seasons. He needs to win 42
of them in order to meet this criterion.
He has already lost 11, which means that he can lose only three more
games over the rest of this season and in 2005 and 2006. Such a feat is probably impossible, although
this kind of performance is what five Notre Dame coaches have delivered in
history, and no, Dan Devine is NOT one of them!
Here is a way out
of the box for Ty. His first all Ty team
is the 2005 team. If ND wins eight games
this year and goes to the
What are his
chances? A lot better than three weeks
ago, for sure, when he had lost all support from the alums.
Here is the
key: watch for improvement, not steady
but overall movement in the right direction.
Watch for the ability of the defense to handle one of the best offenses
in the country next week. Watch for the
team to handle the insane BC jinx. If he
cannot beat BC, we are destroyed—this game is now a must win. Finally, if
(Is there anyone out there who is gloating over the seemingly overly skeptical analysis we presented here at the beginning of the season? If so, we are gloating too and delirious to be wrong should it turn out that the Irish out perform expectations and prove that they do have weapons of mass destruction.)
Charlie Kenny
Class of 1963
The Right Brain People®
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Cordova TN 38018
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