SB TRIBUNE ARTICLE
[FONT=arial,helvetica]November 21, 2005[/FONT]
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=565 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=565>
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Irish eye a Fiesta on Jan. 2[/FONT]
By ERIC HANSEN
Tribune Staff Writer
<TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=6 width=240 align=right bgColor=#ffffcc border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]
<TABLE cellPadding=6 bgColor=#ffffcc><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle width="50%"></TD><TD align=middle width="50%"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Irish vs. Cardinal
Who: No. 6 Notre Dame (8-2) vs. Stanford (5-5)
When: Saturday, 8 p.m. EST
Where: Stanford Stadium
TV: WBND-TV (ABC)
Radio: WNDV-FM (U-93), WNDV-AM (1490), WDND-AM (1580)
Quotable: "I really enjoyed the moment after the game of watching the players and the fans. It was really cool to be able to stand back and stand away from it and just enjoy the moment, because I really looked at it as an alum, to tell you the truth. The only thing is I had a better seat than most of the alums."
Irish coach Charlie Weis on ND's Senior Day postgame celebration Saturday
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>SOUTH BEND -- Questions, answers and a few opinions formed while trying to figure out if Notre Dame fans consider the Michigan State loss or "the shirt" to be the most unfortunate thing to happen to the Irish football program this season:
Did Notre Dame's bowl picture scramble yesterday?
Actually it became a little clearer. The Fiesta Bowl Jan. 2 in Tempe, Ariz., remains the most likely destination for a 9-2 Irish team, and the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., the absolute destination for an 8-3 Irish team.
The pool of likely Fiesta Bowl opponents shrank yesterday when Alabama and Miami lost. A 10-1 'Bama team would have been an attractive matchup in the Fiesta, but not at 9-2 and still struggling to score. Miami's loss puts Virginia Tech back in the driver's seat for an Orange Bowl berth and takes them out of the Fiesta mix.
That leaves Ohio State (9-2) and Oregon (10-1), with the Buckeyes a better TV and in-person draw and frankly the better team. The polls think so too.
Will there be whining if Oregon is left out of the BCS?
It already has started.
Why not Penn State against ND in the Fiesta?
If Texas remains in the Rose Bowl national championship game, the selection order remains 1. Fiesta, 2. Orange, 3. Fiesta, 4. Sugar from the four-team pool that comprises the Big Ten champion, Big East champion and two at-large teams. Assuming Notre Dame goes off the board first, why would the Orange pass on Penn State? Even assuming Penn State goes off the board first, which doesn't make sense for the Fiesta Bowl, why would the Orange pass on Notre Dame?
So could Notre Dame end up in the Orange or Sugar Bowls?
Oh yes, especially if USC and/or Texas lost. Remember, if LSU moves into the No. 2 BCS position and gets plucked out of the Sugar Bowl, the Sugar Bowl gets first pick from the four non-anchored teams.
Who was the hulking defensive lineman in street clothes at Saturday's game hanging around with the Irish football team?
That lineman was actually a linebacker, a 6-foot-1, 267-pound linebacker. And he is one of the best at his position, if not the best, in the high school ranks. Micah Johnson, ranked No. 20 overall on recruiting analyst Tom Lemming's Top 100, visited Notre Dame this weekend along with his already-committed Fort Campbell (Ky.) High School teammate, safety Leonard Gordon.
Anything else happening on the recruiting front?
With Notre Dame playing at Stanford Saturday, there obviously won't be any official visits this weekend at ND, but recruiting never stands still. Konrad Reuland, the top-ranked prep tight end in the nation, canceled his visit to Stanford. The 6-foot-6, 240-pounder from Mission Viejo, Calif., is now down to ND, USC and UCLA, and is expected to take in the UCLA at USC game Saturday.
Will Charlie Weis have a shot at national Coach of the Year?
He should, but he probably won't, and here's why. The mid-year contract extension, while boosting recruiting, reverberated strangely among the national media, many of whom still don't get why former Irish coach Tyrone Willingham wasn't given a contract extension after starting 8-0. Some other things that work against Weis are that Notre Dame hasn't had a national spotlight game in more than a month, that people have gotten so used to him winning, and that they forget this team not only was unranked to start the year, it didn't receive a single vote in the Associated Press preseason poll.
Then there's the matter of Penn State's 78-year-old Joe Paterno, who is really going to be hard to beat.
What does Weis think of the possibility of coaching when he's 78?
"I'd be happy if I live to 78 years old," Weis said Sunday.
Former Washington coach Keith Gilbertson was fired in less than two years on the job when his record was 6-13. Does that mean Willingham, now Washington's head coach, will be fired if his team doesn't start out 4-4 next year, since he was 2-9 this year and that would make him 6-13?
Of course not; it's not the same situation, which is why the convoluted "Why didn't Ty get a contract extension at ND when he was 8-0" discussion should dry up and blow away.
What is the aspect of Weis' coaching that has gone most overlooked this season?
Two things. First is defense. That's right defense. With eight new starters this season and five true freshmen in the defensive two-deeps, ND has actually improved in three of the five defensive categories the NCAA classifies as major: scoring defense (46th out of 117 Div. I-A teams in 2004, 37th in 2005), passing yardage allowed (116th to 92nd) and most dramatically pass-efficiency defense (98th to 37th).
All in all, Notre Dame has improved of 10 of the 14 categories (offense, defense, special teams) the NCAA tracks, making 50-spot jumps or better in five of those. The only categories ND dipped in were rushing defense (4th to 39th), total defense (54th to 67th), net punting (25th to 45th) and kickoff returns (87th to 96th).
What's the second thing that's been overlooked in Weis' coaching?
He knows what's really important, and his actions back that up. It would have been easy for Notre Dame to win 48-3 Saturday over Syracuse instead of 34-10, and that might have kept Virginia Tech from leaping over the Irish in the AP poll this week. But by playing the Casey Cullens, the Rich Whitneys, the Marty Mooneys, the Rob Woodses and the Joe Bolands, instead of the starters in the last part of the fourth quarter, he builds respect and rapport with his players and he reminds them he'll likely never lose sight of what really is the big picture.
Were Brady Quinn's quotes Saturday about staying for his senior year really a revelation?
No, not really. They were just reinforcement with what he, his parents and maybe even his chiropractor had been quoted as saying on the subject all along.
Chiropractor? Would a media member actually quote someone's chiropractor?
Sadly, it did happen once, when former Irish standout Raghib "Rocket" Ismail was contemplating his pro future as a junior.
What is the saddest aspect of that occurrence?
The chiropractor was right.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
