Posted this in the ND site thread also....thoughts?
I spoke with a good friend of mine who is a die hard and knowledgable ND fan. He said that quite frankly, our defense scares him. He believes they need to be able to run the ball to win, and Hawk and company will be keeping him awake at night.
We also discussed ND's D backs. 2 sophomore's and 2 juniors, most of which are fairly inexperienced. He feels that Holmes, Ginn, and Gonzo could have a field day...although we both agreed that Troy is going to have to be patient and find them.
Finally, he feels pretty comfortable that ND's recievers could do alright against our DB's. Their top 2 recievers are over 6 feet tall which we both agree could be to their advantage with Quinn's ability to throw the jump ball. We agreed that if we blitz them a lot, they could be in trouble (which is likely). He stated that Stanford blitzed damn near every play and were very successfull with it.
I told him that athleticly, I feel very confident that we are a better team. My only concern is that Charlie will have almost 4 weeks to put together a game plan. We tend to be very predictable, and he is known for picking apart defenses.
This is going to be a great great game! May the best team on Jan 2 win...and GO BUCKS!
for tOSU fans who have not seen alot of ND this year, I would offer you a few of the following expectations in regard to gameplanning. Weis is very adept at finding opposing teams weak spots. There are three Irish games (and hence gameplans) from this season which come to mind in preparation for tOSU.
1. vs. BYU ND threw a number of stand up and throw quick routes to Stovall and Smardzija in an attempt to isolate them with BYU's smaller, less physical DBs. Obviously Youboty, Everett and Jenkins are head and shoulders above the BYU DB's (I'm not disputing that), but I would expect this would be part of the gameplan as it is a perceived advantage.
2. vs. Tennessee ND ran 5 or 6 screens in the opening drive alone. Given the Buckeyes wealth of team speed and tendency to fly 11 to the ball, I would expect alot of this as well in an attempt to "run" the ball without having to hand it off in front of AJ, Schlegel, et al.
3. vs. USC ND used alot of Travis Thomas (he is the #2 TB and considered more of a power back than Darius Walker) to hammer away in the middle, gaining 2 or 3 yards a carry, as well as spreading out the Trojan defense (5 wide, empty backfield) and using Quinn to run the ball. This accomplished holding the ball for an extended period of time, keeping it out of the hands of the USC offense, which should be a priority vs. tOSU as well. Additionally ND attempted a number of fades and similar deep routes to Stovall and Smardzija when USC went to press coverage in an attempt to utilize their height, etc.
I would imagine some combination of those three gameplans would make sense vs. tOSU. Of course Heacock knows this, and Weis knows that Heacock knows this, so feel free to throw it all out the window.
One point I don't think I've seen anyone mention is that ND catches a pretty huge break (no pun intended) if Carpenter is not back by the bowl game.
On the other side of the ball...I'll agree with the post above and say it all comes down to the play of Troy.
