Coach Weis met with the media and gave a few updates as the team prepares for Navy. Here are some highlights:
* Eric Maust is back at starting punter. Even if Maust shanked balls all week at practice, he still should be giving the shot out there, as Ben Turk has to be close to going Ray Finkle on someone, and he doesn’t even have a holder to blame.
* John Goodman has some work to do before he’s ready to play quarterback.
“Rusty. By next Thursday at the end of practice, I want him to be able to go into the huddle and call the play and at least be able to take the snap and hand it off. He was a little rusty. He thinks he can sling it all over the yard, of course, but my number one thing would be for him to run the operation. We took baby steps this week and, after the first day, we had to start getting him more prepared to play receiver than quarterback. The goal for next week will be for him to go in and finish a game, if we needed to put him in there.”
As they say in What About Bob, Baby steps, John. Baby steps.
* Michael Floyd is good to go and as many of us suspected not made of glass.
“We put him in a couple of blocking situations just to see if he would put his hands in there, and he did. He hit the ground multiple times in the week. We weren’t being stupid, but enough that he got those initial shocks out of the way. He’s got fresh legs. He’s had a month and a half where he hasn’t taken the beat down that everyone else has. So he looks very spry.”
I expect the Irish to roll out some wide and/or empty sets with Clausen back in the shotgun just to remind everyone how explosive the Irish offense will be with Floyd back opposite Tate.
* As for injuries, expect another week without Armando Allen. It also sounds like Trevor Robinson will probably dress, but Weis will do whatever he can to not play Trevor, and Dan Wegner will probably get the snaps in his place. As for Jimmy’s turf toe, Weis got a chuckle at the expense of his star quarterback.
“Jimmy’s fine,” Weis said with a laugh. “What day of the week did you talk with Jimmy? What I’m saying is, whatever day it was will tell you what pain level he had that day. He’s fine and moved around well today. He’s not going to run a 4.5 forty on Saturday either, but he’ll be just fine to run the operation.”
Weis punted later on a question regarding Jimmy’s potential move to the NFL, reiterating again that he and the Clausen family will meet in December to talk about it.
* Charlie also had time to watch the Yankees clinch the World Series in Game Six. When asked if he’s buddies with anyone wearing the pinstripes, Weis mentioned a few friendships.
“I probably know the general manager the best, Cashman. As a player, I would say Jeter. He’s always good with Charlie. He’s so much like Tommy. (As in Tom Brady...) That’s where the relationship started, when Tommy told Jeter to take care of me when I went down there, so he kind of goes out of his way to be nice. A-Rod does, too. These guys are all college football junkies. It’s kind of nice, and this was their moment. I was happy for them.”
That Tom Brady sounds like a good guy to be friends with... I’ve heard he runs in pretty good circles with the females, too.
