We’re back for another Pregame Twelve Pack. Twelve fun facts, tidbits, leftovers and miscellaneous musings as we head into the Western Michigan game.
1. The Irish will be wearing new uniforms this Saturday.
Thanks to some new technology from Adidas, the Irish will be donning the new TECHFIT compression jersey this Saturday.
“They’re really excited about them,” Kelly said about his players, who practiced this week in the uniforms to get used to them. “They’re 30 percent lighter. It’s a compression fit and we put them on today because there are some fitting issues relative to the pads.
“But they look great, the kids love them, and we’ll put the defense in them so we can have everybody get a feel for them. It’s a terrific product by Adidas.”
If you’re looking to get a first look at the jerseys, check out some guy carrying Dayne Crist’s jersey while reciting the fight song.
2. Game four of the Brian Kelly vs. Bill Cubit era happens Saturday.
So it may not be Frazier/Ali, but there’s quite a bit of history between the Western Michigan head coach and Kelly, a duo that’ll be squaring off for the fourth time -- with Kelly coaching his third different squad against Cubit’s Broncos.
Kelly’s got the upper-hand against Cubit, winning two of three against the Broncos, including the rare feat of beating Cubit’s squad with two different teams in the same season -- Central Michigan in November of 2006, and Cincinnati during their International Bowl victory over WMU in January 2007.
“Bill Cubit is an outstanding football coach,” Kelly said this week. “I know Bill very well and I know his teams will be prepared and this will be, for them, an opportunity that they are not going to want to come in here and not play their very best.”
3. Mike Ragone is ready for his shot to contribute.
It’s been a winding road for the tight end from New Jersey, who finds himself in position to really contribute with the injury to Kyle Rudolph. After a trying offseason, a major health scare during preseason camp, and injuries that hobbled him in previous years, Ragone seems confident he’s ready to contribute.
But instead of quoting him here, I’ll let him speak for himself -- with an accent that Mike, Pauly, Vinnie, and Snooki would even be proud of.
4. While he’s not getting carries, Theo Riddick is still contributing to the run game.
We talked about the run/pass ratio in our previous post, but the short passing game also factors into what the coaching staff considers the run game.
Dayne Crist does a good job describing the “half pass” plays in the offense.
“In the spread and this is something that I learned since I just continue to gain knowledge of spread philosophy, you really want to work with a five to six man box in the run game. You can get away with running with a six man box, but it’s a little more difficult, because I mean, obviously you’ve got five guys blocking most of the time. So it really depends on your box counts. We normally have a player that we are throwing off of; so if he’s playing in run support, we are throwing to where he can’t cover. So that’s just a lot of times that you see what we are doing with swings and just things like that. So I mean, that’s part of the spread philosophy and how we run things, and you can say, well, man, they are really not running the ball that much, why aren’t they running more. Well, then you see Theo catch the ball and has a seven yard average on catching swings, that’s basically like a great run for us. That’s just kind of how that will develop and continue to develop. Teams will either play one way or another, but that’s just kind of why that run stat is a little off.”
Charlie Weis always believed that his quick throws to Michael Floyd, Golden Tate, Jeff Samardzija, or any of the other receivers catching hitches operated as defacto run plays as well.
At seven yards a play, a quick swing pass is a great weapon to keep defenses honest.
5. The Irish are in need of more explosive plays.
With playmakers like Theo Riddick, TJ Jones, Mike Floyd, Armando Allen and Cierre Wood, there’s no reason why the Irish offense doesn’t make more big plays. Last week, Notre Dame won in spite of only having one explosive play, a diving 37-yard catch by TJ Jones.
Part of the problem was the Irish shooting themselves in the foot, losing two 40-plus yard plays by Floyd and some poor accuracy by Dayne Crist on seam throws have hurt the Irish as well.
Look for the Irish to force the issue this week with match-up problems and speed, trying their best to get their playmakers out in the open field as well as getting Cierre Wood some room to run the football.
If the Notre Dame offense is going to put the Irish on a roll, they’ll need to make a few big plays this Saturday.
6. The first points for Western Michigan will be their first against Notre Dame... literally.
While this is the third time the Broncos have played the Irish in football, their first points will be the first in school history against Notre Dame, one of only two opponents to never allow a point against WMU (Virginia Tech is the other).
The 1919 and 1920 Irish shut-out Western Michigan, the Irish blanking WMU 53-0 in 1919 and 41-0 in 1920.
While I think there are plenty of reasons to be really excited about watching this game, the Broncos rate out as the Irish’s softest opponent on the season, with the Sagarin ratings putting them at No. 97 in FBS football, 11 slots ahead of Army.
There offense has been the strong point of the season, averaging 29 points a game and putting up 45 last week against Ball State, but the Irish defense should have a goal of keeping the shutout streak alive.
7. While it may not have seemed it, the Irish had their best running game against Pitt.
No one should be slapping high fives about a 2.8 yards a carry, but the Irish actually graded out as having their most efficient running game of the season.
I’ll let Irish Illustrated’s Pete Sampson explain:
But grading Notre Dame by land in a offense designed for the air requires a curve. Not only do the Irish coaches go inside the numbers, the reinvent them too. “We were 72 or 73 percent efficient in our run game which was 20 percent higher than we’d been in any game this year in terms of what did we need on this play,” said offensive line coach Ed Warinner. “Are we trying to get five yards? Are we trying to get a first down? We were real pleased with the efficiency.”
Here’s where it takes some digging to understand Warinner’s point.
Notre Dame faced five second or third down plays against Pittsburgh needing one yard to move the chains. The Irish picked those up on the ground all five times, gains of one, two, three, four and five yards. That’s five carries for 15 yards, a modest three-yard average nobody inside the Guglielmino Center will complain about.
Three times the Irish picked up six yards or more on 1st-and-10 runs, meaning the offense stayed ahead of schedule. That doesn’t include Dayne Crist’s 10-yard touchdown run on 2nd-and-goal that doesn’t need next level explanation.
8. Commitment? Not a commitment? Recruiting doesn’t end until Signing Day for Kelly.
Earlier in the week, Irish fans received a bit of a jolt when they found out offensive tackle recruit Jordan Prestwood reopened his recruitment, bringing back into play home-state schools Florida and Florida State.
While Urban Meyer’s making headlines for all the wrong reasons this week, it seems proximity to home is an issue with Prestwood, who committed to the Irish way back in April.
Under Charlie Weis, the coaching staff adopted a firm stance on commitments and visits, taking a “if you’re looking, we’re looking” stance. Under Kelly, the Irish aren’t going to stop recruiting until Signing Day.
""The reality of it today is, there is so much scrutiny relative to the kids in the recruiting process. I’ve told our staff, unless I see a letter of intent, you need to keep recruiting them,” Kelly said.
“Certainly we would all like to say the value of a person’s word is a bond, but there are so many shifting and moving pieces out there that I’m not tripping over that. Would I like somebody to be that guy that says, that’s my word and it’s a bond and we’re not going to break it? Certainly. Because we’re not going to do it on our end. So I’ve told our staff, gotta keep recruiting. It’s the University of Notre Dame. Nobody’s going to give it to you for free.”
From the sounds of it, Prestwood is still considering the Irish, with his high school coach, Wayne Ward telling the South Bend Tribune, "(Notre Dame) is a golden opportunity. But at the same time he is a kid,” Ward said. “I don’t really think he thought things through before he made that decision.”
Good news for Irish fans: Tony Alford is on the case.
9. Kyle Rudolph is set for surgery on Friday.
After discussing his options with his family, tight end Kyle Rudolph is staying local with his hamstring surgery, choosing Dr. Brian Ratigan of the sports medicine program to operate on his detached hamstring.
“Dr. Ratigan will be doing the surgery,” Kelly said. “So he’ll stay within the sports medicine program here at Notre Dame. We will get it done here.”
The decision for Rudolph to talk with the media was a good one and showed how good a kid the star tight end is. Even though he was surprised about the devestating prognosis, he’s kept a good attitude.
“We went in with a positive mindset with the MRI,” Rudolph said earlier this week when he met with the media. “We were expecting to get good results and go get an ultrasound and take a week off and go from there To come back and get that news was a little shocking.”
Rudolph is in the hands of someone that knows first hand what it’s like to play college football under the Golden Dome, with Ratigan playing linebacker for Lou Holtz from 1987-1990, before moving on to the NFL.
Ratigan is truly an amazing story, one of the most impressive Notre Dame graduates you’ll ever read about and an alum that truly gives back to the school. No doubt, Kyle picked the right doctor for the job.
10. Dever sitting for second straight week, Romine and Nuss to fill his shoes.
Taylor Dever is going to spend another week getting healthy, one of the benefits of finally taking a step back from six consecutive BCS opponents. And thanks to the good play by Zack Martin at right tackle and senior Matt Romine filling in for him, there shouldn’t be much of a step back in play.
“Taylor, I would say right now will probably be a backup on Saturday,” Kelly said. “Matt and Andrew have handled that position well. We’re going to stick with them and make sure Taylor is 100 percent. I think he would be afforded to us if we needed him. But right now we’ll move with the plan we had last week.”
One of the great benefits of playing Kelly’s offensive system is the fact that positions like offensive tackle are more interchangeable. Under Weis, there was so much stress on the left tackle position that great defensive ends could neutralize the offense, like Pitt did last year to tackles Paul Duncan (and to a lesser extent Sam Young). You could only imagine what would’ve happened if Duncan or Young went down.
Give credit to offensive line coach Ed Warinner for cross-training versatile players like Andrew Nuss, who should get significant snaps at tackle to help speed the development process.
11. Luke Schmidt and Dan Wenger see first hand the dangers of concussions.
Al Lesar of the South Bend Tribune did a great job on his article about concussions, as he followed the decision process for center Dan Wenger, who has to decide if an application for a sixth year makes sense, in light of the lingering brain injuries he suffered this year with two concussions in the first month of practice.
Lesar caught up with Wenger’s classmate Luke Schmidt, the former Gatorade State Player of the Year in Indiana who was forced to walk away from football after three concussion by his junior year that ended his career involuntarily.
“It was very tough,” Wenger told the Tribune. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. There were no maybes for me. I knew it was over. At least Dan’s got a chance.”
After listening to Wenger, it’s clear that he’s not sure what choice he’s going to make, but he’s glad that he’s still got the chance to play the game.
“I’m not ready to be a coach yet,” Wenger said. “Do I wanna be a coach? Yeah, but not just yet. I’m 22, I still want to play. I love this game. Practice, lifting, games -- it’s a different feeling.
“Be patient, get healthy, then make a decision. Think with a clear mind. You’re emotions run wild with this thing. It’s up and down. One day, you’re thinking about hanging in up. One day, you’re thinking about ‘Hey, I can do this. I can still play.’ It’s looking at the overall picture. But then again, you’ve worked so hard for what you love, what you love to do.”
It’s great to see Schmidt making the most of his Notre Dame degree, working as a credit analyst at a bank in Greensburg, Indiana, 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis.
12. Gary Gray just got reckless.
In one of my favorite stories of the week, Gary Gray has officially joined Team Reckless -- an unofficial weightlifting/condition/bizarro group consisting of Mike and Jake Golic, Dayne Crist, Braxston Cave and Kyle Rudolph.
In one of the funnier things I’ve read in a while, the crew covering sports for the Observer got an absolutely priceless interview with Gray, detailing the process of joining such an illustrious team.
Observer: You are currently vying for a spot on Team Reckless. What made you decide to attempt to join?
Gary Gray: Dayne had said a long time ago that I should join, but we never got around to it. We’re trying to set that up.
Observer: Is it a very selective process?
Gray: I’m not ever sure what the process is. We’ll see in the next couple of days what I have to do.
Observer: How reckless do you think you’ll have to be?
Gray: I think I’m pretty reckless. So I don’t think I’ll have to be too much more reckless than I already am. I think I’ll fit right in.
Observer: Would it be an honor to be the first member of the Notre Dame defense on Team Reckless?
Gray: Yeah, it’d be a great honor, first defensive player. It’d be nice.