Practice Observations, 9/27/07

Notre Dame went inside the Loftus Center on Thursday for one more day of preparation for Purdue. Sadly, no music was playing to prep for crowd noise -- at least while the media was there.

• First -- and most importantly -- no Chris Stewart at practice. Multiple media sources have said that Stewart has left school and intends to transfer.
• Freshman left tackle Matt Romine has a very large brace/cast on his left arm, going from well below the elbow to way up his bicep/tricep area. He was requested for freshman media chatting tonight, but was rejected.
• Scouts from the 49ers, Titans, Falcons and Buccaneers were in attendance.
• David Bruton and the rest of the safeties were working on ball breaks, trying to read the quarterback (Bill Lewis) and make the interception. Bruton made a nice catch. Sophomore Jashaad Gaines had the pick of the day, though, bouncing one off of his helmet and then catching it one-handed. His next attempt -- he jumped up and then dropped it.
• Wide receiver Robby Parris does this weird thing with his arms. When everyone else is clapping before stretching, his arms go folding back like a bird. It's odd but entertaining.
• Charlie Weis spent a bunch of time watching the running backs run routes out of the backfield and catch short passes.
• Freshman running back Robert Hughes ran up to the sled and absolutely crushed it as he was lifting it up. It was scary how high he got it.
• Center Thomas Bemenderfer and right guard Matt Carufel were working on double-team blocking right as the media was leaving.

Got questions? Send them to mrothstein@jg.net for Friday's Mailbag. Don't forget about the predictions contest. E-mail us your final score at mrothstein@jg.net. We will only accept final score guesses that are e-mailed to us.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Chuckie]

We keep track, just trusting that all of this will translate into a victory over Purdue. Otherwise, it'll be Perdue chicken for the Irish.