It's A Mailbag! Your thoughts, comments and questions, 10/5/07

It's new-and-improved Mailbag time at Insights (now on Fridays), where we take your comments, criticisms and e-mails and answer them or give them props in this space. Questions about anything Notre Dame, football, basketball, field hockey, other college sports, bug repellent and anything else is fair game, welcomed and applicable.  Send your questions to mrothstein@jg.net or leave them in comment boxes below during the week and we'll snatch them up.  If you do ask a question, we ask that you list your name (at least first one) and hometown. And one day, we'll enforce it, too.

On to the questions, which, as always, come from real readers:
Michael,
As usual, great postings the last couple of weeks. My questions are as follows:
1) Where is DJ Hord? I thought he was making progress this fall but I haven't heard his name or even seen his number since, I believe, the Georgia Tech game.
2) What was your opinion of the two 4th and short calls in the Purdue game where we ran it up the middle both times? I am not enough of an expert to say what should have been called, but our line hasn't commanded the line of scrimmage enough to warrant power runs like that in critical situations.
3) What do you think is being done to limit penalties on both sides of the ball?
4) Lastly, are you going to make it out here to sunny Southern California for the game this weekend? It is supposed to be 78 and sunny.
-Jason Dunahee
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

Jason,
Thanks, as always, for the kind words. To your questions:
1) Hord is buried on the depth chart. He's been in here and there, but Duval Kamara and probably Golden Tate have clearly overtaken the junior. As those two players continue to emerge, you'll see less and less of Hord.
2) Charlie Weis answered this during the week, saying eventually you have to be able to make those plays. So, he keeps trying. That said, we wouldn't have. Notice this -- when Evan Sharpley came in, Notre Dame used a quarterback sneak in that position and gained yardage and positive thrust. That would seem to be the safer play at least once in a while. Weis may have called it but begged off because Jimmy Clausen wasn't 100 percent. If we were coaching, we would have gone with the QB sneak.
3) Notre Dame has been working on discipline and drilling and limiting mental mistakes (damn, I sound like I'm talking in coach-cliche now). That's about the only way you can do it.
4) Nope, I'm not. We here at Insights are saddened we're not going to be in La La Land, but deadlines and other work issues are keeping us in the Midwest this weekend. That said, we'll be watching the game and blogging at points throughout it, so feel free to come on here and chat.
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Hey Mike,
I was wondering, do you check the scores before you do your rankings? How do you have Georgia at No. 13 when it lost at home to South Carolina and the Gamecocks at No. 18? With that logic, shouldn't you have Oregon ranked ahead of California?
-Sczoogrl
Parts Unknown (but we're guessing South Carolina)

Sczoogrl,
Fair question. Yes, we look at prior scores but we also try to do our rankings on who we believe are the Top 25 teams in the country at that time and in that order. That said, after South Carolina's win over Kentucky on Thursday night, you can bet the Gamecocks will be moving past Georgia and Kentucky this week. Keep reading from South Carolina, we're always looking to expand our fan base here. Plus, it'd give us reason to track down the Ol' Ball Coach.
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Hey Mike,
As always, thanks for all the info. Two quick questions: With all the offensive genius, why such predictable, unsuccessful fourth and short playcalling? And what has happened to Munir Prince? I remember Weis gushing about his "Whoosh" type speed.
-Will Davis
Dallas, Texas

Will,
For the first question, see above. But also remember last year in fourth-and-short, Weis almost always went to the Brady Quinn sneak (shouldn't that be some sort of fad dance...Take a dive in (and move to the riggghtt)). With Prince, he's just behind on the depth chart. Speed or not, you have to be able to play the position. I think when Prince made the move, he wasn't anticipating this type of competition over there (although we haven't been able to talk to him, so who knows). As far as his speed, maybe it's an Adidas bias. He should have gone to a Nike school, where they would have made his "Whoosh" a "Swoosh." In all seriousness, Prince is stuck behind three very good corners right now in Terrail Lambert, Darrin Walls and Raeshon McNeil.
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Mike,
With ND knowing that they had scholarship issues and talent issues this year, why don't they fill the holes with Junior College players? I remember that they took a few basketball transfers in the past. Why not in football? That could have helped with the experience. Wasn't Larry Moriarty a transfer? How about Harrison Smith, what's up with that?
-Shawn Gallagher

Shawn,
Notre Dame typically doesn't take junior college transfers, so that would be out. As far as other transfers, the Irish have taken them in before. Thomas Bemenderfer, for example, transferred for Northwestern to Notre Dame. On the basketball side, Ryan Humphrey was a transfer from Oklahoma. With Harrison Smith, he's stuck behind a bunch of players at safety. David Bruton emerged and Smith certainly isn't replacing Tom Zbikowski. Expect to see Smith contend for playing time next year.
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It is really not accurate and it is misleading to refer to the 11 recruits in the year after Coach Willingham departed as Charlie Weiss' first recruiting class. He did not have the opportunity to recruit it, did not have his staff in place and almost all of the assistant coaches went with Willingham. Coach Weiss was not available to do anything of substance until after the Super Bowl which I would believe would be the end of February. Recruiting is, for all practical purposes, over by then.
Very truly yours,
Pat Moran
Houston, Texas

Pat,
It is really not accurate to spell Charlie Weis' name with two "S's," as it only has one. And the Super Bowl is in the end of January/beginning of February (depending on the year). You are right, though, recruiting is usually over by then. We disagree with the premise of your argument. When Weis took the job, he hired assistants and they worked the recruits still. Sure, he didn't have much time to do it, but he still made the decisions of who he wanted and who he didn't. And they also got Pat Kuntz out of the deal. So it would be unfair to say all or nothing. That class was a combination of both Willingham and Weis so don't go selling Willingham out by blaming any class numbers there on him. It was both coaches.
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Anyone know where we can see a map of what areas get coverage of game? Or know if the game will be on in Florida?
-Daniel Judd

Daniel,
Here you go. And bad news if you don't live in South Bend or the West Coast -- Notre Dame/UCLA will not be the primary game. For those in Fort Wayne, the ND-UCLA game will be on MyTV (and to answer another reader's question, we believe it is on DirectTV. Check in the 200's.). To find out for sure, call your local cable company or ABC affiliate.
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And today's final question...
MR --
Thanks for the comments. As a loyal subway alumnus for about 40 years, how do we answer the critics who are all too happy to blast The Lady on the Dome? The Domers could go 0-12 this year, but I will still try to watch every minute of their games!
-Postman

Postman,
If you are a mail carrier, stop delivering their mail. That, though, could get you fired so don't do that. Our advice is this: Don't fight it. Embrace the losing. It sounds weird, but back when we lived in Victorville, Calif., we covered the High Desert Mavericks. The Mavs happened to be the worst team in minor league baseball that year and had one of the front office staff members from the parent club -- then the Milwaukee Brewers -- say publicly that they were essentially no good. These guys just went with it and tried to have fun with the whole experience by the end. So we recommend that. Laugh at the jokes and understand that every team struggles at some point. And realize the cycle should eventually turn upward again.

Thanks for the questions. As always, keep them coming. Shoot an e-mail to mrothstein@jg.net or drop comments below.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[larry]

What do you think the chances that Charlie Weis will learn to be a good coach at the college level? Is he making the proper adjustments to build a competitive team from the ground up starting with the offensive & defensive lines? Can Coach Weis master the necessary emotional motivation of his players? I think ND should stick with Charlie for at least two more years. Your thoughts?