Practice Observations, 10/9/2007

The summer-like weather continued in South Bend on Tuesday as Notre Dame prepared for No. 4 Boston College in a strikingly similar fashion to how the Irish did for UCLA last week. That means special teams showing on Tuesday for the media.

• David Grimes is back at practice and looked somewhat healthy. His right ankle, though, was heavily taped. Grimes missed last week due to the injury suffered against Purdue but Charlie Weis said he expects the junior wide receiver to return this week.
• The women's lacrosse team was practicing on an adjacent field. Hey, it's never too early to start talking about lacrosse and the women should be pretty good this year, as should the men's team. For us, the best time of year starts the first week in March (NCAA men's basketball conference tournaments) and ends on Memorial Day (NCAA lacrosse Final Four). That's what happens when you're from the Northeast.
• The entire team gathered to watch the kicking display and here's how it went Tuesday. Freshman Brandon Walker, who won the job during last week's kicking competition, made field goals from extra point length, 32 yards, 40 yards and missed a 48 yarder wide right. Nate Whitaker made the extra point, was wide left from 32 yards, made a 32 yarder and then made a 47 yarder.
• While Walker and Whitaker were kicking, punter Eric Maust and long snapper Kevin Brooks were working out on an adjacent field along with punt returners Armando Allen, George West and Grimes.
• Geoff Price then went to work as the punter, continuing to boom kicks with confidence. Weis said he benched him due to inconsistency. It seems like the senior has that back now. West and Allen were returning his punts. Where was Tom Zbikowski? He was on the punt coverage team, yet another of the senior safety's roles.
• While the team worked on punting, quarterbacks Jimmy Clausen and Evan Sharpley worked on snaps on the same field Maust and Brooks were working on punting earlier.

Don't forget about the ND-BC predictions contest. Send your final score guesses to mrothstein@jg.net with the score and winner in the subject line. No winners yet this year, but we've had some close ones. Also, don't forget about the weekly Mailbag that runs Fridays. Send your questions to mrothstein@jg.net or leave comments below.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Chuckie]

Good to know these news, which go otherwise unseen.

[GoIrish85]

Love the Lacrosse reference.

bc 20 Irish 23