It's A Mailbag! Your comments, thoughts and questions: 4/6/08

It's Mailbag time here at Insights, the first we've had in a long time (it may be the first of the year, we're not sure). A lot has happened this spring: Charlie Weis isn't calling offensive plays anymore, Luke Harangody became the Big East Player of the Year and both Gene Cross and Sean Kearney are rumored to be candidates for head coaching vacancies.
As always, feel free to send questions to mrothstein@jg.net or leave comments in the boxes below. And these questions are all from real readers. Oh, and please leave at least a first name and hometown. After this week, we'll be enforcing it more.
So let's have at it:

Has anyone suggested to Coach (Jon) Tenuta that HE work on improving HIS language at N.D.?
-Ken Riedlinger
Tularosa, N.M.

Ken,
Thanks for reading. Honestly, we don't have much of a problem with Tenuta's colorful language -- and it'd be tough for anyone to really argue with it. When the head coach of the football program was shown on a national news magazine show using a potty mouth, can you really expect any less? And we'd be shocked to find any coach in almost any sport that doesn't use colorful language.

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Mike,
What happened to Ray Herring this season? I thought he showed a lot of promise last year and thought we'd hear a lot from him but??
-Jim

Jim,
Herring seems to be a victim of depth chart climbing by Kyle McCarthy, Jashaad Gaines and Sergio Brown. David Bruton isn't going anywhere at the other safety and it appears those three have the inside track to depth chart spots -- with McCarthy being the leading candidate to start opposite Bruton.

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Michael,
Are you beginning to get the sense that the team is rallying behind Clausen? I know last year it was tough with various groups supporting (Demetrius) Jones, others supporting Evan (Sharpley) with the remainder supporting Jimmy. One has to think the lack of cohesion was at least partly to blame for the on-field results. My hope is that there is a completely different attitude in South Bend this spring and that the lack of drama can lead to huge steps forward in terms of chemistry and camaraderie.
Thanks.
-John Jessen
Chicago, IL

John,
You mean you didn't hear? Demetrius Jones is back at Notre Dame. We kid, of course, as Jones is trying to win the job at Cincinnati. But we'd agree with your question. While few would admit it, there were definitely factions on last year's team divided on quarterback lines. But with Jones gone and Sharpley focusing -- and raking pretty well -- in baseball, the door is clearly open for Clausen. Plus, now that the rising sophomore looks healthy, it's obvious he's the right guy for the job. He has the potential to be special. And Sharpley is a good guy to have in a pinch, but everyone knows Clausen is the guy for now, which allows a team to rally around the quarterback easier. You raised a good point.

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I feel like Charlie (Weis) was able to land these big name quarterbacks due to his experience with Tom Brady and Brady Quinn. It seemed like a kid was kind of getting a guarantee that he would get hands-on personal training from the quarterback guru. Now that Charlie has turned over a lot of the duties to Mike Haywood, do you think Charlie can still pull in the big-name QBs? Maybe the kid will start thinking "You're not going to have enough time to tutor me the way I was wanting."
-Jim
Huntsville

Jim,
We can see where you're coming from but let's be real: Weis is still there and he's still going to be a very good resource for the quarterbacks. And he's got good guys there now (Clausen and Sharpley) and coming in (Dayne Crist), so as long as those guys continue to improve -- especially Clausen and Crist -- the Weis fingerprint will still be all over it. Now, if those quarterbacks falter and either don't improve or regress, there could be questions -- but if that happens, that also likely means the players will be recruited for a different coach.

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There was no mention of Taylor Dever on either the first or second unit (OL). I thought Weis said he was very much in the mix. Can you give any info on him?
-Mike Ipsen
Parts unknown

Mike,
Right now, Dever is just "a guy," at least from what we can tell. He'll still have ample opportunity to beat out other linemen, but it wouldn't appear he's made the progress of a Chris Stewart or even Matt Romine, who we didn't see Saturday due to injury. Something tells me we'll have a good picture about the top 10 linemen after April 19.

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Is A. Schwapp the only fullback? What happened to the notion of Paskorz or Nagel trying out?
-Fla alum

Well, Luke Schmidt is also a fullback -- although he's splitting time between fullback and tight end, which will likely make him a hybrid H-back. And don't discount what we saw briefly Saturday, a combination of James Aldridge and Robert Hughes in the backfield, kind of giving a two halfback set but having one (Hughes) with the size of a fullback.

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I never understood this but why isn't a WR ALWAYS the holder. Samardzija did a great job. Teams always want a backup QB in case a "fire" is called, but I want the best hands on the team. Grimes showed some good hands on the "catch" at Stanford.
-David

David,
You kind of hit the point of your comment with the quarterback. Samardzija was a special case because he could throw the ball as well. What it seems like Notre Dame is looking for are high school quarterbacks with athleticism. That's why the Irish tried out Gary Gray at the position and are giving a long look to Kyle McCarthy there. Here's another name we'll throw out as a potential holder sometime during his Notre Dame career -- John Goodman. He played quarterback at Bishop Dwenger, has great hands, good speed and is tall enough that it'd be nominally easier for him to haul in potential high snaps. But we do think the coaching staff looks for a combination of best hands and other skills.

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(Basketball walk-on Tom) Kopko is a good player. He turned down schools so treat him with more respect. What type of question is "has this been surreal?" He is not a scrub.
-BAS

We don't think Kopko is a scrub, but even he'll admit he won't be getting into games much. And yes, he could have gone to other schools, but even ask some freshmen if making the NCAA tournament is a surreal experience and they'll agree.

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And today's final comment comes from  Mike:
Could your observations be any worse??

Sure can.

Thanks for the questions everyone. We'll be back next week so feel free to drop questions on just about anything in the comment boxes. And don't forget to be here April 19 for our live blogging of the spring game.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Mike Ipsen]

Michael
Thanks for the input on Taylor Dever. I'll be at the blue and gold game. Excited to see some improvement.
By the way, I am from San Carlos, California. That sounds better than "parts unknown".
Love your stuff, keep up the good work.

[Bill from La Porte]

Starting my 66th year of watching
Notre Dame football, some early
2008 observations:
1. Tenuta is putting the "F" back
into "Fighting Irish".
2. Jimmy Clausen is going to make
us Irish fans real proud this
year.
3. The OL will dominate!!
Bill from La Porte

[Joe Schaefer '59]

After the university permitted the Vagina Monologues to be performed on campus, any criticism of Tenuta's language is disengenuous

[Pete]

Trying to find out about 09 recruiting and how and where ND stands with the nations best???
Please include a list of some of the "big" named guys we're looking at.

Thanks

GO IRISH!!!!!!!!