Practice Observations, 11-20-07

Hello, and welcome to our final practice observations for the year as Notre Dame prepares for its season finale at Stanford:

• With the weather icky outside, Notre Dame headed inside the Loftus Center for special teams work.
• Fifth-year senior center John Sullivan was at practice Tuesday, but not dressed in full pads. The rest of Notre Dame's roster was, including hobbled sophomore running back James Aldridge.
• Apparently not-so-limber on Tuesday, wide receivers coach Rob Ianello joined the players in some stretching, mostly working on his hamstrings and calves.
• Brandon Walker's kicking day: Extra Point -- Good; 32 yards -- Good; 32 yards -- Good; 36 yards -- Wide Left; 36 yards -- Good; 40 yards -- Good; 44 yards -- Good; 49 yards -- Wide left (barely, and he had distance). Not to bring up the Navy game again, but clearly Walker has some pop in his leg.
• First team punter was sophomore Eric Maust, who each day seems closer to wrapping up the job for next season. Walker backed him up as the media didn't see fifth-year senior punter Geoff Price attempt a punt.
• Five coaches were helping work on special teams, headed up by Brian Polian. Special teams is one of the issues Notre Dame needs to improve in the offseason, with the exception of punt coverage (otherwise known as David Bruton beating everyone down field).
• Notre Dame oral commit Braxston Cave showed up right after the media portion of practice concluded.

Don't forget about the weekly Mailbag (still on Friday despite the holiday week!) and the score predictions contest for Stanford. Send questions and your final score guesses to mrothstein@jg.net.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Brian]

I see what you're getting at with bringing up that Walker seems to have a decent enough leg to make some of the longer field goals (45+). However, one cannot overlook the fact that those kicks you witnessed in practice were indoors without any external factors like wind or precipitation. Personally, I share your sentiment that we should have at least attempted the field goal against Navy, but we can't discount the environmental factors that can play a significant role in the kicking game - perhaps significant enough to warrant not attempting a kick.

[The Genuis]

yeah, plus walker really showed last week that his coach should have supreme confidence in him, right? puhleeze...

rothstein is a classic second-guesser...