Charlie Weis spoke with the media on Saturday. Here’s some notes from what Weis had to say.
- Freshman quarterback Dayne Crist had some moments of “information overload” at the beginning of camp and was showing some signs of frustrations. Weis said he brought Crist into his offense and had a “hey, you’re a freshmen, relax” type conversation. Weis also said that Crist started to start picking things up towards the end of the week and was moving forward.
- Right now Crist is the clear cut #3 quarterback and there is a wide gap between he and Evan Sharpley for the #2 spot. Weis said that Evan is closer to starter Jimmy Clausen than Crist is to Evan.
- On Monday Weis will meet with for an hour with each coaching unit – offense, defense, special teams – to just discuss personnel and start making decisions on the depth chart. Weis and staff will be determining who will on the first and second teams and who will be relegated to show teams.
- Weis talked about the medical hardship redshirting policy. He said a player can apply for another year of eligibility if they play in the first 3 games but sustain an injury that causes them to miss the rest of the year. Weis said sophomore offensive tackle Matt Romine would fit into that category. Romine played in the Michigan game, but didn’t get back on the field after getting injured against the Wolverines.
- Weis talked about the injuries in practice based on being more physical this camp. There are three or four guys who are a little dinged up so far, but thankfully there hasn’t been any major injuries. He talked about living with the consequences of being more physical.
- When asked if Golden Tate was playing with a different mentality this year, Weis said, “You’re preaching to the choir.” Tate has been “head and shoulders” above where he was last year and is starting to resemble a dependable receiver more so than a guy who runs fast.
- “The arrow is pointing up for Trevor (Robinson)”. Weis talked about Trevor having the advantage of being here for the spring. It sounds like Robinson will be in the two deep this year. As we learned last year though, it is never a good thing to be dependant on young linemen so we probably shouldn’t get too excited…. yet.
- “He has the chance to be something pretty special” Weis said of Brian Smith.
- Weis mentioned that the communication has been excellent between Kyle McCarthy and David Bruton. Weis spoke very highly of Kyle McCarthy as a tackler as well. McCarthy might not be able to deliver the big hit as well as Zbikowski did, but in terms of coverage, there might not be much of a drop off at the strong safety position this year.
- Weis talked about frustrations with play calling last year. He said that they could have given up fewer sacks last year if they had thrown the towel in once games got out of hand but said he doesn’t believe in throwing in the towel. This is something I talked about a number of times last year – we may be more susceptible to blowout losses under Weis because he will continue throwing the ball and fighting till the end because he has said many times that he doesn’t care if we lose by 1 or 50 – a loss is a loss.
- Duval Kamara is back at #18 after reporting into practice yesterday at 217 lbs. Weis joked he was catching the ball better now that he is back to #18.
- In discussing scholarship totals Weis said they will be at 76 or 77 this year before giving out any scholarships to walkons and that it will affect fifth year guys and how many recruits the Irish will take because they will finally be getting close to the 85 limit.
- Last year there were a number of reasons why Notre Dame gave up as many sacks as they did and Jimmy Clausen was one of them, but far from the only or biggest reason. Weis “feels much more comfortable” about the pass protection so far this year. He joked that the offense is seeing a lot of blitzing in practice.
- Sounds like the only thing off limits in practice so far is cut blocking – as it has been since Weis went more physical in the spring.
- Nate Montana could come in and finish a game for the Irish – “which he might just do”.
