Welcome to a new feature on the UHND.com Blog. Every week I will publish a poll of Notre Dame’s opponents with comments on how each team looked the week before. This week’s was a bit challenging because Notre Dame opponents looked really bad yesterday. The hardest spot to pick was #2 because after USC every other ND opponent is really about even till we get to the end of the poll where the Syracuse and San Diego State teams reside. Anyway, here is our first installment.
2008 UHND Opponent Poll |
|||||
| Opponent | Last Game | Next | Comments | ||
| 1. |  |
Southern Cal Trojans |
W, 52-7 – Virginia | vs. #2 OSU (9/13) | Wow. USC looked like they were in mid-season form already in their thrashing of the Cavaliers. Virginia isn’t a particularly strong team, but USC dismantled them. Sanchez certainly dind’t look hurt and it looked like USC had about 7 RB’s who could all start at most colleges. |
| 2. |  |
Michigan State Spartans |
L, 31-38 – Cal | vs. E Michigan (9/6) | Surpised that the Michigan State defense looked as poorly as it did. Cal is a pretty talented football team, but their offense looked decent. Ringer only averaged 3.0 ypc, but Hoyer threw for 321 and Mark Dell caught 9 passes for 202 yards. Sparty will be a tough test for our defense. |
| 3. |  |
Michigan Wolverines |
L, 23-25 – Utah | vs. Miami (OH) (9/06) | Yes I saw how bad the Michigan offense looked, but I also saw a defense in the second half that can force turnovers. Michigan’s offense is not going to be able to move the ball consisntenly early in the year, but the defense caused 3 turnovers inside the Utah 35 which lead to three touchdowns to UM. |
| 4. |  |
Boston College Eagles |
W, 21-0 – Kent State | vs. Georgia Tech (9/06) | Boston College didn’t look overly impressive, but they did get the shut out against Kent State. BC lost so much on offense that they will struggle on that side of the ball, but they look like a well coached, disciplined football team. |
| 5. |  |
Purdue Boilermakers |
No Game | vs. N Colorafo (9/06) | Purdue was off so there is nothing to really judge them on this week. The Boilermakers did have to like seeing Michigan, Michigan State, and Illinois all lose this weekend though. Other than OSU, the Big 10 looks wide open. |
| 6. |  |
Stanford Cardinal |
W, 36-28 – Oregon State | @ #15 Arizona State (9/06) | Kudos to Jim Harbaugh. I thought Stanford would be terrible again this year, but they got their season off to a great starter with a win over Oregon State in front of literally dozens of Stanford fans. |
| 7. |  |
Pittsburgh Panthers |
L, 17-27 -0 Bowling Green | vs. Buffalo (9/06) | Dave Wannstedt’s seat might be on fire after that loss. With all the talent he’s brought into Pittsburgh, there’s no excuse for losing at home to Bowling Green to start the season. LeSean McCoy ran for just 71 yards.. against Bowling Green. At least the next Pitt coach will have plenty of talent thanks to Wanny. |
| 8. |  |
Washington Huskies |
L, 10-44 – Oregon | vs. #16 BYU (9/06) | I feel bad for Jake Locker. I really do. He is a one man show on offense. Oregon was perfectly content rushing four linemen every down so they wouldn’t get burned for long runs by Locker. The result was Locker dropping back, finding no one open, and then running around. The poor kid looked exhausted at half-time. On almost any other Pac 10 team Locker would be an All American. At Washington he will be lucky to make it through the season alive. UW’s defense wore down too because of their lack of depth (sound familiar?). Their brutal schedule has them hosting BYU and Okalhoma the next two weeks too. OUCH. |
| 9. |  |
Navy Midshipmen |
W, 41-13 Towson | @ Ball State (9/06) | Navy was typical Navy against Towson with 348 yards from Shun White. Remember though, this is Towson – a Division 1AA school. |
| 10. |  |
Syracuse Orangemen |
L, 10-30 – Northwestern | vs. Akron (9/06) | For a half it looked like Syracuse might be improved. Then things went back to normal. Giving up 30 points to Northwestern to open the season was not the start to the season Greg Robinson was looking for. |
| 11. |  |
North Carolina Tar Heels |
W, 35-27 – McNeese State | @ Rutgers (9/11) | For all the talk of the improvement in Chapel Hill this year, North Carolina looked horrible in nearly losing to Division 1AA McNeese state yesterday. Former Notre Dame commitment Greg Little ran 14 times for 37 yards in his debut as their starting RB. |
| 12. |  |
San Diego State Aztecs |
L, 27-29 – Cal Poly | @ Notre Dame (9/06) | San Diego State might be one of the worst opponents we’ve faced in 20 years. SDSU lost to a Division 1AA school that was only 7-4 last year. The Aztecs couldn’t run the ball, but did throw for 352 yards. That’s good news for ND considering we couldn’t stop the run but were tough through the air last year. |
JC,
Don’t get me wrong. Love to see the wins. I was a freshman at ND during Faust’s last year, saw first hand the futility and saw how Holtz came in and got us the NC my senior year. I know each rebuilding takes time and is it’s own animal.
But Lou instilled discipline, a work ethic, and consistently took steps forward. Between 1985 and 1988, when ND lost it was either to good teams by a small margin or to top 5 teams by sometimes a lot. But they always looked solid. Their lines worked hard and became tougher each year. Guys that didn’t rate high in the talent pool became starters, ex. Stan Smagala.
Lou managed the program. He also moved quickly to fix problems. Barry Alvarez brought in to shore up the D, in year three. Working with Tony Rice on passing by having him throw darts. Little details.
The fact that they still look sloppy, that the line still looks mediocre in technique, troubles me.
And then I ask why are other programs able to get to the top faster than us? If it’s that they cheat, then either they should be caught, or we should begin a massive pullout of schools who want to play by the rules. But that’s another question.
I hope Charlie sees there’s at least one major problem right now. If they at least did good strengthening in the off-season, they can run the linemen through drills this fall that each week should drastically improve their toughness, footwork, and technical blocking skills. They just have to start doing it.
That boring part of football called blocking is going to make or break the ND coaching career of an offensive guru.
@ C-Dog
Well, we did not lose our home opener like last year. The ball bounced our way for a change when it was critical, I’ll take it.
A three game win streak, you have to start somewhere.
I am not rearranging the chairs on the titanic just yet.
Clausen looked good, zero flat passes and zero sacks. I won’t mention which
receiver should stay on the pine next week. Floyd, Tate and Grimes should start.
I don’t care about style points as long as we past Michigan next week. Its a long process learning how to win consistently for any team.
JC,
Think we moved forward after yesterday? Looks like we’re about in the same spot if you consider SDSU being about as good as Stanford or Duke. Even Stanford looks better this year. Not to be a pessimist, but looking at the elements, the team still looks soft. Defense is definitely better, but will get worn down by the end of the season.
Can’t say there was much improvement in the O-Line. Not for all the talk. Skill players looked better, but these guys still expect to lose.
Lou Holtz did a lot more in getting a losing team over the hump. Charlie still seems to not understand all elements that the coach needs to manage.
They need a better strength and agility program
They need coaches who instill leadership and higher level of play.
They need to use the ND tradition as a motivator, not an empty banner to wave around. Gotta earn the right to represent the Irish.
Maybe they need Skip Holtz and Aaron Taylor
@ Dick Vogel
Laughable assertion and irrational assessment, there has be a plethora of positive change. Move forward ND has.
Sit back and relax, enjoy the home opener. Then maybe after the game you might upgrade yourself to atleast a cynical optimist.
Good feature. Suggest a graphic which shows the teams’ relative strength. One unit could be a “class”, e.g. a difference in strengh meaning the stronger team would beat the lesser team say, 75% or the time. Or “points”, as in bookmakers’ spreads.
I’m looking forward to Saturday for the for the flat
passes and the sacks to see if
this is another “07 season.
Powlus has no reason for being
a coach as does Weis. Both were responsible for the “three monkeys” show and I
cannot see a change!
Love this feature. good insights. Anyway we can vote? That would be fun.
Comment on Ty: Only positive is it vindicates why we got rid of him. Otherwise, I’d like to see him succeed. Hopefully his next gig is a success.
If Ty’s season goes the way I think it will, there will be no way possible that any reason other than failing miserably will be the reason given. He’s won 11 games now heading into his 4th season. If he only wins another 2 or 3 games this year, there’d be no justification for keeping him.
Great feature! Very well written! Do you think Ty’s departure will be adorned with the racial card? Oh and if ND loses against San Diego, it would be a looong season!
Nice feature Frankie V. Man it breaks the teams down perfectly.
Like I said Michigan looked bad. I think we will be able to move the ball against them and since their offense didnt seem to look like they good execute I feel our D will will have a good game. Dave Wannstedt has to be almost done at Pitt. BC was about the only team (besides USC) that looked good. Michigan st still seems like it will be a difficult game for us. It always seems to be.
Excellent feature…
hope it continues…
Baring a complete and total disaster in Washington – like a 0-6 start, I think he will be there.
Based on what I saw yesterday though, I can’t see Washington winning more than 2 or 3 games and if that’s the case, I just don’t see Ty coming back.
Outstanding idea Frankie, Do you think Ty will be there by the time we play Washington?
Fantastic review! excellent work.
Nice Feature!
I agree with your ranking, but I doubt they end up in that order. UNC has got to be better than they showed yesterday, and Washington will drop because Locker will be out with an injury by mid-season.
I love this new feature.