Not all of the injury news on Tuesday was bad for Irish fans. Charlie Weis announced that super star wide receiver Michael Floyd was medically cleared for action this weekend when the Irish play host to the Naval Academy. Floyd, out with broken collarbone since the third week of the season, will bolster an already explosive offense and will likely be worked back into the offense slowly.
According to Weis, Floyd was excited to hear he was cleared and is anxious to get back out on the field.
You heard him hooting and hollering down the stairs last night. Our trainers did a good job. And talked to the doctor guru down in Alabama. And he agreed, let’s go. And Michael called his mom up to make sure that we were all on the same page. Because I let him, you know — I let Michael make the call. Once he got cleared to go, you know, still let Michael make the call whether or not this was the week or not.
Notre Dame fans will be hooting and hollering at the sight of #3 back in the lineup for the Irish. The sophomore wide receiver started the season off like a house on fire with five touchdowns in his first 10 quarters of action. Irish fans won’t be alone in being excited to see Floyd back in the line. The guy throwing Floyd the ball was pretty excited to hear the news according to Weis.
He talked to his mom. Talked to me. Came back to me and said, I’m ready to go. Wasn’t too long before I was getting a text from No. 7. He might have been as happy as No. 3 was. I think No. 7 might have been just as happy.
Opposing defensive backs and coordinators, however, aren’t likely to be doing too much hooting and hollering with Floyd back. They’ll be losing more sleep and popping a couple more antacid pills instead – especially considering all of the new ways Weis has found to get Floyd’s running mate Golden Tate the ball.
You know, we’ve had to do a lot of draw ’em up in the dirt to put him in situations. And we’ll continue to do that. It isn’t like Michael’s back, okay, let’s stop doing what we’re doing with Golden. I think it’s important for us as a coaching staff to approach Golden like Michael’s not back, so that we continue getting Golden involved in every game plan.
The Irish offense didn’t miss much of a beat with Floyd missing. In fact, it was very good in his absence and even put up 27 points against a Southern Cal team that held the Irish to 3 points combined the previous two seasons. With Floyd back though, the Irish offense has a chance to be great. Floyd just adds a whole other dimension to the offense because defenses will have to account for another dangerous receiver.
Throw in the way Weis has moved Golden Tate around, and this offense suddenly looks even more imposing. Opposing defenses had a tough time stopping Golden Tate while Notre Dame shuffled in a couple different players at the second receiver spot. Imagine the tough time they will have now when Tate lines up in the backfield and motions out to the slot with Floyd on the field at the same time.
Don’t expect to see Floyd back to his starting role from start to finish on Saturday against Navy though. Weis said on Tuesday that he won’t be out there all the time and they’d ease him back into action.
He won’t play every play. You know, we wouldn’t put him out there, and he wouldn’t go out there if that’s how he was going to think. I think that the biggest thing that he’s going to have to happen is get tackled once.
Considering the opponent, this is definitely the right course of action for Weis to take to integrate Floyd back into the offense. Notre Dame should be able to handle Navy handily this weekend even if Floyd was still going to be on the sidelines. Look for Weis to get Floyd in the game early and have a couple plays drawn up for him, but to use him sparingly overall. With a very tough road game next week against Pitt, I don’t think Weis will want to let Pitt see too much of the mixture of a healthy Floyd and the expanded role Golden Tate we’ve seen the last five games. He will want to get Floyd back into the flow of playing and getting hit this weekend though so that next weekend he can be prepared for a tough Pitt defense that has had problems defending the pass this year.
Yeah, I know some Purdue grads and not one of them has any class. And they all seem to have some chip about Notre Dame. You’d think a great engineering school wouldn’t care about a football team, but they seem to have issues. Personally, other than Notre Dame, I like D-3 schools and their fans. A lot of fun an they keep it in perspective.
i love it guys! i was going to make a sign for my protection saying “at least i am not an osu fan!” or “it could be worse, i could be wearing maize and blue!” but according to you guys, that still won’t take the bullseye off of me. oh well, i am going for it and will try to represent our mother’s university with class and dignity.
as for the purdue stories, i hear you. i made the trip this year and was not impressed with the pu “fans”. every single one of them near us was fall down drunk and beligerent. half of them couldn’t make it thru the whole game due to passing out!
I should add that no one was actually going to do any “killing” or real acts of violence of course, just felt like it at the time….haha
One of the few times in my life that I came close to death was this:
In 1992 or 1993 I went to the ND/Purdue game at Purdue. I was in college and a ‘buddy’ (didn’t know him real well) of mine asked me to go to the game as he had tix. Hell yeah I said! The morning of the game was also “Champagne Brunch” at his fraternity. So when I showed up at his house to go to the game, he was HAMMERED. Oh well, no biggie. I drove up to Purdue with him in tow. Problem was that his tickets were right in the middle of all the Purdue alumni- and I’m talking about old alums- the kind who have had tix for 30 years. We were the 2 ND fans in a huge crowd of Purdue fans. This, in and of itself, would normally not be a big deal. But when you have a drunk idiot with you, who was engaging in all kinds of smack talking, flipping people off etc….you get the point.
There were several times during that day that I threatened to kill him, drive him out to a cornfield, and dump him. I was not going to die because of his douchebaggery. I apologized roughly 100 times that day to Purdue fans for his behavior. ND won big, which did help the mood in the stadium, by the way.
But I learned a valuable lesson that day, or 2 or 3. We were not friends after that. Ahh the memories!
i am in a pickle right now and could use a little advice. i never miss watching a nd game, but a buddy of mine who graduated from penn state offered me a ticket to the psu-osu game this saturday. i told him i would go based on the fact that it is one of the best rivalries in college football and that i loathe osu, but i feel guilty, like i just cheated on my girlfriend or something. is this normal? i know psu was a rival of nd until they joined the big 10. thing is, i grew up watching psu with my grandfather who was a father to me and never “hated” them until they played nd. then i saw nd on nbc and never looked back.
so basically what i am asking is, can a diehard nd fan goto a psu-osu game and cheer for psu? lol. i hope i get some responses as to why i should/shouldn’t go. thought it might be fun.
also, should i wear my manti/armando #5 jersey even though my buddy suggested otherwise?
damn, why did floyd pick this week to come back? just kidding, i am thrilled that he is back!
Nep’r,
Notre Dame is an Institution of higher learning that encourages it’s brothers and sisters to seek out all view points and opinions in a free world enviorment. If you approach it as a fact finding mission where your gathered information could be used for the betterment of our beloved Irish I’m sure our Holy Mother will look apon you with inspreration and forgiveness.
(in other words, it’s all in how you package it)
TIP*
I would wear my Irish Jersey covered by a jacket. Then in the fourth quarter when they announce ND’s victory over Navy I would stand, cheer, and remove my jacket. Timing is everything!
Haha! Now THIS is GREAT advice! I say do as Shazam has suggested…
You may also want to pick up one of those “Terrell Cryer”
T-Shirts being sold by the PSU students. Flashing a ND jersey could be dangerous and that T-Shirt just might save your life!
I to live in PA and many friends have offered me tickets to Penn State games and would go to this game. I would get ready for abuse from Penn State fans concerning an ND jersey. They hate ND more than Ohio State and Michigan. I don’t know why but they do and will remind you of the last time they beat us.
I also grew up in PA. There is a bit a anti-Catholic sentiment there. Be a shiingi light against that bigotry.
but yes, Penn State fans talk about this “rivalry”. I used to hear about the traditional Notre Dame, Penn state rivalry back in 1982. I think they had played each other once or twice.
I believe it is similar to the Boston College attitude. Penn State fans think the nation should accept that they are the winningest program with the best team and the most championships. back in the 1980s Penn State played 3 good to great teams and at least 3 teams among D-1A or very bad D-1. In fact they’d drop a team with a winning record to find another patsy. With this formula of mixing 3 marguee games among lightweights, they felt they were as good as the teams playing top opponents week in and week out.
Notre Dame’s well earned notoriety at that point cheesed them to no end. They also couldn’t understand where Notre Dame even was since a passport and translation dictionary was required to cross into Ohio or further west.
I would very nicely ask them what they know about Notre Dame. I would ask if they know the size of the school, academic ratings, social justice activities, why it was founded, ( because Catholics were being lynched in Philadelphia ), things like that. They might also want to know where their head women’s basketball coach came from.
C-Dog, when you say “I would very nicely ask them” are referring to being seated in their Stadium before Kick off?
You are one crazy mick.
Talk about a Catholic getting lynched!
Standing up for you beloved ND is admirble as “a shinning light agianst bigotry” but even I am not crazy enough to poke a angry bear with a short stick in his own den!
C-Dog great analysis. I love the arguement I get about how Penn State runs the only clean program in the country and that ND doesn’t graduate their players. I enlightened one of my Penn State friends by showing him facts about graduation rates and arrests at both schools. I don’t mind Penn State fans and do respect their program for their accomplishments, however most people who go to the university now are from NY,NJ and Philly area. The route for Penn State the same way the route for the pro programs. I would just advise to be respectible and not talk smack like JDH’s ex-friend because they may not be as nice.
I went to the ND PSU games when Faust was coach. Here I am with my Dad, who was pretty tight about keeping it classy in another team’s stadium. ND scored an Allen Pinkett touchdown. I cheered like you’d expect. Penn State comes back and scores and this old man behind me, turns me around and starts shaking his fist at me. The guy was dressed up, but sure acted without any class.
Since then I mostly bury my dislike for Bob’s Big Boy and university where all you need is a “D” average to get in. Many of my highschool classmates went there along with 46,000 other students. One classmate flunked out 3 times because he got into LSD and schrooms with the track team. Got his degree at the age of 38, finally. One girl did most of the football team until settling on their place kicker. Another had an abortion in her dorm bathroom.
Yeah, I’ll take a place like Notre Dame. Rules, values, and a feeling of family sure made me feel safe and secure.
Being that he was an old cuss from PSU, consider yourself lucky that his fist was the only thing that he shook at you!
My first Irish game was a road game in West Lafayette agianst the boilermakers.
I was 7yrs old. Had my little ND cap. My little ND Pennant. Dad took me to the men’s room at half time. Some dirty old Perdue bastard who reeked of whiskey and weaving back and forth next to me at the urinal, turns to look at me and pee’d on my shoe.
I told my dad. He said son, that comes with the territory!
I’ve always hated Perdue.
I’m just putting this out there, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you saw a Wildcat play w/ Goodman taking the snap and throwing it deep to Floyd. I seem to remember hearing that Goodman has an outrageous Jamarcus Russell type of deep ball (though comparing a guy to JR on the whole isn’t a ringing endorsement)
If it’s true, I think that type of play would put the fear of God in anyone facing the Irish O.
slim to none chance of all three being back- i have a feeling floyd is the only one back
SC game would have been a W had #3 been playing. The kid is a stud. The 3 amigos Clausen – Floyd and Tate need to play it again next year! GO IRISH1
Scav:
I agree with you 100%
This is great news. Floyd is our most complete WR. He reminds me a lot of Andre Johnson. Golden will get more open and we will have the long bombs again and again. JC #’s about to jump up again this week. So excited!
Go Irish
I like Goodman working in at QB too just to mix it up. I just hope his talent doesnt get wasted out of position. It brings to mind Gary Godsey from a few years ago who i thought was a good QB (or at least better than what we had in there for a while) and got moved to TE. I think there was another QB we moved to TE in that era too, possibly a Jared Clark?
Floyd coming back is only going to make Tate better. The injury to Floyd made CW come up with creative ways to get Tate involved and now, with Floyd back, Tate is going to be as explosive as ever.
How are defenses going to game plan? Do we stop Tate, Floyd, or Rudolph? What about Kumara, he has been pretty good the last 2 weeks? Now Jimmy is perfectly content with dumping the ball off to Hughes or Allen. We are starting to see why defenses hated going against New England. You had no idea what was coming because CW will exploit what you are giving them. Last 2 weeks, soft Cover 2, so he dumped off. Play press coverage and it’s bombs away. If the defense can continue to improve, we will run the table and get into a BCS.
Plus with Floyd back you can run wide receiver screens to either him or Tate. If you play off like Michigan did we will dump the ball of two a number of weapons that can be break it for a long gain. If you put eight in the box we can beat you deep. It should be interesting to see what happens this weekend.
With the new depth at wide receiver and running back we can spread the field or play double tight end. Plus giving Goodman work at QB will allow a new dimension to the wildcat which could make ND very dangerous offense. Lets beat Navy keep everyone healthy and run the table.
Fantastic news! Good to see you #3!
This is great news, and I think you’re right and that Weis will
play it smart and slowly work Floyd back in
there to get him ready for a great game against
Pitt. Just his mere presence on the field
will be enough to cause Navy all kinds of trouble.
Welcome back Michael!
It feels like the ND offence is about to explode. When Floyd went down we
saw Tate elevate his game. We saw a number of receivers step up to fill the void. Looks like Kamara may have nailed down the third receiver spot with his consistancy.
Robert Hughes has been on a tear both rushing and receiving. JC has remained consistant dispite his turf-toe.
Rudolph got back in the game last week. Armando Allen
got some time to rest his sore ankle and always gives us a boost when he’s playing. There are plenty of young hungery players ready to step in if needed. Our Field Goal kicker has found his grove. If this offence continues to gel, protect the football, and minimize penilties, there may be no stopping them. This is also the time of year when defenses tend to wear down a little. Put the peddle down and don’t look back.This last half could turn out to be a lot of fun.
Go Irish – Sink Navy!