Interview with Tim Brown

Hey folks you are either on the ND band wagon 100%
or off. It's easy to support the Irish when they win. The true fan is 100% behind Coach Weis and the Irish.

Yes, 2007 was a tough year. They will win 8-9 games in 2008. From 2009 on lookout!! They are recruiting alot better players and alot more of them.

The ND Coaching Staff is outstanding and they will win and win big. Coach Weis will have a great run at ND.

Tom Potts

First, these interesting videos...I'm sure these are all great..but, as a hearing impaired person, I have no captioning capability on the pc...so, guess what, as a former Domer, I miss out on all these terrific interviews because the "powers that be" decide that the deaf & hearing impaired people don't want to listen to these videos...especially alums. Interesting perspective.

Second, despite my life-long hearing impairment, I did play college football [Div. IAA] & was a hs coach for 20 years. As I have noted in previous blogs, the coaching is where the problem lies...no where else. We have seen a failure to adapt to the challenge of fitting the offense to the players [ie D.Jones]. If CW was the offensive minded guru that he is purported to be, he would, as I would have done, built a new offense around DJ. At least for this year. Given Clausen a year to recover from surgery, learn, grow, lift weights. Doing this would ALSO have made Charlie a new commodity to reckon with. Everyone already knows that he is a pass-minded, NFL-style coach. With a new type offense built around DJ, opposing coaches would be "back to the books" in prep for ND. Before anyone says: "Yeah, but they've already seen..." Yes, they have, but NOT a "Charlie-version" of the same offense [assuming he puts some new wrinkles in it]. But, alas, I was TOTALLY surprised that we looked so CONFUSED, flat, and floundering in the GT game...similar to the way we appeared in 06. In opening games???? After 8 mos prep for a game and we appear confused? even with Brady Quinn? Sorry folks, that's ALL about coaching. If you don't scout yourself...then you are NOT very smart about how to win...at ANY level. Folks, it ain't rocket science! Shoot, Charlie could have run a tandem offense with Sharpely & Jones [like Florida last year], lots of trick plays [like Boise State vs. Okla], regardless of how people feel about trick plays...if they work..USE em...change up offenses...different offense for second half...hurry up offense during certain quarters...or games...or certain halfs...changeups, changeups, changeups. Each game...something new...when you have a poor team, BE CREATIVE...its the only way to survive. It's NOT rocket science. Here is a big but SIMPLE example: line up Aldridge, Armando Allen in the backfield in split back formation with Allen over the tackle & Aldridge in the normal alignment over the guard...use a reverse out, under-hand spiral pitch to Allen, as Aldridge hits the dive hole and let Allen head around the corner...why? With his speed, you've already a jump on most of the defense with Allen's altered alignment, he's 1-1 with the corner...just by changing his alignment you can adapt use his speed more effectively...or make it the g-t gap...to be more subtle...but, that is an instance of adapting to use a player's potential more effectively. Instead, Allen aligns behind the center, which takes 3 or 4 steps to get to the tackle spot...by then the OLB is moving too & has the edge. It ain't rocket science.

Thanks for letting me have my say. This IS a great site. Please keep transcripts of good interviews too...for those of us who can't hear the videos. And keep up with your creativity...this is why YOU were good as a player!

There is a great deal of hype regarding our current recruiting successes. But I am puzzled by the complete lack of success with our kicking game [e.g. no kick offs into the end zone, no success or stability in field goals, and generally poor kickoff return coverages]. There is no confidence in this important phase of the game and nothing seems to be done to fix it?

What happened to Ryan Burkhardt, and why is their so little activity to improve this situation?

Is this something that is "Recruited" or "Developed"

Aaron,

Have you thought about letting Weis see these video?

Some of these might be very helpful in ND's recruiting efforts, specifically where the greats explain their reasons for choosing ND.

After a deflating weekend at the SC game, the trip back to Mobile, Alabama was a long one. Tim's interview gave me a real lift! I hope that the recruiter folks show that to every potential player, as it exemplifies everything a young athlete shoots for. The way Tim handles himself and effectively speaks about the total Notre Dame experience would go a long way to those young men coming from far away and are looking for that closing, and differentiating "factor".

I have witnessed Notre Dame football continuously since the 1950s during the eras of Brennan, Kuharich and Devore and those that followed. Never have I seen the team as down as I witnessed in the stadium last week. I was thankful, for the player's sake, there was no booing from the crowd. There was a lot of a lot of grumbling however. The big question is whether the problem is lack of talent in the senior and junior classes (left over from the Willingham era) or a problem with coaching from the top on down. I guess only time will tell and we will have to wait until 2008 for the answer.

On a different note: We must have the quietest home-field on the planet. Part of the problem may be our relatively small student body. Texas A&M has over 45,000 students occupying the entire visitors side with constant noise from start to finish. I don't know how the visiting team can communicate anything other than by hand signals. At the USC game, between plays, the USC band played constantly. Florida State, the same way. Why can't we get something going like that with our band? We need more noise in the stadium to harass the visiting team. The relatively new "Irish cheer" with the band creates a lot of movement(arms moving up and down) in the stands but no noise. Anybody have any ideas?