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Taylor's TidbitsPost-Season Analysis Part IIFri, 11/30/07 Before I forget, be sure to check out our Memorabilia Shop, as Christmas is coming up and we’ll be reducing our prices by up to 20% so that you can give something the Irish fan that has everything. We’ve only got a limited supply of items left, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to be one of the first to have a piece of the Irish legacy from the Legends of South Bend. Also, be on the lookout next week for an interactive stocking stuffer opportunity that will surprise the heck out of your favorite Irish fan. Ho Ho Ho (hint)! IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS One of the things that Coach Holtz repeatedly stressed to our team that I feel allowed us to be so successful was our attention to detail. “Men, ya gotta do the little things,” he would bark in that dry, passionate lisp. In fact, I remember many of us getting kicked out of the huddle during our freshman-only camp for not lining up “stripe on stripe”, which was the understood instruction on how to line up the Adidas logos on our shoes as the quarterback called the play. It all kind of perplexed us, but as Coach Holtz later explained, “If you’re in the huddle and your brain is focused on the details of where your feet are aligned, hopefully you’ll carry that focus to the line of scrimmage and think about which foot you should step with first, or the proper landmark to aim for.” It seemed silly at the time, but what it taught us all was that we won if we did the little things correctly. Cliché or not, football is a game of inches, and games can be won or lost depending on whether or not someone stepped with the right foot, aimed correctly, rounded off their route, threw off of their back foot, jumped offsides, or any number of the other little details that play such a significant role in the game of football. I bring up the importance of the “little things” because one of the things that really concerned me this year was the seeming lack of discipline and attention to detail. Whether it was receivers dropping balls, multiple players drawing penalties for personal fouls/unsportsmanlike conduct, drive-killing offsides penalties, or seemingly repeated mental mistakes on pass protection, the 2007 team seemed to be sloppy in its execution … from Game 1 through Game 12. A lot of this can be chalked up to the team being young and inexperienced, but I doubt that all of it can be. This is something I would hope would be addressed in the offseason, and it starts in winter conditioning, not fall camp. WHAT’S NEXT? So, where does Notre Dame go from here? To his credit, Coach Weis seems to fully grasp the gravity of his duties, and has admirably admitted that he will seek out the causes of not just the team’s struggles, but his own. No shame in that, and it’s more common in coaching circles than most people realize (although I would hope he also visits other seasoned college coaches as well, and particularly some guys who struggled with the transition from the pro to the collegiate level or vice versa, i.e. Pete Carroll, Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz, Dennis Erickson, et al.) Look no further than the recent firings of Bill Callahan (formerly of Nebraska) and Chan Gailey (formerly of Georgia Tech) as examples of pro coaches that struggled on the collegiate level. I think Callahan’s firing is of particular interest, as he was also an offensive-minded NFL coach that brought a pass-oriented offense into a school that built its legacy running the football and recruiting the best meat and potato football players they could find. My guess is that Coach Weis is a smart enough guy and an experienced enough coach to be able to figure it out better than Callahan did, and with an already proven ability to recruit like his name was “Huggy Bear”, it appears that Coach Wies will keep the cupboard full of talent for the next couple of years, with an especially fine defensive class coming in this year. However, as my bab's momma’s daddy’s cousin used to say, “The graveyard’s full of talent”. BackPost new commentMan, I'm sorry, but we gotta have you log in. That's so we don't get spammed. Appreciate your understanding. Don't have an account?
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Comments
Captioning ?
Aaron,
Can you tell us how the captioning idea for your inset vidoes is going or whether there will be transcripts? I am the hearing impaired guy who broached the subject about 2 mos ago. Please let us know. I am excited about being able to "hear" all of the great video interviews that you have. Let me share with you that it is demeaning to be excluded simply because I can't hear. You know what's the kicker? IN SPITE of my life-long hearing problems, I am a Domer - MA,1989 - & a former high school football coach! I also played college football for 4 years at a state university in IL - free safety. Yet, in spite of all that I have accomplished so far in my life, I still can't hear the interviews on your site - or any others. Interesting.
Otherwise, THANK YOU Aaron for such a great site with outstanding insights - grins. My wife & I enjoy it tremendously. We also enjoy the readers who leave such good opinions on BOTH sides of the ball. It gives us a great deal to which we can respond!
Let us know on the first issue. Yours would be the first site that would care. Thanks Aaron!
Legends Website
Great work! I discovered the site
today. I'll browse this site regularly. I showed my wife the gift shop......we'll see what great Holiday ideas she discovers. Happy Holiday & Go Irish.
Jamie Engels ND 84
Great!
We hope to be seeing more of you in the future! Did Sprging Football start yet?!!! :)
it's over - team for sale
man, tell me we didn't lose to navy.
Coaching, Coaching, Coaching
Being a '62 grad, the first to graduate with a losing 4 years at ND, I vividly recall the change from Terry Brennan to Joe Kuharich. Joe came in from the Pro's, from the Philadelphia Eagles I believe, and was supposed to be the panacea to all our problems. Many of my classmates and I believe it is deja vu all over again, because of the similarity to the way in which Weiss and Kuharich approached coaching at the college level. In effect, there wasn't any, and most of the players were on their own.
However, this became clear last year in 2006 not just with this inexperienced team in 2007. Our offense was not terrific last year except for the pass with the great players we had, but we couldn't stop a blitz much then either; and our defense was ridiculous, our place kicking game dismal. It was lack of good college coaching then, as it was this year.
In my view, this year was perhaps the worst coached team at ND that I have ever seen. Offense, defense, special teams -- and while you can say improvement on defense, the numbers do not lie-- but Aaron was correct in that there were so many stupid mistakes every game by the players, that only inept coaching was the reason. Otherwise they would not have kept happening, happening. I saw a team that was totally unemotional about any game in the season, and that reflects the type of coach you have. But you don't need emotion much in the pro's, only in college and high school.
Charlie was correct in saying that it starts with him....it does....but he was the one who said he was bringing a new 'nasty' toughness to a team that had not been tough since Holtz. Does Weiss look to you like a coach that has nasty toughness?
Perhaps it will not be CW who takes this team to the next level, perhaps it will. We will know next year and the year after, because the talent excuse is drying up pretty rapidly. In this case, coaching ineptness or superiority will be very obvious and all of us will have to admit it either way.
Thanks for your insight this year
Aaron, really enjoyed the site this year. It's great to get your perspective on things, given you've been there and done that. I liked the suggestion from another poster that you should consider a career in coaching. Happy holidays.
2007
The Seattle Times ran a poll in their sports on-line. It was 2 to 1 for Willingham to be immediately replaced. They think they have a shot a Jim Mora...who is now coaching the Seahawks...
I have lost all confidence in Weis as I still have not figured out what went so terribly wrong this season. If the team went 4-12 in 2008 I wouldn't be surprised. If they went 8-4 I wouldn't be surprised either...
I'm still interested in the bowl games this year...I have to do something until March when I can get into basketball...
Tell me that Travis Thomas, Lambert, Wooden and the offensive line are all graduating...please. Or at least leaving school without their degrees...
Watching every other school play - including "minor colleges - the lack of ND team speed is very evident. All ND halfbacks look like these other team's fullbacks...and the ND fullback looks like he shouldn't have left the weight room...
Is Weis going to replace the guy who is getting paid to "coach" the offensive line?...If not...why not??...
Isn't there a Catholic high school kid in the western hemisphere that is able to kick the ball into the end zone on kickoffs?...
Ex-ND players shouldn't be allowed to broadcast the games from the press box nor the sideline...unless you enjoy the sight of grown men puking from "rout in session"...
How did Illinois get so good so fast by recruiting one player named Benn?...
Remember DC Baer?...he's still with TW and he's still 90th out of 119 teams in total team defense...at least he's consistent...
Speaking of TW...after tomorrow's loss in Hawaii (sorry, Hawai'i) his W-L % at UW will be .295...at least he's consistent...his career W-L % will drop to .495...tell me again why he was hired at ND?...no less UW...
Still wondering why Mrs. Weis doesn't tell her husband not to tuck his shirt in...talk about Tweedlededum...
When exactly will we beat USC again?...when exactly will Pete Carroll be leaving USC?...
Did he say "nasty" or "patsy"...
Thanks for the Objectivty
Aaron, Thanks for sharing your many insights. While most fans expected a rough start, this season took almost everyone by surprise. Your honesty gave me a better perspective on reality. My expectations were a 7-5 season with an invite to a lesser bowl. I would have been okay with that as long as I saw improvement week to week. Heck, even 3-9 would have been tolerable had the team shown growth over the course of the season. Every Saturday afternoon I found myself wanting to point fingers and place blame. Your columns kept me grounded and I refrained from putting a foot through my brand new plasma.
All things considered there's plenty of blame to go around for everyone. Much of it has been voiced by you and your readers already. It started with a top heavy schedule that would have been brutal even for a veteran team. Throw in a bye week that didn't come until the so called "soft portion" of the schedule and we were already in trouble.
The offensive line while young and inexperienced never really came together. There is talent but it never developed over the course of the season. That appears to be a coaching issue which hopefully CW addresses very soon.
The play calling was almost comical at times. Our line couldn't open a hole large enough for a mouse to run through and our so called passing attack consisted of slants inside 10 yards. No wonder teams played everyone up in the box. Some of the young receivers flashed game changing ability but we failed to take shots down the field on a consistent basis over the course of the season. I'm sure the staff felt our QBs were already under enough duress without running patterns which take longer to develop. Why didn't we use 2 back sets which would assist in blocking schemes while also providing the option of using them as additional receivers.
There was a general lack of discipline as evidenced by the large amount of mental mistakes, penalties, etc.
The defense showed improvement but like the recent past they wore down as the game/season progressed. With a few exceptions I believe the defense's main problem was our poor O-line play (repeated 3 and outs).
Yes, Mr. Willingham gets to share in the cause for this season's meltdown. The weak senior class was not only lacking in talent but also leadership. How a coach at a major university could allow recruiting to degenerate to the level we saw when he was terminated tells me he had no intention of coming back and coaching this mess he left behind.
Lastly, CW errored in judgement in his approach to the season. I believe he took his genius tag too seriously and thought he could out scheme his opponents. Well it appears there's some pretty good staffs on the other sidelines as well. Hopefully he learned a little humility these past few months. CW has proven he can coach at this level but he and his staff must teach and develop this young but enormously talented group of young men. He did not have his team ready to play on opening day nor in the weeks that followed. When he realized his ommission and went back to a training camp mentallity, it was too late. Other teams were weeks ahead of us in their development. As the season progressed we were always a step behind. CW is a work in progress at the college level but he is intelligent. I hope he truly learns from his mistakes. This team still has the potential to wake up the echos in the near future. It's up to CW to put them in position excel and achieve greatness. He can't win a national title by outcoaching the other guy and the sooner he learns this the sooner the Irish will be back. Charlie, don't waste time seeking advice from the Patriots. When did they ever learn to develop 18 year olds and teach technique and other fundamentals. No Charlie, you need to seek advice from the guy's who have been there. It's a different game.
Thanks Aaron for providing an avenue for me to vent. It's been a pleasure reading your columns along with all the others. Your readers have displayed a high degree of knowledge and understanding in comparison to other sites and I've enjoyed reading there comments as well. Merry Christmas to everyone in NDNATION. I hope we all get the gifts we want come Feb. 6.
Part II
Aaron, I sincerely hope the door is open for you to share your ideas with Coach Weis. You may not be a coach, but you could be because the teaching aspect of coaching, which is so important, comes through your writings. I am not a coach, but I am a teacher and it really comes through in what you say.
Thank you for your insight. It is awesome. Everything is there. A love of Notre Dame and a tremendous knowledge of the game.
God Bless and have a wonderful holiday.
GO IRISH BEGINNING WITH WEIGHT WORK AND SPRING PRACTICE!
Thanks Aaron
Great site. Really enjoyed your take on things. Looking foward to a great season next year. I will be monumentally surprised if CW doesn't have this program righted and on the upward swing next year. Boots
Thanks for a great site!
Your down to earth comments and honesty has put you to the top of my "favorites" list. Thanks for a great 1st year and I look forward to many more.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Thanks Aaron!
Thanks for keeping it "real" over this very trying season. There are a lot of ND fans that have a propensity to look thru rose colored glasses but your analysis and comments have been pretty much right on! Lets hope CW finds a way to turn this around. He seems like a decent guy with a passion for his alma mater (just like all of us!), however, in the end he knows that the only thing that really matters from his position is winning games. If he is unable to do so I hope he is man enough to turn it over to someone who can. Another 2 or 3 win season with play that seems so inept is anti-ND. Go Irish!
Thanks for the Season
Aaron, I just want to take a moment of your time to thank you for your insight to this whole season as it transpired. Your honest approach to the season was refreshing. It has to be hard when you love Notre Dame as much as you seem to and have to "tell it like it is" each week.
Thanks again and look out for the Irish in 2008.
Kudos
Aaron,
I'm new to the website but want to commend you on your concise and highly-salient insights on ND football.
You're now at the top of my "favorites".
Happy Holidays and "Go Irish".
IrishDad
Christmas comes early...
If you really want to give us a Christmas present, Aaron...keep the 20% and announce your intentions to play an active role in the improvement of our team in the off-season. How about at...oh...I don't know. O-line?
As always, love the site and the insight. Keep up the good work. Go Irish.
Marc
ND '97
LOL
Man, as tempting as that would be, I don't konw the first thing about coaching ans what this team needs is expereince. With that said, most things in life are more about desire than anything else. This site is a testament to that, because I didn't know the first thing about the web o'sphere, but we powered through it and figured it out as we went. With a year of expereince under our belts, next year will undoubtedly be better for us...as well as the young talent on this team.
Have a good weekend, and go Irish!