DAILY DOMER, OCTOBER 2: The Future is Golden

Posted by Deleted: Thursday, October 2, 2008 2:11 PM

We experienced some technical difficulties here at the Double D yesterday -- broken laptop -- but the good people at FedEx/Kinko's are being kind enough to lend me the internet for just $12 per hour. It's a fine set-up, although Bill Curtis just barged in and announced, "I've just found the internet" then left chuckling.

He thinks he's so clever.

Stanford and its trash-talking offensive tackle, Chris Marinelli, visit South Bend this weekend. Here's what the Boston native told The Cardinal Report earlier this week:

"I grew up with a bunch of Irish and Italian Catholic people back home. And all the Irish Catholic people, all they talk about is Notre Dame this, Notre Dame that. And they've never even been there, ya know. So I hate those guys, I hate that school.

"We are going out there to mash them up and that's all there is to it."

So it's "Crank Me Up" vs. "Mash Them Up."

Notre Dame has won the last six times these two have played as well as the last six times they've played in South Bend.

But let's look beyond that. After last Saturday's second-half offensive explosion, Notre Dame fans are about as fired up as they've been since 2005 ... or since hours before the kickoff at USC in 2006. The primary reason they should be is the precociousness of an offense that will only lose left tackle Michael Turkovich and quasi-starter wideout David Grimes next season. And there is no position on the roster deeper than wide receiver.

A few things to consider:

1) Freshman Michael Floyd has 16 catches and 2 TDs after four games. Extrapolate that out to twelve games (and ignore the notion that Floyd is likely to be more prolific in the coming weeks than he was in his first four college games, a theme that will carry for the other names mentioned here) and you get 48 catches and 6 TDs. Let's see how that compares to some other Irish receivers you may have heard of in their freshman seasons:

Michael Floyd................48 receptions, 6 TDs

Tim Brown.....................28 receptions, 1 TD

Raghib Ismail.................12 receptions, 2 TDs

Golden Tate....................6 receptions, 1 TDs

Jeff Samardiza................7 catches, 0 TDs

2) Here's how Jimmy Clausen stacks up against other Irish quarterbacks in their sophomore seasons who started as true freshmen (again, extrapolating Clausen's four-game total out to 12 games):

Jimmy Clausen...................27 TDs...............225 completions...............2,703 yards

Brady Quinn.......................17 TDs...............191 completions...............2,586 yards*

Ron Powlus.......................12 TDs...............124 completions..............1,853 yards

Steve Beuerlein....................7 TDs...............140 completions...............1,920 yards

And only last Saturday I was still hearing people say that Clausen is, if not a bust, then at least not very good. He's only a true sophomore out there and he is destined to blow BQQB's numbers away if he stays all four years.

*Quinn's head coach was Ty Willingham that season.

3) Golden Tate, Warrior's sophomore season (extrapolated out) versus the above-mentioned former Irish wideouts in their sophomore years:

Golden Tate........................60 catches, 9 TDs

Tim Brown..........................25 catches, 3 TDs (receiving)

Raghib Ismail......................27 catches, 0 TDs (receiving)

Jeff Samardzija...................17 catches, 0 TDs

We could play the same game with true freshman tight end Kyle Rudolph (18 catches, 3 TDs extrapolated) but it isn't really fair since the NFL tight ends to whom he would be compared (John Carlson, Anthony Fasano) did not even play as freshmen. If you want to point to one position that is Notre Dame's best historically (a la Penn State being Linebacker U.), it would be tight end. The list includes Ken MacAfee, Dave Casper, Tony Hunter, and Mark Bavaro. And yet none of them had a faster start to their careers here than Rudolph has.

And, finally, while Notre Dame's rushing attack has been suspect through four games, Armando Allen's sophomore numbers compare favorably, in terms of yards per carry, to the trio of Irish ballcarriers currently in the NFL. Again, extrapolating out to 12 games:

Darius Walker....................1,196 yards....................4.7 ypc

Ryan Grant........................1,085 yards....................4.2 ypc

Julius Jones.......................657 yards.......................4.1 ypc

Armando Allen....................615 yards......................5.0 ypc

Again, it is early. But what you'll notice about every one of those former players is that their numbers only improved with each passing season. Even more worth noting: Quinn is the leading passer in Notre Dame history and Samardzija the leading receiver. Both Clausen and Floyd are way ahead of their numbers at the same point in their careers.

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Best headline I saw today...An editorial written by Fr. Lou DelFra, C.S.C., in The Observer was entitled "Why Jesus approves 'Crank Me Up!'" It was quite the loose translation of what the good cleric's intended point, I'd say.

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Happy anniversary to the greatest college fight song of all time, and the only one to appear in the greatest comedy of all time (Airplane!). That's right, the Notre Dame Victory March celebrates its 100th anniversary this week. As part of the celebration, some 800 Irish band alumni will perform the song during the Stanford game. I'm just wondering how many of them have tickets.

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And finally, loyal Johntourager Sean S. sends along this observation courtesy of The Denver Post about a forme NFL rusher:

"(Travis) Henry was caught Tuesday evening as he emerged from a Centennial home at 6:15 p.m. with a duffel bag containing cocaine he was unaware had been provided by federal agents, officials said. He ran from authorities who surrounded him but was quickly chased down."